Human beings are genetically wired to aspire more than what
one can afford. This delta between aspiration and affordability (called DAA,
for the purpose of this blog post) is something that causes stress and distress
as well as progress and prosperity. People who achieve wisdom and equanimity at
an early age are able to understand the positive and negative consequences of
such a delta and are able to minimize it largely through a moderation of
aspirations. People who achieve growth and prosperity at an early age believe
in keeping this delta real and challenging so that they can continue to work
towards better living standards. This management of delta tends to be a largely
individual matter but great leaders have made, and continue to make, helpful
efforts to take the concepts of delta management to the masses. Individuals and
leaders, when aligned in their appreciation of DAA, support wealth creation of
higher order.
Great sages and philosophers have, from their early years of
life, understood the impact of delta on human sorrows and joys. Many of their
teachings, therefore, emphasise the need to be less materialistic and more
frugal in the approach to life. Even emperors and kings driven to conquests by
greed had eventually understood the need for egalitarianism to prevail over
capitalism. Modern economies have a different paradigm to contend with.
Burgeoning population requires more jobs which means it requires more products
and services. This, in turn, requires more investment and more consumption.
Even if humans learn to understand philosophically the need to compress the
delta of aspiration and affordability with moderation of expectations, the
human race is now economically wired to widen the gap with acceleration of
expectations. Leaders of corporations and nations can contribute enormously to
socio-economic development by leveraging DAA.
Aspiration drivers
Aspiration, in a positive sense, is driven singly or jointly
(in any combination) by three factors: knowledge, comparison and capitalism.
When one understands what products and services can do to improve life, and
seeks to possess them for such reason, knowledge is in play, driving
aspiration. When one compares oneself with others possessing products and
utilizing services that one does not, one may seek to have them too. In this
case, comparison (or benchmarking) drives aspiration. When one is driven by a
desire to create and deliver products and services for others to consume, and
create wealth in the process, one may be seen to be driven by capitalism. When
these three factors operate in combination the drive for aspiration gets
accentuated. To manage one’s aspirations in a constructive manner, one has to
develop an understanding of which of the factors and in what combination are
driving the aspiration.
Aspiration driven by capitalism or comparisons alone will be
ineffectual and stressful. Knowledge is an essential driver for aspiration to
be converted into achievement. However, only knowledge without a drive for
wealth creation would not fulfil potential. Aspirations tend to be often driven
by comparisons which may not be bad at all. The race to be among top performers
is, in fact, majorly driven by comparisons. However, only when comparisons are
fuelled by knowledge and capitalism, aspirations work out to be good for
society. Aspirations would be well merited and most effectively converted into
achievements when they are driven by a combination of knowledge, comparison and
capitalism. Aspirations would be most sustainable when they are also backed by
certain degree of introversion; aspiring to develop knowledge to next levels,
making comparisons more meaningful and making capitalism work for broader
society.
Achievement enablers
Besides aspiration itself (without which one would not know
what to achieve by design), there are three enablers of achievement. These are:
competency, collaboration and communication. Intellectual capital and practice
based one’s specialization develops unique competencies in people. Competencies
make people sought after for their skills and expected contributions to
organizations. Competencies, however, require two other factors to translate
themselves into achievements: collaboration and communication. Both these
factors are indispensable not only for team working but also for individual
contribution. An interactive trainer, for example, tends to be not merely
competent in his domain but also have the ability to collaborate with his
audience and add greater value through multilateral communication.
Typical educational and work systems emphasize individual
performance through grades (while in college) and through ratings (while at
work). Despite the emphasis on team work, the deeply embedded grading and
rating systems act as barriers to development of collaboration and
communication. The jettisoning of performance ratings by a few large
corporations in recent times is a step in the right direction. The real
transformation would, however, occur when achievement is built into all kinds
of activities, from daily throughput to annual revenue. Newspaper publishing is
a thoughtful example of how every department can achieve something unique and
creative on a daily basis, creating a lasting attachment with the readers.
Whether it is layout setting, headline making, cartooning, editorial, crossword
puzzle or open page, a newspaper of repute knows how to make achievement a
daily routine for everyone connected with the newspaper.
Aspiration-affordability
delta
Clearly, in a society where aspirations are set high and
achievements seek to keep pace with aspirations, despite affordability constraints,
progress is possible. India now has several aspirations; from Swachh Bharat to
Make in India, and from smart cities to high speed rails. The delta of
aspiration over affordability may look formidable, given the billions of
dollars of investments required for each of the initiatives and the current
levels of resource spend and low achievements in infrastructure building.
However, it is the large delta of aspiration over affordability that serves as
the driver of superior growth. This works in two ways. Firstly, the higher the
aspirations, the greater is the responsibility for achievement. Secondly, even
the highest aspirations are achievable if they are unitized and micronized to
daily achievement level. At a national level, such aspirations cannot be the
responsibility of the Union Government alone; States and people need to
collaborate too. Crowd-funding of ideas to qualify as ‘smart cities’ is an
example of how aspirations can be channelled in unison across the nation.
At individual level too, the delta of aspiration over affordability
drives progress. Students from weaker sections tend to emerge as strong
academic achievers when they set for themselves high aspirations. Late former
President Dr Abdul Kalam has been a great example of soaring aspirations
leading to sterling achievements, overcoming the economic constraints and traditional
social systems. Indeed, there have always been several successful leaders who
can trace their origins to humble beginnings. The delta of aspiration over
achievement never ceases to exist even after certain levels of achievement. The
achievers can continue to deploy it to propel themselves to higher trajectories
and/or provide the needed emotional and economic support to others to overcome
their own deltas. When successful persons participate in activities of social
responsibility, they tend to take social aspirations and achievements to higher
levels. Clinton Foundation and Gates Foundation, for example, have been
demonstrating how private initiatives of this nature can support social equity.
Aspirational planning
Planning is the foundational step for growth. Conventional
wisdom of planning in India has been that planning has to be consistent with
resources that can be generated. Successive Planning Commissions in India had
done a highly responsible job of guiding India’s growth. Many feel that India’s
post-independence preoccupation with socialism, licensing and controls was
responsible for India’s slow growth. The real reason could lie in the planning
model that was moderated growth plans to stay within the resource constraints
rather than aspiring to soar beyond them. There are two elements in setting the
aspirations. The first is the scale, and the second is the time. Aspirations that
are driven by higher scale in smaller timeframes are the most challenging to
achieve but also are the most satisfying for the society. Aspirations that have
a sound socio-economic logic would be able to generate resources and
commitments despite the seemingly large delta of aspiration over achievement.
India’s Pradhan Mantri Jana Dhana Yojana is an example of
what aspirational planning can achieve. Announced by the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in his first Independence Day speech on August 15, 2014, and
launched on August 28, 2014, Jana Dhana Yojana could achieve a mammoth 18 crore
new accounts in just an year with deposits exceeding RS 22,000 crore (USD 3.3
billion), which is indeed an exceptional achievement as the scheme was targeted
at economically weaker sections of the society. It is not surprising, therefore,
that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent US visit, took enormous
pride in citing Jana Dhana Yojana as an example how India could make things to
work exceptionally fast if the Nation put its heart into it. Taking this
example as a cue, India at a national level, corporations at enterprise level
and the public at individual level must jettison other forms of guided and
constrained planning in favour of aspirational planning. This is the only way by
which India can take a quantum jump into a future of superlative growth without
getting weighed down by concerns of affordability.
Posted by Dr CB Rao on October 9, 2015
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