I do not
believe that our level of creativity and innovation is to be interpreted in
terms of doing anything near the development of general theory of
relativity by Albert Einstein, invention of the World Wide Web by British computer scientist Timothy
John Berners-Lee, or the level of “deep collaboration”, “cross-pollination” and
“concurrent engineering” applied for innovation by Steve Jobs in Apple
Inc. Our creativity and innovation are about thinking and doing new things on
whatever we are doing regularly and adding positive incremental value, in
whatever small way or amount, to the routine works instead of heading in
reverse direction with negative attributes.
Even for
such creativity and innovation, you need adequate time and space in addition to
positive attitude and some ability to explore (I prefer the word analyze)
things at the individual’s level enabling minute incremental value addition.
The Bhutanese by nature are with positive attitude, leaving aside some
exceptions. The analytical ability develops through an atmosphere of positive
cross-pollination culture. It is almost impossible to
create such positive, in the context of development, environment with
over-loading of responsibilities which creates time and space (mostly
functional space but also physical many times) congestion. The gridlock impairs
individual’s as well as institution’s ability to perform with creativity
and innovation.
I
earnestly believe that first step towards balancing power, authority,
responsibility and accountability is
through provision of proper time and functional space in a work environment
with an aim to achieve shared balanced responsibilities. The responsibility
defines an individual’s work and institution’s function, and therefore has to
fit well in the time and space slots.
First,
the government and private sector have to share the responsibilities
pertinently allocating the tasks that can be best performed by private sectors
to private, and leaving government to carry out its functions effectively. In a
government-led economy, the government tend to do practically everything
exercising its authority leaving largely the uncertainties to private sector.
This, in my view, is one of the main reasons for
brewing/incubating/fostering corrupt, coercive, collusive and fraudulent
practices (example below). The Anti Corruption Commission (Bhutan), Discipline
Commission (China), and Central Bureau of Investigation and Income Tax
Department (India) are not the solution to minimizing such practices. Nowhere
it has worked, not even in China with
very high level Discipline Commission to take severe actions to curb corruption
with the help of networks of informers and complete control over personal files.
The
step-by-step transformation of economy to knowledge-based is difficult if it is
mostly government-led and does not enjoy the confidence of private and
non-profit sectors. I talked to several prominent contractors and private
entrepreneurs. All of them felt that Bhutanese economy is predominantly
government-led and private entrepreneurs did not have conducive
environment and opportunities in equal footings for competing and
performing with creativity and innovation because the business environment
favoured "interfaced influential” (ii) or simply (i2) or those with unfair means as an edge over
others. The contractors say, ”we are treated shabbily. If I raise my voice or
protest against government wrongdoing, I become the black sheep and will
be out of future tendering process. It is like a system of informal
blacklisting of contractors. Where is question of my performing with creativity
and innovation?” A emotional outburst and sign of frustration! The fact is
the development model is imbalanced and government-led. The government does not
want to share its responsibilities (which essentially means doing away with its
power) and therefore land up doing practically everything creating time and functional
space congestion for staff. As an ordinary citizen, I have had experience of
mostly not being able to meet or talk to the government officials for my
legitimate work: it is always a meeting, tour, leave, hospital or just too
busy. Appointments without links seldom work.
Few contractors pointed out that the construction
business is highly imbalanced. As an example they pointed out that there was no
cost escalation clause in Standard Bidding Document (SBD): Procurement of Small
Works (up to Nu 4 million). The Clause 14.3 under C. Preparation of Bids of Section 1:
Instructions to Bidder of SBD stipulates:
“The
Bid price shall take into account the cost of materials, transportation,
labour, taxes, levies, overheads and profit and any other cost. The Bid price
shall be fixed for the duration of performance of the Contract and shall not be
subject to any adjustment on any account. The Bid price shall be applicable for
the whole works described in the Drawings, Specifications and Schedule of Works.”
I
explained with an example of a water supply project involving galvanized iron
(GI) pipes, and asked what happened if there was global increase in iron price
after contractor signs the contract for a water supply project with the
government. As per Clause 14.3 the contractor is not eligible for additional
payment due to such global price increase. They said they “managed somehow”.
The “managed somehow” refers to following practices I mentioned above,
sacrificing work quality, using substandard materials, underpaying contractor’s
labour, and/or so on. The government supervisors have to be kept satisfied
obviously. I asked if “managed somehow” referred to offsetting the price
increase with contractor’s efficiency gain. They said it was just not
possible because the government supervisors were to be kept pleased. Even
if it was, efficiency gain should go to profit, not offsetting price increase
upon which they have no control what-so-ever. An example of contractors routing
their creativity and innovation to the heinous inclination because of
imbalanced sharing of the contractual responsibility and risk.
Also I
have had few personal experiences to substantiate the imbalance, but do not
wish to narrate here now. The realization of the environment and trend is
more important than disturbed outburst. Because it is important that the current trend makes a hair-pin turn with improved environment enabling
the creative and innovative minds with shared responsibilities to move slowly and steadily towards knowledge economy.
There are 8 students doing manual work in
our Gelephu workshop under construction now. Yesterday I met them and told them
that:
(i)
I appreciated their positive attitude towards
work and thanked them for working in our workshop during their winter holidays.
There is no small or big work. But there is sincerity, dedication, commitment
and hard work to any thing they did. They should remember that there is no
shortcut on these aspects.
(ii) when they spend their money, think
about the hard work they did. They should appreciate and value their
hard-earned money and realize the difference between hard-earned money and easy
money that their rich friends may have got from their parents.
(iii) when they work -- no matter what, be it
carrying bricks, moving stones or digging pits – they should keep their minds
open and learn new things. In the workshop they should try to understand
functions of different rooms, and what and how we are trying to establish the
workshop and the business model. Ask questions and learn new things!
(iv) at the end we would
be giving them a certificate of
appreciation to each student. They should show the certificate to their friends
and teachers, and be proud of the fact that they spent their winter holidays
doing some constructive works. Try to influence their colleagues to be positive
and productive.
The private sectors do have shared
responsibility towards developing young minds
in the direction of creativity and innovation. It is the mindset that needs adjustment.
