Dr. Conchita L. Manabat l January 24, 2024 l Business Mirror
“You’ll spend most of the rest of your life in the future . . . and you’ll never get out of it alive.”—From a futurist
AMIDST the festive environment of 2023 Christmas and the onset of the 2024, many international concerning events hugged the headlines—the continuing Ukraine war, the Gaza miseries, the Houthis’ encounters, the geo-political threats, the rapid developments in technology, threats and consequences of artificial intelligence, and more. The world seems to be in turmoil.
For most of us, there is always a good promise what the future brings. Experience equips us to overcome the challenges that the future may present. Some believe that the future can be conquered based on what happened in the past. If these premises were correct, how come the world is always besieged with crisis after crisis despite great minds at work. Well heralded new ideas and norms have evolved into threats and real risks.
The world has indeed changed and continues to change. Technology yields robust changes that imply “less relevant experience” has become more practical. You can no longer learn just from experience. Simply extrapolating from what we know and where we are today may no longer be useful. The variables, the timeline, the other significant elements and more, keep on changing and becoming extraneously time sensitive. It seems that the name of the game is to take on and manage risks instead of avoiding them. Reluctance to make bold decisions with more studies and consultations renders actions stale or too late to arrest the likely enormous damages/consequences.
The “unknown” is now the realm of all possibilities. Wrapped in a digital skin with an internal clock ticking away 24 x 7 x 52, the global economy resource base knows no boundaries and time zones. Instant response has become the norm. Quickest time is of the essence!
The baggage of experience may be better left behind to provide a clean platform for an entirely new play of things. Clinging to the past serves as constraint. As the buzzwords say, think outside the box! By taking a giant leap into the Great Unknown, we can participate in making the promises of the future happen. We need to participate and make our mark for our future.
*** Dr. Conchita L. Manabat is the president of the Development Center for Finance. A past chairperson of the International Association of Financial Executives Institutes (IAFEI), she now chairs the Advisory Council of the said organization.