3D Leadership for National Renewal

3D Leadership for National Renewal - Abstract

A perpetual immigrant, Professor Frederick relates his life course that brought him to New Zealand and describes what he found here.  One of the country’s early advocates of the “knowledge economy” path to economic development, Frederick outlines his vision of leadership for the new millennium that will help restore New Zealand to the top half of the OECD and grow the cake for the prosperity of all.  He relates what we expect from our leaders as well as his personal vision to leadership in New Zealand.

3D Leadership for National Renewal

I have been in New Zealand for five years now.  In my first year I obtained permanent residency, by 1999 I was able to vote.  My third year found me becoming a New Zealand citizen and in my fourth year I found myself in the nomination process for Parliament in the party of Michael Joseph Savage.  Now in my fifth year I feel totally at home.  There aren’t many countries in which a new immigrant could follow this path.  Certainly not in Germany, where I last lived.  Certainly not in Virginia, where I taught at Mary Baldwin College in the Shenandoah Valley.  There, you have to reside for three generations before you are accepted in the community!

As an ex-Californian, New Zealand had always been on my radar screen as a tourist destination, but little did I know that my life course would lead me to these beautiful South Pacific islands.  By the mid-nineties, I had been beating my head against the German bureaucratic wall as managing director of an SOE in the Free State of Saxony, that former communist but high-tech East German Land, when I saw an advertisement in the Economist for the David Beattie Chair at Victoria University of Wellington.  In East Germany, my job had been to jump-start Saxony’s entry into the “information society”, as the Europeans called it.  But the idea of taking that idealism to a country so identified with innovation quickly overcame me.  Now I find myself the only Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in one of the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurship countries.

When I arrived in New Zealand in 1998, the print media, particularly the business press, was filled with the doom and gloom of Brierley’s and the stock exchange.  Reading the National Business Review was a particularly despairing task.  The Knowledge Economy?  No where to be seen.  I wrote New Zealand’s first “Knowledge Economy” report for the Shipley government (Frederick and Don J. McIlroy 1999) (Frederick and Donald J. McIlroy 2000), which set the course for the rise of present “knowledge wave” policy.  This led to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports, which benchmarked New Zealand as one of the world’s most entrepreneurial nations.

New Zealand has slipped from being one of the world's richest nations in the 1950s to 21st position in terms of GDP per capita in 1999.  Although the New Zealand economy grew, other developed countries grew more rapidly.  The economy will need to grow on average by 4 per cent per annum over the next ten years to allow us to get back into the top half of the OECD.  We have to excel globally as a major source of high-value innovation in our existing areas of competitive advantage and in new niches, providing a business environment and a quality of life that attracts innovative individuals and firms, and retains our own.  Knowledge has become a key factor of production, rather than capital and labour.

All of this can only be underpinned long-term by a world-class education system, at all levels.  Knowledge has become a key factor of production, rather than capital and labour.  Although the specifics of economic development will vary across countries, the basic principle of the importance of knowledge and innovation are consistently important.

So you could say that I am one of the earliest advocates of New Zealand’s “knowledge path” to prosperity and national development.  I have given more than two hundred speeches in the last three years exhorting audiences to believe that we’re not just “World Famous in New Zealand” but rather “World Class Globally”.  Much to my surprise, the message resonated deeply with New Zealanders.  Once, after what I thought was a particularly stirring speech at the Rotary Club of Otahuhu, the Rotarians even felt moved to break out in “God Defend New Zealand”.  So I knew I was on to something.

So in this paper, I’d like to speak about leadership in concrete terms, terms in which I have spoken to New Zealanders.

What New Zealanders Want in a Leader

Research shows New Zealanders want a future that is focused on education and togetherness (UMR Research  ).  In December 2001, survey pollsters working for the Knowledge Wave Trust asked a representative sample of New Zealanders,
If you are a sports fan, as I am, I know these are tough choices!  But the winner here was “a society that thrives on knowledge, creativity and enterprise”.  The survey went on to ask, how do we do that?  Raise tax rates?  Borrow money?  Or “grow the economy so there is more money available”.  Yes, eighty-three per cent of us preferred that.  Eight-two percent saw lifelong education and skills training and essential.  Seventy-three per cent saw our future prosperity is dependent on increasing exports of high value products and services.

Call me a bit conservative, but the progress that New Zealand is experiencing—indeed, must experience—makes people a bit unsettled.  We have more choices, enjoy freedom to travel, are able to communicate globally, have the capacity to work and live fulfilling lives, but our choices are harder as are our responsibilities.

We are a nation at change.  We see that we cannot become more prosperous by relying solely on commodity exports.  To survive and prosper in the new economy, we must add value to our products and work to create a knowledge society and economy.

But many people—particularly our older and disadvantaged citizens—fear what lies ahead.  Technology and globalisation are transforming our economy.  Economic change is uprooting communities and families from established patterns of life.  We must come to grips with globalisation and find niche advantages, otherwise we risk economic triage.

We must embrace change.  I’m actually a product of change.  I chose to come to New Zealand because I love change.  I “interviewed” countries and found a place where innovation is part of the national culture.  Where people adopt new techniques readily.  Where there is a can-do attitude and space to carry out our dreams.

I looked for a country that was moving away from selfishness and towards ideas of belonging and of community.  For a country where people want their leaders to manage change with them.  Not resist it.  Or turn over to the marketplace.  This is why I chose New Zealand.

In my view, today’s society requires radically different leadership skills to survive in the rapidly changing global economy.  Our leaders must be highly flexible and responsive.  If I were to list the “top ten” expectations that citizens should have of me if I were their leader, I would list (2001):

1. Foster a dialogue with in the community that suppports constant learning and self-renewal
2. Create an appetite in the public for continuous change.
3. View every member of society as a valuable contributor
4. Share my expertise as well as my mistakes freely with others.
5. Share power and decision-making
6. Demonstrate commitment to my own learning
7. Have a strong sense of purpose for myself and society
8. Encourage relationships and the building of networks
9. Demonstrate courage and inspire others through my own actions
10. Have high personal and professional standars. 

My motivation has always been service to others.  Though I have straddled the fence between business and academia, throughout my life I have dedicated myself to the search for fairness and truth.  My life’s work has always focused on raising the standard of living and knowledge.  My leadership aspirations have four main planks:  support for small business, emphasis on education, the preservation of our environment, and prosperity through technology, all the while staying true to the values of diversity, social justice, democracy, co-operation.  Business, education, environment, technology—BEET.  The humble beetroot best encapsulates my kaupapa.

Like all New Zealanders, my family is also the product of many voyages.  We came to America in the 1840s as immigrants from Germany and England.  My great-great grandfather is buried on the Oregon Trail, where he repaired “prairie schooners.”  Another jumped ship from the Austrian Navy while docked in New York City.  I have been a “Westie” all my life.  Born in Seattle, I spent the formative years of my life along the West Coast of California, Oregon and Washington.  My father was a lumberman from the Pacific North-west and came from the working class.  My mother acted in Hollywood movies in the 20s and 30s before she married.  My father served in the Pacific, Alaska and in Europe during World War II.

We benefited from post-War life in America.  I received a full bursary to attend the Stanford University.  Problem was, I attended that elite institution from the “summer of love” to the invasion of Cambodia, a period of intense social upheaval that influenced the course of my upbringing.  I became a democratic activist, conscientious objector and anti-war advocate during Vietnam War.  My religious upbringing was influenced by the Society of Friends (Quakers) and by Mohandas Gandhi.  I became known as an advocate of technology in civil society and as a bit of a peace propagandist.  I obtained a Masters degree in Radio-Television from San Francisco State University and worked for some years in the media.  I returned to school to receive my PhD in International Relations from The American University in Washington, DC, specialising in global communication technology and economic development.  My doctoral dissertation found me visiting Cuba many times and focused on the so-called “radio war” between the competing broadcast voices, Radio Havana Cuba and the Voice of America.

I’m just the kind of talented new immigrant that New Zealand needs to attract in order to grow and prosper.  My experience coupled with my global understanding as a new Kiwi gives me tremendous advantages.  One of my biggest strengths is in my faith in and vision that we can increase the size of the cake for us all.

In New Zealand’s early days, wealth came easily.  There was only one debate:  who got what slice of the cake.  In the modern world other nations have surpassed us.  We must learn how to use our innate ingenuity to create new wealth.  We need to learn how do grow the cake for the benefit of all.  We need a cultural revolution where leaders show the way, where smart people educate others, where we add value to commodities and create new value-added services and products.

I believe that government does indeed have a role.  That role is to lead reform, to equip the country and our people for change.  And what is more, government must articulate the case for reform by allying it to a vision of the future and to the values that underpin it. In this way, political direction and leadership can exert their own beneficial modernising force. The vision is of a society where we liberate the potential of all, as workers and as citizens.

What is the agenda to get us there?  The “New Zealand syndrome” is an over-dependence on commodity exports.  The end of the bumper pastoral earnings is coming.  We have to disconnect our future from this business to survive.  The Ministry of Agriculture could be correct in forecasting a nearly $1 billion fall in pastoral export returns by the year to March 2005.

Meat and butter are no longer the most important commodities for New Zealand’s future. Now, that commodity is information.

There is no doubt that the world is at the beginning of a new Age and, as happened at the beginning of the Industrial Age around two hundred and fifty years ago, it is changing the very fabric of everyday life.  Let’s call it the “knowledge revolution”.  To define it specifically, we could say that the generation and exploitation of knowledge now play the predominant part in the creation of wealth.   Economic historians such as Karl Marx have pointed out that each society has unique “factors of production”.  Agricultural societies used farming and handicrafts.  Industrial societies relied on machines and industry. Knowledge societies now use data, information, pictures, and symbols to create wealth.  Indeed, the short-hand definition of a “knowledge worker” is someone who manipulates symbols as their primary economic activity.  That would include everyone from bank tellers to architects to educators to politicians.  In advanced societies, more than half the workforce is knowledge workers.  At the heart of the public policy towards the new economy is the idea that helping people in the new economy is not about protection but empowerment. An economy based on knowledge is one where people are the greatest national resource.

As a result, the “old left” idea of equality in the sense of uniform outcomes or income is replaced by the notion of equal worth.  Each person has value, has potential; our common task is to develop it.  This requires not only a change in economic policy but also a change in social policy.  Indeed the two become linked.  Welfare and labour market reform, lifelong educational excellence, job up-skilling, business entrepreneurship all become key policies of social emancipation.  These social questions about creating a caring and prosperous community are ultimately about creating a new sense of citizenship based on rights and duties together.  Throughout our neighbourhoods and electorates we see a search for (some would say, lost) community that is a response to change and insecurity, but also reflects the best of our nature and our enduring values.

New Zealand is central to that global search for community because of its long tradition in defending freedom and liberty around the world.  We have the chance in this new century to achieve a more just society and a more open economy.  But we will succeed only if that open society and economy are underpinned by a strong ethos of mutual responsibility.

I share the conviction of those who call this the “Third Way”.  It is an alternative that supports both economic and social progress.  We declare our strong commitment to wealth creation, innovation and entrepreneurship using marketing mechanisms.  But at the same time we stay true to clear values of social justice, democracy, and cooperation.  Perhaps this is New Zealand’s greatest contribution to the world today:  the melding of individual freedom in a market economy with the commitment to social justice through the action of government.

I share the vision that was outlined in the SIAC report Innovators to the World:

We are a country of confident people who respect and reward ideas, knowledge, enterprise, and innovation.  Our heroes include our innovators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, our educators and scholars, artists and scientists, environmentalists and community leaders.  Our children flourish in an environment that encourages learning, and trying, in which they have time and space to be creative.

As I said, all my life I have been a Westie.  Much of that was spent on the West Coast of America.  Now I’m on an even more testy edge.  For my entire life I have striven to serve people and the lead change.  Here on “The Edge” that is called the Aotearoa.  As Kevin Roberts has said, we have our Greatest Imaginable Challenge: that New Zealand should become the world's edgiest country. The country with attitude.  Prosperity flows directly from this.  Framing our attitudes as a nation that lives and breathes and performs "on the edge".  Believe it!  We are the edge.  The edge of the planet.  Where the world starts, everyday.  An expectant universe awaits our creations.

The present Coalition government is following a path parallel to those of other modernising centre-left governments.  It seeks to reconcile social justice with an energetic and competitive economy.  We have made a fresh start, with the advantage of learning from others who have taken third way approaches. My leadership goal is to work to build a prosperous, equitable economy and society that shows how entrepreneurial, innovative and exceptional New Zealand really is.  We’re the edge.  New Zealand is where the new stars are forming.  No dream is beyond our reach.

 

Reference List

1. Australian Business Ltd. 2001. Business Development Through Innovation Resource Kit. Australian Business Ltd.

2. Frederick, Howard H and Don J. McIlroy. 1999. The Knowledge Economy:  A Submission to the New Zealand Government, Ministry for Information TEchnology Information Technology Advisory Group. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry for Information Technology.            
3. Frederick, Howard H and Donald J. McIlroy. July 2000. New Zealand and Its Competitors in the Knowledge Economy. Telematics & Informatics.

4. Frederick, Howard H and Peter J. Carswell. 2001. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor New Zealand 2001. Auckland: New Zealand Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
5.  Frederick, Howard H et al.  Bartercard Global Entrepreneurship Monitor New Zealand 2002.  Auckland: New Zealand Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

6.         UMR Research . [http://www.businessnz.org.nz/content/Omnibus%20Results%20Dec01.pdf].