~by: Eric Tan Heng Chong~

I had the rare privilege of meeting and speaking with Steve Jobs back in 1984 when he addressed my MBA class at the University of Michigan. Steve was touring American top business schools to promote his latest product at the time- the portable Apple Macintosh 128, which offered word processing, spreadsheets and graphics, and designed to fit into your student backpack. This grandfather of the modern laptop was revolutionary for its day.

His strategy was to break the corporate world’s reliance on IBM machines by impressing upon America’s future business leaders the superiority of Apple products when they used these products as students, in the hope of influencing their future procurement decisions.

Straying from his sales pitch, Steve took the opportunity to exhort his mainly-American audience to persevere and “revive” local American manufacturing and innovation in the face of intense Japanese competition. 1980s America was in the throes of recession. American companies were threatened by a flood of cheaper and better-designed goods from the likes of Sony, Toyota and Canon. Many American companies were going under or being taken over by their Japanese rivals. It was a time of grave pessimism for corporate America and Steve was- in his own way- trying to rally America’s executives to believe in themselves and never give up.

(Of course, the irony of Steve’s message was that Apple’s success in recent years was partly built on outsourced manufacturing in China. Genius though Steve was, even he could not resist the tide of economic history.) Still, and more significantly, what struck me most from our conversations that day was his intense patriotism and belief in the ability of individual Americans to look within for solutions to reinvent themselves and bounce back from the malaise, which they eventually did in the 90s.

As Singapore stands at the crossroads of its development as a nation and society, tired and cynical and unsure of the right path forward, perhaps we should take Steve’s decades-old message to our hearts. Yes, we have made mistakes along the way and life seems to be getting harder for us all. But we cannot rely on the government to fix all our problems. Nor can we rely on quick fixes like the casinos, cheap foreign labour and unchecked capital inflows that tear at our social fabric.

The solutions must come from within ourselves. We must rise above our cynicism and have the confidence to articulate our vision for the Singapore that we want- even when this vision conflicts with the powers-that-be. In the true spirit of the i-products, we individuals can all be leaders who care and contribute to society in our own way. Like America and Apple, Singapore too can reinvent itself as long as we are willing to take an active role in shaping our future.

The Apple Macintosh eventually failed in its original version and Steve was forced out of Apple soon after I returned to Singapore. Bill Gates assumed the leadership of the IT world and Steve roamed the edges of the IT wilderness for the next two decades. I was thrilled in 1997 when Steve returned to the helm of the company he founded. The rest, as they say, is history- a history Steve personally crafted. We too can craft the next chapter of Singapore’s history.


Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Dr Lee Bee Wah offers minimal clarification over claim that she refused to hear out resident over 377A

On Monday, a Mr Edward Foo shared on Facebook the encounter he…

陆交局近两个月扣押六辆 派对巴士违例服务

本地自进入第二阶段解封后,一些派对巴士开始在驳船码头和克拉码头提供违例服务,陆交局也在两个月内扣押了六辆巴士。 据陆交局今日(10日)脸书贴文指出,派对巴士一般是经过大量改造,是为了迎合派对人士。而派对巴士可能会成为防疫突破口,威胁到乘客的安全,因此当局也正在侦办中。 有些派对巴士上的座椅改装后没了适当的安全防护,陆交局表示,若紧急刹车,乘客很可能往前甩,威胁到安全。 当局也表示,过去两个月里数次展开行动取缔这些不负责任的服务商,扣押了六辆派对巴士。 除了取缔非法改装,当局也发现其他的违例行为,包括在没有任何有效的巴士司机职业驾驶、保险和路税的情况下开巴士。 当局希望借此机会提醒公众负责任,继续遵守安全管理措施。公众若发现任何类似的派对巴士,可通过http://www.onemotoring.com.sg/ 向当局举报。

Charity begins at H.O.M.E

Bought too much Chinese New Years goodies and not knowing what to…

The problem of homelessness in Singapore isn’t due to laziness or a lack of effort

Posting on Facebook this Tuesday, sociologist and member of the Worker’s Party…