Dialogue with a Special Guest

We were very honoured to have Mr Goh Toh Sim, former CEO of Singapore-Suzhou Township Development to have a sharing cum dialogue session with us on 20^th October 2016. He spent 2 hours with us, sharing with us on how the Suzhou Industrial Park has developed over the years and the socio-economic impact that Singapore has on Suzhou. We also learnt a lot from his insightful sharing during the dialogue session.

We will be using Making Thinking Visible routines to guide us in our reflections throughout the Suzhou Learning Trip.

Here are some learnings from this session. We will be using the 3-2-1 Bridge MTV routine.

Reflections from Luengluewong Peerawut (Pup)

3 things that I have learnt:

✒ There are many solutions to a problem.

Problems in the real world are not always as straightforward as a Mathematics problem. However, there are always many solutions to solve these problems. If the first solution does not work, always persevere and think out of the box to generate more solutions and try again.

💘 Do what you like and excel at it.

Everyone may not have a chance to be a CEO or manager, but if you like to do certain work and you excel at it, the sense of satisfaction that you derive may supersede what you may feel as compared to being a CEO.  This is because by doing what you like, it will motivate you to achieve success.  For example, a world class designer is sometimes more famous or earns more money than a manager of some company.

😈 There will be some ill-intentioned people who may try to take advantage of others.

We should not be too naive especially in a business or the working world as there may be people who will try to take advantage of others.  You must always be alert and aware. Otherwise, you may get cheated and may even lose a fortune.

2 ideas I can apply:

🔍Decision-making

There are many important decisions to make in our lives. The advice that I was given today is to make well-thought decisions based on information or data provided.  Good decisions can be made after you get hold of all available information.  Vision is needed in decision making as many decisions must be made before all information is received as by the time all information is given many other people would also have already made the decision before you have made it.

🍻Be ‘HUNGRY’

To be ‘HUNGRY’ is to be hungry and eager for the opportunity given and ‘HUNGRY’ to interact and communicate with other people.  For example, when going for job interviews, sit in front and ask the HR many questions related to the job.  By doing this, you will be creating a very good impression about yourself in the HR’s mind.

1 aspect I am looking forward to when I go to Suzhou:

🔬Research & Development

I was told that Suzhou is well known for its Research & Development such that there are many foreign and world-class companies that have settled and invested in the area of Suzhou.

Reflections from Alexander

3 things that I have learnt:

I have learnt that Suzhou is a developed city. It is not like what I used to think about China. Knowing about Suzhou itself really changes how I perceive China, although Suzhou is just one part of China. Suzhou has a lot of industries. Furthermore, it has developed very fast in 22 years. They also have plenty of educational institutes that are at least post- secondary level.

I also learnt that being a CEO or a boss does not make you the best. You should also go for what you want, and you don’t have to become a CEO if you don’t want to. For instance, a good designer can become even better than a CEO, although he is not one. The world is simply full of surprises.

Furthermore, I also learn how to communicate and interact with people more.  I should not look anywhere else but look at the person’s eyes, but not intensely, when you are talking to the person. I also learned how to ask questions that are more relevant to the topic.

2 ideas I can apply:

As I said on my third paragraph, I have learned how to communicate and interact with people more. As I will meet more entrepreneurs in Suzhou, I will continue to apply what I learned.

I believe that I am good at Mathematics and Science. I am able to apply what I have learnt in these two subjects into my work attachment in Suzhou. I will also try to make some sense on why Mathematics and Science is learnt and how is it going to be applied in rea life. Everything has to do with Mathematics and Science, you know!

1 aspect I am looking forward to when I go to Suzhou:

I am looking forward to know how Mathematics and Science can be applied in a real world context. I find Mathematics and Science interesting and I would love to have a job related to them in the future. If I am able to have a job attachment related to these two subjects, I would have a head start in knowing how these two subjects can be applied. I would want to know what it is like to have a job on something that I like.

Chua Jun

3 things that I have learnt:

The first thing that I have learned is that life will have many ups and downs and we will face many difficulties and we should always persevere to the end. The second thing that I have learned is that every problem we face will have a solution to it and there could be more than one most of the time. Lastly, I learned that we should learn how to adapt to a new life and environment as every country have different culture and backgrounds.

2 ideas I can apply:

Moreover, I can use what I learnt today in our daily lives. For example, having perseverance can lead us to succeed in many things, such as studies, training, etc.  Successfully adapting to a new life and environment also allows us to get used to a certain place if we are staying there for a long period of time. We should not be picky in life especially if we are staying at a certain places or countries for a long period.

1 aspect I am looking forward to when I go to Suzhou:

1 aspect that I am looking forward to in Suzhou is that I want to learn more about their culture and background as I am interested in it. I also want to learn how companies like HuanLi works.