New competitiveness factors in today’s global business environment: education and on-going training, labor market flexibility, development and integration of financial markets, investment in research, innovation, high-tech and infrastructures.
The Search for a New Order
Making a new start in Lisbon, to counter the pessimism of reason (and the latest Eurostat data) with the optimism of determination. The new Europe created in Maastricht is once again launching the challenge it set itself at the beginning of 2000, to turn the Member States into the world’s most competitive economy by 2010 by giving priority to full employment and greater competitiveness, rooted essentially in technological and scientific innovation. That commitment, endorsed during the extraordinary Lisbon European Council held five years ago, has failed to achieve its ambitious goals, in part as a result of the dramatic events of September 11, 2001 and their impact on worldwide economic prospects. But instead of abandoning all attempts to put the Eurozone’s economic recovery back on track, we should be looking for every possible solution to re-fuel growth. And faced with the powerful development of the Asian economies and the competitive pressures of a more agile US economy, we need to focus on issues that not only provide a contingent response but also lay the bases for lasting growth to ensure economic prosperity for this and future generations through work and employment.
The compass with which this fresh start will chart the new path to growth is “innovation”, a key weapon in competition on the global marketplace.
As European Commission President José Manuel Barroso explains “we must deliver jobs and growth by making Europe an attractive place to invest and work in and by placing knowledge and innovation at the heart of European growth.” Given the previous failure of this approach—albeit with all the extenuating circumstances—in backing innovation no expense should be spared in investing in research and attaining an expenditure target of 3% of GDP; this is essential to enable Lisbon 2 to produce its growth effects, partly because, Barroso adds, “there is no credible alternative.” Adriano De Maio, former rector of the Milan Polytechnic and now rector of the LUISS International University of Social Studies in Rome, agrees, although his field experience, in research, leads him to take a slightly more critical stance with regard to the timeframe for such action to be effective. “It will take at least twenty years to close the gap between Europe and the United States. We have to invest in human capital, education and training, which is the key to innovation and competitiveness.” This is already well underway in the Asian region—notably in China and India—and enables those countries to support their modernization drive. The benefits these developments have accrued in terms of ability to compete on global markets are what has made the Asian Tigers the new players in the world economy, explains Nariman Behravesh. “The basis for the dramatic improvement in the competitiveness of Asia is not low wages but very rapid improvements in productivity,” believes the chief economist at Global Insight, overturning the old idea that the low cost of their products—and a tendency toward low added value—is the driver behind India and China’s growth. Innovation is also the new key to a correct understanding of the growth rates of the market economies, stresses US economist William J. Baumol; indeed, innovation rather than price-fixing is the factor to which management gives priority in key sectors of the economy.
Closing the innovation circle, theory and strategy need to be accompanied by the human factor, by that emotional intelligence that can motivate an entire team of people to achieve the most disparate innovation challenges, in the view of Brian Muirhead, chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Projects section of this issue of arcVision examines the close ties between architecture and an innovative search for solutions, in a cultural and not just technological thrust that always keeps the finishing line one step ahead.
