For business and industry, the continent offers a dynamic mix bag of steep challenges and ample opportunities
It is no discovery that the world of business is changing globally. This is natural because everything is changing all the time. Only in this case the change is basic and, in certain ways, dramatic. An observation of the European Union and Asia flags certain interesting patterns.
The constituent states of the European Union have a range of views on their membership of the Union. Often this is driven-understandably-by their inner domestic compulsions. Germany wants to abandon the Euro but not the Union; France has been struggling to recover growth; the anti-European Union sentiments in UK have really never gone away for many people.
By the same token in Asia, there are large Unions, say China or India. There are other attempts to forge conglomerates as the Association for South-East Asian Nations or the Organization of Islamic States. Tensions, however, remain.
The changes taking place in Asia are in many ways more fundamental. The turbulent conditions of India or Indonesia are not ideal to attract investment. Military tensions and armed conflagrations, in other parts of Asia, seem to be on the rise, if the base line is taken from 1985.
In Asia the ownership patterns are clearly biased in the favour of family combinations, and even when the ownership is not family oriented, the dominance of a given family or a group of families is obvious. The recent judgement on the Uphaar Cinema case has drawn attention.
Given the sophistication of the Asian mind, just about anything can be debated till the cows come home. In Japan, there is a dominance of what is called the Manager Kings. Even the Western multinational, in the Asian context, has become increasingly impacted by local behavioral patterns. In China, the Government’s role in the economy is tell-tale.
Many stereotypes about Asia also need revisiting. Illustratively, many parts of Asia are no longer known for low labour costs. Ageing in Japan has become a significant industrial issue. The recent experiences of holding the Parliaments to ransom has made its point.
In large parts of Asia, the wealth of tycoons and their proximity to Government is a major industrial factor. This creates a special kind of business environment. Not with standing this situation, many Indian companies have gone multinational. Or is it that because of this condition many business magnets in India have transferred their wealth abroad to invest thereIJ It is no secret that in many parts of Asia the powerful incumbents enjoy high privileges, if not immunity.
Strangely enough, much of this is continuously embedded in the chant of ‘innovation’. Recognition in many parts of Asia takes a route through some political capital of Atlantic rim countries. It is also a fact of life that a Chinese internet entity is listed on an American stock exchange or that an Indian firm is amongst the world’s biggest technology company. It is just such a mixed picture which creates the ambiguities which makes the risk of business often appear as the business of risks.
The management researcher continues to plead for professionalisation, internationalisation, creating brands. These captions have become slogans.
One is not quite clear on what are the directions and the content of professionalisation that one needs to follow. One is also not clear on what would be the directions of research investments — not to talk internalisation. It is not unusual to see the brave advances made in one domain lost out in a cognate domain.
Here in the role of educational institution and institutions of skill formation becomes more significant. We need to work consciously towards reversing a situation where there is much heat and little light.
The ideal, say of management schools in India remains imitating the syllabus and content of branded US business Schools. This when fuelled by almost silly invitations, that the initiators of such effort get from some US outfits — the baits become apparent. Notwithstanding the roots of such invitations, it is equally true that they raise the stock of the recipients in the domestic environment and, therefore, become much sought after.
To say the situation is complex is an understatement. Complexity can at times be handled but vagueness and lack of clarity is another story.