25.09.2000 Turkish Daily News
Main Assets of the new economy
 'The intuition will click.' According to Professor Güliz Ger from Bilkent
University, intuition is crucial when it comes to making it in the New
Economy, because when you leave the beaten track of the logic and
convention of your so-called learned knowledge and instead follow the
fingerprint of your personality, what you find is unique. And for Ger,
competitive strategy is about being unique.
Is the New Economy yet another smart management term requiring you and your
company to hire $ 500-per-hour management consultants telling you what you
already know?
According to observers of the corporate world, the New Economy - where
ideas and creativity are a company's main assests and the Knowledge
Management Officer is a key executive - is the inevitable development of
the information era. This era created a paradigm shift in communication and
therefore in the interaction between people worldwide...
Follow your intuition, it is the fingerprint of your personality
"I tell my students: 'Go and draw, do a music class, do yoga, anything to
awaken your senses. Then intuition will click'." According to Proffessor
Güliz Ger from Bilkent University, intuition is crucial when it comes to
making it in the New Economy, because when you leave the beaten track of
the logic and convention of your so-called learned knowledge and instead
follow the fingerprint of your personality, what you find is unique. And
for Ger, competitive strategy is about being unique.
In a paper entitled "Localization in the Global Village: Local Firms
Competing in Global Markets," Ger states that the new global cultural
system actively promotes differences instead of suppressing them. One of
the reasons for this is that today's consumers draw from all available
resources- global and local, new and old- as they use products to construct
and communicate their identity, to relate to people, to mark social
differences, to seek comperative status, and to pursue emotional aesthetic
pleasures.
…once a company has located and mobilized the resources its news for its
particular field it is time to dust off the intuition of its workforce,
since transforming resources into something of unique value requires an
innovative thinking in the conception of strategies are founded not only on
analysis, but on insight and intuition as well.
But Ger does not welcome diversity just for the sake of diversity. Just
because something is new does not necessarily make it better, and openin up
to new ideas must be done with a reflection and comparing awareness, an
awareness which ideally should be developed throughout our education.
"There is no such thing as the truth," Ger underlines and elaborates. "One
thing can be predominant, but for the sake of our future and the future of
our students, we should present them with alternatives, expose them to
diversity and give them the ability to be critical and question this
diversity."
Ger strongly supports abroad educational backround in several fields, where
the students will have multiple cultural experiences and develop
intercultural relations. In the post-industrial world people are generally
very analytical. But neither analytical nor creative abilities can stand on
their own. They must complement each other in a constant dialogue between
the intuitive, creative and insight abilities and the logical, rational and
analytical ones. Ger adds that as individuals we may not hold all these
abilities at one time, but the awareness of the different aspects enables
us to build up teams covering all aspects, teams where the individuals
complement each other.
The question is not whether we want the New Economy; in Ger's opinion, it
is inevitable, and personally she welcomes it. If they are dealt with
respectfully and sincerely, Ger favors all aspects of diversity. Combined
with a reflecting consciousness, diversity is both an opportunity and a
resource in the New Economy… |
