“Don’t cry for me Argentina”

(Our inward-looking culture – fed by politics, power and parochialism – undermines the economy)

Change is extreme sport. And the human tendency to take the path of least resistance makes it all the more daunting. Yet practice makes perfect.

Argentina seems unable to meet the challenge. We never were like Argentina, once amongst the top economies of the world; although we once were the most promising in the region – and so the community of nations voted Manila to be the ADB’s headquarters.

The Europeans and the Americans had their own moments of self-doubt. But they have since moved forward: The Europeans despite the continuing challenge of uniting themselves under the EU opt to slog it out. The Americans have done it a few times: from Pearl Harbor to overcoming Japan Inc. to the current global economic crisis – even more times for both if we turn the clock back further.

Our glass is neither half-full nor half-empty notwithstanding the debates between apologists and critics of the current administration. Our glass is filled to the brim . . . and overflowing; it is overflowing with politics, power and parochialism – hopefully different from Latin America’s banana republics?

Politics, power and parochialism don’t drive products and services, the components of GDP – ideas do. They are negative influences though – they nurture monopolistic attitudes especially as we celebrate them like they did in the Gilded Age. As marketers know, even dominant global brands are not monopolists – they must meet their challenge at all times, i.e., keep renewing their ideas to sustain success or perish. In the process they become more formidable.

The monopolist safe option is to cede the global market (and why our R&D is underdeveloped and we’re uncompetitive – we are who we think we are) and stay local – where politics, power and parochialism are the staple and nurturing; and reinforces the structure of haves and have nots, and entrenches our hierarchical culture? Yet politicians and voters (with the participation, if not imprimatur of the Church?) are of the same mind – perpetuating paternalism, the core of our hierarchical culture? And the vicious circle makes us one big happy family – the well-off are delighted, the poor begs and the wealthy (with a little prodding from the Church) gives, so what’s the problem? If we can tolerate split-level Christianity we can tolerate whatever – e.g., being the least competitive that it will take 175 years for us to attain our economic potential, says the ADB.

The bottom line: we are focused on the wrong drivers, not the ones that drive GDP and bring prosperity to Juan de la Cruz – or why we are where we are versus the region, GDP- and competitiveness-wise.

How do Westerners deal with the challenge of change? They understand the need to (what psychologists call) unfreeze – that means to empty their glass and to refresh it with the right elements to face and meet their challenge. And guard against evolving from frozen to fossilized – or why they ran away from Old Europe to New Europe.

We cannot unfreeze (which is not heresy, as psychologists can attest – and global marketers use it to their advantage, and Steve Jobs is a master) because our knee-jerk is on autopilot – to wave the flag of deference: to our culture, our heritage, our religion, our language, our history, our heroes, our this and our that – and protect our pot of soil? (We have scores of young, smart Filipino marketers – they need to project their skills to the national agenda, i.e., overcome the social structure and tell their elders, like Christ did, where they are messing up, and they’re messing up plenty in competitiveness, stunting economic development by 175 years!)

Politics . . . power . . . parochialism . . . dominate our daily life – fill our glass to the brim, undermining the economy!

Will we unfreeze and refresh our glass instead . . . with ideas that drive products and services – and lift our GDP?