by KE
on December 31, 2015
We hope that you will have a great start for 2016! Start it off with a look at John Hagel’s “The Real Unemployment Innovation Challenge” article. He makes a couple of great points that hopefully will motivate more people to learn faster and have greater passion for their work.
Rather than viewing workers as expense items to be squeezed and cut as much as possible, we would finally see workers as resources capable of creating and delivering growing value. And this wouldn’t just be the case for “knowledge workers” – it would drive home that every worker is ultimately a knowledge worker, capable of driving accelerating performance improvement wherever they are in the organization by learning faster.
and
We need to change that view of work.We need to find ways to more effectively integrate our passion with our work. Passion turns mounting performance pressure from a source of growing stress and burn-out to a source of excitement, driven by the potential to take our capabilities and impact to a new level. If we go to work simply to earn a paycheck, we will never learn as fast or improve our performance as rapidly as someone who is pursuing their passion.
Here’s the challenge. Based on research that I’ve led at the Center for the Edge, only 12% of the US workforce has what we call “the passion of the explorer” – the kind of passion that fosters rapid learning and performance improvement. That leaves 88% of us who have to find ways to more effectively integrate our passion with our work.
Have a Happy New Year and don’t forget to passionately pursue more rapid learning in 2016!
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by KE
on December 29, 2015
Changing oil markets offer impetus to make the transition to knowledge economy, as UAE has shown
Economic diversification is the way forward for any nation that hopes to develop a knowledge-based economy. Monday’s announcement of the Saudi budget sheds light on oil’s ongoing dominant role in Gulf states’ economies. That needs to change immediately. The GCC-wide call for economic diversification is decades old. …
For the second successive year, the Saudi government will be running a deficit — thanks to falling oil prices. The deficit itself is not an issue, but the budget still highlights the overly large role that oil plays, especially in terms of providing subsidies to citizens and residents. In Saudi Arabia alone, state revenue from oil stands at an estimated 73 per cent in 2015. The UAE has shown that economic diversity is more than just a theory. The country has already brought in tourism, aviation, manufacturing and retail and is on its way to building a knowledge economy. Oil in Dubai contributes only 6 per cent to the economy. Rest
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by KE
on December 18, 2015
KTN is the UK’s Innovation Network. We connect people to speed up innovation, solve problems and find markets for new ideas.
From the discovery of DNA to making blockbuster movies, from inventing the world wide web to creating the best in user experience design, the UK has earned its reputation for world-leading creativity and inventiveness. We’re helping secure the UK’s future by playing to those strengths. Our primary role at KTN is to nurture, develop and scale up innovation within business, connecting you with the wider knowledge economy.
Working with large and small companies, government agencies and research organisations, with tech hubs and startups, public funding bodies, VCs and private investors, KTN has built a unique network that helps enterprising people and companies reach the full potential of their innovative capabilities. Rest
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by KE
on December 15, 2015
The Future of Productivity reminds us that fostering innovation and promoting knowledge diffusion requires an environment where scarce resources, particularly human talent, flow to their best use. Reviving diffusion and improving resource allocation has the potential to not only sustain and accelerate productivity growth but also to make this growth more inclusive, by allowing more firms and workers to reap the benefits of the knowledge economy. …
Reforms centred on improving the efficiency of resource allocation, which is far from optimal in many OECD countries, may also revive growth by making it easier for productive firms to thrive. More specifically, there is much scope to boost productivity and reduce inequality simply by more effectively allocating human talent to jobs. Since the knowledge economy increasingly requires skills that our education systems struggle to provide, the growth and equity benefits of policies that more effectively allocate human talent will rise. Achieving aggregate productivity gains via more efficient resource allocation requires well-designed framework policies accompanied by a range of flanking policies – including adult learning policies, well-designed social safety nets and portable health and pension benefit – to ensure that these gains are distributed more evenly than otherwise. But policy-makers also need to cast a wider net and recognise the potentially adverse effects of housing policies that restrict worker mobility on productivity via the channel of skill mismatch.
The Future of Productivity – Online version
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by KE
on December 7, 2015
Commenting on the launch of the Summit, His Excellency Jamal bin Huwaireb, Managing Director of MBRF, said: “This year the Knowledge Summit is being organised under the theme, ‘The Way to Innovation’ in line with the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to mark the year 2015 as the Year of Innovation. The event is a unique opportunity that brings together influencers, experts and stakeholders in the knowledge domain to discuss ways to employ innovation in the dissemination and transfer of knowledge in fields such as education, scientific research and information technology.”
HE Bin Huwaireb said the Knowledge Summit 2015 has emerged as one of the biggest international gatherings to promote knowledge on an annual basis, and represents the ideal global platform to discuss ways to strengthen the efforts to build knowledge based sustainable societies and economies. The hosting of the Summit by MBRF reflects the Foundation’s leading position in the field of knowledge development and its dissemination at the local and global level, HE Bin Huwaireb added. Rest
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by KE
on December 7, 2015
Speaking during the occasion, Department of Industry Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Amitabh Kant said that for India to move up the knowledge economy value chain, it was imperative that its innovators not just Make In India but also design and create in India.
“Only then we will have the disruptive innovation that can drive the kind of economic growth India needs to support the government’s aim of improving lives for all our fellow citizens,” Kant said.
The conclave focused on the role of innovation in delivering inclusive growth and creation of a knowledge economy. Full article
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by KE
on December 4, 2015
Excellent article at ForeignPolicy.com by Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US. In some ways the growth of the knowledge economy in the Middle East may be the best way to combat extremist ideologies.
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by KE
on December 2, 2015
The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has announced the adoption of the Emirates Science, Technology and Innovation Higher Policy which includes 100 national initiatives in the educational sector, health, energy, transportation, space and water.
The plan foresees an investment of over Dh300 billion and includes new national policies in legislation, investment, technology, education and finance. Its goal is to build a vibrant knowledge economy in the UAE. …
The Science, Technology and Innovation Higher Policy has involved the work of the members of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Committee, and their teams over the past year.
It comprises over 100 initiatives, a number of legislative innovations and policies in investment, technology, education and the financing of the development of a knowledge economy. rest
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by KE
on November 28, 2015
More than $250 million have been invested in the knowledge economy, according to BDL Governor Riad Salameh. “These investments are creating job opportunities and increasing the country’s competitiveness,” he said.
The knowledge economy currently accounts for one percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to Blominvest Bank figures. In four to five years the market will start to see successful startups with satisfactory sizes, according to Mikhael. In ten to 15 years, he said that the share of the knowledge economy sector of the GDP may range between four to five percent. “The country has the right knowhow and any significant technology creation would reduce production costs and help support other industries,” said Mikhael. “However, to achieve this target, we need stable economic growth and development of infrastructure, including Internet speed and fiber optics, among others,” he said.
The intermediate circular modifies a basic circular issued in 1996. BDL issued Circular 331 two years ago, which allowed commercial banks to invest up to 80 percent in a startup’s capital, in order to encourage investment in the knowledge economy. Complete article
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by KE
on November 26, 2015
THE UK is poised to learn where government spending cuts of up to 40 per cent will fall. As the details are finalised, a question mark hangs over the £4.6 billion science research budget.
Fortunately, the government, and in particular Chancellor George Osborne, understands that future prosperity lies in a knowledge-based economy. Osborne’s declaration that science is a personal priority shows he realises that knowledge and innovation spring from research. So it seems inconceivable that publicly funded research will be butchered in the spending review on 25 November. In fact, the opposite ought to happen. …
If we invest, we can attract the most talented people from around the world. If we don’t, we can just as easily lose our finest to countries that are bolstering their knowledge economies. Rest
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