Day Seven

And we are off to a running start. Sunday evening was our kick-off bbq which turned out to be an interesting dinner. The set-up kind of resembled fondue but I believe was called steam boat/hot pot/something of that nature. We were then let loose to gather whatever raw meat we wanted (all kinds of violations there) which included things like lamb, chicken, fish balls, crab, shrimp, sting ray, squid, etc. The pots were filled with hot broth (spicy or chicken) and we were basically told to dump in whatever we wanted veggie-wise. The meat was cooked on what looked like a foil covered hot plate. There were no directions as to how long to cook the meat, I am sure we all ended up eating variations of raw-ness. Oops? 

Monday is when class started. 8:30-12:00 was an introduction to the economy in Singapore. The most important thing to understand about Singapore is that it is practically run like a business. The government has an amazing amount of involvement in day to day activities and partly owns many large companies here such as Singapore Airlines. It appears to be a balancing act between government control and the desire for individual freedoms. There is kind of this unspoken rule of ‘don’t rock the boat’ in the sense that things are going so well here and Singapore has seen impressive growth so just smile and let the government keep doing what it’s doing. Lots of ambiguity. 

National University of Singapore Business School

Monday afternoon we visited an HP factory which was not as high-tech as I thought it would be. I think a lot of us expected it to be possibly too futuristic and instead it was just people doing menial tasks one computer after another. The second visit, to the Marina Barrage was way cooler. You can go to the website to learn more about this place. In a nut shell, it was built for three reasons: prevent flooding, provide drinking water, and as a local attraction. They have done some neat things like building it with a green roof and offering educational programs on water conservation, etc. 

Tuesday we had a long day of class from 9:00-3:00 covering financial markets in Singapore. Yay? My biggest takeaway from these sessions was the existence of the Central Provident Fund in Singapore. The best analogy I can come up with for this is by comparing it to Social Security in the United States- except it isn’t broken. Singapore has very low taxes but amazingly high savings rates, allowing for a system like the CPF to be successful. Again, remember, well-oiled machine. From what I understand, while social security exists in a false sense, the CPF actually has real money to give out. Must be nice.

This will cost you a pretty penny in Singapore

Tuesday evening we attended a party hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Dee, McIntire alums. This dinner was for alumni, current and incoming students, and their families. We were basically the entertainment and in charge of walking around, talking to anyone and everyone about the new MS in Commerce program. Come to find out- it was also our professor’s birthday! Naturally we sang happy birthday to him roughly five times that day and went out for Mexican food after the cocktail party. 20 tequila shots magically ended up at our table and it turned into a rough Tuesday night.

Taxiing home after some fun

That brings me to today. Today’s class sessions covered Singaporean consumer behavior and how values and beliefs differ across cultures. The real highlight of the day was visiting P&G’s Asia headquarters here in Singapore. They talked to us a little bit about beauty ideals and how important it is to understand the consumers of the countries you wish to do business in. *Important side note, we are all doing projects on various aspects of SEAsia that interest us and my group is looking into beauty ideals and how different companies compete in this region so this was especially interesting to us. 

Crazy high-tech P&G conference room

As for the future- tomorrow we have the amazing opportunity to visit Temasek. I can't even do it justice in trying to explain the magnitude of this visit. Go to their website and read a little bit about them here. Basically they run Singapore and are a serious force to be reckoned with. Adios for now - Becca