INNOVATION ''MISSION'' IMPOSSIBLE

THE gadgets we hold in our hands inevitably create desires in our hearts. It is no surprise then, that in an age where items like iPhone and many attached products make connections instantaneous, and-

And platforms like Facebook and Twitter make it easier to jeer and fear, every country in the global game is in  the search for the next big thing.........

The social and cultural conditions in most countries/nations  waiting for their  Steve Jobs  promote an environment that contradicts the idea of innovation. 

INNOVATION, then, is not the product of genius or even a hundred geniuses that happen to be born, accidentally, in the United States.

The structures and institutions that facilitate them means that the best and the brightest do not have to waste their time and intellectual energy on ingratiating themselves with this or  that  boss or  co-worker.

In contrast they are being facilitated in the Developing World.

While we may take great pride in  the next person who beats the O''Level record, it is hard to find any laws against nepotism in, say, Pakistan.

This means that those employed on the basis of merit are almost unheard of outside the  multinational circuit.

The culture of the family business and the daddy-boss further ensures that those with real-talent  never, actually get ahead, stymied as they are by structural and institutional obstacles.

Those who are coming up set their sights on going abroad as soon and as fast as possible. They see few or no examples of their culture or society rewarding individuals who actually want to change things.

It is assumed by and large, that change is bad and so are its proponents.

A healthy respect for the tradition is a good thing, but the production of generation after generation that cannot think beyond the box into which they are born means that the possibility of transforming, say, Pakistan, is meagre at best and impossible at worst.

The raw material, terribly brilliant individuals, may well be born in Pakistan, but without a drastic and deep change in the social and work culture of the country, it is unlikely they will stay.