Having been through the ilead study mission, I truly understood why the school chose Silicon Valley as the place to visit. There is just so much to learn and experience about the existing eco-system in Silicon Valley which encouraged the sprouting of startups in various industries to “Just Do It”. As entrepreneurs share their experiences on how they started, the challenges they faced and how they operate upon the successful establishment of the startup, one would notice how different the culture was in comparison to the Singapore culture.

Firstly, most employers were observed to to give their employees freedom and autonomy. For instance, Google employees did not have to adhere to a specific work time. They could come and go as they wish and had alot of freedom in deciding what to do while in the Google campus. They could play volleyball or swim as and when they liked. Employee benefits have also been represented to a max in this company. Canteens were buffet styled and offered the widest variety of food. There were free flow snack and drink bars all over the campus, atm machines charge no transaction fees, even postage was free for all employees. All these not only represent the company perks but also the silent trust they have in their employees. Interestingly, most employees do not abuse this trust that their companies give them. Something which probably is difficult to bring over to Singapore at this point in time. Nonetheless, I believe in time to come, it is possible to bring such a culture to Singapore.

Besides trusting their employees, employers are seen to repeatedly praise their employees during our company visits, an obvious sign of appreciation. In the case of most companies, it is without a doubt that companies truly value their employees as assets. Such encouraging environment has led to happy employees across the companies, regardless of position/pay, an excellent representation of how monetary compensations may not always keep the best people.

Besides Google, IDEO was also seen to give their staff alot of freedom & staff benefits. There was no hard and fast rules which employees had to follow as long as they could deliver results. IDEO being a company whose business involved creatvitiy and innovation had an interesting office layout worth mentioning. It was a very open office concept with minimal partitions. It even had a van modified into a meeting place placed right in the middle of the office!

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