The case for re-engineering Zim
We need to redesign our own way forward and the revolutionary tool at our exposure is “re-entrepreneuring”, thinking a new powerful idea into the future; and “reengineering”, designing new ways and letting go of the old.
Reengineering is a term that was popularised by the book with the same name, Reengineering the Corporation by Noel M. Tichy. It means crushing the old and designing the new. Re-entrepreneurship is a rethinking of a new future to create a new vision or goal. We need to rethink Zimbabwe and the new vision created then crushes the old and the new starts!
There are ways we can adopt to create more predictable and measurable ways to redesign our economic model to meet today’s standards, based on current technologies, and understanding. Unfortunately since 1980, we have been too embroiled in trying to fix the mess that has been caused by the neocolonial (colonial residual control) and divisive post liberation politics such that we are far from being strategically positioned as a country to look at the benefits of new paradigm economics based on modernized industrialisation as the leading idea. Too much politics, too much selfish pursuit of power, greed and corruption have consumed our energies resulting in too little imagination and a commitment to national interest to make Zimbabwe great in all senses of the word.
In my opinion, re-entrepreneuring and the re-engineering of Zimbabwe is therefore the best way to start. In simple terms, it is the rethinking, the redesign, and the crushing of the old systems be they social, political or economic.
One of the primary principles of revitalizing/transforming an organisation is for the stakeholders, the people, to agree on the need for revitalization, that the nation or the continent needs to be upgraded to higher states and hence higher conditions of life of the citizens. This will lead to a unanimous agreement to create a new vision and also agree on the best processes to realize the vision.
The three-act model in The Transformational Leader by Noel M. Tichy and Mary Anne Devanna is a great format to start from. It urges us to first know that we are now operating in a new Global Playing Field. They then structure the “three Act” drama as follows:
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Recognise the need for revitalisation/ transformation.
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Create a new Vision
Institutionalise the change. (Structure a system that is a fit for the new vision)
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Re-entrepreneuring and re-engineering of systems involves a simple technical flow process of creating a new vision and new commercial and industrial models, reshaping a new world view of a nation and then designing and structuring a new institutional structure that will be a fit for the new transformed way of shaping a nation’s future. It is the process of re-entrepreneur-reengineering; the two go hand in hand with institutionalisation.
Re-engineering is walking away from the old and crushing the old systems which do not work anymore and ushering new ones. It could be the political model, how politics is done, and the process of finding a new leader. It could be the economic model that becomes out of date and needs redesign and implementation. It is simply the idea of designing a new process; creating a transformation using a new vision and a new strategy that makes use of the power of new knowledge, new understanding, and new technologies.
New technologies always multiply and speed up production, making things more plentiful, cheaper, and creating wealth for the nation faster. Bear in mind that the best vision for an underdeveloped nation should be at least 40 years with a 60-year focus into the future of how you want to position your nation on the global platform.
Most nations in Africa adopted the 2030 vision drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which is a great mistake in my opinion. Number one, it is not organic, starting from the thinking of the leaders of that nation. Number two, the correct vision must be at least 40 years to attract the level of high capital and growth.
African nations, including Zimbabwe, are stuck today without adequate capital because they have not re-entrepreneured and re-engineered to repackage the economic processes under a new big and far enough motivating vision which will excite investors with the hope of making profits over a long time.
Investors of big money do so for the long haul. Ten years is not enough to attract big capital. The rate of economic growth of a country which is at the beginning of development like a “third world” country increases in a multiplied way over a 40-year period, then slows down to rates of up to between 6% and 8% growth. This happens because the major needs of infrastructure, public services, schools, hospitals, factories would have been built. Any growth after that will continue mainly to satisfy the increasing populations as generations grow into mainstream society.
A good example is China. China’s GDP was about USD180 billion in 1979. In 2006 it was USD3.5 trillion. Guess what in the next ten years it multiplied almost four times to become USD 12 trillion. The African approach to planning today and the level of consciousness of the leaders cannot produce that kind of growth. A Re-engineering process can. We need completely newer approaches to change Africa into a modernized world. We need an overhaul of our social commercial and industrial systems. We are six decades and three industrial revolutions behind.
It is fact that the developed nations are already gearing for the fourth industrial revolution led by what they term the 5G internet connectivity technology that is much faster than the present connectivity technology. Then there is quantum technology that is under research that is even much faster, so fast that engineers are not sure what products are going to be created from that. Every technology gives the opportunity to create massive wealth faster.
If we don’t catch it, the nations that have already tested it will come and take advantage of the power of the technology and take away our wealth by producing or selling things to us on our land.
Zimbabwe needs new processes, models and systems to unleash a new power in creating wealth for the nation so that the government can provide public services at the highest level. Citizens can also function at their best with better training and better quality of life. At the end with new products and services the citizens will rise into a higher standard of living.
In the science of the radical change of a nation, in this case the fast track modernization and industrialisation of Zimbabwe, there are some very interesting scientific principles which every national leader needs to know. The first surprise is that culture is the custodian and medium within which, data, information, knowledge, wisdom, and technologies circulate amongst the citizens within a society till a critical mass is reached when the society is “pregnant” to produce a higher standard of production systems.
From time to time, in spaces of time that are getting shorter, technologies continue to change into faster ways of doing things.
Generally, to utilise the new technology and knowledge there is always someone who will be inspired to see the future accordingly to usher in a fast-tracked change process. When this natural system of the gathering of knowledge has been messed up by the interference of a nation’s culture like what happened to through colonialism and the emergence of an unnationastilic post-independence liberation struggle comprador, then that nation loses the power to accumulate that knowledge and technologies creating a unique way of changing into the future.
Sadly our political parties have not been designed to grow organically and embrace the science of change so as to nurture new leadership and empower the “nationalist” with the intent to create the best socioeconomic experience. That is the reason why Africans have been stuck for six decades and are now being taken advantage of by foreign nations. We need to redesign our own way forward and the revolutionary tool at our exposure is “re-entrepreneuring”, thinking a new powerful idea into the future; and “re-engineering”, designing new ways and letting go of the old.
We need to move beyond history and individuals into the transformative power of the future by accepting proactive psychological succession by allowing newer younger leaders. All the above make a clear case of re-entrepreneuring and re-engineering of national planning processes.
The time has come for us to realize that the political and governance models of today cannot help us. It is our realisation that we are the ultimate authority and we are the help we need to fix our nations and get back on track to advance our standards of living. The best place to start with is that of re-entrepreneuring and re-engineering, rethinking the future scientifically and organically and creating the new and crushing the old.
Musewe is a Harare-based author and independent economist. The article is an extract from a forthcoming collaborative book with Hannington Mubaiwa, an engineer, titled The Riot Act — The Rapid Africa Plan for the Rapid Modernisation and Industrialisation of Africa. These weekly New Perspective articles are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, independent consultant, past president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society. — kadenge.zes@gmail.com or mobile +263 772 382 852.