Don’t Be NUTS

 

Thursday, 5 January 2023 marked the end of an era for Singapore. We, on this red dot, woke up to the news that Mr. Sim Wong Hoo, the founder and CEO of Creative Technologies (“Creative”) had died at the age of 67. The news report is as follows:

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/sim-wong-hoo-dies-creative-technology-founder-ceo-3184226

Mr. Sim was remarkable man and he was that most precious of commodities and something that is much needed in the Singapore system – a visionary. The great and good of Singapore are paying tributes to Mr. Sim and he’s been described as a “legend.”

There’s no doubt that Mr. Sim deserves the praise. His story is more typical of Silicon Valley than Singapore, a society that prides itself in creating conformist and while Mr. Sim himself was never politically controversial, he’s the living example of why one should ignore traditional expectations (or in the case of Singapore government mandated expectations).

I think back to an interview that Lee Kuan Yew once gave. He argued that whilst Singapore and other small countries could do well in the world, they could never build anything significant because they lacked economies of scale. Well, Mr. Sim proved him wrong – the Sound Blaster card became a global standard for sound in computers.

Then, Mr. Sim defied stereotypes of Asian prosperity being about copying from the West and having no innovation. He tried to conquer the market for portable music through “Zen.” Unfortunately, he lost that battle. Only this time he lost the battle to Steve Jobs and Apple. He wasn’t afraid to compete with the best in the world outside his comfort zone.

While Creative is a smaller company than it was during its glory days, Mr. Sim was, until the end still brimming with ideas as the following interview with Channel NewAsia suggests:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5by58vI8VxE

 

 The icing on the cake of Mr. Sim’s story is that he disproves the idea that Singaporeans can only come up if they were from an elite school or worked in the civil service. Mr. Sim graduated from a polytechnic and spent his early years running a computer repair shop. Mr. Sim was the classic “tech-nerd” who happened to have a curious mind and was willing to explore.

What should be noted is that when he had a product, he went to the government and got turned down. Let’s not mince words here, its most likely that our civil servants could not accept the idea of a non-scholar from a polytechnic would have the audacity to come up with anything ground breaking. Thankfully for Mr. Sim, the Americans were willing to back him and he was only recognised in Singapore by the powers that be when Creative got listed on the NASDAQ.

Mr. Sim, himself, summed things up in his book “Creative Thoughts from the Old Millennium, where he described the subservient mindset of our local population through the term “NUTS,” or “No U-Turn Syndrome.” More on NUTS can be found below:

https://yeokhengmeng.com/2015/02/book-review-chaotic-thoughts-from-the-old-millennium-by-sim-wong-hoo/

 

 In a way, you could say that Mr. Sim got lucky. He’s a creature from the Old Millennium – he is a baby boomer rather than Gen X, Y or Z. Whatever Mr. Sim might have lacked in his early years in terms of finance, papers and connections, he’s from an era where he was allowed to be a curious fellow even if he wasn’t a government scholar.

Let’s think about it, Mr. Sim grew up in an era where geography mattered. When Singapore rejected him, he uprooted and went to the USA to seek funding before there was an internet or a developed VC industry.

It’s not to say that Singapore hasn’t produced innovators. We have Tan Min-Liang of Razer inc and Henn Tan, the CEO of Trek200 International, the company that invented the USB. A list of some prominent innovations to come out of Singapore can be found at:

https://thebrilliant.com.au/case-studies/10-inventions-from-singapore-that-solve-global-challenges/

There is a notable trend in this list. Government plays a role in innovation in a very direct way. On the positive side, you can argue that government can play a role in fostering a decent eco-system for innovative entrepreneurship.

However, this tends to work only if the government is interested in a certain sector. In Singapore’s case, government led innovation works for companies like Shiok Meats or the entire vertical farming sector where the government has an interest in say developing “food security.”

What happens when innovation is not in the government’s interest? In his blog, Emanuel Daniel, publisher of the Asian Banker, has argued that the government has hobbled innovation in finance, forcing Fintech companies to be contractors to banks rather than competitors. Here’s the question, would the government allow innovation in the construction sector if it meant less need for foreign workers and therefore less levy?

Let’s not kid ourselves – government does play an important role in fostering innovation. On paper, Singapore’s government does well in terms of providing a legal and financial infrastructure.

However, can the government except the fact that innovation does from people who don’t fit a particular mold like Mr. Sim? Mr. Sim remains someone who was willing to go up against the biggest and best, which was the thing that made him pioneer on the world stage. Can the government accept both these parts of future Mr. Sim’s? For Singapore’s sake, let’s hope so.