http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=149238
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Lee Iacocca worked for a dollar a year when the US government gave Chrysler a life-saving loan. Now that the IMF has given Pakistan a life-saving loan of $7.6 billion, would our MNAs, ministers, prime minister and president be willing to work for a-dollar-a-year?
The CEO of Japan Airlines rides public transport to work, eats in the company cafeteria, and cut his salary below that of his pilots as a personal response to the ongoing economic crunch. Now that our nation is in need of some serious belt-tightening, would our MNAs be willing to shun protocol, give up the expensive national assembly, the luxury residences, cars and perks provided at the expense of ordinary Pakistanis as a personal response to the financial crisis that our nation is going through? More important, since they have accomplished approximately zilch in six decades of Pakistan's existence, why should they reach into my wallet to fund their private jets and mass visits to the holy lands? I hate to point fingers because I know that will not help. And I know our problems cannot be wished or prayed away. But with nothing to show for their existence, our politicians should not show off. It hurts an ordinary Pakistani like me.
The response of our leaders will determine the fate of our nation. The current leadership has a historic opportunity -- they can either make history or become history.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
On University rankings / quality of education
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?161093
The HEC recently launched university rankings and it led to a debate about the quality of higher education in Pakistan. But, how do we define quality education? And unless we do that, all efforts to improve will remain misguided, like a journey without a well-defined destination.
Educational quality is a difficult concept. The goal is to produce world-class graduates. Universities have to be geared up to do that. It takes a world-class university to produce a world-class graduate. The creation is a reflection of the creator and graduates are created by universities.
What makes MIT better at technical education? Universities` quality is based on the quality of teachers and students they can attract and retain. All else is just frivolous detail. MIT is better because it can attract, retain and develop the best brains for teaching and learning. A university would do well to gear its processes to this end.
Teaching and learning are highly creative processes and cannot be standardised beyond a certain limit. The problem facing our universities today is that they are not designed to handle world-class brains. These people, although belonging to one class, are highly individualised. No institution which cannot handle diversity of an intense kind, and which does not allow freedom, will be able to retain these people. Number one in Pakistan is almost as good or as bad as number 20.
So far, we have not been able to establish a list of recognised degree-awarding institutions. But we have rolled out university rankings.
Tayyab Rashid
The HEC recently launched university rankings and it led to a debate about the quality of higher education in Pakistan. But, how do we define quality education? And unless we do that, all efforts to improve will remain misguided, like a journey without a well-defined destination.
Educational quality is a difficult concept. The goal is to produce world-class graduates. Universities have to be geared up to do that. It takes a world-class university to produce a world-class graduate. The creation is a reflection of the creator and graduates are created by universities.
What makes MIT better at technical education? Universities` quality is based on the quality of teachers and students they can attract and retain. All else is just frivolous detail. MIT is better because it can attract, retain and develop the best brains for teaching and learning. A university would do well to gear its processes to this end.
Teaching and learning are highly creative processes and cannot be standardised beyond a certain limit. The problem facing our universities today is that they are not designed to handle world-class brains. These people, although belonging to one class, are highly individualised. No institution which cannot handle diversity of an intense kind, and which does not allow freedom, will be able to retain these people. Number one in Pakistan is almost as good or as bad as number 20.
So far, we have not been able to establish a list of recognised degree-awarding institutions. But we have rolled out university rankings.
Tayyab Rashid
Building Pakistan into Empire of the Mind
In a speech at Harvard University in 1943 Winston Churchill observed that “the empires of the future will be empires of the mind.”
Think about the sources of competitive advantage that companies and nations have.
With globalization, competition is global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly and cheaply, and people are willing to change jobs often. Strategies are transparent: Even if you've got a smart strategy, others can simply copy it.
In that kind of environment, the competitive advantage is in execution. And its people and their quality that matters. That is infact the only thing.
This can provide the future direction and hope for Pakistan and Pakistanis.
Think about the sources of competitive advantage that companies and nations have.
With globalization, competition is global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly and cheaply, and people are willing to change jobs often. Strategies are transparent: Even if you've got a smart strategy, others can simply copy it.
In that kind of environment, the competitive advantage is in execution. And its people and their quality that matters. That is infact the only thing.
This can provide the future direction and hope for Pakistan and Pakistanis.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Life
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting ‘GERONIMO!’ ”
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer
(Cycle magazine 02.1982)
—Bill McKenna, professional motorcycle racer
(Cycle magazine 02.1982)
United Brains of America
The U.S. economy is evolving from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. It is the "United Brains of America" now instead of United States of America that will dominate the world stage. High paying work is knowledge work. That is not going anywhere.
It is in the interest of the U.S. if some countries stay in the agricultural age while others move on to the industrial age. These nations will continue to do the leg work, grabbing a bigger share of the low paying jobs.
Nike is a good example of this phenomenon. Their footballs and shoes are stitched all over the world but none of these manufacturers have the knowledge and brand power to ever threaten Nike's dominance of the market. The critical advantage is not in the factories but in the brains that make Nike.
Starbucks is another example of a knowledge company based on nations that are stuck in the agricultural age.
I am sure that policymakers in the U.S. know this, and the paranoia about the shifting of jobs overseas is intentionally created hype.
I hope the U.S. can retain the flexibility and the freedoms that make it so attractive for the brains of the world, sustaining the United Brains of America.
My submission at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5570.html
It is in the interest of the U.S. if some countries stay in the agricultural age while others move on to the industrial age. These nations will continue to do the leg work, grabbing a bigger share of the low paying jobs.
Nike is a good example of this phenomenon. Their footballs and shoes are stitched all over the world but none of these manufacturers have the knowledge and brand power to ever threaten Nike's dominance of the market. The critical advantage is not in the factories but in the brains that make Nike.
Starbucks is another example of a knowledge company based on nations that are stuck in the agricultural age.
I am sure that policymakers in the U.S. know this, and the paranoia about the shifting of jobs overseas is intentionally created hype.
I hope the U.S. can retain the flexibility and the freedoms that make it so attractive for the brains of the world, sustaining the United Brains of America.
My submission at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5570.html
Message in the bubble burst
Our IT policy and education is preparing for pre 2000 world – like driving by looking in the rear view mirror. We are gearing up for the wrong times.
".....out of about 8,000 students who completed their graduation from different IT institutions every year about 20 per cent met the required standard." - Dr. Atta Ur Rehman (Chairman HEC) in his address at a University in Islamabad on July 9, 2003.I hope an exercise was conducted to define what ’required standard’ means and also that the number ’20%’ is more than just gut feeling. Dr. Atta Ur Rehman should not be complaining about the poor quality of IT graduates – instead, these figures are his scorecard. Students and even more so their parents (who foot the tuition bills in this country) are the aggrieved party in this transaction – in more than one ways. Our IT policy was put together in 1999 – the year when the longest running US economic boom was peaking.
A lot has happened since then. Firstly, US tech stocks collapsed in the year 2000, causing the bubble to burst and sending the economy into a downturn. US officially declared the start of economic recession in March 2001. "The NBER’s Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001," the panel said in its announcement. "A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession." Shortly afterwards, in September the same year, two steel birds hit the twin towers of world trade center. While all of this was happening on other side of the Atlantic, In Pakistan, before and after 2000-01 picture of our IT policy looked similar – as if nothing had happened. The bubble burst had a message – paradigm which was driving the pre 2000 Information Technology hype was flawed. NASDAQ was just a barometer of investor’s confidence in that paradigm. The stocks collapsed when the paradigm failed to deliver.
IT is not out. Infact, it will make a come back. But it’s post 2000 look and feel will be fundamentally different from what we are used to. And it is precisely this message that we have failed to listen to. Our IT policy and education is preparing for pre 2000 world – like driving by looking in the rear view mirror. We are gearing up for the wrong times.Bad things happen to good and inflexible people. As Shumaila Hemani in her article “IT graduates virtually Jobless” in daily times of 2/7/2002 writes:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story _2-7-2002_pg5_6 “More than 300 software engineers out of 1,500 at 150 software houses were sent home after September 11,” said Hamza Mateen, president, Pakistan All Software House Association (PASHA). “Since February an estimated $17 million to $18 million in orders have been cancelled in software exports.” On the home front the numbers are rising.
“An estimated 2,800 people in IT and software related businesses lost their jobs from July to August last year,” said Khurram P. Rafiq, member of the chief executive committee, PASHA. “Unemployment numbers reached 5,400 by October 31.” He said an estimated 125 software houses have virtually no work to do these days and are heading for closure if the bleak situation shows no signs of improving.”
".....out of about 8,000 students who completed their graduation from different IT institutions every year about 20 per cent met the required standard." - Dr. Atta Ur Rehman (Chairman HEC) in his address at a University in Islamabad on July 9, 2003.I hope an exercise was conducted to define what ’required standard’ means and also that the number ’20%’ is more than just gut feeling. Dr. Atta Ur Rehman should not be complaining about the poor quality of IT graduates – instead, these figures are his scorecard. Students and even more so their parents (who foot the tuition bills in this country) are the aggrieved party in this transaction – in more than one ways. Our IT policy was put together in 1999 – the year when the longest running US economic boom was peaking.
A lot has happened since then. Firstly, US tech stocks collapsed in the year 2000, causing the bubble to burst and sending the economy into a downturn. US officially declared the start of economic recession in March 2001. "The NBER’s Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001," the panel said in its announcement. "A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession." Shortly afterwards, in September the same year, two steel birds hit the twin towers of world trade center. While all of this was happening on other side of the Atlantic, In Pakistan, before and after 2000-01 picture of our IT policy looked similar – as if nothing had happened. The bubble burst had a message – paradigm which was driving the pre 2000 Information Technology hype was flawed. NASDAQ was just a barometer of investor’s confidence in that paradigm. The stocks collapsed when the paradigm failed to deliver.
IT is not out. Infact, it will make a come back. But it’s post 2000 look and feel will be fundamentally different from what we are used to. And it is precisely this message that we have failed to listen to. Our IT policy and education is preparing for pre 2000 world – like driving by looking in the rear view mirror. We are gearing up for the wrong times.Bad things happen to good and inflexible people. As Shumaila Hemani in her article “IT graduates virtually Jobless” in daily times of 2/7/2002 writes:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story _2-7-2002_pg5_6 “More than 300 software engineers out of 1,500 at 150 software houses were sent home after September 11,” said Hamza Mateen, president, Pakistan All Software House Association (PASHA). “Since February an estimated $17 million to $18 million in orders have been cancelled in software exports.” On the home front the numbers are rising.
“An estimated 2,800 people in IT and software related businesses lost their jobs from July to August last year,” said Khurram P. Rafiq, member of the chief executive committee, PASHA. “Unemployment numbers reached 5,400 by October 31.” He said an estimated 125 software houses have virtually no work to do these days and are heading for closure if the bleak situation shows no signs of improving.”
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