“What are your thoughts about the presidential election”? The writer has been asked a few times. He’s delighted that our media is preoccupied with quizzing the candidates and reporting extensively about who and what the candidates are. Given their efforts to assess the candidates on vital issues, the writer offers the following quotes – he’s spoken about . . . focus, “starting with the end in view”, culture and barriers, among others . . . and it seems worthwhile to hear respected individuals, from contemporary and historical times.
Warren Buffett: “It’s important to Charlie Munger, my long-time partner, and me that all of our owners understand Berkshire’s operations, goals, limitations and culture. In each annual report, consequently, we restate the economic principles that guide us . . . Berkshire has adhered to these principles for decades and will continue to do so long after I’m gone . . .
“Long ago, Charlie laid out his strongest ambition: ‘All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.’ That bit of wisdom was inspired by Jacobi who counseled “Invert, always invert” as an aid to solving difficult problems . . . Charlie and I avoid businesses whose futures we can’t evaluate, no matter how exciting their products may be . . .” (Should remind us of garment exports and semi-conductors; and now BPOs. Are we pursuing higher-value added BPOs to raise and sustain competitiveness? It’s numbing sitting on one’s laurels?)
Jacobi (the great Prussian mathematician): “Invert, always invert” – “that the solution of many hard problems can be clarified by re-expressing them in inverse form”. Albert Einstein: “The value of education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
This brings the writer to one question to a candidate and his response: How to improve national competitiveness? “Do away with degree consciousness for promotions. One need not have a master’s degree for leadership skills and institutional knowledge”.
And here’s the writer’s definition of leadership, the outcome of decades of practice and more recently consulting: “The belief and ability to predict failure or success” – so that the leader doesn’t drive us over the cliff, and instead navigate the way to the ‘promised land’!
But in a democracy we get the leaders that we deserve; and we are defined by our values and our culture. For example, if we don’t value excellence and thus set a low bar, our leaders will gravitate to populist demands even if they’re counterproductive? And this reality is entrenched by a culture of inclusion – as opposed to one that values focus and priority?
The bottom line: one person can’t solve our problems. We as a people must elect the right leader – but it is incumbent upon us to give him the confidence that he can lead us on a new path, the way forward. To insist that he views the world with us – through the one prism of “Pinoy kasi” – will sink us into the abyss! We’ve had a succession of failed leaderships and failed economies – because our aversion to change made us reject progressive options?
We’ve shaped for our leaders the condition that’d make it convenient and rewarding for them to fail. For instance, we expect them to patronize us (“mababaw ang kaligayahan”) so patronage is well ingrained. We value hierarchy and elevate them above and beyond the rules of integrity – especially if we share the spoils of the system. For example, “tax amnesty” has become a way of life! We’ve created a vicious circle that’d yield a failed leadership and a failed economy every election cycle – thus our decades-old decay?
Warren Buffett: “It’s important to Charlie Munger, my long-time partner, and me that all of our owners understand Berkshire’s operations, goals, limitations and culture. In each annual report, consequently, we restate the economic principles that guide us . . . Berkshire has adhered to these principles for decades and will continue to do so long after I’m gone . . .
“Long ago, Charlie laid out his strongest ambition: ‘All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.’ That bit of wisdom was inspired by Jacobi who counseled “Invert, always invert” as an aid to solving difficult problems . . . Charlie and I avoid businesses whose futures we can’t evaluate, no matter how exciting their products may be . . .” (Should remind us of garment exports and semi-conductors; and now BPOs. Are we pursuing higher-value added BPOs to raise and sustain competitiveness? It’s numbing sitting on one’s laurels?)
Jacobi (the great Prussian mathematician): “Invert, always invert” – “that the solution of many hard problems can be clarified by re-expressing them in inverse form”. Albert Einstein: “The value of education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”
This brings the writer to one question to a candidate and his response: How to improve national competitiveness? “Do away with degree consciousness for promotions. One need not have a master’s degree for leadership skills and institutional knowledge”.
And here’s the writer’s definition of leadership, the outcome of decades of practice and more recently consulting: “The belief and ability to predict failure or success” – so that the leader doesn’t drive us over the cliff, and instead navigate the way to the ‘promised land’!
But in a democracy we get the leaders that we deserve; and we are defined by our values and our culture. For example, if we don’t value excellence and thus set a low bar, our leaders will gravitate to populist demands even if they’re counterproductive? And this reality is entrenched by a culture of inclusion – as opposed to one that values focus and priority?
The bottom line: one person can’t solve our problems. We as a people must elect the right leader – but it is incumbent upon us to give him the confidence that he can lead us on a new path, the way forward. To insist that he views the world with us – through the one prism of “Pinoy kasi” – will sink us into the abyss! We’ve had a succession of failed leaderships and failed economies – because our aversion to change made us reject progressive options?
We’ve shaped for our leaders the condition that’d make it convenient and rewarding for them to fail. For instance, we expect them to patronize us (“mababaw ang kaligayahan”) so patronage is well ingrained. We value hierarchy and elevate them above and beyond the rules of integrity – especially if we share the spoils of the system. For example, “tax amnesty” has become a way of life! We’ve created a vicious circle that’d yield a failed leadership and a failed economy every election cycle – thus our decades-old decay?
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