Two Singaporean businessmen reflect on their years spent working in China, and consider the Chinese approaches and attitudes that Singapore can do well to learn from. With the right bold strategic moves, more targeted incentives to specific sectors and also to civil servants, as well as an openness to adapt some of the lessons from countries like China, Singapore can remain globally relevant in these very uncertain times.

It was a very different time when Kwek So Cheer visited the doctor in China prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, recent events have highlighted the need for countries to band together, sharing knowledge and expertise, not least in healthcare management. Speaking from personal experience, Kwek thinks that Singapore can collaborate with China to build a better healthcare experience beyond this special period.

Kwek So Cheer warns that Singapore faces the risk of being irrelevant in a new world going through a fourth industrial revolution. In that respect, it has much to learn from China, who plays a leading role when it comes to advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing and the Internet of Things.

Implementing digital transformation initiatives in Chinese tech companies where the retirement age was a mere 40 years old, and extensions were granted as exceptions to good performers, Singaporean Kwek So Cheer learnt more about the Chinese psyche than he did any other practical knowledge.

Are you hungry enough to do what it takes to succeed? So Cheer shares his encounters in China, how his client rejected a dinner appointment for six times and how he wolfed down a plate of noodles that could be cooked using gutter oil. So, what does it take to succeed at the workplace in China?

Digital transformation expert Kwek So Cheer was confident in his grasp of the Chinese language - until his work brought him to China in 2012.