Released by: The Edge
Date: 26 June 2006
Get Real! This phrase is usually used on someone with grand, fanciful ideas with little substance to show. Sounds familiar? This remark has often been said of Malaysia itself - that Malaysians, possess fantastic visionary concepts and ideas, but when it comes to execution, we are not able to follow through and sustain the focus and energy, hence, letting our rivals shoot past us. We are often
preoccupied with internal squabblings and form over substance. Our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said, "We are not short of ideas but we are short on implementation".
In this fast-globalised environment, we have to proactively manage the onslaught of global challenges. We cannot afford to be complacent, enjoying our successes and gazing at our navels. We must move quickly to execute our plans well and move fast to be ahead of the competition.
On a recent trip to China, I was astounded and, quite frankly, frightened by the speed and ability of the authorities in Suzhou in executing their plans. I was in Shanghai and Suzhou about three years ago and witnessed the rapid development of their technology and industrial parks which are now up and running.
On my latest trip, I witnessed the country's new strategy human capital and talent development. At the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), the Education Development and Investment Corp has a master plan to develop an educational hub and hopes to attract the best global institutions of higher learning in science, humanities and technologies so that the Chinese can develop their brain power. Many
international names are already building their campuses there.
I was told that it took the corporation about two years to start the hub yet the avenues are beautifully lined with transplanted four-year-old trees. Such is the speed of execution.
Meanwhile, we have India as the "professional" of the world. So, what is Malaysia, which resides between the awakened tiger and the aroused dragon, doing?
Whether the Chinese are conscious of it or not, they are abiding by what Jim Collins in his research and subsequent book Good to Great spoke of in regards to LEVEL 5 leadership (which is quiet and unassuming) and of great companies and organisations that focus on developing the RIGHT people and then have a DISCIPLINED culture to implement strategies effectively to achieve extraordinary
results - that is, to get from good to great.
More important is the Chinese people's will, commitment and ability to execute their plans without much ado. When the Chinese educational project is successfully implemented, Malaysia will have lost its opportunity to be the educational hub in Asia, which was once an inspiration of ours. We will see fewer overseas students, especially from China and neighbouring countries, coming to Malaysia for
their education. We would once again lose an advantage. In many respects, we have not transformed our educational system and institutions of higher learning. We seem to be drowning in mediocrity and do not have the push or will to achieve excellence, distinction and glory.
With regard to proper execution, let us take the national information and communications technology (ICT) project as an example. I was privileged to be involved in the project for two years when I was with the Multimedia Development Corp. In 1996, we started well with our grand plan to replicate Silicon Valley's success with our very own Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), in line with Vision 2020.
Today, we have a first-class ICT infrastructure in place at Cyberjaya but rapid ICT industry development and pervasiveness still eludes us. We have slowed down in this ICT push, distracted by other areas of development that we do not have a niche or competitive advantage.
This distraction and dilution of efforts make it difficult for the national ICT project to achieve its grand plan and objectives. I had the opportunity of visiting Dubai Internet City and Media City and while we were struggling with our e-Village, Dubai's Media City had been able to get its act together and come from behind to successfully attract Bollywood companies and other global media
organisations.
Meanwhile, our Asian neighbours have made great strides in ICT. Singapore took first place last year on the Networked Readiness Index in the Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005. This was due to its superior performance in getting individuals and the government to tap into the potential of ICT and the government's actual usage of ICT.
It's not fair to compare our progress with an island republic's? Well then, let's look at South Korea; it has a population of 49 million versus our 24 million. In 1998, the country kicked off its nationwide plan to digitise itself and last year, it was in 24th position on the Networked Readiness Index and Malaysia was three spots behind. This year, South Korea zoomed to 14th position while
Malaysia crept up to the 24th position. Meanwhile, in the third quarter of 2005, the broadband penetration rate for South Korea was 67% versus Malaysia's 3%.
How was South Korea able to leapfrog Malaysia, which had a two-year headstart? Very simply, the government won over the hearts of the population with its citizen centric focus when planning and implementing its ICT programmes.
ICT literacy programmes here were targeted at 90 secondary schools and 20 primary schools via the Smart School concept but the PCs made available were usually kept under close supervision. The pockets of efforts to get the rural and town folks to use PCs were stymied by the lack of follow-through and poor broadband infrastructure. Today, less than 10% of the Malaysian population is on the
Internet.
In contrast, South Korea targeted its literacy campaigns towards capturing the hearts of some 10 million people, including school children, housewives, the military, the disabled and even the juvenile delinquents and prisoners! Singapore got real when it single-mindedly made sure that its ICT efforts benefited the citizens first and the government second.
Notice how the people come first in these countries and note the concept Collins found in his research of great companies, "First Who, Then What"? Unfortunately, Malaysians tend to put the infrastructure, facilities, strategies and the operations process first leaving the people process last. Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, the Government announced that it is targeting five key measures to improve
service delivery by leveraging on ICT adoption. The measures are: Enhance and strengthen existing ICT systems; strengthen human resource development; establish strong infrastructure; ensure effective cross-agency collaboration; and ensure effective performance management.
Success would be hard to come by if the citizen-centric focus is missing from the equation. Take the e-government issue, for instance. One of the seven flagships under the MSC initiative, the e-Public Services was originally envisioned to be people oriented, customer-focused and electronic. Pilot programmes were launched but they were more focused on revenue collection for the government (for
example, e-summons, e-assessment) than meeting the transactional needs of the ordinary man.
Singapore's e-government action plan was launched in 2000. In 2003, the second
e-Government Action Plan was introduced to ensure that the Public Service became a fully Networked Government capable of bringing value-added e-services and citizens closer together. Its S$38 million investment in its Infocomm Security Masterplan (2005-2007) aims to protect the country's infocomm environment and the first three strategies are to "secure the people, private and public sectors
respectively." Notice that it is people that come first?
In our Ninth Malaysia Plan, we need to get real with our desire to develop our human capital, we need to be ahead of the global game. Malaysia has very fast-learning and teachable people and we can still achieve leadership in human capital and talent development. However, we have to change our mindsets and have a great will and determination to transform our educational and training institutions,
public and private sector institutions and organisations in all aspects and bring them to the 21st Century.
If we don't, we will be wallowing in our past successes and be surpassed by many other nations as we continue to lose the edge. We need to be urgent in this national endeavour of developing our human talent and capital. And we must have the ability to retain them, as one of the impacts of globalisation is the war for talent, which, by its nature, is mobile.
Dr Wilson Tay is CEO of the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM).
