Knowledge
T&T’s new wealth generating resource?
By
Curt Wellington
Trinidad
Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
08 27 06
The
21st century has been promoted as the dawn of the
knowledge era and knowledge is being described as
the new wealth-generating resource.
In
the developing world, countries such as Botswana,
China, India, Malaysia, Swaziland and our own T&T
have outlined plans to achieve “developed
country status” in which the education of
the country’s human resources is a core strategy.
On
the surface, the strategy makes good sense. After
all, esteemed publications such as the Global Competitiveness
Report have shown that countries with the higher
per capita income are usually those whose citizens
access tertiary education at significantly higher
rates than comparator countries.
On
closer examination, however, we will also see that
those countries make significantly greater investments
in research and development than the countries in
the developing world.
Why
does this matter?
You
see, education is not knowledge. Unless the information
gained in courses of education can be applied to
a specific context, it is of no use to the recipient
of that information or anyone else for that matter.
Knowledge could therefore be defined as applied
information.
And
in an environment in which the need for change is
continuously precipitated by global trends and market
forces, knowledge must be seen as a dynamic attribute
that is constantly being leveraged to create new
knowledge that is relevant to the changing circumstances,
or which can be used to redefine the rules of the
competition by creating new imperatives.
In
these circumstances, the dominant nations of the
future will be those that are constantly engaged
in research and development activities to create
new knowledge and which use that knowledge to create
new products and services.
At
the macroeconomic level, such activities are reflected
in the growth of a country’s gross domestic
product per capita and at the micro level, it reflects
the activities of firms that are moving to become
globally competitive. Apart from their efforts to
be attractive destinations for foreign direct investments,
it should be noted that countries don’t compete,
but businesses do.
In
the Caribbean, while we do have firms that are actively
competing in the global economy, we are, by and
large, only just awakening to the realities of the
new rules of trade and the imperatives of global
competition.
In
today’s highly networked global economy, in
which consumers have access to information, products
and services literally at the click of a mouse,
all business are, in reality, global.
We
have been sold on the concept that free trade is
good for the country. It promotes competition; provides
consumers with access to the best value for their
dollar; and forces local business to improve the
quality of their operations and output. However,
it is unlikely that our businesses can compete in
the same markets with India and China, for example,
whose low-cost quality outputs are threatening a
level of dominance unlike anything we may have witnessed
in the past.
We
have also witnessed the struggles of entire economies
as commodity prices fluctuate and preferential market
access for primary products evaporate. If Caribbean
economies were to survive, what would be the new
sources of income generation?
In
T&T, we seem to be betting our future on oil
and natural gas. Buoyed by the current inflationary
trends for oil prices, the government has once again
assumed the role of prime mover of economic development.
This time around, the visible short term investments
have targeted mega construction projects and expanded
social programmes. The not-so-visible investments
have targeted education with the promotion of increasing
access to tertiary education for nationals through
the expansion of the intake at the University of
the West Indies and the even more rapid expansion
of the T&T Institute of Technology, now The
University of T&T.
Laudable
though these initiatives may be, some questions
still arise.
How
will graduates of these institutions respond to
the vagaries of the prevailing business landscape?
Will local businesses be able to absorb them? Will
they be involved in initiatives to create new areas
of wealth generation? Are they being developed for
industry? Or will they be able to create industry?
And, given the migratory trends noted in the recent
World Bank publication on “International Migration,
Remittances and the Brain Drain,” will we
lose the majority to the OECD countries which have
already signalled that their own tertiary institutions
will be hard-pressed to meet their projected demands
for knowledge workers?
With
respect to country revenue, we need not be reminded
that our main revenue earners are depleting resources
and that the events that precipitated the windfall
could just as easily be wound up at the stroke of
a diplomatic pen. Even if events are sustained into
the foreseeable future, research and development
initiatives in renewable sources of energy and the
international outcry over the global effect of greenhouses
gases will surely impact our revenue streams over
the longer term.
These
questions suggest that charting a course in the
emerging knowledge landscape, though absolutely
critical, will by no means be an easy task. We can
be certain, however, that unless our businesses
are ready to engage and leverage the intellectual
resources that will become available, then the migratory
patterns to global corporations will continue.
Investments
in technology and hiring “the brightest and
the best” do not necessarily mean that businesses
are transitioning to becoming knowledge enterprises.
In fact, such a transition requires a significant
shift in the managerial culture as well as the empowerment
of employees at all levels of the organisation.
To
leverage intellectual resources, senior managers
must relinquish industrial managerial models that
emphasise the control of processes and engage employees
in a manner that facilitates more valued outcomes.
The adage, “knowledge is power” must
be abandoned and instead, there must be tacit understanding
in the organisation that power can only be generated
through shared knowledge. Employees and knowledge
workers, in particular, must be encouraged to examine
and discuss industry and market trends and to locate
their roles in contributing to the organisation’s
success.
The
successful knowledge organisation will require employees
who are committed and engaged, but it will also
require change in the managerial culture to get
there.
The
interesting thing about knowledge is that its creation
is non-exclusive. It cannot be perceived to be the
sole province of any one country, people, organisation,
or group of executives. If the transition is properly
managed, then this can indeed be our time.
Curt
Wellington is a consultant with the Arthur Lok Jack
Graduate School of Business. He can be reached at
662-9894 ext 157 or email c.wellington@gsb.tt
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday
17th August 2006
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©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing. All Rights
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