1415T1g1 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Reflection/12 Dec
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Microsoft
Another one of the highlights of the trip: Microsoft provides a wide assortment of services for all industries and businesses. Taking pride in their work and products, their products are everywhere in their facilities. We were lucky to have the General Manager of US DX, Matt Thompson in the facility to give us a talk about how Silicon Valley is and innovation at Microsoft. His point of view is very interesting as he has been to Singapore for many times. His perception gives a clear contrast between Singapore's startup and Silicon Valley's startup. One of the key point that he brought upon that even though Silicon Valley is attaching vast talents from all over the world, there are still people leaving the state when they did not succeed. The Net Foreign Immigration is +19,194 and Net Domestic Migration is -5,428, about a quarter of Net Foreign Immigration. To put things into perspective, for every 4 foreigners that move into the Silicon Valley, 1 will move up. This turnover is tremendous and we can easily observe the upward trend of the continuous influx of talents. The main 2 reasons that Matt brought up is that it is easier to get investments from venture capitalist here and you are surrounded by like-minded people. However, it will be interesting to see that if this will create a bubble and if the bubble will burst in the future not far from now.
Serena
A company that lies in between start-ups and MCNs, Serena provides solutions to customers such as Fortune 5000, StarHub, Boeing, etc. They are very confident that their business model will sustain as enterprises will definitely require their solutions. The key difference between them and the other software solutions is the way they market/brand themselves. They focus on changes and only changes. By offering tools to control change in the various industries, they are able to stay ahead of all competitors by being able to be the first mover. Furthermore, given the speed that the world is changing every second, there has to be a management tool to manage all these simultaneous changes. For MNCs, Change Management is extremely sensitive as one small change made in one area might have a drastic impact on another side of the company/system. Basically, the risk that comes along with changes increases exponentially when the size of the company increases. Working at companies such as Serena is very stable, but you won't get as high of a recognition as a MNC or as much excitement as a startup. Therefore, it might be a great choice for a mid-life choice in changing jobs.
Stanford University | NUS
Stanford University truly matches up to her reputation. This is a place where all the brightest mind in the world gathers. The campus itself is breathtaking, the buildings ranges from ancient Rome styles to modern styles. The sheer size of the campus makes it not walkable and almost all the students are riding bikes. But what truly stuck me is the friendliness of the student here. Despite being one of the best, they do not exhibit any sign of arrogance. On the contrary, they were extremely friendly whenever we approach them for directions. One of the Singaporeans there even walked us all the way from the bus stop to the clubhouse. I am always impressed if someone is smart, but I will be more impressed if they are humble. All in all, Standford is an amazing place with even more amazing people.
Afterwhich, we had a mini gathering with the NUS people and fellow Singaporeans that are studying/working in the Silicon Valley. It was one of the most important nights and dinner as we get to mingle around and speak to people. Listening to the alumni speak about their experiences from SMU all the way to where they are now was inspirational. It makes us have the mindset that if they can do it, we can do it too. Also, it was awesome listening to our fellow peers from NUS talking about their experiences and dreams. It is so aligned with ours. It was amazing to meet them and find out even though we are different, but how similar we actually are.
