A word that seems to be perennial in the lexicon of political and economic consultants is ‘innovation’. Consultancy gurus tell business and political leaders that unless they innovate, they will die. Innovation has been transformed into an unambiguous virtue and its quest has almost become a religious cult.
Innovation has, of course, brought substantial changes in our lives. In medical science, we now have the technology to diagnose disease much earlier than was previously the case. The pharmaceutical industry is continually coming up with new drugs to combat diseases that previously resisted any treatment.
In the financial services field, we have seen the introduction of automatic teller machines in the last century that has made the handling of cash much easier. We also have internet banking and today one hardly needs to ever go to a physical branch to transact their business.
But there have been many other innovations that have not served us well at all.
The deregulation mania that afflicted the banking community in the last few decades of the 20th century saw banks offloading the dud mortgagees they oversold to their gullible customers by inventing securitisation. They packaged these risk loans in what was then perceived as an innovative service known as securitisation. We all know that this innovation was the spark that ignited the financial crisis in the US. It seems that rating agencies and banking supervisors were just as gullible in not seeing the inherent risk in this innovative service.
Scepticism about the new is not necessarily a question of age. It is often a characteristic of pragmatic thinkers
In politics, we see young political leaders convincing the electorate they have the right painless solutions to stimulate vibrant economic growth. They believe they have broken the boom-and-bust cycles that are constant in economic life.
Part of their innovation strategy is to dump traditional politicians with decades of experience. These new kids on the political block share the fallacious belief of tech investor Vinod Khosla that: “People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.” If by new ideas, they mean an abandonment of integrity and social values than I wonder how productive their innovative strategies will ever be.
What often passes as innovation is just gimmickry and gloss. In the world of politics and business communication, we are better off using earplugs to preserve our sanity.
Social media has brought about enormous benefits but it has a dark side that is still not correctly managed. The propagation of hate by individuals and empty political rhetoric by morally bankrupt politicians seems to be unstoppable now that they can broadcast their views from the comfort of their homes and with little expense.
The most worrying aspect of innovation we have to suffer is the promotion of consumerism. When expensive home appliances break down, we no longer have a viable option to repair them.
We are told it is more economical to scrap them and buy new ones. One kind of innovation that I would most certainly welcome would involve businesses offering repair services for goods with minor defects that can be fixed at a reasonable cost. Perhaps the most dangerous innovation that we should worry about relates to the field of education. Our educational system has been underperforming for decades.
While many go through the system successfully, mainly because their parents offer safety nets when the system fails them, many others just fall in between the gaps. The educational authorities are continually coming up with innovative ideas on how best to prepare young people for the real world of work.
The poor results speak for the shallowness of these innovative strategies.
One innovation that seems to be eluding business and political leaders is the rediscovery of the wisdom of enforcing basic standards, whether it be in education of customer service. The ‘cult of maintenance’ may be an unglamorous notion but we would surely be better off if we had more sticklers for the fundamentals. To achieve this, we need a new generation of business and political leaders who are capable of reinventing themselves by discovering the merits of maintenance alongside innovation.
Many innovators try to hide their incompetence by promoting a cult of innovation that is built on a disregard for fundamentals. They want to create a wow factor that often lasts for a very short time like the colourful display of fireworks we see in our village feasts.
Scepticism about the new is not necessarily a question of age. It is often a characteristic of pragmatic thinkers.