Volume 12 Issue 2 | July 2025
INSIGHTS
Forging the Future
How AI is rewriting the rules of knowledge, expertise, and practice.
By Kenneth Benoit
Endnotes
1. Nils Knoth et al., “AI literacy and its implications for prompt engineering strategies”, Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 6 (June 2024), 100225, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100225, accessed May 2025.
2. Kirkwood Adams, “Teaching and Learning in The Age of AI”, Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning, https://ctl.columbia.edu/ai/examples/kirkwood-adams/, accessed May 2025.
3. Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, “AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference”, September 2024, Princeton University Press.
4. Kenneth Benoit et al., “quanteda: An R package for the quantitative analysis of textual data”, Journal of Open Source Software, nos. 3, 30 (2018): 774, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.00774, accessed May 2025.
5. Joe McKendrick and Andy Thurai, “AI Isn’t Ready to Make Unsupervised Decisions”, Harvard Business Review, September 15, 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/09/ai-isnt-ready-to-make-unsupervised-decisions, accessed May 2025.
6. Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture”, in “The Cultural Geography Reader”, edited by Timothy S. Oakes and Patricia L. Price, Routledge, 2008, pp. 41-51.
7. Gilbert Ryle, “The Thinking of Thoughts: What is ‘Le Penseur’ Doing?” in “Collected Papers, Volume 2”, Hutchinson, 1968, pp. 480–496.
8. Jack Sidnell and N.J. Enfield, “How to distinguish a wink from a twitch”, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, nos. 7, 2 (2017): pp. 457–465, http://dx.doi.org/10.14318/hau7.2.038, accessed May 2025.
9. Mustafa Suleyman, “The Coming Wave: AI, Power, and Our Future”, Random House, 2023.
10. Jason Grant Allen, Jane Loo, and Jose Luis Luna Campoverde, “Governing intelligence: Singapore’s evolving AI governance framework”, in “Cambridge Forum on AI: Law and Governance”, nos. 1, p. e12, Cambridge University Press, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1017/cfl.2024.12, accessed May 2025.
INSIGHTS
Beyond the Binary: Rethinking Work-from-Home Policies
The right approach depends on your organisation’s readiness.
By Vineeta Dwivedi and Snehal Shah
Endnotes
1. José María Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, “The Evolution of Work from Home”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, nos. 37,4 (2023): 23-50, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fjep.37.4.23 accessed May 2025.
2. TED: The Economics Daily, “35 Percent of Employed People Did Some or All of Their Work at Home on Days They Worked in 2023”, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 15, 2024, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/35-percent-of-employed-people-did-some-or-all-of-their-work-at-home-on-days-they-worked-in-2023.htm, accessed May 2025.
3. Udisha Srivastav, “Back to Office? Not So Soon: Nearly 50% Workers Prefer Flexibility”, Business Standard, February 18, 2025, https://www.business-standard.com/industry/news/post-pandemic-shift-up-to-50-of-employees-prefer-wfh-flexibility-125021800942_1.html, accessed May 2025.
4. Dorina Pojani, Neil G Sipe, and Ying Lu, “Politics Aside, New Research Shows There are Good Financial Reasons to Back Working from Home”, The Conversation, April 8, 2025, https://theconversation.com/politics-aside-new-research-shows-there-are-good-financial-reasons-to-back-working-from-home-253629, accessed May 2025.
5. Cevat Giray Aksoy et al., “Time Savings when Working from Home”, AEA Papers and Proceedings, no. 113 (May 2023): pp. 597-603, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pandp.20231013, accessed May 2025.
6. Nicholas Bloom, Ruobing Han, and James Liang, “Hybrid Working from Home Improves Retention without Damaging Performance”, Nature, no. 630 (2024): 920-925, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07500-2, accessed May 2025. 7. Prithwiraj Choudhury, “The World is Your Office: How Work from Anywhere Boosts Talent, Productivity, and Innovation”, Harvard Business Review Press, 2025.
8. Buffer, “State of Remote Work 2023”, https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work/2023, accessed May 2025.
9. Business Insider, “The List of Major Companies Requiring Employees to Return to the Office, from JPMorgan and TikTok to Amazon”, February 20, 2025, https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-requiring-return-to-office-rto-mandate, accessed May 2025.
10. Shawna Kwan, “Hong Kong Firms Toughest in Enforcing Back to Office in Asia, According to Survey”, Bloomberg, March 13, 2024, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-13/hk-firms-toughest-in-enforcing-back-to-office-in-asia-survey, accessed May 2025.
11. Yuye Ding and Mark (Shuai) Ma, “Return-to-Office Mandates”, SSRN, December 25, 2023, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4675401, accessed May 2025.
12. Simon Jack, “Bosses Think Workers Do Less from Home, Says Microsoft”, BBC, September 23, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62980639, accessed May 2025.
13. Diane Mulcahy and Tatiana Andreeva, “Employer Perspectives on Employee Work Location-Collaboration, Culture and Control”, Bruegel Working Papers, no. 5 (2023), https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/brewpaper/node_5f9105.htm, accessed May 2025.
14. José María Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, “The Evolution of Work from Home”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, nos. 37,4 (2023): 23-50, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fjep.37.4.23 accessed May 2025.
15. Microsoft, “Hybrid Work is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?”, September 22, 2022, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work, accessed May 2025.
16. Prithwiraj Choudhury, Cirrus Foroughi, and Barbara Zepp Larson, “Work-from-Anywhere: The Productivity Effects of Geographic Flexibility”, Academy of Management Proceedings, 21199, (2020), https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.225, accessed May 2025.
17. Sumita Raghuram, “Remote Work Implications for Organisational Culture”, in Work from Home: Multi-level Perspectives on the New Normal, edited by Payal Kumar, Anirudh Agrawal, and Pawan Budhwar, Emerald Publishing Limited, (2021): 147-163, https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-661-220210009, accessed May 2025.
18. Nicholas Bloom, Ruobing Han, and James Liang, “Hybrid Working from Home Improves Retention without Damaging Performance”, Nature, no. 630, (2024) 920-925, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07500-2, accessed May 2025.
19. Stanford Report, “Remote Work Endures More in English-Speaking Countries, Global Survey Finds”, April 22, 2025, https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/04/remote-work-from-home-study-research-around-world, accessed May 2025.
20. Cevat Giray Aksoy et al., “Working from Home Around the Globe: 2023 Report”, EconPol Policy Brief, , accessed May 2025.
21. Ibid.
22. GitLab, “All Remote”, https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/, accessed May 2025.
23. Argyll, “The Latest Hybrid Work Data: Working Patterns & Personas”, March 26, 2025, https://www.workargyll.com/industry-updates/hybrid-work-data/, accessed May 2025.
24. Snehal Shah and Vineeta Dwivedi, “Solving the Work-From-Home Conundrum”, Asian Management Insights, nos. 7, 2, (2020): 66-71, https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/ami/issues/volume-07-issue-2/industry-watch/solving-work-home-conundrum, accessed May 2025.
25. Gensler Research Institute, “U.S. Workplace Survey 2022”, https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/gensler-research-institute/us-workplace-survey-2022, accessed May 2025.
26. Wayne F. Cascio and Stan Shurygailo, “E-Leadership and Virtual Teams”, Organizational Dynamics, nos. 31, 4, (2003) 362-376, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-2616(02)00130-4, accessed May 2025.
27. Microsoft News Center, “Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index Report reveals impact of digital debt on innovation, emphasizes need for AI proficiency for every employee”, Microsoft, August 2, 2023, https://news.microsoft.com/en-xm/2023/08/02/microsofts-2023-work-trend-index-report-reveals-impact-of-digital-debt-on-innovation-emphasizes-need-for-ai-proficiency-for-every-employee/, accessed May 2025.
28. The GitLab Handbook, “The Remote Work Report 2021”, https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/remote-work-report/, accessed May 2025.
29. Prithwiraj Choudhury, Cirrus Foroughi, and Barbara Zepp Larson, “Work-from-Anywhere: The Productivity Effects of Geographic Flexibility”, Academy of Management Proceedings, (2020): 21199, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.225, accessed May 2025.
30. Janna Arbanas et al., “Hybrid Workers Seek the Best of In-Office and Remote Work”, Deloitte Insights, September 6, 2023, https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/telecommunications/connectivity-mobile-trends-survey/2023/hybrid-work-challenges-statistics.html, accessed May 2025.
31. Andrea Alexander et al., “What Executives are Saying about the Future of Hybrid Work”, McKinsey & Company, May 17, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/what-executives-are-saying-about-the-future-of-hybrid-work, accessed May 2025.
32. Sridhar Natarajan and Bloomberg, “Goldman Sachs is Frustrated by Many Workers Failing to Be in the Office 5 Days a Week and is ‘Reminding’ Them It’s Required”, Fortune, August 22, 2023, https://fortune.com/2023/08/22/goldman-sachs-return-to-office-rto-five-days-weekly/, accessed May 2025.
33. Matthew Boyle, “IBM Chief’s Message to Remote Workers: ‘Your Career Does Suffer’”, Bloomberg, May 3, 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-03/remote-work-can-hurt-your-career-ibm-ceo-says, accessed May 2025.
34. Richard August et al., “To the Future of Work from Anywhere”, Tata Consultancy Services, 2021, https://perspectives.tcs.com/content/dam/tcs/pdf/perspectives/workplace-evolution-hybrid-remote-working-model.pdf, accessed May 2025.
35. The GitLab Handbook, “All Remote”, https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/all-remote/, accessed May 2025.
INSIGHTS
Unlocking Private Equity Investing: A Primer
Private equity might provide higher returns, but investors should be aware of the associated risks.
By Yin Wang and Steve Balaban
Endnotes
1. Preqin, “Global Alternatives Markets on Course to Exceed $30tn by 2030 — Preqin Forecasts”, September 18, 2024, https://www.preqin.com/about/press-release/global-alternatives-markets-on-course-to-exceed-usd30tn-by-2030-preqin-forecasts, accessed May 2025.
2. Maria Nykyforovych Borysof, Paul Mason and Steven Utke, “Understanding Private Equity Funds: A Guide to Private Equity Research in Accounting”, Journal of Financial Reporting, 2024, 9 (1): pp. 21-49, https://doi.org/10.2308/JFR-2022-012, accessed May 2025.
3. Daniel Scansaroli, Jennifer Liu and Christopher Buckley, “Private Markets Asset Allocation Guide”, UBS Chief Investment Office, October 2024, accessed May 2025. London Stock Exchange and Statista 2024.
4. Statista, “Number of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) from 1st quarter 2007 to 2nd quarter 2023”, October 2023.
5. Another possible explanation for the decline in the number is the consolidation or M&A among publicly listed companies.
6. Sebastien Lamy, Lachlan McMurdo, and Elsa Sit, “Asia-Pacific Private Equity Report 2024”, Bain & Company, 2024, https://www.bain.com/insights/asia-pacific-private-equity-report-2024/, accessed May 2025.
7. Kamarul Azhar, “Stories of the Year: Malaysia Should Learn from Missing Out on Grab”, The Edge Malaysia, January 11, 2022, https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/stories-year-malaysia-should-learn-missing-out-grab, accessed May 2025; Grab was originally launched in Malaysia as ‘MyTeksi’, primarily targeting the taxi industry before expanding into private-hire ride-hailing services and later evolving into a super app.
8. Grab, “Grab Secures US$1.46 Billion Investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund”, March 6, 2019, https://www.grab.com/sg/press/others/grab-secures-us1-46-billion-investment-from-the-softbank-vision-fund/, accessed May 2025.
9. Kamarul Azhar, “Stories of The Year: Malaysia Should Learn from Missing Out on Grab”, The Edge Malaysia, January 11, 2022, https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/stories-year-malaysia-should-learn-missing-out-grab, accessed May 2025.
10. Deepti Sri, “Deep Dive: Grab’s Rollercoaster of an IPO”, TechinAsia, January 20, 2022, https://www.techinasia.com/deep-dive-grabs-rollercoaster-ipo, accessed May 2025.
11. Financier Worldwide, “Chinese Buyout Group Wins $11.6bn Deal to Buy Global Logistic Properties”, September 2017, https://www.financierworldwide.com/chinese-buyout-group-wins-116bn-deal-to-buy-global-logistic-properties, accessed May 2025.
12. Steven J. Davis et al., “The (Heterogenous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts”, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. w26371, 2019, https://www.nber.org/papers/w26371, accessed May 2025.
13. Steven J. Davis, “Creative or Destructive? The Impact of Private Equity on Employment”, American Enterprise Institute, April 1, 2010, https://www.aei.org/articles/creative-or-destructive-the-impact-of-private-equity-on-employment/, accessed May 2025.
14. CAIS, “An Introduction to Growth Equity”, January 3, 2025, https://www.caisgroup.com/articles/an-introduction-to-growth-equity, accessed May 2025.
15. Jose Luis Blanco et al., “Bridging Private Equity’s Value Creation Gap”, McKinsey & Company, April 12, 2024, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/private-capital/our-insights/bridging-private-equitys-value-creation-gap, accessed May 2025.
16. Troy Segal, “Understanding Private Equity (PE)”, Investopedia, April 30, 2025, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-careers/09/private-equity.asp, accessed May 2025.
Minimum investment amounts in PE funds can vary significantly. While some funds have traditionally required high minimums, recent developments have introduced opportunities for individual investors to participate with lower commitments. For instance, certain platforms now offer access to PE investments starting at US$10,000.
INSIGHTS
Local Insights into Global Value Chains
Leveraging firm-level data to inform anticipatory economic policy decisions.
By Chang Pao Li
References
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7. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is Singapore’s version of the VAT.
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INSIGHTS
Building Urban Resilience
Cities can lead on services, resources, and partnerships.
By Winston Chow
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ENTREPRENEURS' CORNER
Growing through Grit and Grace
How Roshni Mahtani Cheung scaled up theAsianparent and The Parentinc with resilience and a ‘community-first’ approach.
Endnote
1. Refer to our interview with Motherswork founder Sharon Wong from our March 2025 issue at https://smu.sg/SMUAMIJuly2025EC.
A WALK THROUGH ASIA
Steering the Future
Emergence of corporate stewardship.
By Shai Ganu
References
1. The Tata Group, “About Us”, https://www.tata.com/about-us/tata-group-our-heritage, accessed May 2025.
2. Temasek, “About Us”, https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/about-us/, accessed May 2025.
CASE IN POINT
Alibaba: Building Advanced Intellectual Property Governance for E-Commerce Marketplaces
How the global e-commerce powerhouse harnessed artificial intelligence (AI) to balance innovation and intellectual property (IP) rights protection.
By Liang Chen, Cheah Sin Mei, Can Huang, and Guoqiao Liu
References
1. Alibaba Group, “Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report”, www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2022/0726/2022072600087.pdf, accessed June 2024.
2. Alibaba Group, “Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report”, www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/a/NYSE_BABA_2023.pdf, accessed June 2024.
3. OECD, “Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025”, May 7, 2025, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/mapping-global-trade-in-fakes-2025_94d3b29f-en.html, accessed May 2025.
4. Lim Yan Liang, “Alibaba Claims Success in Fight against Fake Goods on Taobao”, The Straits Times, January 14, 2019, https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/alibaba-claims-success-in-fight-against-fake-goods-on-taobao, accessed June 2024.
5. The Business Times, “Alibaba Says Kering Suit over Fake Gucci Sales has No Basis”, May 18, 2015, https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/startups-tech/technology/alibaba-says-kering-suit-over-fake-gucci-sales-has-no-basis, accessed June 2024.
6. Paul Carsten, “Alibaba Spent $161 million Fighting Fakes since 2013”, Reuters, December 23, 2014, https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0K10K3/, accessed June 2024.
7. Global Times, “Alibaba’s AI Platform Recognizes Counterfeit Luxury Products Sold Online amid Booming Industry in China”, May 20, 2021, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223967.shtml, accessed June 2024.
8. Ibid.
9. Alizila, “Alibaba Urges Boycott of Agencies Filing False, Malicious IPR Claims”, February 9, 2017, https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-boycott-false-ipr-claims/, accessed June 2024.
10. Elizabth Utley, “Alibaba, Partners Fight Fraud and Root Out Counterfeits”, Alizila, April 26, 2023, https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-ipr-fight-fraud-counterfeits-intellectual-property/, accessed June 2024.
11. Ibid.
12. Alizila, “Anti-Counterfeit Coalition Cites Alibaba’s ‘Significant Improvements’”, June 26, 2015, https://www.alizila.com/anti-counterfeit-coalition-cites-alibabas-significant-improvements-2/, accessed June 2024.
PARTING SHOT
Leading with Narrative
Storytelling as a catalyst for strategy execution.
By Tanvi Gautam
Endnote
1. Michael Mankins and Richard Steele, “Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance”, Harvard Business Review, July–August 2005, https://hbr.org/2005/07/turning-great-strategy-into-great-performance, accessed May 2025.
Additional Reading
1. Hasson Uri et al., “Brain-to-Brain coupling: A mechanism for creating and sharing a social world”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(2) (2012), 114-121.
2. Paul J. Zak, “The Neuroscience of Trust”, Harvard Business Review, January-February 2017, 92(1), 84–90.
3. Andrea Belk Olson, “4 Common Reasons Strategies Fail”, Harvard Business Review, June 24, 2022.
4. Freek Vermeulen, “Many Strategies Fail Because They’re Not Actually Strategies”, Harvard Business Review, November 8, 2017.
