Bring Me a Shrubbery


Bring Me a Shrubbery!

When Singapore was still desperately poor, its prime minister used neatly trimmed shrubbery to attract foreign investment.[2] The prime minister ensured that the roads from the airport to the hotels were well kept and nicely groomed. He did this so foreign businesspeople would think that Singaporeans were “competent, disciplined, and reliable.”[3]

The existence of sharply pruned shrubbery in a host country doesn’t usually enhance a multinational’s foreign investments. The shrubbery from the airport to the hotels was highly visible to potential investors, however, and was far easier to judge than, say, Singapore’s level of corruption. What makes things interesting is that the foreign businesspeople knew that Singapore knew that they would observe the quality of the road between the airport and hotels. Consequently, if Singapore couldn’t even go to the trouble of keeping up this road, it would signal that it wouldn’t make future accommodations to foreign capital.

These shrubberies were Singapore’s easily viewed cover, and as we all know, it’s pretty easy to judge a book by its cover. While evaluating a book’s contents takes some time, the message of the cover can be grasped in seconds. A book’s cover provides a signal as to its contents.

[2]Lee (2000), 62.

[3]Ibid.




Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 260

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