The Knowledge Economy..(2) - Positive Balance

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.