I was in Bangkok when it happened. When I checked my Facebook, my first reaction was "Another exercise by the government."
After all, the word riot has disappeared from my dictionary for as long as I could remember.
Singapore is well known of its political security and a safe country to many people.
I did not exactly follow the news as it did not really concern me. And I'm on a holiday. When I'm back, I did not take any particular interest in the news and what happened subsequently, expect knowing some people were caught and repatriated and sale of liquors was banned over last weekend. There were also news about giving flowers to these foreign workers at Little India to show our appreciation for their contribution, how and where these people are spending their weekends and how businesses in that area were affected by the ban in liquor sales.
As usual, the government set up a committee to look into the matter and recommend precautions for the future.
I've heard news about residents staying at Little India complaining of these foreign workers getting drunk and creating problems during weekends, where they have their off day. It seems these people were making a din and disturbing the peace of the residents, fighting at times, urinating and defecating in the void deck of flats.
There's news that the ban in sales of liquor will continue for another six months.
Many businesses that depend on sales of liquor to these foreign workers are hard hit as business from this item can make up 80% of their total sales.
Some of them intend to diversify their product range by selling more non-alcoholic items while some contemplated moving to other places.
Of course nobody expected a riot to happen.
But if you hear of negative news about foreign workers behaviors, isn't there cause for concern?
If your business is not located in Little India, is it business as usual for you?
Doing business the same way, treating your customers the same way, selling the same product or service?
Let's not talk about something as serious as a riot.
What if a business opens up two doors away and snatches away 50% of your customers?
And in this connected world, your competitors do not need to open next to you to be a threat.
So start thinking about these:
How can I add more values to my existing customers to make them come back?
How can I attract more new customers by offering more values?
How can I make my customers think of me immediately when they think of the kind of product or service I'm selling?