building your personal lifelong competitive advantage
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Commencement Address to the 2011
Graduating Class of the Vector Technology
Institute
December 11th
, 2011
Silburn Clarke, FRICS
President,
Jamaica Computer Society
Master of Ceremonies, Chairman and Members of
the Board of Vector Technology Institute, Members
of the Faculty, Technical and Administration arms of
the Institute, Graduands of the Class of 2011, both
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those present here this evening but also to those
who are not here physically but here in spirit,
parents, guardians, family, friends, well-wishers,
other distinguished ladies and gentlemen, Good
Evening.
I bring you fraternal greetings from the Governing
Council and members of the Jamaica Computer
Society; and I pause to recognise Mr Rohan Morris aCouncil member present here today and a member
of your adjunct faculty
It is indeed an honour for me to join you on this
historic December 2011 evening as you make thememorable transition from graduands to graduates.
This day will forever live in all our memories.
It will live in our memories as it marks a coming of
age from many angles and dimensions. It
represents a major transition. It marks a rite of
passage. It is also a significant jump over the
threshold as far as the Jamaican educational sector is
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concerned and will be recorded in the annals of this
period.
For the graduands, it represents proof-positive that
ambition, passion, hard work, tenacity, stick-to-
itiveness, creativity and perseverance does bring rich
dividends.
For the institute, it also is proof-positive that vision,innovation, persistence, energy and prayer does pay
off.
We are extremely proud of you both on this lovely
and historic Sunday evening.
But in many ways, in the words of a famous song,
youve only just begunor in the Jamaican parlance
this is just the kata, for the load is yet to come
I am particularly honoured to be part of this
Commencement Ceremony as it marks the first time
that you will be unveiling the products of your
pioneering BSc programmes to the world.
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Let me on behalf of the JCS congratulate the Vector
Technology Institute on achieving this fantastic
historic milestone and join in applauding you, your
team and your students for this stellar achievement.
I salute the graduands of the Associate Degree,
Diploma programme and the special sole graduand
of the Certificate programme
For many of you, the experiences over the years of
your educational journey would have been bitter-
sweet. We know this as we have all been there at
some point or the other. While it would have causeda lot of self-induced stress; psychologically,
physically, emotionally and financially, it would also
have opened up your appetite for more. Many
today may be thinking that this is it and no
more, no mas , but trust me when I say that
there will be more. Its the nature of the beast.
We will willingly go through this punishment
because we have now realised that we have not fully
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stretched nor exhausted our own capabilities, we
have more in us and because we are ambitious, we
will soon recognise that there continues to be a
vacuum still to be filled and we willingly continue to
undergo self-improvement...as in the words of a
physicist nature abhors a vacuum.
Personally, I am a strong believer in lifelong
learning. In the world that we are living in today we
cannot but be committed to lifelong learning as the
stock of knowledge which we have filled up with to
date, always have to be constantly replenished in
order to continue to give us a marketable advantage.
Passage through the Academy is part of how we are
socialised to succeed in the wider society. I am
sure that you would not be surprised to learn that
while exam-taking is of great importance over your
academic journey, equally important were the many
other life-skills that you have added to your stock of
knowledge , understanding and competence. Your
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passage through the Academy built teamwork skills,
tolerance, an appreciation for grounding your
decisions in data and facts, in building empathy to
others, for understanding intergenerational
processes, for building your confidence as individuals
to take on big challenges from wherever they may
emerge, whether home or abroad, for re-enforcing
your self-esteem, for building assertiveness and for
confirming that prayer works. The underlying firstprinciples of much of what you have learned will
stay with you forever, but a lot of the technical
operationalisation of products built on those basic
principles will change over your future. It will
change because, even as we gather and speak heretoday, innovators all over the globe are busily at
work trying and succeeding in changing and
reshaping the materialisation of technology. In the
business literature, we call it creative destruction
after an Austrian economist from the early part of
the 20th Century, Josef Schumpeter. Latterly the
phenomena have also been termed disruptive
innovationby Clay Christensen of Harvard Business
School.
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I want to share a little bit of some of what we have
been doing in the Jamaica Computer Society and
also take the time-out to invite you to make it your
professional home.
For the last two years we have embarked on a
process aimed at creating a better understanding
and overstandings of the role of Jamaican ICTprofessional in his or her environment. And I must
pause to explain my reference to overstanding. A
friend of mine Prof Freddie Hickling, world
renowned psychologist and psychiatrist, makes a
clear distinction between understanding andoverstanding. He equates understanding to
knowledge, but opines that knowledge is necessary
but not sufficient for one as an individual to
contribute full value to problem-solving. To rise to
your highest and best level of contribution, you need
insight. This insight he terms overstanding; a
term which he has borrowed liberally from the
Rastafarians.
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Let me share a little bit on some notions from the
realm of business but which I find to be very relevant
to individuals as well. Its a principle called the VRIO
principle and speaks to how we build competitive
advantage in firms and avoid both comparative
parity and also temporary competitive advantage.
The theory of the Resource Based View (RBV)
identifies the combination of Valuable, Rare, Non-
inimitable , and Organisation (VRIO) resources andcapabilities as the source of modern firm
competition.
Valuable resources and capabilities in a firm only gives
competitive parity
Valuable and Rare resources and capabilities only
gives temporary competitive advantage.
However where resources are valuable, rare, non-
inimitable and where the organisation has ways of
operating that are intangibly embedded within the
firm, then its hard for competitors to succeed and the
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firm therefore enjoys a sustained competitive
advantage.
Similarly if we transfer this analogy to the individual;
a.where you as an individual have knowledge, skillsand abilities that are valuable only (ie we can
monetise by selling and trading them in a market ) ,
then you would have achieved comparative parity.
So if we have 10 psychiatrists who have newly
minted medical degrees in a market short of doctors
then they will all be able to exchange their
knowledge, skills and ability for money in themarket. Thats value exchange but at the
comparative parity level
b.Where the individual, manage to acquire a rare skill,lets say clinical psychiatry, then you will temporarilylock that market until other specialists enter that
space; but until then you would have therefore
created a temporary competitive advantage.
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c.Where the individual, manage to layer his or hervaluable knowledge with this rare skill, again clinical
psychiatry, but in addition through practice and
experience manage to create some individual
overstandings which is not to be found anywhere
else, then one would have created for him or herself
a sustained competitive advantage.
My charge to you is to go forth and create your own
individual sustained competitive advantage.
In the JCS we would have been preaching a likkle but
tallawah mantra for the last two years on the
premise that the ICT domain is a level playing field
globally and that, just as we do in sports and
entertainment, Jamaica has a lot to offer in those
areas that emerge from the Academy, like ICT. TheIMAGINE Cup and CISCO winners have demonstrated
this and therefore we should all strive to Punch
above your weight class
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Why is this VRIO model important ?
The truth is that Ubiquitous Resources and
Capabilities does not give any advantages to firms
nor to individuals as everybody has access to and
enjoy these resources.
In the ICT industry , Ubiquitous Resources and
Capabilities, like Cloud technology, mobile
telephony, tablets, VOIP etc are all valuable.
But by the act of merely acquiring and deploying
these acquired technologies, the best we can hope
to achieve is comparative parity as everybody will
have them.
Further, these standard Imported ICT Resources are
representative of imported innovation andknowledge and therefore we cannot hope to use
them, by themselves, to compete in the same globe
from which they came.
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As a country, we have to layer our local knowledge
capabilities and capacities, or overstandings, on top
of these ubiquitous but valuable assets in order to
compete competitively at an advantage.
My charge to you, therefore, is to strive to build
indigenous innovation and knowledge.
Until we build our local capacity to innovate we will
forever consume the innovation and knowledge of
others.
Here is a paradox; Jamaica has a very high rating by
the IMF for our rate of private investment which
was consistently recorded at 28% over the decades
of the 90s and several years after. This rate is
similar to the rates of private investment among the
East Asian tigers. Yet despite this, the World
Economic Forum tells us that we have what is
known as a low rating for the factor firm capacity
to innovate, meaning the capacity for our business
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firms to generate new products, services, processes,
models, methods and systems achieve sustainable
competitive advantage is very low. Our last rating
in 2010 was 107th
out of 139 country globally.
Independently, The Global Innovation Index ,
produced annually by INSEAD in France, tells us that
we are 95th
out of 125 countries surveyed on the
Index of innovation.
Normally we are taught that if you score in the high
80 and 90s that is a good thing, however, in the
context of these indices smaller is better and high
scores are bad. We really want to get low nominal
values as our scores.
We should ask ourselves why a bright, creative,
smart people falls so low on these various global
indices.
I think that it is because we are not giving full room
for the expression of local creativity and innovation
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but find it easier, almost by default, to opt to
acquire other peoples innovations.
We in the JCS charge you as graduates to be part of
the movement to change this state of affairs.
I have my own theory as to why this is so and I will share
this with you. It goes to the heart of the motivation to
innovate.
There are two fundamental ways in which we process
information and action; some people call it convergentversus divergent thinking.
Convergent Thinkers tend to approach problem-solving
by gathering relevantpre-existing data, facts and
information together, observing the emerging patternsin the data, deriving insights (or overstandings) and then
synthesising solutions based on these insights.
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a.Innovation comes out of creativity.b.Persons that are Creative are associated with
Intrinsic Motivation as their driver
c.Long-run Individual productivity is associated withinnovation
d.Most significantly : Intelligence is associated withroutinised production processes but not with
creativity
e.Extrinsic rewards are strongly associated withroutinised production, however, creativity does
not react well to external rewards
f.Persons consistently and persistently strive to beself-determined , that is to engage in jobs, activities
and tasks because they find them interesting,enjoyable and gain a level of satisfaction
g.Self-determined individuals will be the mostcreative members of any business venture
h.These Self-determined individuals are bestmotivated in a work climate where they are made
to feel that they are part of an environment that
empower them to contribute their thoughts and
choices freely to advancing the tasks at hand rather
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than being paid to work especially in a controlled
context.
Author Robert Sternberg puts it this way;
Creativity in a societal context is best understood in terms
of a dialectical relation to intelligence and wisdom. In
particular, intelligence forms the thesis of such a dialectic.Intelligence largely is used to advance existing societal
agendas. Creativity forms the antithesis of the dialectic,
questioning and often opposing societal agendas, as well
as proposing new ones. Wisdom forms the synthesis of the
dialectic, balancing the old with the new. Wise people
recognize the need to balance intelligence with creativityto achieve both stability and change within a societal
context.
I really think that this wisdom is Freddies overstanding
But Steinberg is also calling us to do something else. He
is calling us to be ambidextrous, that is to exploit your
existing intelligence for maximum value and so achieve
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stability but also to continually explore the future, with
your creativity, in order to yield benefits from the
inevitable changes
In the context of the 21st
Century marketplace, as
opposed to the 19th
Century marketplace, we therefore
get the best from our people when we encourage;
Consultation rather than Coercion or Controlling .
Self-motivation as opposed to System-motivation
Intrinsic Rewards as opposed to Extrinsic Rewards
Creativityas well as Intelligence
Wisdom or Overstanding as opposed to Knowledge
or Information
And so create Consultants as opposed to Workers
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The nature of the job has changed and is continuously
changing and your role in the organisation has to be
adjusted to this new reality. I would suggest that you
will not be entering the marketspaces as a mere worker
but that you will all be consultants. What do I mean by
that, you will be seen as trusted advisers to the various
stakeholders (your leaders, coaches, clients, suppliers)
that you will encounter. When you rise in the mornings
to tackle your clients or stakeholder issues, you wouldbe functioning as consultants rather than workers.
Now what is a graduate to expect as you go out into this
brave new hyper-competitive world. I recently received
some futurescoping from the Gartner Group which
predicted the top 11 trends for the future:
1.By 2015, low-cost cloud services will significantlydisrupt the market for outsourcing IT servicesLow-cost cloud services will based on emerging
Industrialized low-cost IT services (ILCS) will in the
next three to five years reset the value proposition
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of IT. The projected $1 trillion IT services market is
at the beginning of a phase of further disruption,
similar to the one the low-cost airlines have brought
in the transportation industry.
2.The investment bubble will burst for consumersocial networks in 2013 and for enterprise social
software companies in 2014.
Vendors in the consumer social network space are
competing with each other at a rate and pace thatare unusually aggressive, even in the technology
market. This will force market consolidation as
recognition sets in that the opportunities for market
differentiation and fast growth has eroded.
3.By 2016, at least 50% of enterprise email users willrely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client
instead of a desktop client.
With the rise in popularity of mobile devices and
browser-based enterprise applications, email system
vendors are also likely to build mobile clients for a
diverse set of devices. While market opportunitiesfor mobile device management platform vendors will
soar, increased pressure will be placed vendors to
accommodate an increasing portfolio of
collaboration services, including instant messaging,
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Web conferencing, social networking and shared
workspaces.
4.By 2015, mobile application development projectstargeting smartphones and tablets will outnumbernative PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1.
Smartphones and tablets represent more than 90%
of the new net growth in device adoption for the
coming four years, and increasing application
platform capability across all classes of mobilephones is spurring a new frontier of innovation,
particularly where mobile capabilities can be
integrated with location, presence and social
information to enhance the usefulness.
5.By 2016, 40% of enterprises will make proof ofindependent security testing a precondition for
using any type of cloud service.
While enterprises are evaluating the potential cloud
benefits in terms of management simplicity,
economies of scale and workforce optimization, it is
equally critical that they carefully evaluate cloudservices for their ability to resist security threats and
attacks. Inspectors' certifications will eventually
become a viable alternative or complement to third-
party testing.
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6.At year-end 2016, more than 50% of Global 1000companies will have stored customer-sensitive data
in the public cloud.
Responding to tightening financial pressures, it is
estimated that more than 20% of organizations have
already begun to selectively store their customer-
sensitive data in a hybrid architecture to reduce
operational costs and streamline their efficiency.
7.By 2015, 35% of enterprise IT expenditures for mostorganizations will be managed outside the IT
department's budget.
Next generation digital enterprises are being driven
by a new wave of business managers and individual
employees who no longer need technology to be
contextualized for them by an IT department and
who are demanding control over the IT expenditure
required to evolve the organization within the
confines of their roles and responsibilities.
8.By 2014, 20% of Asia-sourced finished goods andassemblies consumed in the U.S. will shift to theAmericas (including the Caribbean).
Political, environmental, economic and supply chain
risks are causing many companies serving the U.S.
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market to shift sources of supply from Asia to the
Americas, including Latin America, the Caribbean,
Canada and the U.S. Except in cases where there is a
unique manufacturing process or productintellectual property, most products are candidates
to be relocated. (remember what we said earlier
about the VRIO paradigm)
9.Through 2016, the financial impact of cybercrimewill grow 10% per year, due to the continuing
discovery of new vulnerabilities.
As IT delivery methods meet the demand for the use
of cloud services and employee-owned devices, new
software vulnerabilities will be introduced, and
innovative attack paths will be developed by
financially motivated attackers causing risks andvulnerabilities and bottom-line financial impact
because of successful cyber attacks.
10. By 2015, the prices for 80% of cloud serviceswill include a global energy surcharge.
While cloud operators can make strategic decisionsabout locations, tax subsidies are no long-term
answer to managing costs, and investments in
renewable-energy sources remain costly. Some
cloud data center operators already include an
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energy surcharge in their pricing package, and
Gartner analysts believe this trend will rapidly
escalate to include the majority of operators driven
by competitive pressures and a "me too" approach.Business and IT leaders and procurement specialists
must expect to see energy costs isolated and
included as a variable element in future cloud
service contracts.
11. Through 2015, more than 85% of US Fortune500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit big
data for competitive advantage as most
organizations are ill prepared to address both the
technical and management challenges posed by big
data; as a direct result, few will be able to
effectively exploit this trend for competitive
advantage.
Current trends in smart devices and growing Internet
connectivity are creating significant increases in the
volume of data available, but the complexity, variety
and velocity with which it is delivered combine to
amplify the problem substantially beyond the simple
issues of volume implied by the popular term "big
data." Collecting and analyzing the data is not
enough -- it must be presented in a timely fashion so
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that decisions are made as a direct consequence that
have a material impact on the productivity,
profitability or efficiency of the organization. Most
organizations are ill prepared to address both the
technical and management challenges posed by big
data; as a direct result, few will be able to effectively
exploit this trend for competitive advantage.
And so on the eve of your stepping out into the
world, the signals are clearer than ever that we need
you to become world-class innovators in order to
take advantage of these emerging opportunities.
If we innovate successfully locally, we can reap rich
rewards from the rest of the globe.
I give one example, GoGSAT, a local innovation built
to improve GSAT outcomes by kids. GoGSAT uses
Cloud technologies but in a way that only a
Jamaican-borned company could. GoGSAT today is
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used by kids, parents and teachers right across the
Caribbean
And so in Summary:
Having acquired Valuable knowledge, skills and
abilities through your sting at VTI, continue to go
further through a commitment to lifelong learningto acquire your rare, and non-inimitable assets and
build your own overstandings in order to enjoy
sustainable competitive advantages in your own
future endeavours.
Be self-determined by findinginterest, enjoyment
and satisfaction in what you do.
Be wise and so balance intelligence with creativity
Punch above your weight class for although we arelikkle we are tallawah
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Be ambidextrous: exploit your existing knowledge
skills and abilities for maximum value but always
continually explore the future by keeping an eye
ahead as to the emerging trends and use that
information to help to reposition you to beneficially
reap from the changes
I commend you the graduands of the Vector
Technology Institute Class of 2011 to the world
Thank you.