Reactive and transactional

Is to be proactive and to forward-think in our psyche? On the other hand, does “Pinoy abilidad” explain why our instincts make us reactive and transactional?

How do we tee up the question: Which countries should be our friends?

But before we get too far, let’s restate what the blog calls our instincts: We are parochial and insular. We value hierarchy and paternalism and rely on political patronage and oligarchy that ours is a culture of impunity.

In other words, how do the dots connect? Or why did our neighbors leave us behind? First were the Asian Tigers and then China. More recently, it was Vietnam.

Whether we seek to move forward, progress, and develop – from a third world to a first-world nation – or want to figure out who our friends should be, we will most likely fall on our instincts. And it explains why we keep taking the wrong turn at the fork.

Put another way, that is why there are winners, and there are losers. That is why the blog introduced the concept of perceptive judgment – we are a product of our experience. Look at how Singapore continues to demonstrate global competitiveness even when compared to the US. Singapore counts among the winners; while we’re among the losers. 

For us, where rank has its privileges, that is a bitter pill to swallow. We instinctively look at the world from our prism, but the rest of the world won’t care less because we’re no competition.

Singapore from day-one geared itself to be a developed nation. But how did they do it? They did not look inward but outward. Mahathir saw what Lee did, and so when Deng came to seek the counsel of Lee and Mahathir, both said, “Beg for Western money and technology.”

They are the best examples of how to be proactive and to forward-think.

The blog is going on its 11th year. It has sounded like a broken record to those familiar with it.

In the meantime, and for the longest time, we continue to argue that America, for example, cannot be trusted as a friend. And China should be our friend. Did we say Russia, too?

In a recent posting, the blog raised the distinction between tyrannical systems and those based on pluralism. It builds on the concept of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. It has also discussed what the universe is like, i.e., it is dynamic, not static. It follows the essence of creation. 

Sadly, that won’t resonate when transparency is not valued, where hierarchy and paternalism rule as in a caste system, and entitlement, not personal responsibility reigns.

If we want to reach even beyond, for example, the advent of AI or artificial intelligence, will we again fall into our fixed mindset? Robots must not replace humans; otherwise, unemployment and poverty will characterize the world. But how can that premise stand when today despite the Philippines being the exception (given our sins of omissions and commissions) the world, especially our neighbors, has seen poverty declining in a significant way as progress and development accelerated?

Consider: When the motor age arrived in the western world at the beginning of the 20th century, many conservative intellectuals opposed the increase of motor vehicles on the road. Those increases removed space for pedestrians, made walking more dangerous, and brought a tremendous increase in pedestrian deaths caused by car collisions. [Wikipedia]

When the writer first saw the factory of his Eastern European friends, they didn’t expect his reaction. “If you want to be competitive to a Procter & Gamble or a Unilever, you must recognize that you cannot stay with those manual packing lines and manually stack boxed products on pallets. They are the ones geared for robotics.”

Seventeen years later, they proudly showed the writer their latest state-of-the-art facility and how robots do these two operations precisely. [See below they started as a micro-enterprise.] Because they have today seven factories as opposed to one, they have lots more employees, and their margins are on the rise that in 2019 their profitability more than doubled over the prior year.

Their capital expenditure is likewise escalating, by an impressive compounded annual rate well above 20 percent because of their ever-widening global market. Unsurprisingly, the EU Competitiveness Commission recognized them as a model as early as 2011. But why the recognition? [If we continue to struggle and question whether the free market is consistent with the dynamism of creation and the universe, then it follows, we can accept the Philippines being left behind by our neighbors. China today is a superpower not because it turned its back to the free market.]

And what is the secret? A growth mindset and forward-thinking: when they started as a micro-enterprise, they never saw it as a livelihood undertaking (as Juan de la Cruz would, limiting his desired outcome, as in shortsightedness.)

And because they have stepped up to the challenge of innovation and global competition, they have a dozen multimillion-dollar brands plus a constant stream of up-and-coming newer ones. See below the modern R&D. With the month of January 2020 already behind them, the year promises even more excellent results, i.e., they will over-deliver on their plans and budgets. 

We’re in early February, how can the writer speak to the future? Consider: The family was in a resort in Brgy. San Rafael, and had just flown into Puerto Princesa on 31st Jan. The writer did not make a call to a bookkeeper because they don’t have one. But technology tells him every day, and wherever he is in the world, where the business is and through analytics, he can pinpoint the specific piece of the enterprise that must either be exploited or fixed and advise individuals concerned accordingly.

Let’s have a little history at this point: The first sea-going sailing ships were said to be developed by Austronesian people from Southern China and Taiwan. It led to the Austronesian Expansion at around 3000 to 1500 BC. From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, then Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar, eventually colonizing a territory spanning half the globe. [Wikipedia]

Today, the biggest navies with over 400 ships are North Korea, China, and the US. [Business Insider] What happened? From 3000 to 1500 BC, sea-going ships were in their infancy, which is what AI is today.

What is the point? It’s again about the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset. “We lose control of AI if we give machines fixed objectives. What we want are machines that are beneficial to us, i.e., a sort of binary relationship and not a unary property of the machine. It’s a property of the system composed of the machine and us that we are better off in that system than without the machine.” [Stuart Russell, leading artificial-intelligence (AI) researcher, University of California, Berkeley, and author, Human Compatible; Penguin Random House, October 2019]

In other words, innovation is not for innovation’s sake. It must be responsive to ever-changing human needs.

Those into ERP or enterprise resource planning systems like SAP know what a system of machine and people is like, as in big data and analytics. It has raised the quality of their decision-making processes, planning and budgeting, and delivering results. They likewise feed on the ability of enterprises to pursue innovation and global competition.

The bottom line: Connecting the dots starts from the imperative to be proactive and to forward-think and goes full circle to innovation and global competitiveness.

On the other hand, we Pinoys go by our concept of nationalism, i.e., parochial and insular, and our reliance on economics as the primary tool to sustain economic growth. For example, why the deafening silence on Arangkada? 

Sadly, it reveals where we’re at in our perceptive judgment. On the other hand, it could be a great learning platform to hone forward-thinking. If our economic managers are listening, we can use neuroscience as we traverse the road from poverty to prosperity.

Recall the role played by the multidisciplinary approach to innovation. Edison pioneered it in what is now modern R&D – and reinforced by breakthrough dissertations and patents in science and technology.

“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]

But we need visionary leadership like a Lee or a Mahathir or Deng. Otherwise, we shall remain stuck in tradition, as in “Pinoy Kasi.”

We cannot afford to let the world leave us in the dust. We cannot remain reactive and transactional.

Yet, the blog will sound like a broken record, a voice in the wilderness, if Juan de la Cruz can’t wrap his head around our instincts. Neither perfection nor permanence is of this world. That we’re stuck in our fixed mindset can only mean we are like a fish out of water and why we keep taking the wrong turn at the fork.

Gising bayan!

“Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow? Moreover, 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]

“You have to have a dream, whether big or small. Then plan, focus, work hard, and be very determined to achieve your goals.” [Henry Sy Sr., Chairman Emeritus and Founder, SM Group (1924 - 2019)]

“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]