Mindset must shift to stimulate competition
Silburn Clarke, an information and communications technology expert, says Jamaica must seek to revolutionise the way it produces goods and services in order to be successful in an everchanging world.
“Jamaica can’t compete using the old factors of production. We were taught when we were in school that in order to be successful, a firm must compete for cheap labour, access to cheap labour and land,” Clarke said.
“That type of production was suited for a time long gone,” added Clarke, who is the CEO of Spatial Innovision.
“Nowadays, you have to compete intellectually. You have to compete on your human assets. When you look across the globe, the country that has the best trained and the most innovative people creates the most innovative society and creates the highest value in terms of business value,” he added.
Clarke argued that this shift in mindset would inevitably stimu- late competition.
“The real estate of the past is now the real estate here,” Clarke said, while pointing to the head.
“The financial capital of the past is now your human capital here, and the low-cost labour that people used to talk about, that doesn’t work anymore. It is the sharp, smart labour here that is going to allow you to compete successfully,” Clarke said.