After having spent some days in Singapore, I realized how well developed the city is. Basically all is planned, all the districts, transportation, city services, all works perfectly, and all under the friendliness of the Singapore people. Which BTW are really proud to be Singaporean. It all dates back to 1819 when the British East India Company established a trading post on the island. Singapore would become one of the most important commercial and military centre of the British Empire, and the hub of British power in Southeast Asia. The planning came largely through a "divide and rule" framework where the different ethnic groups were settled in different parts of the South of the island.(extracted from Wikipedia)
All was like a jewel city, starting to the new concert hall, also called the durians, thanks to their durian type, and continuing with, museums, churches, shoping malls, beaches, wildlife, sky crapers, and multiple historical places, like Singapore river, Sentosa Island, etc. All a unique expeirence. Basically I followed this schedule, except for the Zoo. http://wikitravel.org/en/Three_days_in_Singapore
I was a little bit upset because of the circumstances how I got into the country, however, afterwards I was grateful to have such an opportunity and to get to know the state city and the most touristy places. An extended holiday in the country was not bad at all, and an excellent way of having a forced break from work.
During my final day in Singapore I was able to renew my working visa and have a perfect closing. Visiting the world famous and historical Raffles hotel, and enjoying the millionaire drink: Singapore Sling, which was the favorite of many, rich an famous. The ambiance was unforgettable, like a leap back in time to last century, suddenly surrounded by art deco architecture, jazz music and a delicious drink. A perfect conclusion before going back to Indonesia.
After Singapore
During that week many changes took place. One of my staff went to another project, the planning for closing also started, the future of my team was decided, and I was able to foresee that we were in a big rush, and the subcontractors not performing good enough.
I was tired to deal, press, warn, all the subcontractors. Always trying to enforce their obligations through the ruling contract, trying to enforce the LDs, unfortunately none of these methods, know in Finland as management by perkele, worked. The strategy then changed, to try to engage in a very solid and concise collaboration, where we should assist them in any problem involved with the end customer, and they would help us to perform their obligations in a prompt way. This has required continuous face to face interaction, discussing with them, making them aware about the importance of our close interaction and consolidating a common goal for both companies, us and them. Eventually I got a strong support from their top management, and since then the activities have started to move forward. Little by little, and hopefully soon, reaching our estimated targets by the end of the month.,
It is very interesting to see how many local companies work in Indonesia, one would think that even though these are big ones, the corporate philosophy will pervade, however this is not the case, most of them are organized as a family business, where family ties, and relationship base management dominates the whole environment. With this approach is really difficult to get the required level of formality, so one of the unique methods to gain commitment is to reinforce the relationship with the other partner, some type of business-friendship.
