The Great Inversion: Skills Over Credentials — A Guide for Asian Leaders

This episode explores the "great inversion" where talent and skills matter more than traditional technical assets or pedigrees, and explains why organizations need a skill-based management mindset to stay competitive.

For Asian and Singaporean leaders the advice is to respect cultural emphasis on credentials while shifting focus to measurable, transferable "power skills" — leadership, management, communication, project delivery and creative problem-solving — and to assess and develop people on the job rather than rely solely on resumes.

Practical takeaways: redesign hiring and promotion to test real skills, invest in upskilling and apprenticeships, use AI to automate routine tasks while elevating human collaboration and judgement, and build a culture that rewards learning, adaptability and teamwork.