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New Measures and New Approaches to Development

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Just recently I have been thinking about what we measure and why we measure it in various development programmes.  In economic development, measures are based on productivity, a measure usually derived from Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product.  Anything likely to increase the productivity of the economy is deemed to be a good thing and pursued wholeheartedly.

This has led to a long term and persistent bias towards the pursuit of productivity gains – rather than to investing in establishing a context from which productivity will emerge.

Consider this from Bobby Kennedy from almost 50 years ago:

‘Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.’

Robert F. Kennedy Address, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, March 18, 1968

Seems pretty close to the mark even 50 years later.

  • Why did this voice of reason not prevail?
  • Could it prevail now?
  • Should it?

Call for Papers – Anyone Up for It?

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International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research Special Issue on Developing Enterprising Individuals

In 1993 Gustafson suggested that entrepreneurship education would be an ideal context for students to address “their identity, objectives, hopes, relation to society, and the tension between thought and action”.

In 1995 Kourilsky commented on the over-focus of much of entrepreneurship education on business management rather than other aspects such as recognition of opportunities.

…the traditional focus on business and new venture management provides an inadequate basis for responding to societal needs and proposes the wider notion of ‘enterprise’ (Gibb, 2002).

HALLELUJAH!  We say it – but we don’t do it!

Anyone interested in helping me put together a paper?

My only question is that if academics have been onto this for almost 20 years – how come they have had little or no impact on enterprise education  or business support?

Kevin Horne on ‘Solutions for Business’

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Kevin Horne is CEO of one of the UK most successful enterprise agencies.  He has been in the game for a long time now and understands, as well as anyone, how it works, both in terms of policy and operations.  So when he writes a blog post about the new ‘Solutions for Business‘ we should listen to him.  Carefully.  We should listen between the lines too.

The government has recently launched its “Solutions for Businesses” product portfolio which is the result of much consultation under the Business Support Simplification Programme. On reading the proposals it is difficult to see much to argue with; the product range is rationalised, it hits the main elements of support that a new, growing and maturing business will need and it is simple to understand. So why is it that I still retain some element of doubt that we will see real change?

Is it just me that reads ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose‘? (The more it changes, the more it is the same thing).

I wanted to post a comment of my own thoughts.  Kevin’s analysis says essentially that the bureacrats and policy wonks have once again provided a framework in which things can change and yet WILL remain the same.  I agree with him.  However I do think the entrepreneur can find another option.  Here is the jist of what I would have commented (had I been smart enough to find the comment buttton!):

Kevin, over the last 20 years I have witnessed a number of such re-births of business support – as have you.  None have been transformational, either for us as suppliers or for our customers.

It is easy for us to blame the policy makers for this.  They are culpable.  This is a classic bureaucratic mindset.  ‘Sorry our services remains so far beneath their potential to transform and inspire.  Our managers/funders won’t let us deliver on such lofty ambitions.’

What would an entrepreneurial mindset think?  ‘We can and must transform and inspire.  How can we do this within the existing rules of the game?  How can we effectively engage the guardians of the rules of the game so that they are changed?  Substantially?

Once you engage advisers and other service providers on the challenge of transforming and inspiring they become liberated, imaginative and creative.  They get fired up.  They form more honest and powerful relationships with clients.  They no longer turn the handle on the sausage machine.  They engage.

Instead of pointing the finger at the bureaucrats (which is one of my favourite past-times too) we have to find the wriggle room to do something exceptional.  Because if we believe we are to preside over yet another re-arrangement of the deck chairs then that is ALL we will do.

As an aside I suspect that Kevin’s comments and my reactions will hardly be noticed.  The business support industry has still not discovered the web.  Where it does use the web it uses it as an extension of its push marketing stratgey.  It certainly does not get web 2.0.

That in itself tells us why so often business support still fails to engage.


Industry Day Dawns in North Leeds

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Today is Year 10 industry day for my daughter.

We had a wonderful discussion last night about ‘what to wear’.  Seems that school guidance of black trousers or skirt with a white blouse leaves lots of room for self expression.  My daughter intends to see just how far the ‘business like’ dress code can be pushed.  Just like real work then!

This morning she gets an extra half hour in bed as Industry day starts later than normal.  And she gets to be home by lunch-time.  Anyone for an ‘Industry half day’?

She has been told that she needs to behave in a ‘business like manner’.  I have force fed her on ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Dragons Den’, with a smattering of ‘Secret Millionaire’, ‘Last Millionaire Standing’ .  To leanr what ‘business like behaviour’ means.

I have taught her some of the best business cliches.

Last night I picked up a new one – “I can taste success in my spit“.  Some last minute cramming should get that into her vocabulary for the day.  Screw – ‘winning friends and influencing people’. Bah!

  • Backstab
  • Blameshift
  • Slip under the radar
  • Avoid failure (“losses are inconcievable” – Alan Sugar),
  • Eschew creativity (we will serve canapes in togas!),
  • Look for suckers to fleece with a hit and run operation (start at £60 a head and drop to £15 without changing the service specification).
  • Wrap honesty and dishonesty under a shield of rudeness.
  • look out for number one – exploit the weak and the poor – this IS the real world – learn the rules and play by them – HARD

Oh yes.  Industry day.

We enterprise educators can be proud!