Welcome Address by SUSS Provost Professor Robbie Goh at the SUSS-UOB-SMF Global Leadership Symposium 2025
Date: 19 Sep 2025
Mr. Dinesh Vasu Dash, Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Manpower
Mr. Ian Wong, Managing Director and Head of Group International Management, United Overseas Bank (UOB)
Mr. Lennon Tan, President, Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF)
Ms. Claire Chiang, Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Banyan Group
Distinguished panellists, colleagues, friends
- Good morning and a very warm welcome to the SUSS-UOB-SMF Global Leadership Symposium 2025.
- This year’s theme, “Global-Ready Leadership”, is a hugely ambitious and far-reaching one. The challenges of the future are very familiar. They mirror those faced by Singapore’s businesses today: geopolitical uncertainties, supply chain disruptions, terrorists, cyber security threats, sustainability, compliance and ageing population, and, of course, AI and job disruptions and others. It is quite a catalogue of worries. Moreover, the specific impact and directions of these challenges are unpredictable, and this could severely impact some businesses, practically overnight with AI.
- I have noticed that even experts are often divided on how AI will impact businesses at work – which jobs will be most affected, how best to leverage its productivity and so on. Unlike in the past, when patterns could be more easily predicted with appropriate data and modelling. Today, however, there are probably too many events that are like black swans – sudden and unanticipated game changers. Thus, leadership has to deal with the unknowns and gaps rather than the known and predictable ones.
- How then should leadership respond to the unknown? The best and most needful thing to do when you are unsure of what’s happening next is to double down on the human factor. This includes enhancing human capability, extending broad training and skills, encouraging diverse views and innovation, strengthening institutional culture and worker management relationships. Whatever new situations may arise, these human capabilities and institutional culture enhancements will remain valuable assets.
- And of course, these measures must be undertaken proactively and become part of our SOP, because it will be too late to react when crises hit.
- Hence, good leadership becomes absolutely critical in today’s uncertain global climate. We need leaders who can bridge cultures, adapt across contexts and balance innovation with humanity, while navigating through uncertainty with resilience and foresight. These are leaders who are not only capable of driving business success, but also committed to inclusivity, sustainability, and community well-being. For Singapore, where our people are our greatest asset, fostering global-ready leaders is essential to staying competitive, resilient, and relevant.
The importance of coaching
- If you will permit me to mention two strategies that SUSS champions – coaching and learning for life. Those of you who are regular participants in this symposium series would know that coaching is a central feature of it. SUSS has been privileged to work with UOB on a joint study on workplace coaching.
- Later this morning, we will unveil the findings of the joint UOB-SUSS study on workplace coaching. The results are both timely and encouraging. They show how coaching can be a powerful enabler of growth for individuals, organisations, and society at large. I think the findings will be of great interest to the leaders in this room, and hopefully will encourage you to pay close attention to the role that coaching can play in preparing organisations for effective leadership in a complex world. Later on, SUSS will also be offering a masterclass on global leadership at an age of AI, courtesy of my colleague, Associate Professor Jimmy Wong.
- A related issue is learning for life, which is another key focus area for SUSS. Part of leadership in an uncertain world is making sure that your workplace is as future-ready as possible. This means making sure that employees have a habit of continual learning and upskilling ingrained in them. At a meeting with Professor Henrik Christensen of UC San Diego, currently a Fellow at Temasek who spent 17 years at Boeing, he shared that it was mandatory for every employee at Boeing to complete two hours of training every week – for upskilling and self-improvement. While this may seem like a burden on time and resources, the reality is continuous learning is not a luxury. It is a necessity to ensure that our workers are equipped with the skills necessary to be flexible, adaptable, and innovative.
- At SUSS, we work with various organisations in both private and public sectors. From SMEs to big organisations, we customise and co-create upskilling courses that these organisations need to ensure that skills training, as far as possible, are stackable towards bigger qualifications.
- I am very grateful to our partners, UOB and SMF, and for the leadership of Lennon and Ian. For three years now, we have co-organised these goals in bringing academia and industry together to ensure that leadership is not only studied in theory, but practised with real impact on organisations, workers, and society.
- I would like to extend my thanks to our Guest-of-Honour, Minister of State, Dinesh Vasu Dash for joining us today. In addition to our partners, I also want to thank our Student Success Centre organising team for their dedication behind the scenes, and all of you here for your contributions and belief in nurturing the next generation of leaders.
- With insights from our distinguished leaders today and contributions from all of you, we can help each other face uncertainties to the future, and by bringing our respective strengths and experiences, work together to build a more resilient and prepared community.
- Thank you very much, and I wish you all a fruitful and inspiring symposium.