According to former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the founding father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, made three big decisions in 1959 that had a profoundly positive impact on Singapore’s long-term fortunes:
- Everyone in Singapore will speak English because it’s the lingua franca of the international business world, and from now on we’re about international business.
- We’re going to find the best intellectual capital and management capital in the world and bring it to Singapore.
- We’re going to have zero tolerance for corruption, even if that means we have to pay our politicians ten times as much as other countries.
Interestingly, Blair says all three decisions were highly contentious at the time.
They had their own languages and cultures, so why should they speak like their old colonizers? Shouldn’t they learn to stand on their own two feet, rather than importing foreigners (a lot of them British)? And why can’t politicians learn to live on a normal salary like everyone else?
One word answer: “Reality.”
If he had listened to the critics, like a lot of former colonies at the time that became independent, Singapore could have easily become just another two-bit backwater, ruled by the local kleptocracy, ripe for foreign takeover.
Instead, they made themselves an international trade and finance powerhouse, which not only made them wealthy, but made them valuable enough to make much more powerful foreign countries deem them worth protecting – a far greater guarantor of sovereignty than they could ever build themselves.
Anyone who has visited Singapore knows it’s an amazing place with an amazing culture. But it’s not just the geography, the people, and the history that makes it so. It’s because, like Blair said, the culture was deliberately designed.
Culture CAN be designed at scale. Therefore the job of a leader, be it of an organization, a team, or a nation state, is really a two-part endeavor. Part one: Strategically determine the principles that will lead to success. Part two: Share those things relentlessly and craft a culture that embodies them.
Lee didn’t just say he wanted Singapore to succeed; he designed for a successful outcome.
As he approached his final days, he was quoted saying, “I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. There’s nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.”
Creating a successful culture is an infinite game – a never ending process – hopefully one that will outlive you. Yes, like Lee, it might cost you everything, but that’s what will give it meaning.
