You need to set KPIs and map out a solid marketing strategy, says Mr Koh Poh Tiong, Chief Executive of Asia Pacific Breweries, who is also the new chairman of the Singapore Kindness Movement.
Excerpts of his interview with Wong Kim Hoh of The Straits Times:
On why we need to import talents
I was rather sad when I read about all these things.
One has to realise one thing. We have to realise we are very small, our population is 4.5 million, of which about 900,000 are a foreigners. This means Singapore citizens and PRs number about 3.5 million
It's like selling beer. Our small size is a tremendous disadvantage for singapore.
If I convince all Singaporeans to drink three instead of one beer a day, our sales is not going to be very big.
Likewise, persuading Singaporeans to brush their teeth six times instead of twice, will not increase toothpaste sales very much.
But if you have a population like China, 1.3 billion, India, also more than a billion, Vietnam, more than 80 million, it's a different story.
That's why from our base, to find a Miss Singapore is so difficult. The same thing with politicians and soccer players.
If we realise this, how do we solve this problem? We need imported talents, whether in sports or to run our companies. What's wrong with that?
These three ladies are Singapore citizens? Why discriminate?
Many of our ministers were previously from Malaysia.
It's very sad. They have come, we can't produce and they have come to produce for us. I say no problem.
Look at it the other way. Imagine you are in China, with 1.3 billion people. If you come from a poor family, you want to make sure that the lives of your children get better.
And if you see that by being a good sportsman, one of your chidlren can bring career improvement, happiness and wealth to your lives, why not? You will feel proud. Your children are exportable.
Look, there are imported players in other countries.
On his childhood
My father was a bus conductor, my mother was a housewife. My father always expected me to be the first boy in school, if not all hell would break loose.
My father had those expectations of me because he had a tough life. He lived with his mom in Chinatown, she was a hawker. He went to a Chinese school, and would sell newspapers to help out the family. On weekends , he carried funeral banners.
I think because he had such a tough life, he wanted his children to be better.
I went to Winstedt Primary School, next to Monk Hill near Newton Hawker Centre. After that, I went to Gan Eng Seng Secondary School.
It was a rough crowd but I learnt not to be judgmental.
I studied human anatomy and zoology at University of Singapore and was pursuing a post-graduate diploma in fisheries. But I had to leave a course to take up a job offer with Mansfield, a shipping company because I needed to help support the family.
At Mansfield, I spent a lot of time mixing with the Hokkien toughs and I learnt to understand and to appreciate poor people who had it rough.
That's why I feel a lot for the maids. They could be our mother and sister. They came here to survive.
Sometimes, it upsets me when people say 'this lady from china, this lady from Philippines?'
I say, excuse me, your grandmother is also from China.
The point is , we cannot be judgmental. We just need to be considerate. If you are considerate, it makes life a lot easier.
On the sectors he has identified for propagating kindness
I believe kindness and courtesy are values which can be 'taught' and 'caught'
And where are the sectors where we can do this?
1)Home where the players are the father, mother, siblings, uncles, relatives and the maids.
We have to ask ourselves what sort of values we want to instil. For instance, I always take my plate to the kitchen after my dinner. I do this out of consideration for the maid, to help her.
On weekends, we don't ask the maid to cook, we let her rest.
Parents can set examples so that their children learn how to be considerate.
2)School. The players here are principals, teachers, classmates. The difference is there's diversity. You have Malay, Chinese and Indian classmates.
The value here is teamwork and respect. We teach our young about acceptance and respect of diversity. We teach them to work together to succeed.
3) Workplace where we have colleagues, bosses etc. What values do we bring? Teamwork again. Accepting additional responsibility .
The trouble with people is that they are often nice only to certain groups of people- their bosses, those who have wealth or influecne. They are not so nice to their subordinates, coffee ladies and drivers.
If we can tell ourselves not to discriminate, and be nice to everyone, that will be fantastic.
4)Neighbourhood. Here again, we have neighbours of different races. We have community centres, playgrounds and coffeshops. It's here that we can impart values such as acceptance and consideration. We can also learn to respect our environment.
Finally, we have kindness to visitors . If we extend warmth and hospitality and make them feel welcome, they will come again