| On The Dynamics of Digital Management for Bangladesh Nirvana “Nature knows no pause in progress ad development, and attaches her curse on all inactionâ€-- Goethe “Changing, adapting and conforming to situational requirements on this earth has been as old as man himself since nature provides on this earth, a suitable environment for man, but seldom are the detailed natural forms of this environment exactly suitable for his needs.â€â€"T Y Lin Policy Planners of Bangladesh are yet to adopt IT-impacted digital or now modern management properly and fully. Most of the ills of Bangladesh can be attributed directly or indirectly to this single cause. Bangladesh is following traditional and industrial managementâ€"with corruption, efficiency of which is too low. Aim of this paper is to prescribe suggestions so that Bangladesh can adopt modern management and catch up with globalization speed for development. How Management is Linked to Basic Genetic Urges Four genetic urges correlated to basic needs of man: hunger, sexual-urge, fear (against life opposing forces) and management (thinking and planning linked to management to produces goods and services needed for satisfaction of four urges/needs)â€"are unchanging with time. But the standards and forms of these basic needs are continually changing with capability of his civilization. In the above, lies the philosophy our changing ways and means and their perpetual development as human life develop perpetually. Management has been as old as man himself but the management methods have been changing continually with time. Management is one of the four basic genetic urges- other four being, hunger, sex and fear. They are linked to four basic ‘objects’ of gratifications (goods and services or products): Management with thinking /planning /producing, hunger with food, sex with sexual gratification and offspring, fear with security/protection/wars. ‘Wants’ for these basic products (needs) produce painful body tension (like voltage) and their gratifications produce ‘primary happiness’/satisfaction needed for survival. But human is bored with monotonous standards and form of these need sand corresponding products. Continually he wants to gratify products of better standards and forms as compared to other humans. Competitive urge come into play. By competing with others dynamically he wants better and better gratifications or continually increasing ‘secondary satisfaction’. “Man’s ambition and desires always exceeds his achievement. Height of man’s history is records of his most daring efforts, of his sensational advancement and break-through and records of his catastrophic failure.†Thinking/brain is linked with planning and management. So ‘quality of life’ or happiness is directly correlated to management/brain efficiency. Management is responsible for timely availability of ‘basic needs’. Nothing is available on platters! Management has to plan/design, prospect /search, produce, distribute (economy/commerce) and make things available timely. Shortage of products, errors in time and space management creates chaos including wars among the societies. Primary happiness creates relative ‘stalemate’ in life. For ‘secondary’ and ‘continual happiness’ man has to be competitive to produce and gratify ‘product of higher standards’â€"also a genetic urge. (Dusenbary’s Relative Consumptive Function) Standards and forms (part of culture) of product should conform to the demands/cultures of society/civilization to produce secondary and dynamic happiness. Competitive wars among societies go on for attaining higher standards. Easily most of us are likely to agree to the simple philosophy of slow incremental changesâ€"but not to drastic (like digital revolution) or revolutionary changes, which at times required to perpetuate the species and states. Management Defined/Configured (Simplified) Goods Services Material Man Management or Manager with Methods Rules Policies Procedures and Systems Production Units Inventory & Techno-managerial Processes Money Money Technology Feedback Money also provides quantifications Figure-1 Simplified Definition of Management Management Defined/Configured (Simplified) Goods Services Material Man Management or Manager with Methods Rules Policies Procedures and Systems Production Units Inventory & Techno-managerial Processes Money Money Technology Feedback Money also provides quantifications According to Alvin Tofflers, there are three human race revolutions. Agricultural (say ten thousand years ago, Industrial (say 300 years) and Information /Digital (say 60 years) revolutions. These revolutions over time has been transforming, decimating the human organizations and institutions created by the earlier ones. For example, nation-states created by industrial revolution are already under threats to be replaced by de jure global stateâ€"de facto already tearing down the nation states. The most important points to be noted are the rate of changes of these revolutions- that of agriculture was slower, industrial faster and digital fastest. For example, we have been slowly debating on privatization too long when Asian Tigers continued development. In the mean time nationalizations are reappearing due to recent US led market failure.â€"this may be temporary. Let us look into the genesis and philosophy of management and competitiveness. Genesis and Basic Philosophy of Management and Competitiveness Most simplified definition of Management is to produce goods and services for happy and longer social survival most efficiently. Management is as old as man is but entered as a unique discipline in universities very late. Now almost all other multiple/single disciplines/subjects/knowledge contributes to management, yet management entered universities only about a century ago. Earlier management was practiced intuitively. At the end of 1800, Wharton donated one hundred thousand Dollars to create Wharton business school. In pre 1940s some British university offered BBA and in 1930s Chicago offered MBA degree in 1940. Bangladesh is generally following, both in public and private sector, intuitive and traditional (industrial brand) management and, according to some writer, tending towards a failed state. IT has been transforming traditional/ industrial management into modern management, which hardly has been adopted by Bangladesh policy makers. The aim of this paper is to advise the senior (including would be) national policy makers to adopt IT impacted modern management immediately and properly we are already late. Past experience show that the planners produce too much of hype for adopting only IT as tool most confusingly and without management. The result is dismal. The recent talk of state failure is directly connected to non-adoption/ non-integration of management with IT. Mahathir adopted management and IT together. ICT is tools or that can be used by management; Government’s relevant policy making unit was placed under PMO and named as Modernization of administrative and management planning Unit (MAMPU) Timely availability of gratifying product depends on design, space, time and raw material etc. Man attempted the production process on the most intuitive practice in pre-agricultural era (10,000year ago) when muscle power predominated and ‘undeveloped brain’ always remained busy planning for survival against odds without ‘leisure’. Agriculture revolution or era provided leisure to brain to produce machine/industrial revolution with concomitant muscle atrophy and diabetes. ‘Mechanical advantage’ of machines and use of natural energy through engines and motors, mass-produced cheap products, inventory management of which, population growth and environmental control became unmanageable by unaided brain. Came the digital machine (computer) and relieved the brainâ€"IT or digital era or information revolution started. Fig-2. Human Genetic Drives for Growth How Management, Security, Hunger and Sex/ Reproduction Basically/Genetically Linked Genetic Drive Significant Cultural Urge Derived from this Drive Universal Cultural Urges Derived By Inputs from All Drives Teleological (Thinking Ahead) Hunger Sex Fear Planning (Plan-making, Management) Acquisitive (Food-making) Creative (Love-making) Protective (War-making/ Security) Territorial (Space and Material) Cooperative (Team Work) Aggressive (Driving Force) Source: Allen Louis A, Professional Management- New Concepts and Proven Practices, p-11-Adopted. Digital chip or a microprocessor can be called an active ‘brain replica’. One chip produced by real brain can design and produce subsequent/next chips of million times more power. This ‘digital replication’ over and above the ‘mechanical advantage’ of Indus Revo-1, composed of electro- mechanical devices engines and motors, has started second Indus Revo-II, composed of electro-mechanical devices, driven by microchips with horrendous ‘revolutionary power’ with allied technologies like ‘nano-technology’ and ‘genetic engineering’ having unbelievable revolutionary change possibilities etc. Since the world (and humans) started, it is undergoing slow-speed incremental and high-speed revolutionary changes. Like ‘equal and opposite action’ law, a revolution has both ‘constructive’ and ‘destructive’ changes.. The society, which can predict and adopt/ absorb are able to gain from constructive changes. The others are trampled over. We can compress history and see telescopically innumerable examples. Low project implementation efficiency of ADP shows our lower management efficiency. In strategic level, impacts of IT on management are stupendous /revolutionary. How? They are mainly four digital attributes of computer which are impacting management with concomitant socio-political revolutionary changes. Four Digital Attributes which transformed Industrial Management into Digital or Modern Management · Colossal computing power to boost the brain (and body) to activate the management /competitive efficiency to very high limits. This attribute provide high speed to management activities, which affects national competitive (exporting) powers. · Colossal Accuracy to provide fail-safe management activities, which rekindles TQM as management paradigm. · Data /info sharing/ networking to negate distance /space to revolutionize human /social /business /military activities. Imagine the power of WiMAX, a real time two way wireless video communications. Distance will no longer be impediment for management activities. This with first and second attributes rekindles the JIT (just in time) management paradigm. · Virtual Reality and Simulation to selectively hoodwink costly ‘hard reality’ gaining mountain like advantage, digital expert systems, digital marriages, digital heart, brain washing, star war, e-driving, e-surgical operations and boosting e-learning/training. Cheaper ‘virtuals’ are replacing very costly realities. These are many examples. Cinema is virtual for theater. Virtual professors can provide e-lecture for e-learning to reduce colossal cost of real education. Many real transactions can be consummated including marriages from distant places. Help of third, first and second attributes will be required. Digital Management When rules and principles of industrial management (American / BBA/MBA related) meant for both profit and non-profit organizations evolved over the last century is reinforced by the above four digital attributes the management becomes digital and modernâ€"paperless and distance-free management. Suggestions for adoption of Digital Management by Bangladesh a. Bangladesh has no genuine and integrated management infrastructure at Government level. Publicâ€" private sector cooperation is required but only private sector cannot do the adoption. Policy making responsibility should be undertaken by government, however, while formulating policy, private sector and public should be consulted. The BCC Act 90 is the only legal frame work to handle the digitalization in the country. After passing the Act, without executing, it has been buried alive, and all sorts of illegal ad hoc-isms are being pursued for the last 18 years. Either the BCC Act should be executed properly or scraped and replaced by an alternative legal framework. b. There is no proper HR planning for IT and allied sectors. Some talents are needed to manage the IT sector but the government has no mechanism like other countries to retain the minimum number of talents. Very high differential of HR compensations between foreign countries and Bangladesh can be solved by the PPP. The BCC Act has the provision to form a private company to employ talents at the market rate on the line of Singapore National Computer Board (NCB). c. Senior Government/Civil Officers have not been properly trained on computer applications like, for example, Malaysia and India did. They appear to have strong mindset against the proper adoptions. Like Malaysian INTAN, BAPTC should establish an autonomous computer application training school in conjunction with JNU to share common resources. In phases, senior officers should be trained. In digital Bangladesh, paper may not be used and private sector cannot alone implement the Digital Bangladesh. d. Priorities and budget allocations are not conducive for quick growth/implementation. Past records are not encouraging. Without proper legal frame work, Bangladesh is more than 18 IT years behind India. Money was not problem- policy /management was. ( please see p-50 of Computer Jagat of June 09) e. Digital Bangladesh is a grand slogan, motivational hype for generating positive public opinion. But aims, objectives, policies and specific projects and some permanent administrative bodies are needed to implement the Digital Bangladesh. The BCC should be activated quickly as legal framework and it should form various national level relevant subject committees to formulate various national policies to get going without loss of time -------------------- Col M Azizur Rehman (Retd), MBA, MDS, MACS, FIEB, FBCS, FIMCB, CMC E Mail : rehman.mohammad@gmail.com |
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