“Singapore – A Lifetime Experience”
6th of May, 2010. Bangalore Management Academy (BMA) had made all the necessary arrangements for Edith Cowan University (ECU) - Batch 15 to head for Singapore. The bus was arranged from the main campus and all the arrangements seemed to be in place systematically right from the beginning of the journey.
There were students varying from different disciplines, pursuing different specializations of their choice all set to leave for Singapore on Bangalore International Airport. We were accompanied by Prof. Rekha Hatkanagalekar, who’s heading the HR department in BMA. We were privileged to travel by the world’s No. 1 Airline, “Singapore Airlines”. It was an experience fueled with a terrific experience of superior service echelon with ingredients of royal luxury. Our accommodation was well arranged in Katong Tanjong hostel in Tanjong by BMA. We had our workshops and umpteen group of activities held at “Singapore Human Resource Institute” (SHRI), at the “VERGE”. We were privileged to be a part of this trip; especially on this particularly day primarily the 7th of May, 2010 because Singapore officially celebrates HR Day on this day and “SHRI” were the ones who started it.
Singapore is the financial capital of Asia which also happens to headquarter more than 7,000 Multi-National Enterprises (MNE’s). Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre and its economy is often ranked amongst the world's top ten most open, competitive and innovative in the world. The country is also a highly cosmopolitan World City, with a key role in international trade and commerce. Singapore has a diverse populace of 5 million people made up of Chinese, Malays, Indians, Asians and Caucasians of different ethnic origins. The populace of Singapore has the sixth highest percentage of foreigners in the world. 42% of the population in Singapore comprises of foreigners and foreigners make up 50% of their service sector. The country is also the second most densely populated in the world after Monaco. A.T. Kearney names Singapore as the most globalized country in the world in its Globalization Index.
Today, the port of Singapore continues to be amongst the top five busiest ports in the world. The World Bank ranks Singapore as the world's top logistics hub. Singapore is the fourth wealthiest country in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita and twentieth wealthiest in terms of GDP (nominal) per capita. Regardless of Singapore's relatively small physical size, it has the world's ninth largest foreign reserves. Singapore Armed Forces is also the most technologically advanced and well-equipped in its region.
Prof. Irene Tay, a highly learned professional with immense subject matter expertise on various studies amongst which “Strategic Human Resourcing” was her forte, conducted the workshop at SHRI. She is also one of the senior most members in the Singapore government embassy who has represented the Singapore government on world labor issues on several international bodies. There was intense learning on strategic human resource by Prof. Irene Tay, as she had an inter-continental experience of more than 40 countries; representing as one of the senior most delegates of the Singapore Human Resource Fraternity. She covered many aspects of HR and she also facilitated the workshop with utmost facts and figures. She briefed us about many interesting areas like Soft HR, Hard HR. She also gave us a snapshot of sunrise industries and sunset industries in Singapore and also the seven most important industries which the government of Singapore is seriously focusing on. She also threw a beam on the issues of Strategic HR Planning, Strategic HR Policies, Unitarist V/s Pluralist way of working, Equal Employment Opportunities, Diverse Management, Human Business Development, Human Capital Management, Diverse Workforce, Foreign Talents, Japan, India and China national’s different demographic ways of doing businesses, Cultural hindrances, various theories of management like the Classical Management Theory, Classical Original Theory, Transitional Theorists, Behavioral Schools, Management Sciences, Integrative Approach, and TQM. She also threw light on (SKF) Skills Development Fund- Singapore, (TCLP) Total Company Learning Plan - Singapore, classic examples from Motorola University, McDonald’s Hamburger University, Sun Microsystems University, and constant country specific examples especially from China, India and Japan and other third country nationals. I personally enjoyed the sessions thoroughly conducted by Prof. Irene Tay the most as far as Strategic Human Resource and the overall learning in Singapore was concerned.
We also had the opportunity to visit Singapore and do site seeing as a part of the study tour. We visited Sentosa Island where we really enjoyed Song of the Sea thoroughly, which is one of the most beautiful and remarkable man made creations on earth; it was almost a movie showcased in 30 minutes on the seas with stupendous light effects and animation all live on the fountains. We also visited Palawan, Silosa and Tanjong beaches. As a part of the sight-seeing, we visited China Town, The Merlion Park and also the East Coast Park. Some of us also visited the Underwater World, the Night Safari and the most talked about thing lately in Asia – The Casino and Universal Studios.
It was an overall learning session loaded with lot of knowledge, fun and enthusiasm. Singapore helped me understand many management riddles and also encounter many unanswered puzzles. It was so far one of the best experiences I ever had and I proudly thank Bangalore Management Academy to give me this golden opportunity as it is one country which is small in terms of its geographical boundaries but all its resources were fully utilized effectively and with complete efficiency brilliantly. I was also thrilled seeing the overall compassion and gratitude of the people there. The amount of trust the government encompass on its citizens is worth appreciable as there were hardly any cops seen during our entire stay in Singapore. It was under complete camera surveillance. People there are always ready to help you and also approachable irrespective of the time, gender and place you are in. The culture was worth appreciating and highly educative for every foreign national. It was indeed a great experience and it wouldn’t be phony to say that the city teaches you more than what the degree teaches you.
- Pranay
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