Let’s hold it right there.
Those familiar with the blog know that I am not a bean counter, and the title is to reintroduce the science of “thinking,” which is why the blog often speaks to the academic world and the real one.
Why? Because even intelligent people can’t escape the two operating systems in the brain: (1) automatic and (2) conscious. That’s why Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Laureate; he pointed out what people take for granted.
Let’s go over some examples. They may be boring, but that’s to keep us away from the “automatic” operating system of our brains.
Here’s a good starting point: On one side of the equation are the assets (A) minus (-) the liabilities (L). And that leaves us, on the other side, the net worth (NW). Or A-L=NW.
Juan de la Cruz may not know it instinctively. And I am reminded of my mother; may she rest in peace. She was a product of the Philippine Normal School.
She can’t recite A-L=NW. But she taught me a few profound lessons. She made sure I joined the Boys Scouts when I was in Grade V; throughout high school, I experienced holding a leadership position in all four years.
But even more, character-building is, “Honesty is the best policy.”
If I became more than a business strategist and hands-on implementor in today’s globalized world, it was how she helped me put things in proper order. She did not always win out because I was a lazy student, voted least likely to succeed by my high school class. But every nugget of wisdom she imparted in my juvenile mind through some magic got through and came forth – as my business career expanded beyond our shores.
On the other hand, my father – may he rest in peace, too – tutored me in math and how to use the “caton.” But he failed to make me a soldier. Poor as we were, he thought the ticket to a career – as with three of my uncles – was to get into PMA.
But I never told him how a corporate career got into my head. He was a clerk in an insurance company, a promotion, following his first job as an elevator operator – back in the day. He was a freshman at UP when the war broke out and got married right after; he never had the chance to go back to school.
One day – and I was not even ten – while at his office, I saw a man through his glass-walled office facing the rows of clerks, including my father. Who is he, I asked? He’s the boss. That was the seed planted in my head.
After that quick bio, let’s get back to A-L=NW. What is surprising is when those who consider themselves number savvy ignore this reality.
But it isn’t surprising because the world and higher education teach us logical yet linear and incremental thinking. What are we missing? Forward- and lateral thinking.
For example, dissertations are about rationalization with no guarantee of impacting the real world.
Consider: We embraced the hypothesis that OFW remittances – i.e., a consumption economy – would compensate for skipping industrialization – because of our “sweet spot” or a very young population.
Here’s another example. There is populism on one side and leadership on the other. Yet, we championed direct democracy and LGUs, on the one hand, and accepted weak national leadership or submitted to autocratic leadership on the other. Either one skews the equation – as in we’re the regional laggard, if not on the road to a failed state.
Consider too: Tax revenues on one side and national income (or GDP) on the other. And why the blog says we are GDP-starved. We cannot rely on and keep slicing and dicing the tax revenues we derive from a nominal GDP per person to drive every critical initiative – from farming to education, to health care, to the 4Ps, among others.
It is not about the half-full glass, and Philippine GDP is too meager to feed over a hundred million Filipinos.
Here’s a quote from earlier postings: “We are GDP-starved. Forget about OFW remittances and the BPO industry, our top eight companies, the ‘sweet spot’ in our consumer market, the 4Ps, our MSMEs, and the Build, Build, Build program. They collectively don’t generate the levels of GDP to feed Juan de la Cruz – or fund the Department of Agriculture.”
But then again, that’s why in figuring out a solution, we must be on the lookout for the distinctions between “drivers” and “enablers.”
For example, nation-building is beyond economics. Economic policies, whether fiscal or monetary, are enablers, not drivers.
That’s why the blog always speaks to “photosynthesis.” We need more than economics.
To illustrate: Living things need oxygen released into the air by plants. But plants need “energy” from sunlight, carbon dioxide absorbed from the air, water through the soil, and the glucose generated.
It’s called an ecosystem. That’s why the blog calls out higher education, where every discipline insists on being the drivers, not acknowledging when they are the enablers.
Yet, it is not a license for Juan de la Cruz to be “sabog” – as in the crab mentality. The operative word is to synthesize – to combine several pieces into a single or unified entity.
We must synthesize populism and leadership. We must combine a consumption-service economy with an investment-industrial economy. We must coexist with other nations to bring money and technology to Juan de la Cruz.
It is the common good, stupid!
Then consider our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.
Let’s get back to photosynthesis.
Living things need oxygen.
Undertakings or enterprises – whether public or private – need income, as in the “sunlight.”
Of course, we need more than “sunlight.” But that's why it’s called an ecosystem, and it is not one-dimensional.
And why there is cognitive development, i.e., the challenges humankind faces demand more than binary or dualistic thinking. Take relativism.
And they relate to the modern math concept of sets and subsets. And that mirrors the nature of creation and the universe, i.e., dynamism and interdependence.
But how do we transport “photosynthesis” to the real world?
Let’s get to more examples.
Here’s again a quote from earlier postings: “Think of the following as subsets or building blocks in our nation-building efforts: (1) OFW remittances; (2) the BPO industry; (3) our being a consumer market – that we like to call ‘sweet spot’ because ours are young consumers; (4) the 4Ps; (5) the eight top companies; (6) MSMEs that account for almost 99% of registered enterprises.
“But why are we still GDP-starved? All those building blocks collectively fall short of lifting Juan de la Cruz from poverty.
In other words, we are “oxygen-starved.”
“And that is why we need another building block. But first, we must recognize how (a) Vietnam did it and (b) Mahathir turned Malaysia into a favored FDI destination.
“That means we must (a) become a regional manufacturing hub for techno products and (b) lure the world’s best tech companies and most significant investors to the Philippines.”
And from my old MNC-company: “Those familiar with the blog may recall that I presented a quick and dirty game plan to enter China, and both the president and CEO expected the leadership piece woven in. ‘Are you offering the job to John today?’ That was the first thing out of the CEO’s lips.
“It was not a dissertation. One chart with these simple bullet points: A third of the market is in the three major metro areas. We will capture a 20% market share, giving us the margins to go head-to-head against the only Western brand in the market. They have a 20% market share but are widespread. There are doors and doors open to us. But we will start and focus on the three major metro areas to get the biggest bang.
“John used the same bullet points when we presented to the Board Policy Committee. But he spread it over three charts to speak to each one. Still, there was no need for a dissertation. Readers of the blog may recall that John was my boss in the Philippines.
“The real world is where Juan de la Cruz suffers from abject poverty, and that cannot be compensated by us beating our chests for the dollar billionaires we created.”
Then recall “that in Eastern Europe, while my role would suffice as consulting, I agreed to organize, run, and develop the sales force to show them the ropes of aggressively driving revenues.
“Still, they must recognize the imperative to connect the dots. And why they still want me to hold their hands, especially with the pandemic and with me working from home.
“And what are the dots to connect? They are the three dynamics of (1) the marketing mix (and its foundation is the product portfolio that must continually respond to the challenge of raising one’s well-being; not the dead-end of “serving the bottom of the pyramid”); and between the portfolio of products and markets is the challenge of analytics: where to sell which products, why, how, and what is the priority as in Pareto — to get the biggest bang; (2) the resource mix (and it includes the access to finance, and banks favor businesses that have credible game plans, and credibility isn’t free; (3) the execution mix: who will do what, when, where, and how.”
“The challenge we face is not a cakewalk.”
Why does the blog speak to education, on the one hand, and the “real world” on the other?
And it is not a new challenge. Recall how often the blog speaks to the shortcomings of US higher education. And I was involved in “unbundling” it for my old MNC-company.
It is not that higher education is passe. The very nature of this universe is one of dynamism and interdependence, and education cannot be static.
And in this era of innovation, rapid prototyping has become the norm as opposed to the concept of “due course.” Think of the rapid development of the Covid-19 vaccines.
And education must recognize that change keeps changing at warp speed.
That’s why in the pursuit of innovation, there is a process called “Design Thinking.” And two of the steps are prototyping and testing. The object is to be able – in the shortest possible time – to visualize and test a solution.
It is not a cakewalk. But it does not mean sticking to the old ways.
And here, our instincts will always get in the way: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.
We are doomed if we in the Philippine elite and chattering classes cannot figure out the two sides of the equation.
We cannot skew the nation to populism without leadership. And we are on the wrong track of getting deeper into LGUs without the requisite “leadership.”
For example, we cannot just repeat the Marcos to Cory movie.
We need a leadership that can grasp that we are GDP-starved. The “leadership” must synthesize and pull out what matters, given our instincts of the crab mentality.
Education, health care, the 4Ps, MSMEs, among others, are all critical.
But we are GDP-starved — as in, we are “oxygen-starved” and need it first and foremost.
Recall that the blog spoke to Mayor Isko, creating a task force comprised of Bill Gates, the CEO of Apple, the CEO of Samsung, and Warren Buffett.
Why?
Beg for foreign money and technology — and cover our deficits measured against our neighbors!
That’s what Lee and Mahathir said to Deng – and even Vietnam followed suit.
That is how our neighbors left us one after the other.
And so, we need a quantum leap of $200 billion in GDP to leapfrog the economic output of these neighbors!
And give that much-needed “oxygen-boost” to Juan de la Cruz.
Then recall my Eastern European friends, an MSME that was a losing proposition for eight years, becoming a model for Europe because of their commercial success, innovation culture, and business ethics.
And “innovation,” as the blog has repeatedly stressed, borrows from the instincts of Steve Jobs. He defined creativity as simply connecting the dots. And that presupposes forward- and lateral thinking. If it isn’t apparent yet, it is what this posting illustrates.
The next president must preside over Philippines Inc. by doggedly pursuing commercial success, innovation and be a paragon of good governance, not a culture of impunity.
We cannot keep to our crab mentality.
Gising bayan!
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