Singapore as Model for U.S.?

Business consultant Tom Davenport writes in the Harvard Business review that Singapore might a possible model for the U.S. It's a simplistic arguement, and I'm suspicious that Tom is sucking up to the Singapore government for reasons unknown.

Then, an interesting barrage of counter arguements from many expats who have spent years residing in Singapore, with both good and bad impressions.

Singapore: A Model of Judgment for the United States?
3:01 PM Friday August 21, 2009

We often talk about judgment with regard to individuals, but organizations and countries can have good and bad judgment as well. I was recently in Singapore for a SAS customer event. Every time I visit, it has struck me as a country with good judgment. Singapore just celebrated its forth-fourth birthday as an independent country, and it deserves to congratulate itself (although it rarely engages in self-congratulation — another aspect of good judgment). In fact, I'd argue that in many ways Singapore is a great example for the United States. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1. Singapore is a hardworking, disciplined country. It decides what it needs to do, and then does it. Every year for National Day, for example, the government publishes a list of challenges it needs to overcome. This year's list included such bracing issues as "How to maintain high economic growth and improve living standard?" and "How to stamp out new diseases and keep health-care costs down?" There is also the lighter, but sociologically problematic challenge of "How to get younger Singaporeans to marry and have children?" The list of challenges is enormously appealing in its clarity and directness.

2. Singapore is obsessed with education — not just for children, but throughout life. Another of its declared challenges is, "How to design job-training programmes and wage supplement schemes for low-income older workers?" The country tops the ranks of educational achievement regularly. While it was once justifiably criticized for emphasizing rote learning, it has introduced programs that encourage creativity.

3. Singapore is a highly capitalist society, but its government plays a strong guiding role. Some of the country's smartest citizens go into government. The government creates industrial policy and actively facilitates growth and capability-building in those areas. It did a masterful job emphasizing IT and building up that industry, and now it's actively pushing biotech and services. For example, in services the government wanted to build on organizations with great service like Singapore Airlines and Raffles Hotel. So it encouraged Singapore Management University (a private university that was established by the government) to start an Institute for Service Excellence, and stimulated the development of a Singapore Customer Satisfaction Index that would be applied to all service industries

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