Philip Yeo is one of those Singaporeans who had made Modern Singapore GREAT
He redirected Singapore’s focus from traditional trading fields to new areas of businesses, including internationally exportable services, high-tech industries like biomedical science, semiconductors, aerospace. He nurtured local small and medium-sized enterprises, encouraging them to make direct investments abroad. He turned Batam into a household name. He created Jurong Island from seawater. He put Singapore on the biomedical map globally. Yes, he is Philip Yeo Liat Kok (杨烈国 － 烈国 Liat Kok is “passion for the country” in the Teochew [Chaozhou] dialect), the current chairman of SPRING (a Singapore government development agency to grow small and medium enterprises) since 2007.
The persons whom Philip Yeo reported to in his years serving in Singapore civil service were his Ministers, Dr. Goh Keng Swee, former Minister of Finance and Mr. Howe Yoon Chong, former Minister of Defence. Both these Ministers had made tremendous contributions to establish the modern Singapore we know. Philip Yeo, under the discretion provided by these two Ministers, had developed an entrepreneurial flare that made all the Ministers’ dreams came to fruition.
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Philip Yeo thinks civil servants should stop worrying about their careers & start getting sh*t done
“ In case this is the first time you are hearing this 70-year-old’s name, you’ have lots to catch up on him:
“ He:
“ – got up and running the entire logistics division for the newly formed Singapore Armed Forces, and armed them with weapons too — at the age of 24;
“ – made his name as chairman of the Economic Development Board (EDB) over one and a half decades (1986 – 2001);
“ – is responsible for the creation of Biopolis, Fusionopolis, Jurong Island and industrial parks in Bintan, Batam, Wuxi, Bangalore, Vietnam and Suzhou — as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs, both here and abroad;
“ – has five honorary degrees, including one in law.
“ Just to name a few. Suffice to say, Yeo has lived the dream every idealistic young graduate entering the civil service has: to make a difference, and to build our nation — or, well, at least have a hand in building it.
“ And heck, if there’s only one person in Singapore who can say that about Singapore, it would be him.”
It is sad to say that most leaders in society today are happy to follow the examples of others rather than leading from the innovative front. Most present-day leaders are not allowing their members of their supporting teams to experiment, to break down things in order to learn how those things are made up of, so as to “invent” something new, thinking beyond the box. “Look for diversity to succeed,” so said Philip Yeo.
The works of Dr. Meredith Belbin in having the nine types of personalities within a successful team come readily to mind. Take a look at https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm - at these nine types of personalities. Note too that Dr. Belbin did not specify nine people as most of us have more than one type of personality within us.
What makes a leader? (Q&A Session Pt 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXXBTOapSE
Q: How leaders create organizations where innovations can surface?
A: A leader is never a lone-ranger. He has to have a group of core supporters to help him succeed. Just look at my hand for instance. It has five fingers, each different from the others. Let us assume that the thumb is the leader and if the thumb cannot find four others, of differing positions, of differing lengths, etc. that hand with just a thumb cannot be expected to achieve much. The same with a leader. He needs to find four or perhaps even many supporting groups of five to form his helping hands, in order for him to succeed in achieving his vision.
[This concept of leadership matches the need for the presence of the nine team role qualities in a successful team according to Belbin. Belbin defines such role qualities as Resource Investigator; Teamworker; Coordinator; Plant; Monitor Evaluator; Specialist; Shaper; Implementer; Completer Finisher.]
How Apple makes money (Q&A Session Pt 2)
Q: How can we train our younger generation of leaders to have salesmanship talents and are such talents necessary?
A: One of the desired qualities of a leader is that he or she will be able to sell ice to the Eskimo or coal to Newcastle. Look, we (in Singapore) have no land, no resources and not even labour. We need therefore leaders to be inventive, to be innovative, and to be able to convince investors that we Singaporeans are able to make things happen. Let me give you some of my own examples. (Listen to his examples in the video).
Listen to his last line in this Part 2 video.
“If he is capable, I give him more work. If he is not capable, I refuse to give him work and let him resign himself out of boredom.”
Vision of the ASEAN Economy (Q&A Session Pt 3)
Q: How can we earn the “moral right” to lead?
A: There is no such thing as a “moral right” to lead unless you are born into it like the princes of Emperors in ancient China. We have to earn the right to lead. We have to earn the respect of our colleagues and our colleagues are the ones who choose their leader. For me, as an example, I work as hard as my colleagues. I eat with them, sometimes two continuous junk-food meals a day. I share my thoughts with them and seek answers from them. I have to do the extra mile to leadership so that they can respect you as their leader.
Chemistry lab at home (Q&A Session Pt 4)
Q: How can we compete with China where there are more younger generation of forthcoming leaders than us in Singapore?
A: Yes, we may not be able to compete with China’s younger leaders in China but we can easily compete with them in other countries like the Middle East or Brazil (South Americans). Our English Language skills are heaps stronger and we should capitalize on this, for example. We need to entice the best students from other countries, including China, to join us here in Singapore as present-day Singaporeans get into their own comfort zones. We need to be always thinking ahead.
Read more here: http://thepeakmagazine.com.sg/interviews/former-edb-chairman-philip-yeos-latest-book-sheds-light-leadership-pitfalls/
Neither Civil Nor Servant : The Philip Yeo Story