Seek and ye shall find. If The Bible can use it twice, The Jenius can crib it with confidence.
In a recent New Yorker article, analyzed further by the inimitable Dave Pollard, James Surowiecki, of "The Wisdom of the Crowds” fame, reported on an innovative British Government proposal: to buy 300 million doses of an effective malaria vaccine when it is developed. www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?041220ta_talk_surowiecki
The Jenius hears a collective “So?”
What the British Government is doing is “pulling” a product to market by giving it a market. Instead of throwing monies at the “best ideas” (often the weakest ones with the “best connections”), the Government determines what the best idea is and sets the target amount for a successful completion.
Now Governments are notoriously dumb. It’s the nature of being a beast. But Government is often quite good at pinpointing key issues for the greater good, for they are often the only entity with a “far enough from the details” perspective and are the repository of the widest diversity of public opinions.
Pollard suggests that all government funding be of the “pull” variety. His extensive analysis and procedural method can be seen here: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2004/12/27.html
Applied to Puerto Rico, the local Government can determine key projects to jump-start Our limpid efforts at becoming a global Knowledge Economy player and let the entrepreneurial system do its thing. If the government sets too low a “market,” few or no players will jump in. If it sets too high a “market,” so long as the money goes to the private sector with no “bureaucratic stickiness” involved, the winning company or companies will simply receive a greater competitive edge. A bigger prize does have a way of sharpening One’s efforts.
Best of all, the government releases no funds unless the objective is achieved. Fear that bigger, off-Island companies will crowd Us out? The government can set the ground rules to exclude outside competition, but that won’t help much because if We depend on protection to grow up, We simply won’t grow up. The Jenius says “Let them come and We’ll kick their butts anyway!”
And if the government can’t decide what’s key or not? That’s where We come in. Notice how often it all comes back to Us.
The Jenius Has Spoken.
1 comment:
Even though I've been reading the Jenius' posts for quite some time ... well ... lets be honest ... from the beginning, I've thought the posts to be ... well ... pretty out there.
But this post hits it pretty much on the nail.
This is definitely a great wake up call for the Government to help nudge us into working on solutions for current industry wide necessities.
The Government has to stop asking their buddies to work on ideas that already have a solution, and start finding those solutions and implementing them. There are many businesses that aren’t even being considered in Puerto Rico which have cost effective solutions that can solve a lot of current Government ideas and necessities.
I would also like to add to this that we don't always have to depend on the Government for such opportunities. Lets face it, if we are to call ourselves Entrepreneurs, Founders, Business seekers, etc. we need to look a little harder at the current necessities that surround us. And, unfortunately, we blind ourselves to the possibilities even before asking ourselves how it can be accomplished.
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