The power of focus …

And why “crab mentality” is our albatross. Which explains the title of the blog, Philippine economy: reinventing ourselves.

It has repeatedly discussed Pareto, the imperative to prioritize and focus and not to reinvent the wheel – but ourselves – and to learn from the Asian Tigers. And to embrace the UN SDGs (sustainable development goals) and focus on the building blocks of development: rapid infrastructure development, industrialization, and innovation and competitiveness.

And here is another Steve Jobs story, a recurring feature of the blog. “The power of focus” from Justin Bariso, Founder, Insight,www.inc.com, 27 Nov 2017. “Without it, you’re doomed to a life of distraction. A life in which others’ priorities dictate on what you spend your time. As you move from one shiny object to another, you may get lots of things done – but few things ever get done well.

“Or, you may find your life ruled by procrastination, where doing great work is derailed … 20 years ago, Steve Jobs answered that question. In 1997, Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple, the company he had been ousted from over a decade before. He was answering questions from developers at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference when someone raised the topic of “OpenDoc,” a software engineering framework that Jobs decided to kill upon his return.

“In addressing the question about OpenDoc, Jobs took opportunity to drop some major wisdom. ‘I know some of you spend a lot of time working on stuff that we put a bullet in the head of ... I feel your pain.

‘But Apple suffered for several years from lousy engineering management. And there were people that were going off in 18 different directions – doing arguably interesting things in each one of them. Good engineers. Lousy management.’”

Let’s stop there. Chances are we can relate with Jobs given what is happening to PH. Remember (1) OFW remittances over the pursuit of industrialization; (2) Land reform and subsistence farming versus large-scale cooperative agribusiness (producing a portfolio of products that are global winners); (3) Federalism instead of dismantling political patronage and dynasties and oligarchy – being the epitome of our culture of impunity, the rule of law be damned?

We Pinoys can come up with at least 18 different directions that derailed PH development. It is a universal phenomenon. Yet, the experience of the writer says people can overcome “crab mentality.” [And we know about China and the Asian Tigers.] Consider: his old-MNC company, a 200-year old Fortune-500 company, changed its budget process to a goal-alignment exercise; his Eastern European friends, then an 8-year old losing enterprise, became a giant killer and was recognized as one of the best enterprises in the EU, in a relatively short-period. But let’s get back to Steve Jobs.

“‘And what happened was, you look at the farm that’s been created, with all these different animals going in different directions, and it doesn’t add up. The total is less than the sum of the parts. And so we had to decide. What are the fundamental directions we’re going in? And what makes sense and what doesn’t? And there were a bunch of things that didn’t. And microcosmically they might have made sense; macrocosmically they made no sense. [Translation: PH “crab mentality” created the “party-list” system, undermining focus aka as the common good. And beyond LGUs we want “federalism” to institutionalize crab mentality?]

‘When you think about focusing, you think, well, focusing is about saying yes. No. Focusing is about saying no.’”

As some would know, the blog has discussed what sets humans apart, a relatively recent finding from the social sciences, and that is, the ability to look ahead – or foresight. Which explains why man can advance civilization. Jobs clearly has the ability. And scholars, including of late, Bill Gates, have concluded he is a genius.

On the other hand, Western higher education is founded on logic [recall the construct of the course syllabus] with its own limitations, and that is, it is linear and incremental. And neuroscience has determined that the region of the brain that can be honed to develop forward-thinking is not as developed as the one responsible for logical thinking.

Which brings us to why PH has turned into the regional laggard. We can’t seem to foresee that the future shall be one of prosperity. Our PH caste system seems to have nailed us down our respective rungs – which we call destiny. And at the highest rungs we are endowed with absolute power that corrupts us absolutely.

Recall how after the Marcos overthrow we coined the terminology, weather-weather. There is a season for everything, including turning pious folk to cronies – to whom enough is enough is non-existent.

Do we wonder why we can’t be focused on the building blocks of development as the new UN SDGs have articulated, to be sure for PH, rather belatedly?

As the blog has argued, the war on poverty and the war on drugs have been a major distraction to PH development. Let’s not confuse poverty in the developed world to the poverty of third-world PH. And that we’re blind to the examples of the Asian Tigers speaks volumes.

Du30 is from Davao. He knows about the coconut industry. It is one of our top exports, impacts the greatest number of rural poor families and yet delivers roughly half of agriculture exports. This industry is where our collective wisdom must be brought to bear. And the goal must simply be to make it world-class.

And that means to go full circle and connect the dots, including responding to the needs of the global market. We seldom drill down to figure out what a market economy is about. We are drawn by monetary and fiscal policies or what we expect from Big Brother. But a market economy is dictated by the products and services that humans need – or want – to raise man’s well-being. It is a lesson we learned from Adam and Eve, that being driven out of Eden did not mean the end of mankind. It was the beginning. And in the 21st century, we call it innovation and competitiveness. Yet it is not innovation for innovation’s sake.

But let’s get back to the coconut industry. The object of the exercise is to come out with a product portfolio that spells synergy and competitive advantage, from industrial to consumer products, across the value chain, generating healthy margins that benefit industry contributors – from the farmers … all the way to manufacturers that require coconut-derived raw materials … to the stores selling coconut juice, in the West, for example.

But that presupposes we can imagine and visualize this full circle, not to confine ourselves to rent-seeking oligarchy courtesy of political patronage. And our deference is driven by patriotism given oligarchy to us is manna from heaven? That they are behind Build! Build! Build! See above re foresight.

Consider: Did any of the Asian Tigers celebrate oligarchy for the modern airports they’ve had for decades? [Translation: Until we truly open the economy, we can kiss FDIs goodbye.] Singapore did their homework by benchmarking – and asking the Taiwanese to show them how they built the Taipei airport. And how many airport terminals has Singapore built since?

It is critical to score one success story for PH. It will give us the confidence to move on to the rest of our top exports ... and beyond. And in the end, we would have attained industrialization ... and be defined by innovation and competitiveness. Saying no to crab mentality is what focus is about.

In other words, as the latest findings in education reform have confirmed, beyond teacher-directed learning is the learner’s involvement – establishing her own hypotheses and experiments. It won’t be easy for this writer’s generation to internalize that. Just do it – and you learn in the process. As his Eastern European friends have realized after lots of frustrations, there are no rules – a carryover from the Soviet era – only principles.

What can we learn from Steve Jobs? To put a bullet in the head of the war on drugs and focus on rapid infrastructure development, industrialization and innovation and competitiveness. And we must make the top exports our priority because they have momentum, mass and weight and thus energy and power to propel industrialization, innovation and competitiveness.

We read the likes of Procter & Gamble and General Electric in the news and if there is one word to describe these companies, it is smart. These are very smart people. Yet their logical, linear and incremental thinking have brought them down to earth. Even IBM wasn’t spared despite owning the most number of patents in the world.

Sadly, the future of Juan de la Cruz could be worse if we don’t step up to the plate. With apologies to Solita-Collas Monsod, let’s “Get Real.”

“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? And that they will be such is not to be doubted, for he who submits to tyranny loves it.” [We are ruled by Rizal’s ‘tyrants of tomorrow,’ Editorial, The Manila Times, 29th Dec 2015]

“Now I know why Paul dared to speak of ‘the curse of the law’ (Galatians 3:13). Law reigns and discernment is unnecessary, which means there is little growth or change in such people. When you do not grow, you remain an infant.” [Faith and Science, Open to Change, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, 23rd Oct 2017]

“As a major component for the education and reorientation of our people, mainstream media – their reporters, writers, photographers, columnists and editors – have an obligation to this country . . .” [Era of documented irrelevance: Mainstream media, critics and protesters, Homobono A. Adaza, The Manila Times, 25th Nov 2015]

“National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country’s natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency’s value, as classical economics insists . . . A nation’s competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade.” [The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1990]

“Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” [William Pollard, 1911-1989, physicist-priest, Manhattan Project]

“Development [is informed by a people’s] worldview, cognitive capacity, values, moral development, self-identity, spirituality, and leadership . . .” [Frederic Laloux, Reinventing organizations, Nelson Parker, 2014]