URGENT DELIVERY: DELIVERING THE GOODS REQUIRES DELIVERING MORE AND MORE

http://www.afr.com/p/national/professional_services/accounting_graduates_face_job_market_ml4M9I3CEBdkesW84JzqoJ; Jennifer Eyers. "Paradigm Shift for Local Law Firms"; http://www.lawcareers.net/Information/Features/25022013-Adapt-or-die



I've made the point so many times: And I believe these articles merely emphasise it. The professional and commercial world is changing. So GET AHEAD OF THE CHANGE.. I will not repeat the statistics already tabulated in these Financial Review columns: (Paul Keating's favourite paper, and I appreciate why). The figures largely speak for themselves.

'WHAT COUNTS IS WHAT YOU DELIVER'

We are definitely upon the threshold of a global meritocracy. As the emerging middle class emerges in the BRIC countries and eventually, even, Africa, the power of place will matter less than the power of proximity to growing markets. Like him or loathe him, Rupert Murdoch made this point in his Boyer Lectures. Incidentally, it was Murdoch and Packer, the inconoclasts, who outflanked the establishment in the pursuit of profit.

Thus a venture partner from Sichuan Province raised in the turbulence of the Cultural Revolution likely does not care if you went to Monash, Melbourne or even Oxford. What counts is what value you add to his business or his brand. Of course, he may care: But China has minted countless rural billionaires who happened upon cost-effective and scalable business models emerging from the depths of poverty.

WITH GLOBALISATION'S BENEFITS, YOU TAKE THE COSTS

If Western society wishes to enlarge the global project - the converse could very well be a dangerous mistake - then the Euro-American and Australiasian economies will have to adapt to the 'externalities' of a global marketplace for talent, goods and increasingly ideas. If you are a one-trick financial modelling expert, and your job can be outsourced, most companies will trade players simply to compete. Be more than a utility player: Be a Global Star. If you can cut across disciplines and geographies, and exhibit presence of mind and cultural nous, you may go further than the most decorated, credentialled rival. At least I hope so..

Protectionism will not work. The Australian car industry, for instance, struggles with this conundrum. The industry's product is too expensive to serve the cost-value market (cf Kia) and too inexpensive to serve the luxury segment (think Mercedes or Lamborghini). Australia does not have any obvious competitive advantage in this field of endeavour. And to protect underperforming sectors will distort the economy and reduce our attractiveness to Asian investors.

A PROBLEM I NOTICED AT UNI

We do not, in the West as a whole, allow critical thinking to flourish. China, I understand, is mandating training in emotional intelligence or EI, a point Daniel Goleman makes in HBR. No longer tethered to Maoist orthodoxy or rote learning, Prof Niall Ferguson has suggested that Asian students outperform American and European classmates even in the humanities. They master both STEM and social science. We have to improve literacy and numeracy by broader, collaborative learning and cultural sensitivity. One-lecturer marking and examination templates have to go. They're nonsense.

For example, in Law School I would challenge the lecturer about his interpretation of a hypothetical problem or the application of complex legal principle to a case. 'No, that's wrong. The answer is X'. 'Oh, is that so", I would query, "then why did this commercial entity pay a team of QC's thousands per hour to argue the matter'? No response.. THIS IS PLAIN DUMB: AND THE EMERGING MARKETS WILL CALL US ON 'DUMB'. 

So whether you're a Harvard PhD or a mathematical genius from a remote Indian village, what counts is WHAT YOU DELIVER.. 

GOOD LUCK!