Managers and Development

The progress of a country depends on how well it utilizes its capital, natural resources, technology and human resources.


In modern societies, these resources are increasingly utilized by specialized organizations and institutions, both public and private sectors, which produce a large share of the goods and services needed by the society.


These organizations do not run by themselves.


They are managed by the people. It therefore follows that these organizations must be run by qualified managers if the resources which they command are to be utilized effectively.


The importance of management and managers for economic progress, especially in newly developing countries, has long been recognized.


Thirty years ago, Harbison and Myers wrote: “A country’s economic development may be limited by a relative shortage of this critical resource (:i.e., managers).


In many countries, management is an even more critical factor in industrialization than capital, and it is almost always more vital to development that either labor or natural resources.”




Why is high quality management needed in the development countries today?




First reason is that the poorer nations have more limited supplies of capital and other critical resources needed for development.


The managers in such countries therefore must use the available resources more creatively and efficiently compared to their counter parts in the more developed countries.


Second reason is the increasing interdependence and competition within the international economy. Business firms led by multinational corporations from japan and the western countries are doing business in a truly global scale.
               
Recently, we had also seen increasingly Korean, Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian investments in the Philippines, just as Philippine firms, such as the San Miguel Corporation, are also investing in other countries in the region.


With improvements in transportation and telecommunications systems and the reduction in legislated barriers to international trade, the world has become more truly one “global economy”.


The third reason is that change has become more rapid.


The rate of technological progress has increased resulting in new methods of production (e.g., robotics and biotechnology), products (e.g., cellular phones and synthetic materials) and new modes of marketing (e.g., through the internet).


These  in turn result in the obsolescence and disappearance of pre-existing products.


In the developing countries, high population growth, increasing literacy and education, rapid urban migration and rising expectations have increased the demand better living standards.


These and a host of other social, economic and political changes put pressure on the managers of the institutions in such countries, wether capitalist or socialist, to innovate in order to adapt to or cope with these changes.