Axell For Empowering Youth

Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

TRANSFORMING YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY - A Model To Transform Human “Resources” to Human “Asset” Chinmoy Sarkar, Ph.d. [email protected] INTRODUCTION Global knowledge economy is expanding due to the rise of knowledge intensity of economic activities and increase in globalisation of economic affairs due to deregulation. Economic growth is driven by the philosophy that knowledge product does not diminish in value when given away. The revolution has intensified and increased the share of codified knowledge in the economies. This codification process reduces knowledge into information and transmitted around the world through enhanced communication system. Information technology revolution has intensified the movement. The economy continuously monitors how the technologies can transform the delivery of intelligent knowledge in the decision-making process. In agriculture economy, the prime responsibility was to produce, transmit and distribute water to the customers; in industrial economy the same philosophy is developed to create similar infrastructure for electric power. Knowledge economy operates generation facilities to produce knowledge, operate transmission systems to convey the same from the generation facility to the distribution system; and also operate distribution systems to convey knowledge power received from the generation facility or the transmission system to the final consumer. Knowledge is perceived as a commodity and a critical source of innovation, extensive worth and heightened potential. The economy places knowledge workers, their innovative capacity at the heart of strategic potential. Business in a constant process of adapting new economic realities constantly innovates practices to improve products and services to prosper in a rapidly shifting environment. Youth & Knowledge Economy Modern youth live in a new society, a society that is characterised by knowledge as powerful element for his growth. . Certainly, knowledge that is valid today may be outdated tomorrow. However, there is a knowledge distribution framework in place with the capacity to navigate knowledge space that would enable them to deal with the change. The competency and individual abilities are the aim of individual flexibility and individual willingness to keep his life in continuous path of excellence. The use of computers and microprocessors including automation, sensors, and communication technology are responsible to provide youth many significant advantages to adapt to new competitive work environment. This enables them to take decisions in a time sensitive fashion with up-to-date information when activity occurs. The provision of timely information results in significantly improved performance in any operations. However the participation of young professionals in knowledge economy is mandatory as they propose multiple strategies in changing market conditions. Page 1

Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

Young Knowledge Professionals The globalisation spirit supporting the information and communication technology revolution has been an important contributing factor to the restructuring of any organisation. At the beginning of the 21st century organisations have initiated strategies to become a part of the knowledge-based economy. It has to be very adept at interpreting, transforming data and information into knowledge and linking the knowledge to any business. An organisation can derive competitive advantage in global economic scenario only when it develops capabilities to capture the value of knowledge and convert it into intelligence. The value can be extended across value chain. The organisation cannot do anything in isolation and the value is maximized only when the professionals on whom the growth of the organisation depends is organised on the expectations of the knowledge economy. The differentiating ability of any organisation is in creating opportunity in knowledge economy by effective management of its asset base. However, young professionals operate more in man-machine environment. AXELL, an asset excellence model can thus be applied to incorporate human ‘assets’ for the management of physical asset base. ASSET CENTRIC GROWTH Technological development has brought the concept of man-machine relationship in defining the term productivity. The current strategy undermines the capacity of asset base and the key challenge in the 21st century is to transform resources into assets so as to obtain a better influence on decisions. Organisations need to create a framework for managing the values of professionals to solve challenging and complex problems, relying on their imagination and creativity. They need to convert information into knowledge in organisational premises based on high levels of education and skills. This drives the basic philosophy of economic growth in knowledge economy and the accumulation of innovative ideas is placed at the heart of strategic potential to create knowledge products. Growth depends on fostering an environment in which invention, commercialization, and diffusion of new ideas will flourish A growing number of professionals see themselves as creators, organizers and exploiters of knowledge, and strongly focus on managing value, taking values to delivery. A framework to manage document and motivation has to support this. Knowledge professionals have to develop a state of mind to continuously probe into the following. Asset Definition What is the real basis when a business resource is valued many times its material worth? The business community understands the fact that the value of the resource is embedded in potential far beyond its physical worth. The resource that is valued more than its material worth in competitive market place is termed to be an asset. An asset has the potential to earn commercial revenue in an open and competitive business environment; it has asset value to be maintained over life cycle for continuity and a roadmap. Its Page 2

Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

performance failure directly affects organisational revenue and means unrecoverable commercial loss. Physical assets like substation, transmission lines in utility industry, shovels, dumpers, draglines in mining industry or rail coaches in transportation industry can be defined as assets. A process sitting on the customer interface in customer centric organisation can also be defined as asset. Knowledge like methodology in consulting domain can also be defined as asset. Knowledge professional also suits the definition of asset. A professional grows to meet a continuing exposure of excellence; he has to manage his value across life cycle that can extract dramatically better service value when taken to delivery. In asset state, a professional has to understand that he can no longer be constrained by boundaries and limits. One of the challenges for a human resource to become an asset is to be able to shift thinking, dream, research the dream, communicate researched dream to the interested community. Figure 1 presents the framework and presents the location of an asset in organisational space. Assets in the Making 3 7

4

2

8

6

1

Dream

5 Communication

Research

Direction of Excellence

Fig 1: Dream, Research and Communication in the making of assets There are certain attributes that potential human assets will need to develop; passion to work with new ideas, capacity to appreciate the value of the ideas, ability to unite complement bodies of knowledge towards opportunity creation, willingness to collaborate with industry experts, ability to connect ideas to implemental solutions, understand the scope of taking the solution to delivery. AXELL, AN ASSET EXCELLENCE MODEL AXELL is based on asset management principles that ensure the process of developing the potential of assets, managing the continuity over the life cycle to explore value and extract maximum services in the delivery. It is a strategy to reduce costs while increasing the efficiency, the reliability and excellence of assets. The philosophy optimizes asset life-cycle investments that manage quality of performance risks. Asset perspective focuses improving its current value, reducing life-cycle costs, and improving delivery

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Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

rate, revenues. It establishes a competitive superiority transforming any resource from its current problem solving state to an asset-centric opportunity creation state. AXELL acronym for asset Management Model is based on the theories of hierarchical needs and enterprise asset management principles practiced by capital intensive industries like mining, transportation, utility etc.. Abraham Maslow has established the theory of hierarchical needs to demonstrate that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs. According to him, human needs are categorized by physiological, safety, love, and esteem needs. Lower needs must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly and satisfy higher needs. Physiological needs are the strongest needs; safety and security needs have little impact except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization. Needs of love or social needs overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. Esteem is higher need to focus on self-respect. Needs for self-actualization is a need to satisfy that which the person is "born to do". Professionals try to achieve excellence state for esteem value and strive for quality, creativity and innovation day after day, step after step with uncompromising contribution, commitment, passion, integrity and insight for exploring and discovering and making dream a reality. AXELL is a framework for asset-intensive organisation to manage growth of organisational assets, create asset value and extract service value in the delivery process. It aims at bringing excellence, innovative thinking in organisational space. It facilitates an organisation having a group of professionals organised around a common vision to create opportunities for the enterprise. A subset of professionals can be treated as organisational assets. Transformation Framework A transformation framework is presented in figure 2 for an organisation to meet business challenges on three pillars; Ownership (Growth Assurance), Management (Value Creation) and Operation (Service Delivery).

Matured

1

GROWTH ASSURANCE

DESIRED

2

Regular

34 CURRENT

Value Added

5678 Standard Natural

Renovated VALUE CREATION

Fig. 2: The Transformation Framework Page 4

SERVICE DELIVERY

Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

This framework provides a holistic, overall business perspective that reflects the characteristics of agility, speed, and integration of disciplined process and focus on a holistic system needed by organisation in modern businesses environment. Growth assurance enriches the potential of young professionals and moves them from current state to its highly potential desired state. Value creation promises creation of renovated value employing processes to manage various assets. Service delivery exploits the renovated value into operation space. This framework reviews gradual adoption of business processes using information technology as a tool; it also proposes ways to enable business applications to meet value creation and service delivery processes to reach a desired state of excellence in a systematic manner. The lifeblood of the initiative is in the development of effective business process to draw better decision-making information from. Information technology provides the capability and links various systems like mine planning, asset management, truck dispatch and workforce management to meet the mine management vision. Organisation State Assessment AXELL can be used to identify the failure of the system from the perspective of asset excellence. Figure 3 depicts various states a resource or an asset can have in an organisational space. An asset cannot deliver quality service under resource centric environment. Organisation has to provide an asset an environment for opportunity creation.

Asset

Resource

Blocked Potential

Continuous Growth

Latent

Radiant

Natural Condition

Progressive Setting

Customary

Nascent

Within Resource

Asset

Fig. 3: AXELL Organisation State Assessment

CONCLUSION Modern management is centered on the principle that human workers are not to be treated as a source of expenditure but rather of income. AXELL takes this a step further to say Page 5

Transforming Young Professional in Knowledge Economy

that a subset of resources is to be treated as assets. They are independent thinkers who could take the organization forward on the strength of their ideas, creativity and commitment. An asset to an organization would add value to the organization beyond his expected deliverables. Most of the countries have adequate level of readiness in respect of infrastructure, skilled human resources, and business environment to work in the production economy. Many already have a national human resource strategy to address emerging challenges. However, knowledge economy is a new phenomenon. The fact that knowledge is available in the Internet at the click of a mouse button makes all the difference for knowledge professionals to succeed in knowledge economy. There has been considerable debate on the scope for improvement of attitude of knowledge professionals to respond to challenges particularly in ensuring that innovation and domain centric thinking has a bigger investment in translating their potential into continuity and delivery. There is an immediate need for developing human resource strategy to implement a framework to take care of asset development in organisation. The challenge is to provide an environment in which knowledge professionals come out of their existing monotony of routines, grow beyond their obvious role of resource controller and work towards value creation. The paper has presented AXELL, a model for professional nourishment from a dreamer, researcher to connoisseur based on their growth in Continuity and Delivery. The paper has also argued that there is a strong need for continuous monitoring of their growth in the color path. Three forty three colors present intermediate states for knowledge professionals to mature as a rainmaker in the industry. Even more importantly, an exclusive focus has been given on transforming knowledge professionals from problem solving state to opportunity creation state. More on AXELL can be retrieved from the website: www.axell.in. About the Author Chinmoy Sarkar brings wealth of experience to capital-intensive industries like mining, utilities, and oil refining as an educator, leader, business and information strategy consultant and facilitator. In his progressive consulting career, he is a regular author and invited speaker in national and international conferences, networking groups, workshops and television media on knowledge economy, change management, enterprise asset management, information system strategy planning, and enterprise transformation. Chinmoy has consulted organisations towards restoring asset management philosophy in asset-intensive work environment. His vision is to explore asset capabilities and move all the assets in organisation from current state to a healthy, balanced and revenue-nurturing state. In knowledge economy, he believes, the instinctive talent and creativity of a knowledge worker can play a major role in promoting extraordinary opportunity for organisation. He models this belief in his framework AXELL to champion the philosophy of asset excellence and capture organisational entities having potential of an asset. The model explains how to go about systematically enhancing asset performance and links capability building strategy of asset-intensive organisation to delivery and business creation. The model is special by its applicability across various assets including business processes, physical plants and machineries, and knowledge professionals. Chinmoy has conducted workshops on this model for organisation in India and abroad. Leading academic institutes in India have conducted programs on AXELL. Page 6