Afro Asian Business Chronicle

By Indranil Roy

We live in an ever-changing world, the old order  constantly giving way to the new. Given that this process is a slow and cyclical one, a close look at the history of the world reinforces this even more. Be it civilisation, culture, political events, the arts and literature, fashion trends, whatever… we find enough evidence of what is called the cycle of life. This cyclic change may not be very evident for an individual living in a particular moment in time. Only when a few generations pass and one is far removed from it in time and space, does it become more pronounced, academically relevant, and ideologically paradigmatic.

Nothing illustrates this better than when we try to make sense of how the world's socio-economic order is seemingly reaching a full circle, with the focus of growth and development now shifting from the developed world to the developing world. Notwithstanding relentless efforts of the developed world towards "globalisation", with profound indoctrination about notional and academic shift in the distribution of economic and political power, the pecking order is clearly changing.

The recent economic recessionary years have hit the developed world where it hurts most, below the belt. They have enjoyed the party for many a years, a number of them at the cost of other world, and the post-party hangover was long overdue. What has stemmed, delayed rather, a complete transition of power yet is the "rationally conditioned", experience-honed, politically influential, and economically backed superior minds of the developed countries. However, it is no secret that they have let the ball slip out of their hands. No wonder, today an Obama, a Sarkozy, or a Cameron need to keep reminding the citizens of their respective countries to not let the minds of the developing countries gain further grounds over them.

Beijing's feat of hosting one of the most spectacular Olympic events ever, or South Africa's success at holding a truly glorious and dazzling Soccer World Cup extravaganza, or India's global footprint in areas of software development, support services, analytics, and yoga, and similar such stories from the developing world may look like ripples, or even small waves, on the surface of water. However, beneath these seemingly few and far between events are taking place an inevitable tectonic shift, heralding the onset of a completely new global order. Dreams of global prosperity and security, hitherto inaccessible to hundreds of millions of people from the developing world due to a restricted global arena they could play in, have now reawakened amongst these people with renewed geopolitical and socioeconomic relevance. Inevitable, shifts in political influence and military eminence are bound to follow such economic changes. Case in point, after more than two centuries of retreat, China has rediscovered its geopolitical eminence, and India has successfully set afloat a "soft power" that is felt everywhere today. Empirical evidence in the form of economic statistics bolsters these assertions even more.

Of course, this change will not happen without huge resistance from players of the developed countries. In hushed whispers, the corridors of power in the US or Europe are already discussing the "political sustainability" of globalisation, thus throwing up more and more instances of protectionism politics. One can similarly hear many an eminent voice speaking of China's disregard for Intellectual Property Rights or manipulation of its currency. All these points towards an inevitable conclusion today - the developed world's deeper concern in the discerning rise of a new pecking order! What they did to the rest of the world for a few centuries now seems to be done to them today. As rich countries, they enforced "globalisation" upon the rest of the world, claiming benefits for those to whom it was done. Little was it seen as the last ditch efforts to cling to the last bastion of power it wielded over everyone else. The beneficiaries of globalisation, both on the surface and underlying, seem to have reversed on their heads. Suddenly one can attribute strategic fears to all these protectionist impulses.Yet, it's easy to see that the trends are not going to reverse anytime soon. A globally integrated world has a self-sustaining momentum, driven by an ever-strengthening technical and collaborative ecosystem - including information technology, integrated communications platforms, and instrumented and collaborative tools and technology. The developing world has never had it better. These barrier-breaking drivers have been and will continue to be catalysts in envisioning its onward march to conquer new frontiers - only if it is ready to let go of the shackles of prejudice that has chained it to ideologies and beliefs with vested interests for centuries. Effective economic integration and global governance, coupled with humility of purpose, is the only way forward if the developing world needs to gain its place of prominence rightfully due to it for a long time now!

Writer is a Senior Advisory Consultant,

Organization Strategy and Transformation,

Global Business Service, IBM India Pvt. Ltd.