By SGN | 1 Dec 2025
When Scott first arrived in Singapore, nobody could make out a word he said.
On business calls, he would try dozens of ways to ask for the “drilling manager”, then pass the phone to a colleague in defeat. Food vendors were equally stumped by his orders. “I would literally be playing charades,” he says. “But this was actually a good thing because I built a lot of rapport with the aunties and uncles.”
Over the last 18 years, he has gradually shaped and adapted his accent, making sure to slow down and enunciate. Now at a kopitiam (coffee shop), he can breezily ask for a kopi o kosong di lo (black and strong) or kopi gu you (with butter) – advanced orders even for the average local.
You had to be tough to survive
Scott may have become a negotiation expert later in his career, but his skills were honed since his youth in Renton, Scotland, a tiny industrial overspill town 20 miles northwest of Glasgow. “Overspill towns are gritty, not pretty,” he says. “You had to be very tough to survive.”
To identify threats, he learned to read body language and tone of voice. To get himself out of sticky situations, he had to know the right things to say. “Just walking home from school every day is like running the gauntlet because there are rival gang members and they will stab you.”
While most were happy with a steady job at a factory, supermarket or whisky distillery, Scott looked beyond. He joined British Gas, where he used his “gift of the gab” to negotiate for drilling rights. He worked hard, commuting three hours each way. “My travel was almost as long as my workday,” he notes.
In 2010, he moved to Singapore to work for the recruitment firm Brunel. His task was to set up their oil and gas business in Asia. “I started with a receptionist and a payroll assistant in Shenton Way,” he recalls. Eventually, he opened more offices in the region. He relocated to Bangkok, Shanghai, then Auckland when he joined another recruitment firm, before returning to Singapore.
“The funny thing is, Singapore lured me back,” he muses. “I had a fantastic job, a fantastic life in New Zealand. But Singapore kept calling me, like a mermaid.”
Answering the call of coaching
Back when he was with Brunel, Scott’s clients complimented him on his negotiation skills and asked if he would train their teams. He started a coaching side gig with the blessing of his employer, who saw it as a way to strengthen client relationships, and kept it going throughout his subsequent jobs.
In 2021, Scott made a startup detour and co-founded coto, a mental health platform for which he made over 100 hires and raised seed funding from Jungle Ventures. After three years, his equity vested and he stepped away to focus fully on his coaching business, now known as Apex Negotiations.
Besides serving firms in tech, law, energy and media – he recently conducted a five-day training on conflict resolution for Al Jazeera in Doha – Scott also does personal coaching. “I love helping people who lack confidence come out stronger, more confident, more skilled,” he says.
Not one to rest on his laurels, he enrolled this year in an online Harvard Business School course in negotiation mastery. Because of the time difference, he struggled to stay sharp on 4am calls. “If there is such a thing as hell, it is the Harvard programme,” he jokes.
One of Scott’s favourite mottos is “Confidence beats explanation.” Through planning and rehearsal, he helps clients reach a point where they can confidently put forward a proposal without having to justify it. So seasoned is Scott in the art of negotiation that he can predict the other party’s every move or response. After working with him on a practice script, his client often reports back in surprise that the conversation unfolded exactly as he had foretold.
A love for local food culture
After many years of living in Singapore, perhaps the aspect Scott loves the most is its food culture. He has enthusiastically embraced local cuisines, swapping marmalade for kaya (coconut jam) and haggis (sheep offal pudding) for kway chap (rice noodles with pork offal).
His first memory of the country was at a McDonald’s, where he unwittingly usurped a seat reserved with a packet of tissues – a local practice he had been unaware of. He would later marvel at how others even use phones and bank cards without fear of them getting stolen.
Scott’s greatest obsession is without a doubt the Nanyang breakfast: slick kaya toast, runny soft-boiled eggs and strong Robusta coffee. He has crossed the island and sampled over 100 versions, though his favourites remain Pang Pang Kopi at SingPost Centre, Keng Wah Sung in Geylang, and Killiney in his neighborhood of Siglap. “I don’t need to order,” he shares. “They say, ‘Ah, same same?’ the minute I walk in.”
He has such a constant craving for these breakfast flavours that he recreates them on his travels, packing a jar of kaya, an AeroPress, and beans from Yong Seng Coffee Powder that he grinds up and puts in Ziploc bags. After brewing the coffee in his hotel room, he heads down to breakfast. “I pull out my jar of kaya, I make the toast, and I put it on,” he explains. “Then I have my Nanyang breakfast wherever I go.”
Proudly Scottish and Singaporean
Scott considers himself a thoroughly integrated expatriate. His wife is Singaporean, as are most of his friends. At the same time, he remains proud of his Scottish heritage. He wears a kilt to weddings and Asia Professional Speakers Singapore (APSS) events, complete with a sporran (leather pouch) and an ornamental dagger on the sock that signifies his clan.
To this day, he finds it surprising how much Singapore has achieved, how much its infrastructure has developed, in mere decades. He also appreciates the ease of doing business here. “In other countries, there’s so many layers, so many delays, so many disjointed departments, whereas in Singapore everything runs like a well-oiled machine,” he says.
This year, he decided it was time to make it official and apply for citizenship. “I know I look like an angmoh (Caucasian), but I am just as Singaporean as any other Singaporean.”
About Scott
Scott Harrison is a master negotiation trainer and the founder of Apex Negotiations. He holds a certificate in negotiation mastery from Harvard Business School and previously worked at the specialist recruitment firms Brunel, Hays and SThree.
Connect with him here.
