Some months back the writer spoke to students at two Eastern European universities, both English speaking, both with Western professors in the faculty. George Soros is a major supporter of one and the other, Bill Gates. (Hopefully we’re likewise tapping committed supporters and keeping our universities competitive? Aren’t we wondering, for example, that the Asian Institute of Management does not rank among the best in the region? We’ve allowed many elements of development and competitiveness to slip through our fingers? Why – because of our inward-looking bias?)
It felt like standing in a modern Western university lecture hall; and the students were similarly confident and energetic. The writer was accompanied by two young marketing managers, alumni of the universities. (And he thought: no wonder his Eastern European friends have established relationships with these institutions.)
Forward to spring, 2010: The writer is reviewing the business of the young marketing manager who was with him at the university. She speaks better English with no accent, and is very smart. She’s managing a successful brand that has evolved into an umbrella brand with competitive market shares – by primarily counter-punching smartly; thus there’s a missing piece and its absence could mean trouble down the road. (We do see troubles in our economy, and ought to do something – we’ve been counter-punching for decades with OFW remittances, missing the imperative of economic development and leadership?)
And so the writer says, ‘I’ll be away for a week, and what I like you to do is visit a few places – forget about your work . . . or what you are doing . . . and even what you know about it . . . and when I’m back talk to me about leadership’.
“You want me to talk to you about brand leadership?” ‘No, I just want you to talk about leadership. And so visit as many leading entities you can find: the leading hotel, the leading auto showroom, the leading restaurant, the leading bar, the leading salon, the leading department store, the leading hospital, the leading dental office, the leading pharmacy – and whatever else, including your university, since it’s a leading school!’
Obviously the writer wanted her to talk about the imperative of brand leadership. But defining the challenge narrowly would equally narrow her perspective – undercut her dynamism, inquisitiveness, and forward-looking mind! As importantly, she had to experience and feel the attributes of leadership – and develop these same attributes into the characteristics of her business (or economy, to economic managers?).
“Oh my God, leadership is so pronounced – and strong and confident and pervasive. It is universal – it comes out so powerfully in the places I visited; they must have some guiding light and beliefs; and so the organizations reflect them; their leadership is so compelling that even an outsider like me felt it!” ‘We will have a pre-review before the next business review; and you will start it off with a discussion on leadership. And then you will present your business . . . as a model of leadership – and template for the rest.’
Economic challenges are bigger – but our biggest challenge is we don’t have a history of economic success in a globalized economy, thus have not experienced and felt what it’s like unlike the Asian tigers. Adults learn via experiential learning (andragogy) while children do via teaching (pedagogy). The familiar feels safer than the unfamiliar – thus until we develop a radically different thought process, our efforts would mirror the familiar and yield familiar outcomes as before? And the familiar (our parochial instinct) will hold us hostage ever stronger? Which explains why our economy is a hard nut crack?
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