This Session was particularly interesting, with the primary focus of the first part of the lesson being on the drivers of Global Change. The reading Material for the first session was also though provoking. two articles that really captured my attention were the first and third readings, which were the 1)drivers of global change to 2060 and the 2) 2025 global trends. Both articles highlighted the Shift of cultural and economic power towards the from the west to east. 3 future powerhouses are singles out in these articles : China, India and Russia. These are apparently the rising stars of this century. The West fears this, these countries do not hold share the common values as them, ( with the exclusion of India, which the US sees as an ally). It in fact seems that in this next half a century we will see the conventional western model of democracy being challenged as China and Russia become dormant player in the world. What will be real interesting is how the US will cope with a China that is stronger then them in terms of both economic and military strength and how the turning point in the world's history when China starts to assert it's political, economic and military power throughout the world. Indeed an interesting issue for discussion is how the wold will be at the point of time (somewhere near the middle of the century? ) where China, India, US and Russia will have almost the same level of economic, military and political dominance.How will the world simultaneously support 4 different dormant players ? Is Conflict between them likely to occur ? What will be the cultural shifts likely to take place ? Will US popular culture still dominate the airwaves ? If not, Who would it be ?
Another Issue brought up in the both these articles is the fact that Climate change and a scarcity of global resources is likely to cause problems throughout the globe as we head into the future . Both reports have mentioned this as cause for concern. What I find worrying however, is that too little is being done to tackle this problem ! In light of the current economic recession, Some countries have actually cut rebates for green energy technologies. The Solar industry was particularly affected by such moves, especially in europe, with Germany, Spain and Italy all reducing their subsidies for solar power. Sadly it does seem that we may be encountering a problem here, as governments choose to cut back on such policies in the name of fiscal austerity.
now to the interesting issues brought up in the class:
During the first half of the class, we were introduced to an interesting diagram on adapting to change. It gave real model of how technology gets disseminated and also introduced us to the concept of the Chasm, the need to cross it so as to produce products that can be used by the mainstream. This is indeed very true, but taken for granted, hence it was a very good learning point for me, that technology need not just be cutting edge but more importantly, getting it across the Chasm is vital for any product to achieve success in the marketplace.
The Secondpart of the class focused on Change management,
Here, the discussion was on change management and the shift for old model of development( freeze, unfreeze , freeze ) to the new, more dynamic one.articles for reading included one on the different between leadership and management.which i have to disagree with certain point , namely the difference in the relationships that mangers and leaders have with others.It statedthat leaders created human relations that may be turbulent, intense and even disorganized. I have to disagree that on the turbulent part as, i believe that leaders must have a very strong relationship with their followers,a turbulent relationship and even disorganized would be no means help a leader lead !
overall the rating for this class would be 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment