Thoughts on teaching business acumen in Asia-Pacific

Singapore, Global Business, and a Finance & Strategy Workshop

I'm just back from 10 days in Singapore, where I ran a two-day Finance & Strategy workshop for Micron Technology. This version of Income|Outcome includes a disruptive technology factor, a highly relevant dynamic for ever-innovative Singapore and Micron’s semiconductor industry.

This was followed by a two-day Train-the-Trainer process for five of their personnel, and then a three-day conference for our regional Distributors at our annual Income|Outcome University.

Why Singapore?

Singapore is my favorite city for business. Some say it can feel a little limiting after four months, and Indonesian forest fires can be an issue when the wind shifts from the southwest. But children and expats seem to love it, especially those who prefer year-round warm weather.

The forecast? It ranges from “32°C and sunny” to “32°C and rain.” Occasionally, there’s a cold snap that drops the high to 31°C, or a heat wave that pushes it to 33°C. That’s my kind of perfect. (For the less international, 32°C = 90°F.)

The Only Drawback: Distance

One downside? Singapore is on the opposite side of the world from our North Carolina head office. It took 40 hours door-to-door to get home. But that just reminds me that I’m living on a planet, not a flat earth—which is a cool realization in itself.

One challenge of global business is figuring out when to reach people on the other side of the world. Here’s the best link I’ve found:
http://xkcd.com/now

This clock updates every few minutes, showing the world rolling towards midday and down into the night. It’s a planet.

I tell my kids not to worry too much about things like career risks—because in the end, we’re just orbiting the sun on a planet, and you can’t fall off.

A Global Business Epiphany

When we brought our Distributors together from Singapore, Thailand, China, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, and even a brief visit from Japan, I had another realization.

I grew up staring at maps, always thinking of Australia and New Zealand as being tucked away in the bottom right corner—far from everything. But now, I see that they are actually the English-language hub for business training across the Asia-Pacific region.

• Facilitators fly from Australia to China to teach.
• HR managers travel from Australia to Japan to monitor workshops.
• Australia and New Zealand also maintain strong business ties to both the UK and the US.

Given that English—according to Schumpeter in The Economist—is the primary lingua franca of global firms (well, right after the language of finance, of course), that makes Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore (ANZ+S) one of the most powerful business nodes on the planet.

It feels like the business world isn’t just moving east from the US toward China—it’s also moving south.

Singapore, Australia, New Zealand—are they developing as the center of global business?

(And if you’d like to develop your own global business, just contact me.)

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