Your nation is calling you! Bring your talent home

Another Independence Day dawned on us and gave time for all of us to reflect. I do hope that it was not considered just as a long weekend only! The 63rd Independence celebrations came and in reflection one could consider where we are to where we could have been.

We all heard that “the country cannot be developed solely on popular decisions. Inconvenient and difficult decisions are also necessary for the national progress.” Indeed, it is true that we should be well aware that the right decisions are not always the popular ones.

Challenge for the leadership

The challenge for the leadership is to ensure that right decisions are taken, implemented and pursued with vigour. This applies to nation building as well as institutional building. We may say we have had to toil hard as a nation because we were taking more of the popular decisions. Today it is time deliver on the statements made.

Personally I too have reached 25 years of service to my university and was rewarded with a Rs. 5,000 cash award (no zeros missing here!) and a medal which the Vice Chancellor himself placed on me on the first working day of 2011.

I know that a lot of us in the State university sector having returned have toiled hard against many odds over the years. We will certainly do so in the coming years as well despite the gross disparity in resources and services which should be given priority considering the potential contribution from a university to a country.

Brain drain

A nation can call for the services of her people from within and from outside but there should never be a case of ignoring or emphasising one or the other. It is a well-known fact that we as a nation have a problem with the brain drain.

Let me emphasise here – We do pursue PhDs in advanced study areas. We seek to become a centre of excellence. We have a vision of becoming a knowledge hub. Those who engage in advanced studies on completion lament that they do not have suitable avenues of pursuing what they have spent years mastering.

It is important to understand how individual nations work on their Diaspora to realise their development dreams. There are many global best practices in this area with Israel perhaps leading the pack. Neighbouring India has also pursued this exercise with vigour.

When a nation calls, it perhaps should not matter whether you are in State service, private sector or in opposition. In Sri Lanka we have identified the private sector to be our engine of growth. Can the private sector under such circumstances with such a mandate place country before self?

Well the key is aligning all growth aspirations in line with national aspirations. How that can be achieved with multiple business models and with shareholder interests emanating from all four corners of the globe is challenging.

An interesting story

One of my colleagues who recently returned from USA handed me a postcard that he has received. He has been earmarked by a top Indian firm – of course with the underlying assumption that he is an Indian judged only perhaps through the name – to be a recipient of one of their invitations to come back and serve the company and India. 

The simple postcard reveals an interesting story of how a nation’s private sector wants to grow and serve its national interest too. The challenging opportunities and career prospects are all outlined in the company’s webpage. The information points to expanding organisations based on research and development. It is evident that these companies enable making a mark on the world while savouring the joy of being home again.

We know that many leave our shores never to return. We may say that there are many who leave minus the emotional connection to Sri Lanka. Earlier the stories datelined Colombo informing of deadly happenings were enough to justify in some minds their course of action. Today that scenario is no more. The nation should call and the call should be heeded. Yet one can say that when one acts one only does so when internally convinced. 

A fresh look

Dr. Dudley Seers, a British Economist in 1971, has expressed that in Ceylon “there is a mismatch between the skills the market demanded and what the process of education delivered”. I am not sure about the continued use of this or whether the message given in this should be used in Sri Lanka or applied in planning. 

What we need is a fresh look. There is a certain amount of thinking that exists in some spheres that some activities are ‘too rich’ for a developing economy to engage in. I would never place activities in S&T into this category but would place any significant time wasting unproductive activities, as it is indeed sad that when so much is required from so many, only so few are actually sensitive to the need.

I believe continuous adherence to this message and many similar ones made by perhaps well meaning visitors and advisors is what will cause brain drain and also keep us away from real independence. 

Science and technology

It is interesting to note that outside UK we do have the most number of students sitting and qualifying in management accountancy. We certainly are not the next best economy to United Kingdom and can we say that this demand is justified in planning? 

We hear too that we lack people engaged in research and that the numbers are well below the averages needed for a developing economy. Hence it is clear what the country needs for development – the science and technology sector – is starving for attention. 

Again it is market forces applied or perceived loosely that determine one’s choices and the former high demand can be explained in this way. It is mostly when one engages in science and technology that one leaves the shores in pursuit of happiness elsewhere.

Energy

Just consider the situation with respect to energy. In 1973 when the first energy crisis hit Western economies, organisations created the position of energy manager. Suddenly there was an explosion in energy professionals. 

Consider a 21st century Sri Lankan organisation. Look and seriously analyse organisational charts and cadre profiles. Analysis would reveal that we are least prepared for innovation. We are too seriously programmed to carry our directives or adhere to simple objectives quite literally based on the bottom line. 

This emphasis has also led to some organisations trying to obtain ‘more from less,’ thus stifling innovation. No recruitments is the order of the day. Obtaining more from less is a singular goal of nanotechnology where optimal resource efficiency is targeted. However, when human resource function practices the concept, that is pruning the structure and marking redundancies.

We do not see energy managers as a full time function within organisations that significantly consume energy. Even if one consumes less energy, clusters can be allocated and managed by one person with that specific function. Proper application can pay the individual’s cost many times over. Our environmental functions are shared among quality at times, thus compromising both quality and the environment. 

Spinning new pathways 

We have to anticipate planners for a function to have some understanding of the function. We cannot expect a case of requesting a curator for a culture collection (which begs a PhD in that appropriate area) being allocated a person with gardening experience! 

Now if the requirement is to be stated in minute detail, then there is no need for a planner for that area of operations. The situation is not that we do not need this position but there is a greater degree of uncertainty over higher level positions. 

Society thus never experiences serious innovation as the required support infrastructure is never assisted. We must allow different positions to be created, thus spinning new pathways. 

Oliver and Wilbur through their creativity can today claim not a new device but a whole new series of systems from transport to tourism. Innovation appropriately factored in can create a greater number of job opportunities. 

Time for change

We have not understood the war for talent. We fritter away our talent pool. The same graduate we accuse of having no skills to work in this country finds gainful employment elsewhere. There are plenty of examples to support this statement.

It is time for change and the private sector to act. Revamp strategy and the structure will follow. The new structures, if based on forward-looking objectives, will definitely create demand for talent.

As we have stifled growth internally, we may also have to start sending postcards abroad! Our Muditha came home carrying the postcard with him – from a simple gesture we can learn a big lesson. 

(Professor Ajith de Alwis is Professor of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. With an initial BSc Chemical engineering Honours degree from Moratuwa, he proceeded to the University of Cambridge for his PhD. He is a Science Team Leader at the Sri Lanka Nanotechnology Institute. He can be reached via email on [email protected].)