{"id":104518,"date":"2020-07-15T15:35:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T22:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104518"},"modified":"2020-07-15T15:35:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T22:35:44","slug":"realizing-the-economic-value-of-human-brains-is-timely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/15\/realizing-the-economic-value-of-human-brains-is-timely\/","title":{"rendered":"Realizing the Economic Value of Human Brains is Timely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandana Jayalath, University of Vocational Technology<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Finishing the unfinished effort of Millennium\nDevelopment Goals is of national significance. Effectively, the MDGs are global\nbenchmarks. Concurrent with that effort, it is important to have a focus on\nwhat Sri Lanka\u2019s development agenda should look like beyond 2020. While\ncompleting the \u2018unfinished business\u2019, I believe, this question begs rather more\nfundamental question of multilateralism when applied to development\ninitiatives.  The experience with the\nMDGs suggests that global priority setting, backed by action, does generate\nresults. For example, the global poverty reduction target set in the MDGs has\nbeen met, most of the world\u2019s children now go to school, and the tide has been\nturned on HIV\/AIDS and malaria. This suggests that the increased global\nattention and the extra funding that pumped eventually helped a lot. In the\npast two decades, many countries of the world including Sri Lanka have recorded\na substantial positive move. When compared to the \u201990s, people are healthier,\nlive longer, more educated and have better access to goods and services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UNICEF, Sri Lanka is among the\nmost compelling in achieving MDG indicators in terms of literacy, access to\nprimary education and education completion rate. Also, it is achieving MDG\ntarget for gender equality in education. Food insecurity is no longer an issue\nfor Sri Lanka, which is self-sufficient in staple food production with a\nsurplus of rice and maize, except of course in exceptional circumstances such\nas protracted droughts. New technology, innovations and research in agriculture\nhave enabled us to increase our food production, ensuring the nation\u2019s food\nsecurity in an eco-friendly manner. Special attention must however be paid to a\nradical shift in education to highlight the role of science and technology.\nScience and technology helps especially the new upwardly mobile poor segments\nto leapfrog into the future. Yet, Sri Lanka faces new challenges in delivering quality\neducation. This is fundamental to the demands of a modern technology based\neconomy. Education goals should move beyond primary enrolment to improved job\nskills. Target market should be the international waters. Any mismatch between\nthe skills provided by the local education system and the demands of foreign\nprofessional markets must be addressed in the new paradigm. This too helps\nrestore traditional local family set up because mothers are back home and only\nyoung educated are outside. An unfair trading system and trade barriers too\nhave hindered the local growth, when advanced economics are moving towards\nprotectionism. Such issues have been neither addressed adequately in the original\nMDGs nor the local policies, I strongly believe. Therefore, it is important to\nmove from prescriptive to reflective, actually realizing the economic value of\nthe human brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current development models have brought us to the\nbrink of planetary boundaries. Further, continuing business as usual risks not\nonly irreversible damage to ecosystems, but also arresting human development.\nThe poorest people on earth are bearing the brunt of climate change. It is not\nsensible to talk about poverty eradication and environmental sustainability as\nseparate issues \u2013 they are closely linked, and a renewed global agenda needs to\nbe premised on a strong vision for sustainable development.  However, the MDGs were silent on the devastation\ncaused by violence and conflict; the importance of open, accountable, and\nresponsive governance; the need for inclusive growth and decent work; and the\nexclusion of persons with disabilities. Sri Lanka is amongst the handful of\ncountries that introduced national targets aimed at good governance. In the\npost-2015 consultations, however, there has been a groundswell of support among\ncitizens for effective governance to be recognized as a critical driver of\ndevelopment. I emphasize that this is possible only when the concept of\nparticipatory development is brought into effective implementation at grass\nroute level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flourished with the high level of literacy and\ncommitment to higher education in all spheres, in no doubt is a noble idea if\nwe shape our near future economy to a more of a knowledge base. Knowledge\naccumulates slowly, over time, shaped and channeled into certain directions\nthrough the nudging of hundreds of daily managerial decisions. Knowledge\nreservoirs in organizations are not static pools but wellsprings, constantly\nreplenished with streams of new ideas and constituting an ever- flowing source\nof corporate renewal. The main focus must be on people in organizations whose\ncore capabilities are technology-based, those organizations that compete on the\nbasis of technological advantage. I consider that the management of knowledge\nis a skill; managers who understand and develop it will dominate competitively.\nBeing excelled in one knowledge domain, an organization may become unreceptive\nto ideas from others, unless it is not truly a learning organization.\nTherefore, let us foster a culture of learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Peter Senge, learning organizations\nare those places where people continually expand their capacity to create the\nresults they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are\nnurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are\ncontinually learning to see the whole together. Our policies can well be\noriented towards this strategic direction upon the basic rationale of rapid\nchange, only those that are flexible, adaptive and productive will excel. For\nthis to happen, it can be argued, that Sri Lanka needs to \u2018discover how to tap\npeople’s talents to learn at all levels’.  This is how an idea of a national think tank\nand national talent pool become a valid proposition. While all people have the\ncapacity to learn, the structures in which they have to function are often not\nconducive to reflection and engagement, however. Furthermore, people may lack\nthe tools and guiding ideas to make sense of the situations they face.\nOrganizations that altogether form part of the economy is continually expanding\ntheir capacity to create their future require a fundamental shift of mind among\ntheir members. This is what is aptly said, in other words, dynamic capabilities\nas “the firm’s processes that use resources \u2013 specifically the processes\nto integrate, reconfigure, gain and release resources \u2013 to match and even\ncreate market change. Dynamic capabilities are the strategic routines by which\nfirms achieve new resource configurations as markets emerge, collide, split,\nevolve, and die. They are antecedent organizational and strategic routines by\nwhich managers alter their resource base \u2013 acquire and shed resources,\nintegrate them together, and recombine them \u2013 to generate new value-creating\nstrategies. Effective routines are adaptive to changing circumstances, but this\ncomes with the price of unstable processes with uncertain outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potential for long-term competitive advantage\nlies in using dynamic capabilities sooner, more astutely (crafty), or more\nfortuitously than the competition to create resource configurations that have\nthat advantage. On the other hand, to succeed in a technology business, where\nthe market is volatile in nature, the firms have to constantly engage in the\npursuit of innovation. A firm must come with improvements to its products and\nservices resulting in a \u2018supply push innovation’. Innovation refers to how an\ninvention is brought into a commercial usage. As an example, Henry Ford did not\ninvent the automobile; companies in Europe such as Daimler were producing cars\nwell before Ford founded his company. Henry Ford instead focused on the\ninnovation of automobiles, creating a method (mass production) by which cars\ncould be manufactured cheaply to a large number of customers. Innovation is\ntherefore a core process of turning opportunities into new ideas and of putting\nthese into widely used practice. With an innovation led society, realization of\nideas and converting them into a commercial and practical use becomes a day\ntoday phenomenon. Although there is strong evidence to connect innovation with\nperformance, success depends on other factors as well. This inspires the\nimportance of some kind of a strategically focused innovation in any business firm.\nThe real test of innovation success is not a one-off in short term but\nsustained growth through continuous innovation and adaptation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For innovations to be truly exploited, they need\nto be shared. Great developments by lone inventors, such as Thomas Edison, are\nlargely of the past- most truly great inventions of today are the result of\ncollaborations. Ideas are usually just starting points. They need to be\nrefined, augmented, and merged with other ideas. This is why Sri Lanka must\nalways look for public hearings, intellectual debates and professional forums,\nso as to exploit new ideas ahead of the competition. This results in an\norganization being able to bring new value added products and services to world\nmarkets. The innovation that results from sustained investment in R&D,\ncombined with other related investment at the right levels, is essential in\nproviding innovative environment that is crucial to improve competitive edge.\nThe first step in creating a culture of innovation is unleashing the creative\npotential of the employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our focus beyond 2020 should therefore take a\n\u2018bottom up\u2019 approach. The challenge is getting them to see the world with fresh\neyes in order to develop fresh solutions. This is relatively inexpensive\nresearch for nurturing expertise in fields that could lead to future\nopportunities and threats. The key question is what are the potential costs and\nrisks of not mastering or entertaining these aspects? For instance, no\nsuccessful firm in pharmaceuticals could avoid exploring recent developments in\nbiotechnology. Besides market analysis, sound technical judgments are the ones\nthat should matter deciding innovative activities. Imperative is more and more\neffort, energy and resources on training, research and development components fostering\nreal-time innovation – innovation without any external stimuli. This requires\nrethinking of all aspects of the business; strategy, processes, measures,\ncompetencies, leadership. The result is a culture that thrives on change,\nflexibility and adaptability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, people yearn for clever, dispassionate\nand principled governance. When the usual run of rulers proves cowardly,\nindecisive or discredited, corrupted and ruined, turning to technocrats is\nparticularly tempting. Italy and Greece and even China are recent examples. In\nChina; most of the political leaders are engineers, scientists, or\nmathematicians. A common outcome is a technocratic-military hybrid where\ncivilian experts have the economic and social portfolios, but military men the\ndefense and interior ministries. Egypt’s current regime resembles it. Singapore\nis perhaps the classic example where the political and expert components seem\nto have merged completely in the governance. A fully fledged technocratic\nmovement flourished in America in the inter-war period. In a way, technocracy\nis a way of applying science to politics. When political power is not publicly\ncontested at all, electability is irrelevant and expertise can give the\nambitious an edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can lose weight by eating less and doing more\nand more physical exercise. We can become wealthy if we spend less than we\nearn, save and invest. If this was easy we all are wealthy and not overweight.\nBut the reality is we are fat and poor. For much in life, we all know what to\ndo, but very few have the discipline to do it. We not only need wise leaders\nand wise policy, we also need the discipline to endure the pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandana Jayalath, University of Vocational Technology Finishing the unfinished effort of Millennium Development Goals is of national significance. Effectively, the MDGs are global benchmarks. Concurrent with that effort, it is important to have a focus on what Sri Lanka\u2019s development agenda should look like beyond 2020. While completing the \u2018unfinished business\u2019, I believe, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}