Sam Hill: Adaptation required to stay ahead

It is mid-morning in Singapore and Sam Hill MInstD, an expat Kiwi originally from Hawke’s Bay, is working from home and taking some reprieve from the heat.

The qualified lawyer worked in a private practice in Wellington, followed by an in-house role for an NZ/ASX-listed company, before moving to Qatar (Doha) where he spent five years. Soon he will be hitting the eight-year mark in Singapore, where he works for a large international energy company which has headquarters in Paris. 

It would be fair to say Hill has an international perspective on the modern economy.

“The project I am currently working on is based in East Africa, but we have customers and stakeholders all around the world, so it’s truly an international project and we’re in the centre of it in Singapore,” Hill says. 

Immersed in high-pressure corporate life, Hill describes the business landscape in Singapore as “extremely competitive and cut and thrust”, and says while governance can sometimes appear rigid and process driven, it is always “stable and trustworthy”.

“Since independence in the 60s, Singapore has enjoyed this extraordinary growth story. It’s astonishing and the success, in part, was down to a very effective task-focused-type approach with a well-educated workforce.”

Hill says this approach has also bled into governance practices, informing how things are done. But that’s not to say it should stay that way. Fast-paced innovation and technology is a mainstay of everyday life for Singaporeans, but old-school quirks remain. 

For Singapore to maintain its position as one of the leading economies in Asia – and one of the world’s major financial centres – he believes continuous adaptation will be needed. 

“Singapore is a leader in technology. This flows through into how we administer and guide the company here. I suspect we’re going to continually move away from some of the quite old-fashioned board processes to reflect that,” he says. 

Hill suggests that in New Zealand, at board level, there is probably a greater emphasis placed on stakeholder values than in Singapore. 

“In many ways, life is very competitive here and it’s also very cosmopolitan. You have nearly six million people from all over the globe, occupying an area the size of Lake Taupō. So, to make it all work, there is a laser focus on efficiency and productivity. There is no mucking around. There is immense pride in the effectiveness of the physical and technological infrastructure that supports this,” Hill says. 

As for climate change and the environment, Hill is proud of New Zealand’s approach. 

While positive steps are being taken in Singapore, he says the scale of the challenge is very evident. At a grassroots level, climate and the environment aren’t as great a focus, due in part to the competitive and price-sensitive nature of the market.  

“We’re dealing with the enormous challenge of providing the energy that everyone needs and looking at the fact that, by 2050, there’s probably going to be another two billion people on the planet and most of that population growth is in the Global South (less-developed economies).” 

In the bigger picture though, Hill believes New Zealand could learn a lot from Singapore.

First, getting ahead of the game and leading with tech. “I have noticed that tech here seems considerably more advanced than in New Zealand and way more integrated in your day-to-day life. There is an extremely high level of smartphone dependency which I have a love/hate relationship with,” he says. 

Second, the importance placed on building relationships in Asia. When time is invested in this area, the benefits are wide reaching, he says. While it takes time to foster those relationships – “a lengthy and delicate process, as part of doing the research” – it has proven successful for business. 

“What really motivates someone in Japan might be different to someone in India, versus Indonesia or Europe. That’s what you learn about operating in the international space, to really understand the complexities of the market – and value someone else’s perspective,” he says.