How change-ready is Singapore?

What makes one country better prepared for change than another?

This is the question that I sought to explore when I responded to an invitation by Mr Michael Hastings, global head of citizenship at KPMG, to join him in a panel discussion recently in Singapore. Why does it matter that one country is more change-ready than another?

It matters firstly because change is not what it used to be. In a hyperconnected world of complex systems, change “of the kind that we do not have control over” impacts us with speed and in dimensions that are unprecedented.

CHANGE HAS CHANGED

Much of the change that we are buffeted with today is structural — which is why we can have growing unemployment and a growing number of job vacancies concurrently — and, typically, it is a continual process of action and reaction without a stable destination.

Against this backdrop, the question is not how good we are at what we do now. The question is how well we will fare if our cheese moves. Change-readiness, to paraphrase American futurist writer Alvin Toffler, is a measure of how quickly we can learn, unlearn and relearn.

The KPMG Index Of Change Readiness is made up of competencies in the three broad sectors of a country: (a) the enterprise or corporate sector, (b) government and (c) people or civil society.

The sample includes 90 countries, with Switzerland being a notable omission. Countries are classified into four income-groups and the data includes both quantitative and qualitative measures.

I make three non-exhaustive observations from the 2013 index.

SINGAPORE AT THE TOP

Singapore is first overall, driven by its No 1 ranking in both the enterprise and government pillars. However, it ranks fifth in the people/civil society pillar. This is almost the mirror image of the second-ranked country, Sweden. It would appear that Singapore has more change-ready corporations and a more change-aware government than Sweden, but as individuals or associations, the Swedes are better change-agents.

Singapore’s strong showing is not surprising, given that she ranks second and third, respectively, in the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness and Human Capital indices.

GOVERNANCE IS KING

It is obvious from the index that competence of government supersedes everything else. Those countries that rank in the overall top three are also countries with the three most change-ready machinery of government. Countries that perform better than what might be expected from their income level are distinguished by their outperformance in the government pillar.

For example, Chile (11th overall) overtakes the United States (12th overall) due to its sixth place standing in nimbleness of government against the United States’ 19th place in this category. In fact, even the Philippines outranks the US in this category by five rungs.

The Philippines has an overall rank of 18, outperforming a higher-income Portugal, which was ranked 26th. Together with the Philippines, Rwanda also punched above its weight with an overall rank of 53 and a government rank of 36, which suggests a more change-ready government than Portugal’s.

In the past 12 months, the Philippines enjoyed a sovereign rating uplift to investment-grade status and Rwanda issued its first international bond — both indications of a rapid rate of change that is captured by this index.

BANGLADESH AND THE VALUE OF BALANCED SCORECARD

As a low-income country and one of the most densely-populated countries in the world, Bangladesh arguably outperforms its logical benchmark with an overall rank of 54th. It also shows a balanced scorecard — 55th for enterprise, 54th for government and 66th for people/civil society — unlike some other countries that display a heavy skew towards one dominant pillar.

Pakistan and India show up at 65th and 69th, respectively, better than Bangladesh in enterprise, but apparently less change-elastic than Bangladesh when it comes to government or civil society capability.

The KPMG 2013 Change Readiness Index, like all indices, is a reductionist measure that is intended to capture flavour, not detail, and to create debate, not dogma. It is an important, initial exploration in assessing the adaptability of societies and economies in a world of constant change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lutfey Siddiqi is an Adjunct Professor at the Risk Management Institute, National University of Singapore. He was a panellist on Change Readiness at the 2014 International Development Conference hosted by KPMG and the United Nations Development Programme in Singapore on April 30.