Friday 21 February 2014

5 Management Lessons from Singapore


Recently I had been for a 2 day trip to Singapore and I am back not just with memories of the place but more valuable lessons which holds true in day 2 day life or in corporate world

(1) Keep It Simple and Simple :  ( How can I say stupid , when i am praising them :P )
Starting from collecting feedback at immigration dept ( where you can provide feedback on experience with Singapore immigration process by a simple tab  on the touch screen) to connecting Metro Rail service directly from airport , Singapore authorities seems to have a clear understanding on what they are doing.

The country is comparatively smaller in size to most countries and attracts a huge number of tourists either for shopping or site seeing. It took me exactly 2 minutes to get metro train card which i can use to pay for bus tickets, tourist attractions and i don't know what not....No unnecessary hassles or long queues....all u need to do is swipe the card at entry station and exit station to record the fare and deduct the amount from the card.

(2) Empowerment in truest sense:   I went to one of the tourist attractions and bought a ticket for SGD 15( INR 750) . Thanks to my super intelligence that i have not set singapore time in my mobile and ended up waiting outside the performance area for next show to begin ( Jakarta lags Singapore by 1 hour). I realised my mistake when only they started locking the doors. When i went back to the counter to enquire if any thing can be done ( though very sure nothing going to happen) , to my surprise they made a note of my passport and returned 15 dollars. No paper work . The decision is taken on the spot by front end cashier and not some manager . what better example would there be for customer experience or empowerment to front line people

(3) Understanding the end users:
The above picture shows one of the pedestrian crossings. what is special with this is that if some one senior citizen wants to cross the road, they can tap the card before crossing and it ensures green light for pedestrian crossing stays longer than normal.

(4) Rewarding the behaviours we would like people to emulate:
The cost of buying cars in singapore is very high, so are the exorbitant parking fees. These things coupled with readily accessible Metro Rail Systems ensures that most people use public transport. I could also see a good number of parking spaces designed for cycles which shows what the priorities of Singapore are

(5) Providing clear directions: Right from the moment i came out from airport there are maps which give clear indication on how to travel, where to reach in Singapore. Every street has a name and travelling was made so simple that i would not have dared to roam out till 11 PM on day 1 in a new country visiting for the first time even with out checkin  at the hotel. BTW I reached my hotel through these maps only


Definitely Singapore is one place worth visiting if not for gold shopping ( they don't tax tourists on gold purchase) , to understand and appreciate the best management lessons in action

 

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