“We must first acknowledge that our resistance to change comes from our instincts, reflected in the Philippine caste system.
“We in the Philippine elite and chattering classes can dictate to Juan de la Cruz to accept the infamy of being the regional laggard and suffer the consequences of abject poverty and learning poverty.”
That’s a quote from the previous posting. But do we agree or disagree? Aren’t we the regional laggard? Isn’t Juan de la Cruz suffering from abject poverty and learning poverty?
Then consider: “Becoming a manufacturing hub like China or Vietnam is out of the question, what with our expensive power cost, inefficient logistics, and bureaucratic red tape standing in the way. Neither can we do it through agriculture, considering our weak cooperative structure, politicized agricultural policies, and outdated farming methods?
“Our competitive advantage lies in our people. Hence, we must make the necessary investments to sufficiently capacitate the next generation of Filipinos.
Consider: “The Irish government was keen to understand which skills would be in high demand in the next 20 years. They identified electrical engineering (EE) and information technology (IT) in anticipation of the computerization boom. Remember, this was the decade when Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle were born.
“The Irish government invested in forming the best curriculum money can buy, even if financial resources were tight. They built Regional Technical Colleges in far-flung towns to make EE, and IT courses available to all. Simultaneously, they re-purposed many of their universities to specialize in EE and IT and attracted thought leaders in the field to form its faculty.” [“Capitalize on our workforce; lessons from Ireland,” Andrew J. Masigan, THE CORNER ORACLE, The Philippine Star, Nov 16, 2022]
Andrew Masigan builds on the Bernie Villegas article, “IT-BPM drives inclusive economic growth: A timeline.”
“Becoming a manufacturing hub like China or Vietnam is out of the question, what with our expensive power cost, inefficient logistics, and bureaucratic red tape standing in the way. Neither can we do it through agriculture, considering our inefficient cooperative structure, politicized agricultural policies, and outdated farming methods?”
Why is Juan de la Cruz resistant to change?
Why are we reliant on OFW remittances and call centers? Of course, they drive the 6%-7% GDP growth that makes Filipinos proud.
But that is why the blog asks, what is the context? Juan de la Cruz suffers from the infamy of being the regional laggard and the consequences of abject poverty and learning poverty.
What are we missing? Several things.
First, we are stuck with binary thinking. How we define competitive advantage is too academic. But then again, we can’t see beyond “binary thinking” that we ignore the “context.” And because we are missing the context, we can’t develop options that will create a robust ecosystem. Think of why humankind thrives and why we must think forward to mirror the ecosystem we call photosynthesis.
Secondly, recall that the bedrock of innovation is the hierarchy of human needs. Because innovation is foreign to us, we define it as IT or technology related. The “hierarchy of human needs” starts with the physiological needs of Juan de la Cruz.
We cannot put body and soul together if we keep falling into the trap of binary thinking. For example, that electricity is too expensive in the Philippines.
We are over 115 million, while Ireland is less than 6 million people. In other words, we must ensure that Juan de la Cruz satisfies his physiological needs – water, food, and electricity.
But that is why the blog faults us in the Philippine elite and chattering classes. There is no escaping the imperative of electricity especially given the magnitude of the population.
Constrained by the metric of 6%-7% GDP growth, we can’t forward-think.
Consider: We have over 300 export processing zones generating exports of nearly $80 billion. In other words, we suffer from the lack of economies of scale electricity-wise, for example. If we establish the context as we need incremental exports of $200 billion to match our neighbors, the next thing we must recognize is to toast the crab mentality. And that will open our eyes to economies of scale.
Enter: Pareto principle. In other words, we must then figure out the two or three foreign investments and technology we must attract. If Samsung generates $50 billion in exports for Vietnam, consider TMCC plus two more that will produce $100 billion for the Philippines. That will give our power industry the economies of scale to invest in lower-priced electricity. If our oligarchy is scared, we must look outward and look for power companies that can do it.
Let’s digress a bit and talk about electricity costs in Eastern Europe and how economies of scale come into play. Recall that my friends started with one dilapidated former communist production facility. Today, they have twelve robotic facilities. Yet, given economies of scale, they are pursuing an alternative electricity supply, i.e., solar. There is an upfront cost, yet the payback will be quick.
In the meantime, we can’t simply tell Juan de la Cruz that we cannot give him low-priced electricity. But that means we must overcome the tyranny of hierarchy – that we value and why we embrace oligarchy.
The bottom line, we must address the physiological needs of Juan de la Cruz. We need to feed more than 6 million people – the population of Ireland.
But let’s dissect the Irish model.
For example, we don’t have to “reinvent the wheel” and instead build on what we have. UP and Ateneo are our best universities, yet their rankings against the rest of the world are abysmal. Given their history, we can assume they can be better in STEM.
But we can’t just “reform” UP or Ateneo. We like the word reform when we must figure out the “context” of our challenge. For example, we must benchmark against Singapore or Hong Kong universities. Parochialism and insularity have consigned us to the cellar.
And recall what George Gorospe (SJ) said about our culture. That Ateneo can instruct their students about dynamism, i.e., “reality” is beyond any human experience or system. Yet, the home and the workplace pose a conflict. For example, the best local employers are our oligarchy. Recall that I worked with one for eight years.
Would I have learned “innovation and global competitiveness” if I had retired from a Philippine oligarchy instead of my old Fortune 500 company?
What about UP? UP is known and proud of the academic freedom it engenders. But we also know that “freedom” per se can undermine the common good. And that is why we are critical of the Americans – and their unfettered free enterprise.
What if UP moves from academic freedom to “dynamism”? In other words, we are a subset of the universe in constant motion and expansion. UP must then keep pushing the envelope. It means it must be ahead of the curve. For example, a world-class university must overcome the “ivory tower” and be real-world-oriented.
Two separate anecdotes – in Singapore and Japan – come to me whenever dynamism is the topic. Yet they said the same thing: It bothers us that the next generation of our people no longer manifests the drive of their elders.
Why dynamism? We Filipinos cannot problem-solve because we have the benefit of hierarchy – and Juan de la Cruz favors us by submitting to tyranny.
Of course, we say it in different ways. For example, we see the glass as half-full. That smacks of hubris, given the infamy and abject poverty that Juan de la Cruz suffers. And so we want a model that replicates Ireland with less than 6 million people when we are over 115 million strong.
And there is another caveat. The IT field is not a slam dunk.
I’ve spent most of the last 20 years in Eastern Europe, where IT is like religion.
Consider: “Progress Completes Acquisition of Telerik and Expands Executive Management Team, Dec 02, 2014. Acquisition Extends Leadership.
“BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Progress announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Telerik (Bulgaria), a provider of tools and technologies to address the entire application development lifecycle. The acquisition builds on Progress’s strong heritage of rapidly enabling developers to create data-driven devices and platform applications. Through this acquisition, Progress will now provide comprehensive cloud and on-premise platform offerings that would allow developers to rapidly create beautiful applications driven by data for any web, desktop, or mobile platform.
“Progress acquired Telerik for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $262.5 million.”
In other words, Eastern Europeans have a leg up in the IT field, and we have much catching up to do.
You can click on the following links to better appreciate the hurdles we face:
Why you should consider outsourcing software development to Bulgaria (nearshorefriends.de)
Nearshoring Europe - Nearshorefriends GmbH - ABOUT US
Develop, Deploy & Manage High-Impact Business Apps | Progress Software
Latvia and Bulgaria did it, so why can’t the UK encourage female engineers? (theconversation.com)
Why Explore Bulgaria To Set Up Your Next Center Of Excellence | Zinnov
Why is Juan de la Cruz resistant to change?
We must first acknowledge that our resistance to change comes from our instincts, reflected in the Philippine caste system.
And why ours is a culture of impunity. How do we overcome “impunity”? Not by reforming the three branches of government. In other words, reform is like going through a checklist. The “context” must be to own our shortcomings and embrace dynamism.
That means overcoming resistance to change. For example, how can Marcos embrace dynamism when they have to protect their power and wealth? Think of Putin and Xi. They want the status quo of autocracy. It comes with power and wealth.
In the meantime, we in the Philippine elite and chattering classes can dictate to Juan de la Cruz to accept the infamy of being the regional laggard and suffer the consequences of abject poverty and learning poverty.
Gising bayan!
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