There were two articles in The Star yesterday that caught my attention with regards the need for Malaysia to move towards a more knowledge based, value add economy / society.

The first one was written by Steven C M Wong of ISIS:
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/19/business/49131...

He wrote about the need to sift through those who talk the good talk from those who really do the right things in relation to value creation. We need to start rewarding those people who have the skills and knowledge, instead of rewarding those who have the gift of the gab (without adequate skills to back them up), and those who are simply well connected.

His 6 points regarding this are pertinent ones.

I'd like to summarise them here:

1. give attention to skills, knowledge and action... and not words
2. authority and responsibility should be vested to those with the skills
3. performance and outcomes are what counts
4. give room for risk taking and failure
5. make quick decisions
6. reward performers

I agree with these points, but would like to add that organisational management models need to shift towards these principles. In fact, i have been working on the Beyond Budgeting management model that focuses on empowerment of people who directly face the stakeholders by providing them with all the information / data and support needed... but hold them accountable by transparently publishing the outcomes. The model also looks at self benchmarking these organic teams to drive competition, innovation and utilise peer pressure and pride to drive greater performance.

The notion of moving Malaysia into a high value added economy is a subject that I feel needs very urgent attention. The changes happening around the world, brought about by globalisation and the world wide web driven empowerment (web 2.0), is happening so quickly that a country such as ours could so easily miss an opportunity to leapfrog our legacies and move into knowledge leadership.

I would add that there are two real fundamental areas that needs to be addressed very quickly: education and empowerment of people in organizations.

Our education system is seriously lagging behind many nations. Whilst we debate the politics of whether maths and science should be taught in english or bahasa, other countries are moving forward with educating their children with the capabilities to think, problem solve, innovate, explore and learn from failures. As of today, our children are not equiped for the challenges of a changing / connected / globalised world today... let alone tomorrow. A strong non-governmental movement needs to start to make a difference here. I started a cause on this using facebook. Let's see how far this will get us.

Another aspect of becoming a high value economy is empowering people. We can no longer operate in an environment where the government, the bosses, and the elders knows best. Younger people, and people on the ground who face our constituencies / stakeholders / customers are the ones that needs to be give the empowerment to make quick decisions to address the changing needs of our environment. Technology is capable of giving these people the information (data) and the knowledge for them to make decisions. web 2.0 / enterprise 2.0 / government 2.0 collaborative technologies and platforms already exist today empowering people in various areas. These technologies need to be deployed to allow people greater freedom to create true value. Further, these technology - coupled with information transparency - will ensure that accountabilities, results and integrity are clear for all to see. The challenge is whether we want to be transparent in all the things we do. This is where the Beyond Budgeting management model is perfect for the nature of society, businesses and technology today.

Happy to read your thoughts.