Below are a set of thoughts posted on LinkedIn regarding the talent landscape in Singapore and the start-up ecosystem.
Looking at all the business plans for startups in my inbox, I have realised that one of the big gaps in today's landscape is that none of the documents ever address supply line issues.
There is - rightfully - focus on product-market fit and total addressable market, but there is zero mention on the talent-product/market gap. It is almost always assumed that the talent can be hired to achieve the projected targets. I'm not entirely sure all startups can make that assumption.
While admittedly fatalistic, it does seem to me that most startups need to make growth plans based on the answer to this question: what can I build with just the founding team and batches of interns.
Continuing from an earlier post, it is worth noting that it is entirely possible to build a good, if not great, company with interns.
However, the common tenure of an intern is within the range of six to twelve months. They also tend to join and leave in batches at regular intervals.
As the company ages and grows in traffic, users, or transactions, the reservoir of institutional memory deepens. The problems increase in complexity. It takes longer to on-board a new joiner such that they have the necessary and sufficient internal domain knowledge to effectively craft strategies and/or execute the tasks. By the time ambiguous and complex work can be delegated, it is almost the time to start the handover process and training of the new batch of interns.
The issues with interns are not individual competency or capability. It is a matter of organisational context and continuity.
In the current competitive landscape for talent, the 'full-time' supply lines are starting to look like the 'intern' supply lines. Similar challenges will soon arise.
Anecdotally it seems that it is getting harder for folks to obtain or renew their EPs.
It is my personal opinion that talent is a zero-sum game. If a talent is not in Singapore, that talent will be in other markets building companies and economies that will compete with Singapore and challenge our relevance or endanger our survival.
One of the problem statements for my country is thus, "How might we accurately identify talent at scale?".
Triggering article: https://lnkd.in/gBit-hKx
It is commonly taught that Singapore's early growth and success was fuelled by our status as a free port and open economy. Goods could flow into, from, and through Singapore with little to no restrictions or tax.
The approach to trade was synergistic with the strategy to develop into a modern industrialised nation through manufacturing and export of high-value goods.
It is often repeated that Singapore needs to transition into a knowledge and creative economy. For the long term success of that goal, it seems to me that it is necessary for my country to adopt an approach similar to that of physical trade for the flow of human capital and their knowledge.
Firstly, I think we need to lean into the discomfort of folks freely coming, staying, and leaving (with hopefully warm fuzzy feelings). Transshipment - the shipment of goods to Singapore before it leaves for another destination - is why Singapore has relevance as we sit in the middle of key shipping routes.
Singapore needs to sit in the middle of key talent routes.
Singapore needs to become a port for people and perspectives.
Our experiences shape our individual perspectives about reality and society.
For Singapore to become a port for people, we must accept that by the time the feet of foreigners first step onto our shores, their notions about the world will have differences from that of Singaporeans.
Notwithstanding that Singaporean males benefit from an intense shared experience of two years in National Service, we must also accept that even within Singapore, most of us will have dissimilar experiences as we navigate through life.
For us to succeed as a nation, it is my belief that we need to continuously learn how to refine our societal and individual perspectives.
Similar to how we built our crude oil refining capabilities, we must focus on enhancing our capability to refine the raw materials of the knowledge/creative economy and a just society.
We could start by implementing the not-king-of-Singapore Adrian Tan's proposal for all students to take part in debates.