Robin Trehan (B.A, MIB, MBAe-business)

Are we ready for a response for the challenges posed by China, India and other countries? At present our workforce is losing jobs, the factories are getting closed, and our basic education system (primary and secondly) is behind many countries. Our work is getting outsourced to low cost countries. Very soon, even the intellectual level, white collar jobs will be migrating to other countries. Even the best of the best companies are being eyed by the Chinese and the Indian companies. The case of state owned Chinese Oil Company bidding for Unocal is a prime example of it.

How will America create jobs in the future, as most of the jobs are going to developing countries? Even when the bottom line results are improving for the corporations, job creation is missing? What’s the way out? How do we maintain our competitive edge? For us to have a clear understanding of it, we need to comprehend the basic of it, why they are becoming competitive and challenging us. The reasons are-

• Cheaper Labor.
• Educated hard working population.
• Growing middle class with more money to spend.
• Developing countries creating a favorable environment to retain talented people, thus reducing “Brain drain”.
• Improving research and development all across the board.
• Improving infrastructure to support the growth of industries and services.

If we analyze, we see that it is true that these countries have cheap labor but this is not sustainable. As their economy strengths, the China and India will lose, as the cost of production increases, so will be the wages. They will lose their low cost competitive edge. Supply and demand is based on price. We as America will keep moving our manufacturing bases, imports and services wherever we can get them at the cheapest price. Cheaper imports help us to control inflation; in fact it creates a deflationary environment.

Moreover, we have to keep in mind that these upcoming powers have a system which is authoritative communism on one hand in China and rampant corruption in India. We also know that with more than 2 billion populations (2/5 of world’s population) among these countries, if there is not enough job creation, it will lead to massive social economic and political problem.

The question here is about America and “our objective,” which is singular to win”. We have to make sure we do not fall like a Roman empire. We have to take measures and set up dynamic strategic plans to make a better future for our coming generations.

Here are the steps; I will suggest we should take-

1. Revolutionizing our schooling system both at the primary and at the secondary level. We should also create a sense of competitiveness in our school and classes. Parents should also become more responsible and involved for their kids social educational needs.
2. Making our higher education system less expensive. We need to see that there are no economic barriers for the students who want to do something in their lives. Education system of Europe ( France, Germany, Switzerland is worth looking in this regard).
3. Making sure we have the best technology and best research and development labs. For this to take place, government need to further increase the funding, so as so blossom a climate of inventions this will improve our technology edge.
4. Providing value added services and protection to domestic industries when and as needed.
5. Creating new innovative companies, so as to grow more jobs in the new sectors of the economy.
6. Further, enhancing the entrepreneurial support environment to have more entrepreneurs likes Bill Gates, Michael Dell.
7. Improving our InfoTech infrastructure at the earliest. It includes both the Internet and cell phone infrastructure.
8. Investing heavily in inventing alternative cheap source of energy. Thus reducing our dependence on oil.
9. Making our workers more wage competitive by removing labor unions. No way we can compete will low cost countries when we have such a high labor cost. The recent case of Delphi bankruptcy is a pointer in this direction. Wages have to be competitive based on international standards.
10. Making our society information knowledge based service economy.
11. Revamping our immigration system to attract the best brains from across the world.
12. Imposing serve restrictions against countries/companies using child labor, giving low wages and having poor human right records.

American is a land of opportunity. We are given an opportunity to reach the sky. We have the resources and have the will to win. We are flexible and are willing to embrace new ideas. We are asking the right questions and the answers will come for sure. And most importantly, we have the courage to follow our heart and intuition to be the best. We already know what we truly want to become and have a common objective to be “The best”.