While in Singapore I learned a lot about the business environment within Asia. Talking to our tour guide as well as the corporate visits, provided great insight into how various industries operate within Singapore as well as greater Asia. From our tour guide, Don, I learned that supply chain operations are huge in Singapore and companies hire from across the globe. Singaporean businesses commonly will pay entire travel costs, apartment wages, and even car costs in order to get someone from the West into their business. One may ask then, “Are most of their workforce not from Singapore,” not exactly, there are laws in place where companies must have a minimum ratio of something like 1 Singaporean to 3 migrant / foreign workers. Then from the corporate visits, we learned more in-depth about this system as well as some business practices, work ethic, and culture. First off one of our corporate speakers made an off-hand comment that lawyers in Asia in general are vastly different than in the West. Within the West lawyers are very harsh and fast-paced, demanding things of their clients and in business communication. While he noticed in the East that jobs like lawyers are less direct and more passive when it comes to certainties. For example, people will keep up a good demeanor even if things are going badly until a “last straw” per se. I also learned that the work ethic in Asia is very notable, going back to my other post about pride in their craft, people have a very strong work ethic. Finally, the business culture especially was interesting to learn about. One thing that stood out to me we learned from our hedge fund meeting. Within this meeting, our speaker discussed how many businesses in Asia never list themselves on the New York Stock Exchange or the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This was because, he told us, many companies are run by families who have been running the same business for generations. With such a close-knit bond within the business, the idea of investors, in general, is not very appealing. Many stores are more local and have been passed down and not franchised like many Western businesses. My time abroad was eye-opening, I have always wanted to travel to Asia and my plan in life is to try and work in Asia eventually. So, this experience of finally getting to explore the other side of the world was amazing. Learning much deeper than what you can online about the culture and how people live is amazing. My perspective after leaving Singapore made my resolve about living in Asia even stronger. It was such a beautiful city and I can’t wait to share it with family and friends in the future.
