Members' Story Book

This section features the personal stories and experiences of the members of the Economic Development Board Society and the lessons they would like to share.

Part 1 - "Dr Goh's Tribute to Mothers" by Mr Chan Chin Bock

I promised Norma to write stories of our work at EDB periodically. Sometimes the stories would be of our own experience, hitherto unrelated elsewhere. At other times it may be something we read or heard that has some relevance to EDB's ongoing mission to build a better Singapore... [more]

Part 2 - "Is Singapore BOUGHT or SOLD?" by Mr Chan Chin Bock

As every EDB officer who has served in an overseas posting knows only too well, information on companies that we want to promote, is crucial to our understanding of the target company. We read corporate annual reports, Stock Exchange filings (called "10K" in the US), business magazines, newspapers, anything and everything we can lay our hands on for IP leads... [more]

Part 3 - "How We Lost a General Aviation Aircraft Engine Project" by Mr Chan Chin Bock

GM-Allison had designed a 250 cc engine power to small (civil aviation) aircraft. It was engineered to be powered by kerosene (a much lower cost fuel than high grade aviation fuel). This was a new product designed for emerging country markets following the 2 oil price shocks of 1973 and 1979. The company expected small aircraft powered by such engines burning low-cost fuel to be runaway best sellers... [more]

Part 4 - "A Very Sad IP Experience" by Mr Chan Chin Bock

My saddest IP experience happened in New York in the 1970s. I had been working intensively with Remington - a subsidiary of SperryRand to invest in an electric shaver plant in Singapore. They made several trips to Singapore but things didn't click. Apparently there were some specialty steel materials needed in the shaver which were not available from SIngapore suppliers... [more]

Part 5 - "What Makes a Good Road Warrior?" by Mr Chan Chin Bock

In the recent Pioneers Series Interview I was asked this question: "What Makes A Good EDB Road Warrior?" My politically correct reply was to emphasise the people skills needed to do a good job i.e. the officer had to be the first and foremost a good communicator, then a good persuader. In real operations, however, I look for other "soft" qualities... [more]