AN INDIA–based research expert challenged the Benguet State University (BSU) to come out of its usual comfort zone and surpass excellence.
Dr. William Dar, the director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi–Arid Tropics in India, said BSU should exceed its usual performance in order to achieve the genuine excellence.
He shared the principles of Mark Bodnarczuk, the executive director of the Breckenridge Institute, based in Boulder, Colorado which could help shape a school, nation, community, organization, and the culture of business.
Dar said these are the four global forces: advances in science and technology; global redistribution of knowledge, power, and wealth; competing political, cultural, and religious ideologies; and sustainability of the physical environment.
Dar described the first force saying “We have become a global village. We know what is happening on the other side of the earth instantaneously. This has irrevocably changed human experience of space and time that existed for more than 10,000 years. And yet, despite the continued expansion of silicon-based memory, the information processing capability of the human brain remains more or less constant, so this global force places enormous and immediate stress on people’s ability to manage ever increasing levels of data and information.”
Furthermore, he explained the global redistribution of knowledge, power, and wealth. “We have seen the impact of the business process outsourcing industry boom on our economy. Economic growth in developed countries like the USA cannot come from putting more people to work or from an increased number of domestic consumers; so, it must come from the increased productivity of knowledged workers, which creates increasing pressure to do more with less. This trend will only intensify as the global redistribution of knowledge, power, and wealth runs its course.”
On competing political, cultural, and religious ideologies, he said “some thought-leaders like Stephen Covey claim that we see the world as we perceive it to be, not as it is. Reality is now viewed as a social construct: reality is man-made. Mass media and now social networks have made it so easy to create and globally disseminate new structures of reality.”
Meanwhile, he said BSU has everything to produce a productive student who could compete worldwide. “How do you win? You win by leveraging your strategic advantages and playing up your strengths. You win by internationalizing not only your students but also your faculty and even non-academic personnel. You win by embracing ICT in its many applications in the delivery of instruction, research, administration, and related services. You win by fostering collaborative skills and working with other institutions, organizations, and even with your alumni who are dispersed throughout the world. You win by instilling excellence in all facets of your operations and accomplishments.”
Moreover, he continued “you win because you are assiduously serious with academic discipline but fun as a place to study and work. You have a long and venerable history yet you are relevant to your communities, the country, the region, and the world.”
Dar cited these during his speech on the celebration of the school’s 27th Charter Anniversary on January 11.