Software and people are more important than hardware

The report also mentions world-renowned cultural centres that effectively serve various genres of arts like the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It also emphasises the significance of software and people ware over that of hardware – and so that’s a good sign for our future. 

Question is whether the centre is doing anything at the moment to develop the software and people in preparation for the future when the expansion plan is completed – no matter when. It seems like the centre has been on cruise control mode for many years. 

It’s been well established as the most prestigious venue in the country, although event organisers and artists who would like to use the space know well that it is being operated with a high level of bureaucracy. Plus, the centre doesn’t frequently organise its own events. And when there are no events, it feels like a desert – a term which cannot be used to refer to the Centre Pompidou or, for a more regional example not mentioned in the report, the Esplanade in Singapore.

And as for people ware, the fact that ushers, part of the full-time staff on overtime duty during evening performances, never approach you when you pull out your iPhone to take photos of the show and immediately post them on your Instagram, is evidence that shows the centre has a long path of development ahead.

And that leads to another question: whether the centre can improve – or, in other words, fully serve its functions – without the expansion plan. Cultural centres all around the globe have shown that they can work with limitations in their infrastructures.

Another example of how software and people are more important than hardware can be found in the competition between two national carriers, Thai Airways (TG) and Singapore Airlines (SQ), currently ranked the world’s 9th and 3rd best respectively, according to Skytrax’s World Airline Awards.

TG has been catching up with SQ recently in terms of hardware, but as in many kinds of development here, it’s slow and sabai sabai. Almost at the same time as the former started operating its first Airbus A380 last month, the latter was celebrating the 5th anniversary of its superjumbo, which has already served one million passengers, with similar gadgets on the seats and in the cabin. 

But in this day and age of low-cost airlines, a reason why we are still paying more for these four-star airlines is because of their presumably better software and people. I was happy to have recently discovered that there are more Thai movies on board TG than before, and many Hollywood blockbusters are now with Thai subtitles, but then SQ still beats TG in the total number of selections and world movies. Another case of software: toothbrushes, toothpaste and hair brushes are available in SQ’s economy class toilets, even on short-haul flights between Bangkok and Singapore; none can be found on TG, even on long-hauls from Bangkok and Paris, and hence French kisses are not recommended.

While Thai passengers complain that TG flight attendants treat foreign passengers better than Thais, TG flight attendants rebut this with the claim that Asian passengers, especially Thais, are more demanding. I’m a passenger and so I’m naturally biased here. I don’t think it’s only because we speak the same language, but rather because service and hospitality mean different things around the world. For example, my French friend, an Air France employee, was very surprised when he was served what he called “serious food” on his TG flight from Bangkok to Krabi. 

Great service means service that is beyond your expectation and usually out of the normal routine. TG seems to achieve this in first and business classes, where the flight attendants put on a “Yes, sir/madam” attitude while kneeling on the floor. They may forget that there are a few hundred more seats and passengers in economy that means more profit for the company, notwithstanding their “I’m not your servant” attitude. 

Recently, I tested their people ware in exactly the same situations on two connecting flights on SQ and TG. When my special meal trays were served, I asked for another drink, a glass of Singapore Sling on SQ and a can of beer on TG. The English-speaking SQ stewardess instantly used the in-flight phone to call her colleague in the galley, and a minute later I could enjoy my cocktail; her Thai-speaking TG counterpart said, “Sorry, you have to wait until the trolley returns” – that was 15 minutes later when I’d finished my dessert. And later on, when I’d almost finished my first glass, the former asked if I would like another one, while I had to ask the latter for it and got another reply: “It’s not in this trolley, so you have to wait until we finish our trolley service” – another 15 minutes.   

And so, I’ve been flying SQ more often than TG, and watching more performances at the Esplanade than the Thailand Cultural Centre, despite the fact that I’m a shareholder of TG and a taxpayer in Thailand.

If we think that hardware is more important than software, we probably buy an Ultrabook computer running on MS-DOS, don’t we?