ABSTRACT
The year 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the Singapore Management University (SMU). SMU exists in an ecosystem for higher education that is quite unlike what one might find in other parts of the world. The supportive and stable environment the Singapore government provided in terms of its funding and policies meant a more predictable environment within which a university can make long-range planning. Singapore's development since its independence in 1965 has been undergirded by the belief that a strong educational system is the backbone of the country's economic development. The Era of Evolution is a story of both implementation of the vision of the founding team and strategic emergence as the university fine-tuned its strategy. Economics and social sciences were seen as essential building blocks for a university that aspired to deliver a broad-based education and become a world-class institute of management.
