In Touch: What made you choose to move to Singapore?

Farrugia finds Raffles

Shah: I kept hearing, “Asia’s where it’s at,” so I decided to come and see for myself what the fuss is all about! I approached my manager specifically to see if there were opportunities in any of our Asia offices. Luckily, as I worked on the Microsoft business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), it opened the door quite quickly for me to come to Singapore.

Scali: I told my manager that I would be interested to go on secondment abroad if any opportunities came up in healthcare, and last January I heard that there was an opportunity to transfer to our offices in Asia—either Hong Kong or Singapore. I decided on Singapore because the idea of going to sun myself on a white sandy beach every weekend didn’t seem bad, and also I knew some of the team here already.

Farrugia: Having previously worked in-house with remote responsibility for Asia Pacific, it has always been my ambition to come over to Asia to experience it for myself. From a professional perspective, I don’t think there is anything more exciting than the chance to be part of growing and shaping a business in an emerging region. Healthcare, like other sectors, is booming in Asia, and the eyes of the world are on this region to see what happens next.  It was just too good an opportunity to miss. From a personal perspective, I am fascinated by the heterogeneity of Asian culture and plan to visit as many countries as possible. Also, Singapore is half-way between London and Melbourne, my two homes, so it was an easy decision.

In Touch: Share some professional insights on differences you have come across since moving to Singapore.

Scali seriously hits the beach

Shah: I guess the size of budgets is the main thing for me. The Asian teams seem to work on much smaller budgets—but produce more or less the same amount of work as we do in EMEA. Clients are also much more demanding. And despite the big focus on Asia, I was surprised to see that APAC is sometimes still treated as “the poor cousin”.

Scali: I find that order is not a big thing here (people who have experienced public transportation will understand), and last-minute requests are really common. I have now mastered the art of pulling together pitch presentations in record time! PR is also very much centred solely around media relations. There is still is a long way to go for our clients to fully appreciate the communications channels that PR can do for them.

Farrugia: Despite Asian divisions of big multinationals contributing much bigger revenues in recent years, it seems that resources both in terms of people and budgets remains proportional compared with other parts of the world. Client work in Asia also involves a strong element of training and education on what PR is and can really achieve. This means we have to invest a lot more time in building trust in order to develop the client-agency partnership. In many cases, PR and communications is still seen as being tactical, which can be quite challenging. On the positive side, the chance to build the value of PR will enable us to offer more strategic PR solutions as we move forward.

In Touch: What are some funny things that have happened so far—and things you like?

Shah devours a durian

Shah: The food here is MILES better, and I’m really going to miss it when I go back. What am I going to do without Durian?!

Scali: For some reason, I don’t seem to be a hit with the local taxi drivers, who keep calling me stupid. But I am loving the Singlish accent—so cute lah. And don’t be fooled into thinking that the tropical weather means you can diet easily here, people live to eat (and shop).

Farrugia: People’s appetite for shopping here is incredible. I like to shop, but even I get tired watching them. The “no chewing gum” rule means that Singapore is a very clean city, and I have yet to see any graffiti. Chinatown is my favourite place, I get lost in all the little shops with traditional crafts and paintings. Of course, when you go to Raffles you still get a strong sense of colonialism, until you turn the corner and again ... more shops. There’s just no end to it!

Keep reading In Touch for further updates on the three Londoners’ secondment in Singapore.