For years, organisations have been told that critical thinking will remain important even as technology changes the nature of work. During the rise of Analytics, the argument was that people needed to do more than produce reports; they had to interpret what the data meant. Today, as Generative AI becomes increasingly capable of producing answers, analyses and recommendations, the same concern has become even more important. But there is a problem with the term critical thinki

Organisations today are surrounded by new tools. A few years ago, the focus was dashboards, coding and analytics. Today, it is Generative AI, copilots and agents. The tools may change, but their value ultimately depends on whether they help organisations understand a problem, make a better decision, or execute that decision more effectively. The risk is that organisations keep chasing the next shiny thing without first asking a more basic question: How should this decision be

From informal collectors to blue bins and now reverse vending machines, Singapore has built increasingly sophisticated recycling systems. But are we achieving better outcomes, or simply changing how the money flows? Long before recycling became fashionable in Singapore, people were already doing it. You would see elderly individuals pushing trolleys loaded with aluminium cans, cardboard and plastic bottles. They collected these materials from coffee shops, hawker centres and

Singapore is tiny. A retiree drinking kopi in Toa Payoh, a young professional working from an Orchard Road café, and a billionaire dining at Marina Bay Sands may be separated by only a few MRT stops. They live in the same country. But increasingly, I wonder whether they experience the same Singapore. Because three rather different Singapores already seem to coexist on this little island. The Singapore of the heartlands The first is probably still the Singapore most of us reco

Imagine an organisation that has just invested in a new analytics platform. Senior management has approved the budget, department heads have been briefed, and employees have attended training. The implementation team reports that the rollout is complete, with access granted and dashboards ready for use. Everything appears to be in place. Yet several months later, managers are still requesting Excel reports, employees continue maintaining their own spreadsheets, and some are e

Imagine an organisation that has just completed a major AI training initiative. Hundreds of employees have attended the courses, the feedback has been encouraging, and management is pleased with the participation numbers. The learning team has delivered what was planned, and everyone has good reason to feel that something worthwhile has been achieved. But three months later, someone asks a question that is a little harder to answer. What are our employees actually doing diffe

Understanding why imperfect predictions can still lead to better decisions. Think back to mathematics lessons in school. If an apple costs $2, buying five apples costs $10. Buy ten apples, and the cost doubles to $20. The relationship is straightforward. We know the variables, we know how they relate to each other, and we can calculate the answer with certainty. This is how many of us first learn to think about mathematics. Given the right formula and the correct inputs, we s

Imagine attending a monthly management meeting where the sales team reports a 12% increase in revenue, from $10 million to $11.2 million. Targets have been exceeded, several product categories are performing well, and the dashboard is showing plenty of green. Everything seems to suggest that the business is having a good month. Then Finance presents another figure. Despite the increase in revenue, profit has fallen by 8%. How can a company be selling more but making less mone

A recent interview with former Foreign Minister George Yeo got me thinking about happiness, although perhaps not quite in the way the interviewer intended. During The Mishal Husain Show Live from Singapore, host Mishal Husain raised the apparent contrast between Singapore's economic success and its less impressive showing on happiness rankings. In response, Yeo recalled Lee Kuan Yew's view that governments could provide economic development, infrastructure and education, but

Singapore has spent years asking: Why are Singaporeans having so few children? Perhaps we should also ask: What happens when fewer people bear the cost of raising the next generation, while all of society eventually depends on that generation? Singapore’s demographic direction is clear. Fertility is very low, people are living longer, and the population is ageing rapidly. That means tomorrow’s smaller working-age population will have to support a much larger elderly populatio