Commencement Guest Speaker: Professor Liew Mun Leong

Prof Liew has spent 22 years in the public service developing Singapore's Changi Airport, military airports and establishments, and heading two science and technology statutory boards (SISIR, NSTB - formerly of SPRING Singapore and A*Star).

He was the Registrar of the Professional Engineers Board, granting engineers' licenses to practise in Singapore and regulating engineering practices in Singapore. He has also served in international public institutions such as the Executive Board of International Organization for Standardization or ISO, for which he was later elected and served as its President for one term.

In the private sector, he has 22 years of experience leading 10 public listed companies in four countries. In 2000, he was appointed as the founding CEO of CapitaLand Limited, a public listed real estate company, which under his watch, has become the largest real estate group (by market capitalization) in South East Asia, operating in over 20 countries with more than 12,000 staff.

He currently chairs the Changi Airport Group and Surbana Jurong Private Limited. Currently he also sits on the boards of Singapore Exchange, CapitaLand Hope Foundation (the philanthropic arm of CapitaLand), NUS Business School, Human Capital Leadership Institute, Chinese Development Assistance Council and the Singapore China Foundation.

In 2013, Mr Liew was appointed as Provost Chair and Professor (Practice) in NUS Business School and the Faculty of Engineering.

Speech At Nus Commencement 2015 For The Presentation Of The Class Of 2015 Nus Graduate School For Integrative Sciences And Engineering, Faculty Of Engineering On Thursday 9 July 2015 At The University Cultural Centre

NUS Pro-Chancellor, Mr Po'ad Mattar, Distinguished Guests, Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen. Good afternoon.

I feel immensely honored to speak to you today in what must be one of the proudest moment of your life. I fully understand your euphoria at this moment. 45 years ago, in 1970, I too proudly walked down this academic aisle to receive my Bachelor of Engineering degree from this same university. We were then proud as pioneer graduates to receive the first batch of engineering degree from the then University of Singapore. I remember the convocation was held at the National Theatre at River Valley Road. It was one of Singapore's most prominent public buildings, with a futuristic cantilever roof structured over an open air building. Regrettably it has been demolished. Although such an iconic building which had a special meaning to us was demolished, our education will remain with us and can never be destroyed.

Our civil engineering course back then was a rigorous four year journey. Only 7 out of 27 students in the cohort graduated. The first Dean of Engineering Faculty, Professor Ansley told us that Dr Toh Chin Chye, the Vice Chancellor then, wanted him to ensure that the first batch of engineering graduates must be of the highest quality and standards. He cautioned us that high casualty rates would be inevitable.

Why did I choose to pursue an engineering degree, which at that time, was known to be a tough course? The motivation was my late father. He migrated from China out of abject poverty and worked as a fitter, a lathe machine turner, at a shipyard at Tanjong Rhu. It was hard labor for his whole life. When I was young, he confided in me that his humble aspiration was that I would eventually get a job as a clerk, working seated under an electric ceiling fan instead of being a manual worker, like him. His supervisor was a foreman and their "big boss" was an English engineer whom they fondly nicknamed "tua kau" meaning, "big dog". The engineer was a highly respected manager, upon whom my father's job solely depended on. That very high respect for the engineering profession stirred up my childhood fantasy to do better than just "working under an electric fan". I aspired to go beyond my father's dream. I wanted to be an engineer.

As Singapore in the mid 60s was going through rapid industrialization, I figured that the employment prospects for an engineering graduate should be better than others. Has it turned out to be a right decision? The answer is a humble yes, as my career progression 45 years after graduation would bear testimony to. Let me give you a quick snapshot of my career.

I first got a job as a development engineer with a company called National Iron & Steel Mills with a then attractive monthly salary of $850. But I was soon called up for National Service, and my income plunged from $850 to a meagre $90 per month. Fortunately I was soon recruited as a civil engineer and posted to the Ministry of Defence. My job - and I was the first and only civil engineer in Mindef - was to help build up and maintain all military camps and infrastructures for the SAF. Frankly, there was no interesting engineering works and I didn't exactly love my job. But I persevered and after three years I got myself posted to the Airport Division of Public Works Department, known as PWD, to gain some hard engineering experience.

In 1974, I was involved in the expansion of the existing Paya Lebar Airport and, one year later, the development of Changi Airport. I was the engineer supervising the construction of first runway and taxiway system and later, was appointed as Chief Airport Project Manager to lead in the second phase of Changi Airport development and Terminal 2 construction. Concurrently I was also appointed the Registrar of the Professional Engineers Board, licensing and managing the Code of Conduct of Professional Engineers.

After some 15 years in airport engineering, I was appointed as a CEO to run a statutory board, formerly known as Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR). We set and promulgated Singapore's national standards and conduct industrial research and development projects for manufacturing companies. That summarises my first career with 22 years in the public service.

In 1992, I was recruited to lead a public listed specialist engineering group. The company was a gold mine of specialist engineers but it was under performing. My job was to turn the company around. I did not have any commercial experience but my engineering training and background put me in good stead. As a trained engineer, I understood the industry and was able to successfully transform and turnaround the company profitably within a few years.

In 1996, I managed a government owned property company called Pidemco Land, which was formerly part of URA. In 2000, we merged with DBS Land group to form CapitaLand, which eventually grew to be the largest listed property company in South East Asia. End 2012, at 67, I stepped down as the President and CEO after leading the group for 16 years. These 20 years in the private sector summarises the milestones of my second career.

Currently, I chair Changi Airport and Surbana Jurong Group, both of which are actively undertaking mega development and engineering projects. I am now back to my engineering domain knowledge again. As Provost's Chair Professor (Practice) in the Engineering Faculty and Business School I also do some forum lecturing to engineering and business students on a pro bono basis. It is very satisfying that I am going back to help the engineering and business students in this third stage of my career.

So what advice would I give to you, our freshly minted graduates, to start you off your career? As Steve Jobs said in his famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, I cannot connect the dots forward for you. But I can connect my own dots backwards and pick up some messages from my own career experience to share with you. So here are the "dots" for you to take away with:

(1) Build your Core Competence

The employment market in Singapore is wide open to engineering graduates. Choose your first job to develop your core competencies in order to build something solid which you can develop a recognisable strong foundation on. Don't think of immediate monetary incentives. They will come your way later. In my case, I wanted to be an engineer, I trained and qualified as an engineer and worked professionally as an engineer to build camps, infrastructure, airports, condominiums, shopping malls, and hotels. The business community subsequently recognised my worth and made me a business leader in the real estate industry where my engineering knowledge and management skills could be put to advantageous use. So before becoming a business CEO, I was first and foremost a practising professional engineer. If not for my engineering background I dare say the opportunities that subsequently came to me would never to be realised.

(2) Focus on job performance, not quick career climb

Be patient on your job. It is encouraging if you have big ambitions, but take your time. Most of you will have 40 years or more in your working life. Unless, of course, you plan to retire very early in your 40s, when you should ordinarily still be peaking upwards. It would be wasteful if you choose to stop work prematurely, since so much human capital has been invested in you. And believe me, you will be bored to death if you let up too early in life. There is no need to rush to peak in career climb. Life is not about rushing to your final destination and then do nothing. It is the journey that matters. Take your time, enjoy your work and career journey. I have witnessed many talented people peaking up very early in their life and sadly falling off just as soon.

There will be many things to learn in your first job. It is an apprentice stage. You need to stay focused, learn and perfect your skills always striving to achieve good job performances. By doing that, you are creating value in yourself by becoming a competent and capable professional. Build to invest in your own human capital and it will help you build your future career. If you spend your time dreaming or planning how to get the next promotion or how to take short cut to become a CEO or a millionaire, you will probably end up doing just that, dreaming and planning or worst doing the wrong things in life.

I have often told my colleagues that I had never planned to become a CEO or aimed to become a young millionaire. It just never crossed my mind. I was first a CEO of a statutory board at 42 and later became a CEO of a commercial company at 46. To some I would be considered a late developer but then after 20 years, I am still valued by others as worthy of my salt.

(3) Stay Disciplined

Develop a strong discipline in whatever you do. I believe you cannot do anything great or achieve much in life if you don't have strong personal discipline. By virtue that you are graduating today, you must have learned to be disciplined in your few years study. You need to adopt the same discipline to achieve your success in your career. I have not come across a CEO who has no personal discipline. At my age, I still get up at 6 every morning for my daily 5 to 6 km jog to keep myself fit and healthy. I also keep the discipline of reading the two local and three international papers every morning before going to office to keep myself abreast about what is happening around me. It is just sheer discipline that I developed over the years. When I job interviewed young people, I find that not many do their regular exercise and they don't read enough. Many confess they don't even read the local papers. No time, no interest or just no discipline.

Having discipline in your personal conduct will prepare you for the discipline you need in the work place. Discipline in the work place includes being punctual, completing your work within deadlines, observing protocols and mannerism at meetings, observing dress codes, and so forth. If you lack discipline in your conduct, you will not earn the respect and trust of your colleagues, your bosses, customers and other stakeholders. Only when you conduct yourself with discipline, then can you impose discipline on others, which you will need to master if you wish to become a leader in future.

(4) Adopt and stick to your core values

Adopt and be steadfast with a set of good core values in your career. Good core values can serve as a moral compass when you have to make decisions in your job. It is your DNA. When you become more senior in your job, you will have learn to exercise discretion in lots of important decisions, sometimes in circumstances which are not clearly black or white. Your core values should guide you in your judgments and decisions. You will at least know, what are the absolute "No, No's".

There are some universal core values that cannot go wrong. To me, high integrity must be a core value for all of us. I have seen many bright talents broken down in their career and life once they compromise their integrity. Never, never touch money which is not yours. It is a slippery road once you make the first mistake. Corruption will destroy your life no matter how capable you are.

I remember very clearly what my boss Mr Sim Kee Boon the Head of Civil Service once told me, "We can accept genuine mistake. But if you put one dollar which is not yours in your pocket, we will go after you." Philip Yeo, another Permanent Secretary, once wrote, "It is better be poor but proud." How simple but wise. Over the years I have come across several bright talents, including very capable engineers, being prosecuted for corruption. They have spent time, the best years of their lives, in jail.

(5) Build your character, not just your resume

After earning a good degree and having a successful career, how will others judge your virtues? A philosophical journalist David Brooks wrote about "resume virtues" in his recent book "The Road to Character". He suggests, you will finally be judged by other people not only on your abilities, which contribute to external life or success, but also by the worth of your character. He calls it "eulogy virtues".

Described as the "core of your being" it will ultimately define your inner life. I think your education will not have achieved its purpose if you fail to consciously build up both your resume virtues and eulogy virtues. I recommend you to read David Brooks's book "The Road to Character". It may change how you prepare your next journey and how you should conduct yourself in life.

(6) Your Working Mindset

I have often been asked what are the keys to my career success. There are 5Ps which are the tenets of my working mindset:

(a) First P is Paranoid which is the English word for two very Singaporean character traits called "Kiasu" and "Kiasi". As a civil engineer we are trained to handle all sorts of eventualities and unexpected forces, be it, for example, the one in a hundred years storm for flood planning or the unforeseen devastating tsunami. Being Paranoid forced me to plan ahead to deal with even the most remotely possible adversity. It forces me also to foresee unexpected but large impactful events which economists call "Black Swans". Being paranoid has naturally forced me to prepare for any eventualities, for example, in engineering design and in volatility of the business world. The consequence of not doing so may be regretful and unforgiving. There is nothing wrong or shameful about being paranoid.

(b) Second P is Perseverance. You must persevere on your job or your mission and cannot let up too easily. Successful achievements take time and sustainable efforts. I recall being patient in my first job, which was, I must admit, very boring. I didn't really like doing a maintenance job in Mindef, but I persevered, learned from it, and got promoted and progressed forward. On hindsight, I did learn something from persevering on first few years doing a maintenance job.

(c) Third P is Perfectionism. You cannot do anything great if you do not aim for perfection. To me, being a perfectionist does not necessarily mean you will get complete perfection. It means striving to get the best results given the set of circumstances you have to deal with. The question for a perfectionist is, to always ask whether his work be improved and or can he get even a better outcome? Sloppiness and carelessness have no place for great achievements. As a civil engineer we need to be a perfectionist because mistakes can be fatal. As a CEO, I need to set high standards of performance and insist on delivery of high quality products and services. It is not about being fussy, but taking pride in what we do and represent.

(d) Fourth P is Passion. If you don't have passion for what you do, don't do it. Quit and do something else. If you don't have passion you will not be a perfectionist and you can't persevere. Changi Airport will not be the best airport in the world (awarded more than 400 times as such) if my colleagues at the airport are not passionate about what they do at the airport.

(e) Fifth P is Pragmatism. It's good to have ideals but you have to be pragmatic. Pragmatism is about finding practical solutions to problems without blind adherence to doctrines, mantra or ideology, and yet be uncompromising on your values system. Both our founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and our current Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, have spoken about the need for pragmatism for Singapore to survive. As an engineer and a business person we would have to be pragmatic about our solutions to problems and yet stay steadfast to our core values.

This is my career story, and I strongly believe it can be yours too. Whatever I have managed to achieve thus far can be attributed to the opportunities that Singapore offered to me particularly during the early years of nation building, to the best engineering education this university had given me, to the many mentors in my career, my own 5Ps mindset, and subconsciously, my determination to do my parents proud. Opportunities came for me when Changi Airport had to be built. It came when a public listed engineering specialist company needed an experienced engineer to be its CEO, and it came when a property company was looking for a CEO familiar with property development business. I was ready when opportunities came knocking on my door. The big question for you is whether you have prepared yourself to be ready when opportunities come your way.

As graduates of the 21st century, you are going to face different opportunities and challenges than those of us who finished school in the last century. As you proudly graduated today, you too have received a good engineering education from this university. Now it is for you to make full use of the good start and promising future in front of you. Do your part in contributing to society by excelling in what you set out to do, and directly or indirectly, you will serve your country well.

Finally, my heartiest congratulations to all of you on your graduation today. It is indeed a very happy occasion and you should celebrate! I wish you the best in all your future endeavors as you embark on your career. YOU are the future of Singapore. Go on to engineer well your future and make NUS, Singapore your family and loved ones proud of you!

Thank you!