I recently attended the book launch of George Yeo’s “Musings”, the former Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry’s third in a series of essays capturing his thoughts on politics, economics and life.
Held at the Victoria Concert Hall, it was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Kiat so you can imagine that the who’s who of Singapore politics was present in the packed hall. Yeo is a seasoned and respected politician; he served as Minister of Trade and Industry from 1999 to 2004 and left politics soon after.
Having followed his career and read his books, I was curious to hear his further musings in general. Unfortunately, the acoustics of the hall was terrible – a Bangladeshi journalist seated next to me, turned to look at me and asked, “Is it me or is the audio bad?”
This is clearly a hall made for music, not for speeches – so a lot of his words got lost in muffledom.
But the little I caught gave me food for thought.
George Yeo (left) and co-author Woon Tai Ho during the question-and-answer session.
In the interview session with co-author Woon Tai Ho, Yeo was asked whether in a multi-racial society like Singapore, it would ever get to a point where citizens identified as Singaporeans and not as their race.
His answer was, “A person’s identity is part of cultural programming. You can change citizenship, but you cannot change programming. That forms your core, and we have to respect and understand that core. When you dabble in big ideas, you tend to disregard cultural programming.”
In his book, he was asked this question. “If the advantages we enjoy in knowledge are ephemeral, perhaps increasingly putting us in competition with machines and algorithms, how do we stay ahead of the game?”
His answer: “Knowledge is key to arbitrage. When knowledge is codified into information, the human being loses his advantage to the computer. What is most valuable and hardest to codify is cultural knowledge. Cultural arbitrage is at the heart of the Singapore economy and the most enduring advantage we can have.”
Reading this, it struck me that cultural arbitrage too is “the most enduring advantage” any travel brand, which wants to be truly global, can have. You are not global just because you have a huge business in US, Europe, China, India or Japan and have a few offices here and there around the world, you are global because your cultural knowledge is, and it’s deep and wide enough to give you the edge.
In travel, because our very business is about transporting people across borders and cultures, our cultural knowledge is the edge humans have over machines – you can code inventory and pricing, but you can’t code culture, especially the nuances.
“Life is a journey which has meaning because we share it with others. From those ahead of us, we learn. To those behind us, we leave a trail.” – excerpt from his “Foreword”.
Yeo writes about how “in business, as in all other fields of human affairs, trust is key”.
“Context is important. Cultural context is often critical,” he writes. “One can study cultures; stereotypes have their uses; but there is nothing like a local insider to give the outsider a deeper sense of the reality on the ground. The question then is whether the local insider or local partner can be trusted. This again depends on culture.”
Yeo writes about his experience on a cruise ship (then-Genting’s Star Virgo). “The cultural sub-division of labour was most interesting. The captain of the ship was Norwegian. Norwegians are well-known seafarers from their Viking days. The hotel manager was a smooth-talking Englishman. The hotel staff was mostly Filipino, who are a gracious people. The galley staff was preponderantly Chinese. In the engine room, the technicians were largely Indians. In the casino, we met Malaysian croupiers … We were then shown the accounts department, which was mostly all Singaporean, presumably because they were thought more trustworthy.”
In a region as diverse and fragmented as Asia, understanding cultural nuances is vital. Yes, machines can translate words for us at superspeed – but often, it is what that is not said that counts. A “nod” in some cultures is a yes, in others, it could be, “hmm, I am not sure”. A “shake of the head” in some cultures is a no, in others, it could be, “hmm, I am excited, I want to know more”.
Machines cannot read between the lines, humans with cultural knowledge can.
Machines can put foreign words in our mouths – what AI can do now with lip-dubbing on videos is incredible (this video is a good example) – but that’s far as machine programming can go (for now). They can of course also put lies in our mouths – and that’s something to be concerned about.
If you look at the history of Western brands that have tried to enter and expand in Asia, their success or failure was not because their products were not good enough, their tech not cutting edge enough – but often it was the lack of commitment and will to invest in building an on-the-ground body of cultural knowledge.
The same cautionary tale can be applied to Asian brands as they expand into Western markets, indeed any brand wanting to expand beyond their home markets.
Towards the end of the book, Yeo further dwells on the role of technology in humanity today. “Technology has made us more conscious of our interdependence and our power to harm one another and the planet that is our common home. It is good that we feel an increasing part of one human ecosystem. Confronted with a common danger like a pandemic, global financial crisis or climate change, we feel more keenly our connectedness.”
Technology has made the travel and tourism industry more connected than ever, more interdependent than we’ve ever been. Climate change factors will affect travel patterns. Generative AI, anywhere, everywhere, will upend a lot of things.
But the edge we have in travel – our cultural knowledge because we work across borders and with diverse workforces – and our contribution to increasing our customers’ cultural knowledge as they fly our planes, sleep in our beds, dine in our local restaurants, take our local tours and activities – that cannot be underestimated.
According to Yeo, “we are in a great transition where an old order is breaking down before a new order is fully born.”
As such, it is a necessity that we humans working in travel and tourism, the world’s most global industry, play our part in shaping that new order in the best way possible – by elevating cultural knowledge which cannot be codified by machines.
Note: WiT Singapore 2023 will herald “The Human Revolution” from Oct 2-4. Join us.