Focus like a laser - 2

Global competitiveness is our goal; and it is the biggest competition, ever – that only our best efforts would suffice? And as winning teams and athletes know, to be better than competition they must focus like a laser?

Where we need to focus – like a laser – is in raising our GDP per person and aim to be a developed economy? Incremental thinking will give us incremental outcomes because we will take our eye off the ball in the first place? And as we think in incremental terms, we get distracted by our instincts: our hierarchical culture and our desire to preserve the patrimony? And so we keep heaping praises on our tycoons because they are helping our economy . . . while preserving the patrimony? And they do deserve our gratitude!

But if we peel off our emotional prism, we see that we are utterly underinvested. In short, our level of investments cannot drive and elevate our economy from underdeveloped to developed? (In the case of the US, while they honor Edison, they also credit the capital market, thus: “Edison’s contribution might be in the system of industrial invention . . . and then to market the resulting devices – with the deep pools of capital just forming in late 19^th century America”, writes Time magazine, July 5^th.)

To raise our GDP per person tenfold demands enormous investments and technologies. In this day and age, the only insurance against economic failure is competitiveness? And we can’t get there if we don’t have the scale of investments and state-of-the-art technologies that can make us a global player?

It is no different from how our tycoons think and why they are successful in their business ventures? They like to be involved in banking because being in the money business gives access to capital, the source of investments? And with capital they are able to acquire the technologies that can give them the competitive advantage . . . and thus fortify their gains?

Unfortunately, they, like us, are focused inward – to our domestic market. (The $18 B in OFW remittances have been tiding us over. But we can’t stop there knowing full well we haven’t moved the needle forward?) And thus they haven’t aimed their guns at global competitiveness? The global market is very, very competitive but winning in the global arena is what will secure our economic future? Smart global players win irrespective of economic times – even more in bad times because compelling products dominate in a shrinking market, e.g., Apple products!

It’s a free country and local investors can focus on the domestic market. But the reality is between this mindset and our instinct to protect the patrimony we are effectively ceding the global competitive ground to others – making us an island to ourselves? And in that scenario, our hierarchical culture is reinforced reminiscent of the caciques, confining a third of us to poverty?

We don’t have the resources to be a global player – and so the simple route to take is to partner with global players? Whether it is Singapore or Malaysia or Thailand or Taiwan or China or South Korea, they all tapped global players for their financial resources and technologies!

But we prefer our ‘kuro-kuro’, our nonstop political punditry and of course, our religion. There is nothing wrong with them, but we better understand where we need to focus like a laser to address our concerns about poverty and our dire economic straits?

The good news is it appears the new Trade secretary, for example, wants to focus on critical industries and thus avoid half-baked initiatives. If we are getting the right leadership, then it behooves us to respond and behave accordingly!