When I was invited by Ahmad (SoCRaT) to start some articles in Techienotes.info, I was honored by this invitation, however, I was not really prepared what will be exactly what I will say in this section
After some thoughts, I revised my passion towards technology, and what exactly attracted me to majoring in it, and taking this field, and why I shifted from a technology geek to management and leadership, and this was a point to start with
Actually, 10 years ago, when I was graduating from the Faculty of Engineering, as an Electronics and Communications Engineer, I only recognized myself, as an innovator, an Engineer who designs new innovative stuff, using the latest edge technologies, sharing in forums, producing papers, and books about the topic or group of topics I am specialized in, and leading some research groups to put my country in the edge of innovation, and setting an innovative edge to my nation
However, when I came out to the market, this dream was totally destroyed on the rocks of the technology leadership in The Middle East, I found out some roadblocks that will stop me from realizing my dream
Facts I realized about Technology and Innovation Leadership in Middle East that will be our points of discussion in the next articles
Fact #1– Technology employment market is very narrow, when you are in one company, you can count the geeks in other companies, when you stay for more than 4 years, you are almost stuck, and it is not easy anymore to move to another competitive employment market
Fact #2- Technology Innovation is just a decoration in the companies, most of the companies which have Research and Technology are not serious about it, they do not induct a proper budget for R&D, most of these companies open R&D in The Middle East to make up a portfolio for themselves, or to Arabize their products, but are they serious about it? No they are not
Fact #3- Leadership in this field is left to Academic Doctors, not to professional business leaders and according to proper business planning, and this is a fact, most of the Research and Development companies, are led by professors, who are not business professionals, they know very little about business, and too much about research, so they keep micro managing, and getting down and involved with their research projects, without proper business planning, and without focusing on profitability, and research management, you can rarely find a research project that is well managed in terms of resources, budget, timing, and profitability
Fact #4- Top management of Corporates who have R&D as a department enforce the corporate culture on the R&D department, or the Technology innovation departments, they want them to dress in suites, and to attend on time, take their breaks on time, equaling them with any manufacturing or operations, or customer support or Sales forces or departments, even the incentives, and benefits are the same, the fact is technology innovation culture is different, it has to be treated in a different way, each division in a large enterprise should be managed in a different way, only values should remain the same, but way to apply the culture and regulations should differ according to the function
Fact #5- The plan is that there is no plan, only the leaders see what is the international trends and they follow it, either customizing their products, going to further cost reductions, size reductions, or arabization, but the fact is that there are no aggressive product road-maps, based on Market Research, and Marketing planning. Technology Innovation Leadership in the Middle East do not trust that they can set the international market trend based on what their strategy is, thus causing disappointment
Fact #6- No collaboration with other forces in the market, or the region, each company wants to do it alone, no group projects, no usage of academies, or universities, no use of governmental facilities, no use of open source forums, or international forums, this approach in technology innovation does not yield to results, at all, the companies should know they are not alone, they should start looking for collaborative programs, make use of all the facilities around them, and set peer pressure, to enhance the market, it is not smart to fight alone. This peer pressure will cause the whole market to rise up, and become more competitive
Fact #7- There is no trust in innovative ideas, technology leaders only trust their ideas, but not the Geeks ideas, the geeks are hired to give out innovative ideas, and this is their job, so let them do it. Leaders are just to make maximum use of these ideas, and not just to think and geeks to execute
Fact #8- It is prohibited to have individuals shining, this is the worst of technology innovation leadership practices, as most of them prohibit the shining of individuals they have, they always want to be in-it, or to take the shining all, and this is totally demotivating, and killing to the spirit, research geeks, and innovators, like to sign their names on their ideas, this is the most motivation they seek, they do not seek money, or bonuses as much as they seek room to innovate, create, and collect their recognition out of putting their names besides their ideas
Fact #9- As much as money, and yearly income is not a motivational factor, however, it should meet the minimum basic needs, this is another dilemma, when the technology innovators, or geeks are on less salary and benefits scale than their business counterparts, and even in some countries, like Egypt, they are almost on the line of poverty in terms of pay and salary, most of the salaries are so low, if they move to Professional Services, or Training Fields, they will be better paid than others, and this is not reasonable at all
Fact #10- Shining the competitors, and humbling to other companies or countries. Yes, The Middle East is still not on a competing edge in terms of setting standards of international competition, but this does not mean not trusting the forces that they could build up innovative ideas the west or the other countries did not yet think of. This tone of defeated leaders will always keep the Middle Eastern Innovation Houses crippled, and no hope to go into competition
Fact #11- Innovation is not done in the local language, geeks who do not know English, are regarded to as dumbs, who are not worth joining innovation teams, thus about 80% of possible geeks are discarded, because they are not fluent in English language, while the fact that innovation in any country should always be led in local language and the mother tongue, because normally this is the comfort zone of the creative mind
Fact #12- There is no brand or case to defend in The Middle East Innovation houses, this is a big issue, cause normal motivation comes from following a case or brand to get people motivated to competition, normally geeks and innovators are just following their wit, and comfort as professionals to join multinational brands, there is nothing local or no patriotism nor creed behind giving more to the companies they work for, so intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators are not efficiently used.
Of course these twelve facts are not the only facts, there are more, I hope you can share with them, the next articles, I will talk in details about each point, and how to get out of it, and what are the main drivers that will help technology innovation in the middle east become better.
Your inputs are welcomed
Just Some Techie Notes! 