Revolutionary empowerment Monash Conference Paper

Revolutionary Empowerment: A Re-look at Spirituality,
Cultural Integrity and Development

Murray Hunter
SME Unit
University Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)
Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia

Abstract

A large proportion of people in rural areas throughout South-East Asia, although not
considered in absolute poverty, exist in relative poverty, lacking perceptions of
opportunity. Many development and empowerment programs to assist rural development
have failed or brought only qualified success. Current education systems do not really
meet the needs of rural communities and tend to be orientated towards those wanting to
be involved in industrial development. This paper discusses these issues and provides
some possibilities of what could be based on new emerging paradigms.

To equalize rural-urban affluence requires a great effort of imagination; …. Systems of ideas
and values that suit relatively affluent and educated city people are unlikely to suit poor, semi-
illiterate people. Poor people cannot simply acquire an outlook and habits of sophisticated city
people. If the poor cannot adapt to the methods, then the methods must be adapted to the
people.
E. F. Schumacher1

God does not change the conditions of a people until they change their inner shelves

Qur’an 13:11

Competitive advantage grows fundamentally out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers
that exceeds the firm’s costs of creating it. Value is what buyers are willing to pay, and
superior value stems from… providing unique benefits that more than offset a higher price.

Michael E. Porter2

Opportunities are a product of our mind and these visions can become the design of our future
with skilful and creative utilisation of scattered existing and forgotten resources to create great
unimagined synergies. This is the true power of creativity that God has given humankind.

Author

Introduction, Background: The Current Situation

It has long been recognized that economic growth in the developing world is not
providing equality of opportunity to all people. Economic growth in the developing world

is region and urban orientated, leaving vast masses of people still without the ability to
benefit from development. Unfortunately aggregate economic reporting often fails to
highlight these regional pockets and then miss the attention they deserve from
development programs offered to other groups in the same countries. Many of these
groups cannot be classified as in absolute poverty, but are trapped in a situation where
income can satisfy only basic living needs and vocational and entrepreneurial education
is out of their reach.

This paper reflects my journeys and time in places like Sabah, Kelantan, Kedah and
Perlis in Malaysia, many parts of Southern Thailand and time spent with people
concerned about the development of Namibia. This paper is also based on reflection upon
many well intentioned development programs which I have seen and sometimes
participated in, that have failed due to poor delivery, failed to capture the aspirations of
participants or ended up being a promotional exercise rather than a real attempt to
improve the situation on the ground. Unfortunately, I have also seen some programs
insincere about their true objectives, improving the wealth of the implementers, leaving
target groups no better off. There are also programs within the existing education and
government delivery systems run for the purpose of achieving necessary KPIs, rather
than tackling the real problems and issues at village level.

After years of development efforts, years of focus, well after political independence, the
plight of many millions of people is not reported in any news, ignored and forgotten, and
unlikely to change in the future. According to notable people in the field of rural studies,
empowerment and anthropology, the writer’s personal observations are a wide spread
phenomenon in the developing world3.

People have a differing set of opportunities according to geographical location, family
background, education and access to resources. People without outside intervention can
remain in poverty because of the lack of saving and capital depreciation, which prevents
them from investing in the future. The area they live in may also be remote and without
adequate physical and social infrastructure. There may be lack of individual and group
innovation and access to technology. The ageing of skilled artisans and drain of any
young skilled people, lured by urban opportunities, compounds this problem further.
High fertility rates and sickness may prevent many from playing active roles. Add the
effects of droughts, floods and other natural disasters; the plight of some rural
communities is insurmountable.

It can be generally said that the scope of opportunities are much lower in rural than urban
areas, leaving a choice for the younger generation, either to stay in the village and accept
what is, or drift to the cities in search of new opportunities. Rural population moving into
the cities is one of the major drivers of urbanization within the developing world, putting
great stresses on urban infrastructure and development, often straining already limited
fiscal budgets. This compounds rural infrastructure development problems, where
governments tend to prioritize development of the urban areas with the limited resources
they have. Even for people with ideas in rural areas, there is difficulty converting their
concepts into an opportunity, often from a lack of specific technical knowledge, skills,

networks and resources. For married and single mothers, there is strong social and
economic bonding to the village, leaving them in a situation that may be just a little
above subsistence.

During my time visiting rural communities in South East Asia, I have observed some
common factors to exist. Development stagnation occurs because of a generally lower
educational disposition than the rest of the country, which prevents rural development
keeping pace with urban growth. With remoteness from urban areas, many villages are
usually unable to benefit from any existing tourist industry. An ageing farmer population,
equipped with a limited knowledge of potential opportunities and matching skills also
exists. There is usually growing unemployment sometimes leading to a host of social
problems and a wide gap in affluence between the towns and the surrounding rural
hinterland. A scarcity of ideas, resources, access to markets, education and skills leads to
a narrow mindset, within what Goffman calls a psychic prison4, maintaining a sense of
powerlessness. Usually a total lack of will sets in.

For those that make the choice to migrate to the urban centres, urban life will introduce
them to a new set of cultural traits that need to be learned to survive. These cultural traits
are often far removed from the values and beliefs they are brought up and used to. Some
of these new traits weaken cultural identity and can bring about both a crisis at the
individual and social level. Today in many Asian societies, the children of those who
migrated from the villages perceive things and behave in vastly different ways to their
grandparents, leaving their parents with divided loyalties between the value systems of
their parents and children.

Higher education is out of the reach of many in the village due to a number of barriers,
such as cost, pre-requisite achievement and other selection factors. Those that intend to
stay in a rural area after completing their education, often lack the specific information,
knowledge and skills directly relevant to what they might want to do. Most existing
entrepreneurship education is taught with the assumption that people want to grow their
business to the size of a definable SME. This may not necessarily be the aspiration of all
people in rural areas. Conventional resource acquisition is another part of many
entrepreneurial programs in situations where the availability of finance or enough savings
to start a new venture may not be present. Thus available entrepreneurship education does
not meet the needs of most.

After the Second World War many developing countries gained their independence. This
brought about political emancipation from their former colonial masters. However in
many cases colonial governments were only replaced by ‘neo-colonial’ governments
dominated by a few families, which relied upon western ideas, institutions and strategies
for development. Numerous local economies were dominated by multinational
companies, foreign owned financial institutions, relying upon primary products as the
major source of foreign exchange. Development advice was provided by benefactor
countries within the socialist strategy where the government played a major role or a
mixed economy model, following a classic industrialization strategy based on Rostow’s
stages of growth model5.

Growth strategies focused on building industrialization in the urban centres. Where the
country had a large population with potential spending power, import substitution
strategies were employed to build employment. These strategies had consequences on
rural development which was largely ignored. Technology was imported in ‘turnkey’
form, soaking up savings for investment. Often this did not result in any significant
competitive advantage, so had to be propped up through protection. These policies also
tended to ignore industries with potential self-employment, based on traditional skills and
handicrafts. The result of this was a loss in traditional skills and cultural organization
systems. The effect of development practices actually socialized oppression.

Changes in Thinking

Shortfalls in investment relied upon foreign aid, which literature over the past few
decades has both advocated and criticized. Much of this aid was focused on infrastructure
and national development. The general western institutional consensus during the 1960’s
was that development should take precedence over equity, which would be redistributed
later. This paradigm was so strong that Meier’s Classic textbook on development
economics did not even mention poverty and income redistribution in its first edition6.

Eugene Burdick and William Lederer summed up the foreign aid situation in their
bestseller The Ugly American back in 19587. It was the young engineer Homer Atkins
who worked side by side with the local villagers to create things that were needed for
everyday life, while both the Soviets and Americans played with foreign aid for political
advantage. John Perkins book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man greatly elaborates
(although factually debated and disputed8) about the role of foreign aid for political
advantage9.

Geoffrey Sachs in his book The End of Poverty heavily criticizes the clinical approach
taken to poverty eradication by the major international agencies. He claims that “many
poor countries today pretend to reform where rich countries pretend to help them”10, and
that aid agencies tend to be fixed on developing symbolic rather than substantive projects,
in what he terms the “motions of reform doing little in practice”11. Sachs recognizes that
development starts with the people themselves, who must be ready and willing to act both
individually and collectively, rejecting the acceptance of their fate12.

The Education System

Institutionalized education has undergone a massive change over the last couple of
decades. Education has transformed itself from an integral part of a country’s
infrastructure that lays a claim on government resources, to an activity that can generate
lucrative profits for providers. Education is undergoing corporatisation and even
privatization to some extent, and is now one of the fastest growing industries within the
global economy. Education is no longer a recipient of aid, but a source of profits.

Growth of the education sector tends to be centered in urban areas and is perhaps the
second largest single item of expenditure for families after a house (in many rural areas,
it would cost much more than a house). Educational institutions tend to offer courses that
are popular and can provide a means of gaining good and high paid jobs in the growing
industrial economies. Courses like business and engineering are growing, while at the
same time courses in agriculture and rural activities have been scaled back dramatically.

Business education has generally followed the American model based on the MBA. DBAs
and BBAs are also taking their place along side the MBA in a number of hybrid forms
around the developing world. Henry Mintzberg, considered by many to be one of the
founding fathers of modern business management has been one of the most vocal critics
of the current business education system and the MBA, in particular. He stated that “…
regular full-time MBA programs with inexperienced people should be closed down. It’s
wrong to train people who aren’t managers to become managers…. MBA programs are
confused between training leaders and specialists. At the moment we train financial
analysts and expect them to become leaders…to be superbly successful you have to be a
visionary…success can come if you are a true empower of people, are empathetic and
sensitive, these are not the qualities that the MBA will nurture. MBA programs usually
attract neither creative nor generous people and the end result is trivial strategists13.”

Compounding the problem further is that there are few programs available to rural people
at or near their domicile. Institutions set up specifically for community education most
often lack instructors with business experience at the micro level. Those courses available
are mostly based on conventional small business courses, that are totally inadequate as
they fail to empower participants in the creativity of ideas, and focus on business models,
which already exist in heavy competition. They don’t show how to seek resources
outside of traditional institutions and lack guidance in showing how to seek innovative
ways to apply useful technology to the circumstances of how and where they live. The
gap between what is available, and what is needed, can be seen when contrasting the
various tenants of the small business and entrepreneurial paradigms as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Small business and entrepreneurial paradigms

Attribute Small Business Entrepreneurial Business
Risk Risk is to be avoided by Ideas and opportunities are always
undertaking a business activity risks. Every village and every
that is already proven to be person is unique and will have
successful. Therefore business different ideas that suit them.
models will not be novel.
Need to Achieve A small business is totally Financial return may not be the
orientated towards a financial prime motivator. Individuals and
return. groups may want to produce
something they like and have
pride in.
Creativity An enterprise will fit into a The enterprise from the first idea
proven model so not much may be driven by many types of

creativity is needed. creativity, and creativity itself
may be a source of satisfaction.
Flexibility A small business is a business Individuals and groups may be
operated through a disciplined looking for maximum flexibility
routine in most cases. in an enterprise, so it can fit in
with their life, rather than they
have to fit in with the small
business.
Change Small businesses rely on little Change in the environment may
environmental change for suit individuals and groups as
success. they don’t want to get locked into
routine, and change prototes their
creativity.
Independence Financial independence is the We are already independent and
objective. don’t want a business to lock us
into a strict routine.
Foresight A daily, weekly, monthly or We may have to keep coming up
seasonal cycle that is with new things to keep the
predictable. enterprise going.
Initiative There are very tight resources to We rely on initiative to keep
have much initiative. going, and all initiatives are
considered.
Control of The future is controlled by sales The future is in our hands of what
destiny in the marketplace. we want to be.
Commitment Total commitment. I want to be committed on my
terms.
Leadership I am the leader and do all tasks. Leadership is defined by tasks.

Technology

Rapid advances in technology are driving economic growth and development throughout
the world. Technology advances were the catalyst of the industrial revolution. The
advances in information, communications, containerization and transport technologies
over the last few decades have provided the means for businesses to operate on a global
scale like never before. However, technology in much of the developing world is adopted
without question. Dr. Asma warns there …“is also the tendency for Asian countries,
including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in development by importing many
technologies and systems wholesale from abroad without going through the process of
mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although Malaysia is going
through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of
knowledge contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are
consumers and operators of sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported
wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain extent undergoing a technology-less form of
industrialization. This transformation of values and attitudes is a key issue in the nation’s
development agenda”14 . Blind acceptance of technology is a barrier to empowerment,

reinforcing the accepted market structure. Accepting technology as a given, is associated
with a paradigm of doom, inhibiting local innovation.

Technology as well as driving economic growth is also creating a number of destructive
effects upon traditional lives in the developing world. Joseph Pearce in a sequel book to
Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful, states that “the introduction of inappropriate
technology in third world countries has forced many millions to uproot themselves from
villages and migrate to the cities, where they are doomed to lives of urban squalor and
deprivation15’. It is ironic that the quest for economies of scale and large enterprises in
the developing world is actually contrary to business growth trends in the United States
and Europe, where small business makes up the majority of economic activities16.

One of the major themes of Schumacher’s philosophy was adapting technology to suit
small group enterprises so they could benefit from economic development where they
lived, without the need to migrate to urban areas. He argued that economies of scale was
a misguided argument and that production costs would not necessarily be any higher due
to small scale production. This idea has been shown to have success in the recent
documentary The New Heroes demonstrating through examples that technology can be
adapted successfully to the micro-level with great benefits17. Building one’s own capital
goods and means of production is in-fact one of the key success factors in the Japanese
being able to successfully compete on cost against the Chinese in international markets,
according to Chen. A lesson can be learned from some of the Japanese companies.
Japanese companies have been able to build their own plant and processing equipment at
a third of the cost of the Chinese18, who purchased their equipment from third party
vendors. The Japanese have realized that this is a source of competitive advantage and
are able to continue to export from a much higher cost base because of substantial capital
savings. Technology is simply about how to produce things in the most practical way.

Many government agencies and programs aimed at eradicating poverty in the region have
lacked market orientation. Any individual successes would appear to be more the result
from a few committed and passionate ‘local champions’ who have been able to develop
the imagination and commitment of the people they are working with. Many different
development models have been utilized and new initiatives launched which often seem to
lack thought and sensitivity to the target groups they are aimed at empowering19.

The Malaysian Experience

In the Malaysian case, the Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi
has given strong personal support to the Ninth Malaysia Plan. The plan has a major
objective of revitalizing the agricultural sector to become the third pillar of growth in the
economy20. Although projections of the agriculture sector’s percentage of GDP is still
expected to decline over the next five years, from 8.2% in 2005 to a forecast 7.8% in
2010, real GDP is expected to increase from RM21,585 million in 2005 to RM27,518
million in 2010. A real growth rate of 5.0% p.a. is required to achieve this21. This
objective is expected to be achieved through increasing Government expenditure in this
sector from RM7,749 million or 4.6% of total Government expenditure during the

Eighth Malaysia Plan to RM11,435 million or 5.7% of total Government expenditure
during the current plan22.

The vision for agriculture under the Ninth Malaysia Plan is to transform the sector into a
technology and skills based sector, relying on estate sector expansion, research and
development and entrepreneurship to improve productivity and increase efficiencies. The
Government will attempt to facilitate this through investing in infrastructure
development, human resource development and increasing funding for research in the
sector23. Through this approach, new sources of growth are expected to be exploited,
agro-based processing expanded with diversified products, new global markets
developed, thus increasing the incomes of entrepreneurs, farmers and small-holders24.
The policy recognizes that there are still pockets of poverty in rural areas and a slow
transformation of small-holdings into modern farms25. The Ninth Malaysia Plan is very
specifically focused on the above issue, when compared to the Third National
Agricultural Policy (NAP3) 1998-201026, reflecting the changes in thinking from the late
1990’s, when that document was written.

The most crucial part of the Ninth Malaysian Plan agriculture policy is in the area of
human capital development. The overall macro-economic objective is to increase
productivity by 6.2%27. The policy specifically focuses on “emphasis will be given to the
provision of training to change the mindset and attitudes of farmers and fishermen as
well as the younger generation including those with higher education to participate more
effectively in modern and commercially orientated agricultural activities’28. Not only is
this measure intended to improve productivity, but assist in creating job opportunities for
those unemployed in rural areas, a source of poverty in Malaysia. The plan to train
657,720 people over the next five years shows the immense size of this initiative and
priority of the Government. Under these programs, small and medium size entrepreneur
ventures are specifically targeted as a major component29.

The smallholder sector in Malaysia produces the bulk of the country’s cash crops and
their contribution to food production is significant. However, most smallholders suffer
from uneconomic land sizes, exposure to commodity price fluctuations, rising input and
production costs, shortages of labour, soil erosion, and persistent low productivity. There
is also a high degree of monoculture in this sector and this is stressing soils. Together
with many poor farming practices, the bulk of the smallholder sector is unsustainable,
where high levels of phosphates, pesticide and herbicide residuals are finding their way
into waterways and the water-table itself. This group is among one of the lowest income
groups in the country.

In addition, the children of smallholder families, given the opportunity, are attracted to
other careers outside farming, as they see this as a way out of poverty. This compounds
labour shortages and starves the sector of good management and entrepreneurship. Thus
the sector is left with an aging labour population. Also, good agricultural land near cities
and towns is now worth more for other uses and many sucome to the temptation to sell
their land.

The smallholder sector generally has a very low technology base. There has also been a
large failure in successfully implementing new crops and developing village based
products in the sector. Research institutions like MARDI follow only national new crop
agendas, so regional new crop development is left to the various state agriculture
departments, most having extremely limited resources for research, development and
extension. There are a number of steps required to successfully implement a new crop,
which needs technical, management, entrepreneurship skills and finance. Financial
institutions are extremely reluctant to advance funding for new crops and technology
development. Smallholders have traditionally only been interested in cultivating crops for
other people to market and sell, thus missing more profitable parts of the value chain.

Table 2. Issues and problems Encountered in New Crop Development30

Issue Comments
Focus Paradigm • Requires focus on concept of food where present focus is
on cultivation
• This requires research
• This requires entrepreneurship approach
• Concepts not understood by farmers
Basic Research • Needs access to worldwide data
• Requires availability of suitable germ-plasmas
• Requires basic R&D to determine whether crop
technically suitable
• Requires basic R&D to determine if potential crop is
economically feasible
Crop Management & • Propagation technologies
Processing • How to plant, cultivate & manage to crop
• How to harvest, extract, store and handle
• How to process
• How to package
• Transportation and storage
Marketing • Require coordination of production with demand
Infrastructure • Require correct channels of distribution
• Requires a marketing strategy
Economies and • Requires enough volume to economically transport and
Logistics distribute
• Requires solution to inconsistencies of quality and
production
Organisation • Need committed people with strong leadership and trust
Government • Need to translate support into action
• Need funding allocations
Finance • Very difficult to obtain funding for these projects
Consumers • Need efforts for education & promotion

The author believes that failure to solve the many issues and exploit opportunities
mentioned above, have a basis in a socio-psycho ‘mindset’ prevailing in the country. This
is not to say that a change in mindset is the only factor that would result in solving
problems and exploiting opportunities. Infrastructure, education, skills development,
market scanning, new crop product and processing development and last but not least,
financial support are all factors, just as important to make change. However without
mindset change, the allocation of resources into all the other areas is not likely to change
the nature of the rural sector.

The writer’s observation of this prevailing mindset is that it is common through the
various participation levels in the sector, as can be shown in the following examples;

1. Farmers and small-holders tend to produce first without buyers, rather than go out
and look for customers, market passive,
2. If one farmer is successful in cultivating a particular crop and has a ‘niche’
market, many others will want to join the bandwagon until over supply occurs,
copy cat approach,
3. Farmers and small-holders have for generations used the ‘quick-fix approach’ to
agricultural practices and problems, i.e., heavy use of herbicides, pesticides and
burning off to rid the land of weeds, pests and wastes, and have little
understanding of the concept and value of sustainable farming, poor exposure and
perhaps resistance to new ideas,
4. Mono-cropping is widely practiced, rather than integrated approaches, practice
isolation,
5. Considered potential crop options are usually within a narrow list of traditional
crops, market isolation, and finally
6. People only undertake agriculture activities, if they cannot get a better job
somewhere else, perception of agriculture as only a fallback profession.

In addition, management (both public & private sector) tends to compare all potential
new crops with palm oil revenues, i.e., ‘benchmarking’ in evaluating economic and
cultivation potential, fixation on a single success.

Another common phenomenon is what was termed as the ‘knowledge trap’ by Professor
Hans-Dieter Evers of the University of Bonn. The knowledge trap process begins when
data, knowledge and information is taken over without understanding of the
corresponding local and site specific issues involved and this data becomes the basis to
copy solutions into the local context. The transfer of knowledge without testing and
localisation can lead to poor investments and project failure as the gap in the information
let unknowns unresolved31. It is too common that local decision makers fall into this trap.

Psychologically, this can be seen as a manifestation of overconfidence, which can in
extreme cases perpetuate an air of arrogance and close one’s mind to bad news and signs
of failure in the pursued development strategy32. This is a much wider phenomenon and
can be seen almost universally in management around the world33. Overconfidence is a

facit of a more general optimism bias, making one believe in their own judgements, even
though data supporting these views is not present. General behaviour arising from this is
taking actions in situations where information and advice to the contrary is provided by
others and ignored34.

Finally on this point, this behaviour tends to be supported by the metaphoric idiom as
‘berlagak pandai’ or showing off a pseudo-knowledgeable behaviour, that may not have
its basis in fact or proven data. This is perhaps a culture specific behaviour which has
something to do with ‘being honest’ is not preferable, if honesty reveals one’s lack of
knowledge or ignorance. This can be summed up as a dysfunctional cultural trait, as the
idiom ‘segan bertanya sesat jalan’ or if we feel shy to ask, then we may go unguided
indicates35.

The Need for Paradigm Change – Old Village, New Village

Problems at these proportions require complete change, to escape the paradigm of doom.
However, opportunities are required to empower people and much of the debate is about
finding opportunity for rural communities. History has shown that opportunity is poorly
created through political processes and political victories do not necessarily bring with
them empowerment for the people. There must be something else, as some countries in
the developing world that gained independence from their colonial masters have not
reached any degree of empowerment for their people in the rural areas, and some
countries with non-democratic regimes are beginning to develop the process within their
villages. The concept of opportunity should be examined.

The concept of entrepreneurship is understood by many to be about attributes and traits of
some people that give them an “entrepreneurial” make-up. Entrepreneurship is often
talked about in the sense of propensity to take risk, the need to achieve and the ability to
exploit an opportunity through product development, innovation and networking36. The
study of entrepreneurship is shifting focus to the issue of opportunity discovery37.
Logically, only after opportunities are discovered, can they be exploited.

During the early part of last century, Hayek saw entrepreneurship economic activity as a
journey of continual discovery which usually brought about minor or incremental
change38. Schumpeter, another economist of the same period, saw that innovation in the
market through new products was most favourable when the economy was near
equilibrium39. Markets would follow a cycle where the best entrepreneur would introduce
a new innovation, only to be followed by the less talented entrepreneurs at a later stage.
Higher economic growth due to inertia towards equilibrium would bring more
opportunities (see figure 2).

So where do opportunities come from? This is the fundamental question of education and
development. Opportunities are not there to see without creative discovery. Discovery is
a cognitive process related to mental processes that engage one in seeing things in a
meaningful way. This means that opportunity is a social construct, rather than something
tangible or intangible that can be seen or can be read. It requires putting sensory and

factorial data together in some sort of ordered or patterned way through an intuitive
process. The same stimuli can be seen by different people, with different constructs made
through differing cognitive interpretations. This places cognitive discovery or spotting
opportunities at the centre of entrepreneurship. Casson defined “entrepreneurial
opportunities as the discovery of novel means-ends relationships, through which new
goods and services, resources and agency are created”40. Opportunity is blocked by the
mind. Entrepreneurial success depends upon the interactions of the characteristics of the
opportunity and the people who exploit them, which places the importance in strategy,
resource, agency and management as the second fundamental aspect of entrepreneurship.
The importance of the opportunity discovery and exploitation process in entrepreneurship
is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: Product Lifecycle, Profits, and IP Value (Innovation) in a Market

Potential Product Lifecycle IP Value &
Profitability Novelty
IP
Va
lue
Competitive
Concept
Risk Taking
Risk Taking
it
of
Pr

Pioneers Early Early Late Late
followers Majority Followers Time
Majority

The base of opportunity discovery is knowledge. Knowledge gives rise to new
opportunities. Thus the opportunity space or scope of opportunity is dependent upon the
ability of people to gather and exploit new knowledge. This goes some way to explaining
why there is a higher propensity towards entrepreneurship in developed countries and in
urban areas of developing countries where there are larger flows of information41.
Increasing peoples knowledge in rural areas requires the overcoming of institutional,
cultural, individual and financial barriers. Education is a perquisite in developing the
skills of opportunity discovery.

There is a general consensus that there are more potential opportunities in technology
than in non-technology industries42. The mythology of the word technology can be

debunked by looking up the meaning in the Oxford Dictionary; scientific knowledge used
in practical ways in industry. Scientific is defined as a way of doing something or
thinking. If cognitive processes can be trained to see things differently by looking at
them in new ways, then new knowledge can be created, leading to the discovery of new
opportunities. Higher knowledge levels will not only lead to better individual innovative
output, but also create new opportunities for others in the community through “spin-off”
projects43.

The limited success of over sixty years of development efforts, requires a revolutionary
change in thinking and action, to catalyse the new village. The term revolutionary
empowerment was used by Gioconda Belli in her novel La Mujer Habitada (The
Inhabited Woman) to question western civilization’s understanding of nature and
technology in their life and development and recognize the different role of nature in
indigenous culture44. As we have seen, independence and revolution brought political
empowerment under new artifacts of independent destiny, but in the majority of cases
this did not correspond with much economic and cultural independence in the rural areas
of many countries. The first revolution meant a change from a colonial to a ‘neo-colonial’
regime making the political decisions and multinational corporations making the
economic decisions. People in rural areas have little better access to finance, resources,
technology, education and distribution channels. A redefining of the concept of
development is needed and a second revolution of human empowerment is called for.

Figure 2: The Importance of Opportunity Discovery and the Exploitation Process in
Entrepreneurship

Ideas Opportunities Solutions Realisation Performance

Management
Capability

Spots Evaluates Selects Targets

Creativity Innovation Strategic
Thinking Differentiation

Competitive
Capabilities Governing Competitive Advantage
Scope
Costs: to customers
Knowledge:
Industry/market/technical/p
Competencies rocess
Entrepreneurial, Opportunity Relationships:
Identification, Network, Conceptual, Customers/suppliers/distri
Organisational, Strategic, Commitment, butors/relative power
Resources Structure: Ability

Schumacher questioned the very concepts of the development paradigm a long time ago
and to some degree economic empowerment of rural communities on their terms is
becoming politically correct. We have to accept that others may want different lifestyles
and value their tranquility and surroundings more than their yearn for material
development. If we can accept this, then education becomes concerned with knowledge
and creativity, based on the existing surroundings and lifestyle of rural groups. Thus
revolutionary empowerment has to tackle the unconscious institutional socialization of
oppression, employ catalytic processes to assist people to see things in new ways, harness
technology in new ways through taking a wider view of what technology really is, see
resource acquisition in a new light and develop new structures of agency to utilize market
channels innovatively, within the context of what is important to the individual,
economically, socially, spiritually and culturally. This requires questioning and reflecting
upon the opportunities in the existing capitalist/market system structure.

New Markets?

Global business over the last two decades has expanded like no other time in history,
where trademarks and brands like FedEx, McDonalds, CNN and Starbucks are
established in Beijing, London, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Sydney. This spread of business
and cosmopolitan culture has partly been made possible by the rapid increase in
immigration throughout the world. This environment is now allowing ‘culturally
orientated brands’ like Aljazera, and McDoner spread globally, emulating the established
MNCs from developed countries. The developing global business environment is
allowing linkages between developed and developing economies which are becoming
deeper45.

International markets are extremely complex to understand (see figure 3). However
today, modern technology, transport and communications, are now accessible to rural
communities like never before in our social history. Markets can be seen as systems.
Through curious reflection and questioning of the existing relationships, new modes and
strategies for market entry can be discovered. This can be seen through the following
examples.

• Domestic, International markets and channels: Some products developed
according to common themes can satisfy the aspirations of consumers across
multiple markets, while some markets are entirely different culturally, running
counter to the concept of the cosmopolitan man. What works in one market may
not always work in another. The influence of what channel you utilize may have a
great bearing on success and may lend credibility to your marketing strategy,
while products on the shelf in a crowded market may just loose their meaning.
The internet is now a linker of markets and an extension of packaging.

Figure 3. A Systems View of an International market

Domestic Market

Competitors
Tastes

Trends
Feed forward
Promotion Competencies

Branding

Channels Chemical Raw
Materials Relative
Style Logistics Competitive
Packaging Advantage

Sourcing
Finance
Company Fit
Manufacturing
Processes Regulation

Feedback Material Technology
Availability

International Markets

• Regulation: is both a gatekeeper restricting what you can do and at the same
time a useful barrier to entry and also part of a marketing strategy. REACH will
have international consequences where many ‘natural’ products must carry
warnings. Many markets now have high entry costs, keeping out the fainthearted.
Organic, Halal, kosher and Fairtrade certifications now form part of the labeling
and become part of the corporate image of many companies.
• Tastes, trends, material availability, technology and competitors: Winning over
competitors is dependent upon identifying tastes and trends and providing a
product proposition successfully to consumers. Acquiring and developing apt
technologies and raw materials is a strategy enabler for a firm and will become a
facet of relative competitive advantage.
• Style, branding, logistics, competencies: All are now integrated and the same
thing. Branding and logistics must be reflected in your competencies. There is no
such thing as being ‘half green’ or ‘half ethical’. That will only lead to skepticism
on the part of consumers. Many MNCs have made this mistake with new product
launches.
• Finance: The way of financing the cosmetic and personal care industry is set for
great changes. Venture capitalists will finance new bio-materials, look at Silicon
Valley. Companies will quickly list on equity exchanges, able to pull in funds
from consumers based on the aspirations of their corporate philosophy.

Distribution channels will also become funding channels where consumers can
invest in the manufacturers through managed trusts.
• Relative competitive advantage: will no longer be based economies of scale but
have more to do with brand, philosophy, theme and how well a firm manages
logistics, material acquisition and channels of distribution.
• Chemical raw materials and packaging: central to the whole picture – if you are
what you eat, you also are what you use46.

Product/markets can be seen as themes. A theme is not really a radical departure from the
conventional marketing mix or customer orientated marketing concepts. A theme
attempts to capsulate the aspirations of consumers and manifest these aspirations into the
product. For example, this is not a strange concept to the cosmetic and personal care
industry. Most companies work on themes (some passionately), concerning the
environment, safety, naturalness, health, beauty, economy, etc. For example, do
consumers buy products with tea tree oil because it is tea tree oil, or do they buy a
product with tea tree oil because it is natural and perceived to be healthy? Why are
organic cosmetics reported47 to be the fastest growing cosmetic and personal care
segment in Europe and the US? Why are anti-aging products such an important market
segment today? It all has something to do with aspirations.

Aspirations are the base of a theme and a common generic typology of consumer
aspirations can be used to identify common feelings within a community to explain why
they buy certain products. This can be developed into a theme and if enough consumers
have these aspirations and if the new product has successfully engulfed these aspirations,
chances are the new product will be well accepted by consumers. Just think about Aveda,
The Body Shop, Innocent Drinks in the UK and Thursday plantations, just to mention a
few.

A consumer typology can be geographically based but also related to demographic
segmentation and psychographic segmentation. Psychographic segmentation is one of the
primary marketing tools today, which focuses on lifestyles, attitudes, values and beliefs.
This can be illustrated using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a way to understand market
segments48. Figure 4 shows product types matched to different needs levels (typologies)
of consumers. When a product can be matched to the consumers’ needs profile, primary
and secondary product attributes and strategy can be relatively accurately aligned,
theoretically giving a product a maximum chance of success.

Once establishing the consumer typology a new product is to target, it is a matter of
formally developing all of the attributes the product must fulfill. This is where all
environmental attributes are merged into the product, so that the technical side of the
process can commence with a clear idea of what is actually required. The aim is to merge
the brand image of a product, in synergy with product presentation (formula, packaging,

Figure 4: Product Types Matched with Different Needs Typologies

Fulfillment: (dreams)
Actualisation
(The Artist)
Study after retirement
Self-fulfillment
Fresh vegetables (Organic)
Books
Fine Dining & Processed Foods Aromatherapy products
Luxury cars
Esteem Nutraceuticals & herbs
Travel & Vacations (The Executive)
Achievement, Fine Fragrances
prestige,fulfillment
Car Air Fresheners Responsibility: (hope)
Fashion Clothes (e.g.
Social (Worker) Jeans)
Chewing Gum Family, relationships,
workgroups
Community: (acceptance)
Most
Water Household
Safety (The Farmer)
Purifiers Cleaning
Home, Security and stability
Necessities: based on what is good (existence) Products
Fresh
Soap Vegetables
Physiological (The Hunter) Rice
Basic Biological Needs – Food, water, air
Staples: based on survival (fear)

colour, advertising and corporate image), promotion, and other market strategies49. An
example of a potential theme for say Borneo Rainforest products could be as follows;
Sabah is on the World list of ‘exotic’ locations; There is Mystic; There is cultural
diversity; There is history and heritage; There is nature and serenity; Sabah is a place of
peace, health and harmony50. Opportunities are constructed from the marketplace. They
don’t actually exist until we create them. This is where innovation really starts in the
empowerment process.

The theme approach to markets is a useful tool to meet the paradigm shifts occurring in
US markets, according to recent research undertaken by the US based Natural marketing
Institute;

• “The Age of the Individual is exploding in reaction to mass marketing and a
declining trust in the traditional authorities of church, government and the
corporation, driving a culture of consumer-generated content, products and
services that are "made just for me." Consumer customization spans everything
from personalized beverages with programmable bottles, Puma's custom-

designed sneakers, to Toyota's successfully customizable Scion. This trend for
greater authority and self-discovery is also witnessed in the health decision
making process, with an emergence of "independent attitudes" driving greater
polarization of health and wellness at both ends of the spectrum, while increases
in "condition specific" supplements reflect further expansion in the "made for me"
culture.
• From the rental of couture handbags and luxury car timeshares to "pop up" retail
events, consumers increasingly respond to the temporary in a culture that is less
permanent and forever on the move. For the health and wellness category, this
means faster product lifecycles as consumers demand greater innovation and
exhibit a greater willingness to try new products regardless of brand. This
decline in brand loyalty is witnessed across categories, including the beverage
category, as consumers seek the thrill of discovery of new products, new flavors
and innovative packaging concepts. In addition, these "forever on the move"
consumers will drive new innovation in healthy convenience.
• The retail and brand "New Luxury" explosion that made consumers expect an
extremely high level of experience at every touch point is now evolving beyond
the physical and emotional dimensions to the experience of fundamental core
values. From luxury hybrid cars to couture dresses made from organic and
sustainable fabrics, it is not enough to have it all -- we also want to feel better
about what we have. This is reflected in the growth of Ecotourism (which is
outpacing the travel industry), cause marketing programs exploding as sourcing,
materials, trade practices and social causes become a part of the consumer brand
experience, as well as the growing popularity in organic products, along with the
willingness to pay the 20% premium.
• In response to decades of over-massification, consumers are embracing back-to-
the-future simplicity, authenticity, hand-crafted and a belief that quality is better
than quantity. Consumers are gravitating to smaller footprint retail
environments, including a resurgence of "high street" shopping for one-of-a-kind
offerings including "artisan" and handmade goods. Products with legible labels,
simplified ingredients and reassuring packaging are also experiencing success.
Nowhere is the back-to-the-future movement more apparent than the explosive
growth of consumer brands perceived to be "small and authentic."
• Scandals across religious, government and corporate institutions began the
erosion of trust, while the explosion of widespread technology in a post 9/11
world is creating a highly fear-based society, driving consumers to attempt to
take ever-greater control of their environment, property, time and safety.
Consumers appear to be "shutting down" as a result of these mounting external
factors, with growing concerns about food safety, climate change and a reliance
on fossil fuels. This is translating into an increased desire for safer foods and
beverages, organic and environmentally-friendly products, and significant
opportunities for manufacturers and retailers to build market share through trust
and reassurance.
• New media is putting the consumer in greater control in a content-driven world,
changing the role of branding from one of authority to that of a peer. Websites
are increasingly enabling consumers to customize their on-line experience,

creating tight-knit communities of like-minded people driving word-of-mouth
about products and services as a result. The Internet is a growing platform for
the Wellness industry in particular, as consumers confirm the increased influence
of the Internet on their healthy and natural purchases. In fact, consumers are
currently shopping the Internet in varying frequency for healthy and natural
products.
• Consumers have an insatiable demand for knowledge and learning as keys to
self-actualization, creating an ever-increasing desire to maintain and optimize
brain power. With distractions and 24/7 connectivity intensifying, consumers find
their ability to concentrate and retain memory being drastically reduced. Not
only a problem among Boomers, consumers across all age groups indicate
significant concern about preventing concentration and memory problems.
Nearly three-quarters of consumers are currently using supplements, foods or
beverages to prevent memory problems and further opportunities exist to target
the needs of consumers -- from students, to gamers to moms to seniors”51.

Successful market paradigms (themes) utilized by well known international companies
are outlined in the Table 3 below:

Table 3. Market/Brand Paradigms Utilized by Some International Companies

Aveda The Body Thursday Sureco Hain
Shop Plantation Celestial
Group
Est. Sales USD120million USD1.5Billion USD85Milli USD40Mil55 USD738Mil56
(1996)52 (2006)53 on (2006)54 (2006)
USD619mil
(2006)
Location USA UK Australia Malaysia USA
Established 1978 1976 1976 1999 1926
Products Personal Care Personal Care Personal Herbs Organic food
Care and
cosmetics
Basic Philosophy To sustain the Social Natural tea Halal & Free of
environment humanitarianis tree Toyyibaan artificial
and give back m activism on products/n ingredients,
to communities many issues atural Kosher
medicines foods
Ethics Yes
Green Yes Yes Yes
Natural Yes Yes Yes Yes
Organic Yes Yes Yes
Community Yes Yes Yes
Cultural
Religious/Spiritual Yes Yes
Mode of Distribution Direct Retail and e- Direct and Direct General
Marketing/Salo Commerce through Marketing distribution
n distributors
Owner Estée Lauder Loreal Chris Dean Private Listed
Companies Inc. & Family Ownership company

Each company has been able to create a solid position in international markets by
following a definite corporate and marketing philosophy. No company has completely
connected all the possible paradigms together into one complete corporate image and
philosophy, except for Aveda and The Body Shop, although, the Body Shop has not been
without criticisms. One will see that as well as company branding and philosophy, there
is a link between company platform (i.e., Aveda owned by Estee Lauder) and size. Thus
good and opportune branding also requires strong channel access to succeed. One should
also note that there is a growing momentum of small to medium young companies that
are achieving dramatically high sales growth rates through the utilization of themes in
their marketing and corporate strategies.

In markets like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong where intense trade
buyer concentration exists, reactionary purchasing attitudes also exist, which will only
allow acceptance of proven consumer and market themes. New emerging themes are only
added to the shelves when the mainstream manufacturers tell retailers, that this ‘is the
way to go’. An emerging new product theme has to wait until it is perceived mainstream
enough to generate a minimum number of unit sales a week on the shelves. Innovation
begins in other channels, direct marketing, the internet or even ‘Sunday markets’. In
Malaysia and the rest of South-East Asia, the perceived risk of launching radical new
products tends to stifle innovation, where many companies prefer being product
followers, allowing others to innovate, thereby reducing their own risk. True innovation
is found through alternative market channels, before new concepts are accepted in the
traditional retail trade, especially in Thailand and Indonesia.

Globalism may be bringing about evolution towards the cosmopolitan-man. Yes it may
even be bringing great similarities in the part of our collective psych concerning material
things. We can criticize the global capitalist system and take an anti-globalism stance.
But its like swimming in a river against the current, where there is no way you can swim
upstream. Exhaustion will set in with nothing achieved, except drowning. We have to
learn to use the river current to our own advantage and empower ourselves accordingly to
the environment we face. This is a great departure from accepted Occidental assumption
that man can control the environment and a shift towards the Eastern Oriental paradigm
of that seeks ways and means to utilize the existing flows of nature to achieve ends rather
than fight against them. Therefore they is great advantage of swimming with the river
rather than against it.

This means that the global capitalist system in our nature can become our means and not
our object of envy, dissatisfaction and criticism. The market can be reframed as a
platform to bring together the shared visions of both producers and consumers – a two
way, rather than, one way channel. The search now begins armed with new technologies
of how to utilize what is, rather than waste energy on what is not.

Re-aligning Cultural Spiritualism

One of the cornerstones of culture is society’s fundamental ethical systems embedded
within the religious or other value systems. Max Weber is one of the earliest modern
scholars who studied the relationship between religion and economic behaviour. He
found a connection between the rise of capitalism in the West and the Protestant work
ethic. Weber believed there was a strong influence on economic and work behaviour
from religious beliefs – i.e., religious values spill over to all areas in one’s life57. Weber
compared this to Confucian ethics and found that people following Confucianism tended
to harmonise themselves with their environment and develop a collective form of social
relationships. Weber postulated that different philosophies and religions in East and West
would lead to different types of entrepreneurial spirit and managerial styles58.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s many academics became interested in the connections
between Confucianism and the spectacular rise of the Asian Tigers. Some argued that
Confucius was opposed to modernization as it didn’t advocate individualism, common to
the Western characteristics of entrepreneurship, was too dependent on guidance,
emphasized an all round development of personality to harmonise with the environment,
which discouraged aggressiveness and encouraged traditionalism, rather than
modernisation59. However Tu suggested that individualism is a Western mode of
capitalism and East Asian had developed another model based on relationships to develop
change through consensus and networks, with a sense of personal discipline60.
Confucianism was criticized for lack of profit motive, as his philosophies discouraged
self-motivation and that merchants were not included in Confucius set of key
relationships. However, through responsibility and obligation to family, other motives
exist, such as their well-being61, and treatment of those inside and outside an individual’s
universe of relationships will be different, i.e., treated with respect but caution, more
adversarial, rather than brotherly relationship. Confucianism is also criticized for its lack
of innovation, whereas the reality of Chinese business has been to seek ways to control an
existing market, rather than create new value through innovation62.

The traditions of Confucianism have historical and regional variations, there are certain
central ideas and values which are common. These values have constituted the key
elements of the traditions of societies which have endured history and political upheavals.
The basic Confucian concepts embraces a dynamic cosmological worldview for
promoting harmony amidst change, where individuals exist in concentric circles of
relationships with ethical responsibilities that place importance on the family, within a
hierarchical social system, where loyalty to elders is paramount and a generational
concept of gratitude and respect for earlier ancestors exists. Education is the mechanism
where individuals are cultured and developed as a means to enrich society and create a
social and political order. History is valued as continuality and a basis for moral
reflection and learning. This philosophy was able to change the family in agrarian China
from a unit of production to a collective moral dimension, with a social code for each
rank of the family hierarchy, very different from the Western concept of individualism63.
This led to the concept of guanxi , much written about in Western literature, “a focus on
relationships with a shared history, respect for the past, a value that many – not all –
Chinese cherish”64.

Two other concepts in Confucianism are Tao, the way of life and Te, potency and self-
sacrificial generosity with humility, with the moral power of attraction and
transformation, associated with these qualities. The humanistic attribute required to
achieve the above is through Jen, which means love, kindness and goodness, qualities of
the perfect individual. This is the essence of what makes humans different from other
members of the animal kingdom. Failure to develop Jen would lead an individual to
quickly develop forgone conclusions, dogmatism, obstinacy and egotism, which would
block wisdom and prevent people from making new insights and discoveries, as one’s
mind must remain open to become wiser. Li is the expression of Jen in a social context
through norms, rites and rituals governing ceremonies according to one’s social position.
Through Li, the individual expresses his respect and reverence for others65.

It can also be argued that Confucianism actually has little influence on the way Chinese
business is operated, at least in South-East Asian countries like Malaysia. Although
Chinese business sustains and nurtures family members and maintains a paternalistic and
hierarchical nature of authority within the enterprise66, there is little evidence that
Malaysian Chinese businesses rely on guanxi networks for growth and development,
have little interest in long term sustainability and little adherence to the Chinese
philosophies associated with Confucianism67. It is also unlikely that many contemporary
Chinese have a thorough understanding of the Confucius philosophy or the will or want
to fulfill the piety and wisdom defined by Confucius in everyday life, as one of Confucius
followers Mèngzî warned, Jen is a concept not easily achieved by man. However modern
life and business may tend to be judged by old values, creating a complexity of behaviour
that is often hard to understand68, especially by the older generation that is Chinese
educated. John Naisbitt in his prophecy book Megatrends Asia predicted that the unique
strengths of Chinese business networks, able to make speedy decisions and able to obtain
resources through connecting people would make the Chinese business model the ideal
flexible form of social organization for the globally connected world of the future69.
However this would assume that harmony doesn’t exhibit restriction on individuals from
criticism of strategy, even though it may be constructive, as the practice of authority in
Chinese companies means obedience rather than careful questioning of the status quo70.

Similarly, Buddhism as practiced in Thailand is often seen by many as a philosophy
adverse to entrepreneurship. To the contrary, Buddhist teachings espouse the highest duty
and ethics towards oneself and society as a whole when undertaking enterprise, also
listing taboos on the types of enterprises that should be pursued. The Buddha gave five
ways a moral person should be diligent to himself71. Through work, diligence and clear-
sightedness where he could make himself and others happy, resources need to be utilized
to prevent them from being dilapidated or destroyed through age, fire, weather or theft,
he could make suitable offerings to those that need them and to abstain from pride,
arrogance and negligence, to adopt patience and gentleness. Finally a person’s
independence is an important means to finding inner peace and enlightenment for himself
and those that depend on him.

The positive attributes exist, although they may not be observed in practice and not
emphasised within an empowerment context.

World events and media portrayal of Islam over the last few decades has projected
negative images, which are based on a total misunderstanding of Islam and the principals
it encompasses72. Predominantly, Islam through many eyes is seen as a homogenous view
of the world, where many elements of the media have stereotyped73 it as an extreme
religion. This situation has not been assisted by the lack of published academic and
intellectual thought74, which could assist in developing more balanced views about what
the principals of Islam stand for. The focus of most published works on Islamic
economics and business has been in the domains of finance and morals75, which leads
most to the conclusion that Islam has little to contribute in the theories of empowerment
and enterprise.

In a recent article by Raja Petra Kamarudin, he criticized Malay Muslims for being too
focused on “Islamic practices” without accepting the “Islamic values”, “…Malays pride
themselves on being good Muslims. ….. Malays are very ritualistic in their Islamic
beliefs. They do not care much about values. It is practice that counts when it comes to
Malays and Islam. Values don’t count. For that matter, the Malays do not even begin to
understand what Islamic values are76”. Dr. Chapra in an on-line interview was very
critical of the development of Islamic economic and business theories claiming they were
unbalanced in their approaches. He was reported to state that “Primary attention has
been given so far to Islamic Finance. This has led to the false impression that interest-
free finance is all that Islamic Economics has to offer. Since most of the governments in
Muslim countries are not yet convinced that interest-free finance is workable, excessive
emphasis on it has created a resistance in official circles against Islamic Economics.
They find it to be of little value. This is unfortunate. We must blame ourselves for this.
Islam is a complete way of life and is capable of solving the problems of not only Muslim
countries, but also of mankind”77.

The Al-Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), who was born into a
trading family and brought up by Abu Talib, who was a trader. Society in the Prophet’s
time was almost totally dependent on trade as a means to earn a living and unlike any
other religion, the Al-Qur’an is heavily written in the metaphor of business and trade.
Within many parts of the Al-Qur’an life is paralleled to a business venture, where one
earns profits to gain entry into heaven – profits meaning faith and good deeds to others
and those that accept Allah’s (SWT) guidance as a bargain to save them from punishment
on judgment day78. Islam urges individuals to strive their utmost to earn large monetary
rewards and spiritual profits, while at the same time being inspired to be successful and
honest people79. This is part of the concept of ad-din, which makes material and spiritual
pursuits inseparable, where one’s whole life is concerned with the needs of humankind
here on earth to secure a comfortable life in the Hereafter80. Consequently, Islam does not
prohibit worldly success81, in fact Allah (SWT) has provided opportunities for humankind
to obtain success and it is certainly the responsibility of the individual to do so82.
However involvement in business should also carry with it benevolent intentions for
others while seeking success for oneself83.

Islam espouses a market economy with freedom of the individual to operate a business
with minimal outside interference;

“He who brings goods to the market is blessed with bounty, he who withholds them is
cursed.”

(Ibn Majah & Al Hakim)

The essence of Islam is on man’s own efforts to advance himself before God will
intervene:

“See you the seed that you sow in the ground? Is it you that cause it to grow, or are We
the cause?”

Al-Waqi’ah 56:63-64

Culture has a large influence upon our cognitive perceptions. These perceptions will to a
great degree drive our behavior. Perceptions are heavily influenced through the attitudes
and beliefs we develop through our upbringing and integration into the society we feel we
belong to. Our values and beliefs shape our views, where we try to fit what we sense in
the world according to these sets of beliefs. This helps form our values, which are
reinforced by artifacts such as symbols, story telling and group behavior. It is a complex
and circular phenomenon where beliefs reinforce the artifacts and the artifacts reinforce
the beliefs. This is why culture is hard to change because its elements act like bonding
glue, pulling those who deviate back in, or if the bond is actually broken casting the
individual out of the critical mass of the rest of the populace. Our values are based upon a
set of conscious and sub-conscious assumptions that would seem to be shared throughout
the community.

This simplistic model of culture highlights attribute sets made up from the assumptions,
beliefs, values and artifacts of the society in question. Each set of attributes can be looked
at as being either negative or positive in a dialectic sea that continues to ebb and flow
within itself. Culture is a living entity, sometimes developing strong negative attributes,
which are destroyers of culture, rather than enrichers of culture. So for example in the
case of entrepreneurship, there is a set of positive influences (or attributes) and a set of
negative influences (or attributes) within a community. The strength of each attribute will
be different and even change from time to time as new information or events happen and
are perceived through their shared cognitive ‘glasses’ within the community. The key
will be; how to strengthen the positive and weaken the negative. With different strengths
as is with water, air and solids, one can only work with what can be molded and shaped.
Its easier to work with sand on a beach that granite on the side of a mountain. Leadership
facilitation dialogue seems the best way to engage the unconscious assumptions within a
communities culture.

Figure 5: The flow and Ebb of the Cultural Dialectic

The Cultural Dialectic

Destruction

Negative
Attributes

Positive
Attributes

Growth

Towards Revolutionary Empowerment

All of the elements to enable revolutionary empowerment exist and are being used today
in some form or the other. It is not a matter of inventing or creating a new doctrine of
micro-development at the village level, but assembling the parts into something that
works. One Tambon – One Product (OTOP) is having some success in Thailand, with the
model being exported to Vietnam and the Philippines, major food and cosmetic
companies are adopting ethical and empowerment procurement practices to benefit
communities, as a core part of their marketing strategies84, value-adding commodities like
coffee through geographical differentiation85. Micro-finance schemes are in place in
many countries to directly assist villagers86 and entrepreneurs in developed markets are
seeking to deal directly with producers to market indigenous products in their own
markets, as the Fairtrade movement is growing87. None of the methods and tools are
new – it is the effect of utilizing them together, that would be revolutionary.

The objective is to create ideas that fit into the schema of the people living in a village,
which builds enthusiasm and pride. This requires a diagnosis of positive and negative
cultural attributes to understand the root causes, so that groups can be engaged to assist
them in seeing new ways of acting in the world. Much can be learned from the work of
Paulo Freire in this area. From an idea, opportunity must be seen and developed into a
strategy that can be accepted and followed, according to the aspired lifestyles of the
people. Markets must be identified and accessed utilizing the current means of
communications, transport and logistics available (one must add here that the advent of
the internet is one of the tools with the largest potential for empowerment – something
that didn’t exist a little more than a decade ago). Resources must be acquired and
exploited to enable the opportunity to be exploited. There must also be access to skill
development forums, so groups can acquire the necessary knowledge to undertake a
venture. The elements needed to create a village based venture are summarized in Table 4
below;

Table 4: The Required and Existing Elements of Empowerment

Element Existence
Values Most spiritual doctrines and religions have very positive values
towards enterprise, independence and empowerment. These
have to be brought to the surface of some cultures or sub-
cultures, i.e., refocusing on the functional rather than the
dysfunctional aspects.
Confidence Confidence is a group phenomena and can be improved
through engagement of group processes to achieve new ways of
seeing.
Ideas The skills of ideation can be developed through access to
communications technology and developing both partial and
whole brain thinking.
Potential By linking ideas to markets, modes of entry, resources and skill
Opportunities needs, potential opportunities can be constructed.
Product Focus on themes rather than marketing mixes, look for ways to
incorporate consumer fears, existence, acceptance, hopes and
dreams in the product (spiritual materialism)
Markets Markets exist in various forms and segmentations with much
more fragmentation, coupled with the ability to communicate
are potentially accessible to village communities. Identify
aspirations of consumers, connect products and channels to
these aspirations.
Technology Technology is a way of how to make and do things. Product
manufacture can be undertaken in scaled down models to suit
decentralization, small unit output and flexibility. The focus is
on how to do things in more cost effective ways, within the
existing cultural socio-organisational setting.
Competitive In many FMCG markets competitive advantage has more to do
Advantage with theme, schema and branding, through selected channels of

distribution, than economies of scale. The product is a fulfiller
of dreams.
Skills Not all the skills taught at formal educational institutions are
needed to start an enterprise. In this regard its only necessary
to provide people with what they need from the point of view of
business, product development and production. There is a need
for the “village university” to focus on showing people how to
see, learn how to do and connect to consumers.
Agency/Networks Through modern communications technology (internet &
travel) it is now possible to contact and interact with very wide
groups of people, including agencies of interest, customers,
grant agencies and sourcing know-how.
Logistics Logistics have advanced in recent years and can be coupled
together such as the internet and EMS to create direct logistic
systems between producers and consumers.
Resources We have to learn to use what we have and utilize these limited
resources innovatively. There are many methods of alternative
funding that can be explored and set up, i.e., Zakat, unit trusts,
closed equity markets, etc.
Organisation New forms need to be generated from often discarded forms
such as cooperatives. Cooperatives can exist at both production
and market levels. People can form their own companies under
umbrellas, organizations should be focused on linking the
young with their older generation. Coalitions can be sort with
larger organizations in developed countries for branding and
market purposes. Organisations have to fit with existing social
schema and develop from there, as people are ready.

Positive values towards enterprise are required to motivate people to do things. Groups
hold various values associated with fate and future, abilities, possibilities, and the
rewards of their labours, etc. Any positive values that potentially exist within the majority
of spiritual cultures are often immersed by other values developed through social and life
interactions. Changing values is the most challenging aspect of empowerment. One must
not make the mistake of trying to convert others to our own values, however noble we
feel they are. This has been one of the greatest mistakes of those ‘trying to help’ in the
past. A village may not be ready for a new industry, but it might accept a new idea to
pass the time and earn some small extra income. Not all people want to be an
entrepreneur in the sense we teach in conventional entrepreneurship programs.

The facilitation of change thus involves the creation of new contexts that would break up
the old established patterns, in favour of new ones. Competing invisible forces
(attractors) compete with each other to generate a situation where the group can travel
along different paths in the future. The mentor must find the right place and time and
facilitate new contexts that make the present paradoxes or contradictions irrelevant.
Change becomes dialectic, where potential new futures have their opposites which are
resisting any change, for example88;

Innovate ----------------------------Avoid mistakes

Think long term--------------------Live for today

Save money----------------------------Spend for the future

Work by oneself-------------------------Work as a group

Be flexible--------------------------- Follow rules and norms

Collaborate--------------------------Compete

Make your own decisions------------Make joint decisions

Changing values also requires a group acceptance of new sets of values and individual
confidence in the group’s acceptance. This requires dialogue to build new consciousness.
David McClelland, best known for his achievement model and work on power in
organizations, also researched a person’s needs for affiliation. He found that the need for
affiliation or intimacy with a group plays an important role in motivation89. There are
various reasons behind the need for intimacy. Groups are perceived to provide a sense of
security for individuals where there is some uncertainty, or fear of something external to
the individual and group. Groups also provide individuals with a cognitive clarity (sense
of how to interpret events around them) and a way to make a self evaluation and social
comparison about the way they should dress, talk, think and act. Thus developing
motivation, based on McClelland’s model and work with entrepreneurs in India, may best
be undertaken within a group context90.

Ideas, shape the future of any individual, enterprise and village. It is ideas that have the
potential to become opportunities and ‘going-concern’ ventures. Ideas come from
information, which can be converted into knowledge. People must be taught how to
access information and develop knowledge from it, through guided intuition, utilizing
accepted strategic models as mental maps, rather than formal planning systems, which is
closer to the reality of how managers of companies really plan91. Usually the first
exposure to knowledge is news passed on from a friend, conference or seminar or some
form of media, electronic or otherwise. There is no shortage of media reports and internet
information, which can lead to ideas. These ideas must be filtered through the use of
more factual information to screen the facts from the ‘hype’. Decisions need to be made
on the best factual information available, which can lead to knowledge. Figure 6 shows
the hierarchy of information that one has access to aid idea development and opportunity
identification92.

To create knowledge, individuals and groups need to be taught thinking processes which
can enable them to filter and arrange information in various ways, so as to learn and to
see opportunities. The ability to think creatively is a catalyst in itself for change. This

requires developing people’s ability to utilise the brain as a tool in analysis through both
partial and whole brain thinking.

Figure 6: The continuum from media reports to wisdom in relation to availability
and usefulness

Media Reports The Continuum from media
reports to wisdom in relation
Ideas to availability and usefulness
Availability Increases

Data

Information

Knowledge

Wisdom

Usefulness Increases

Ned Hermann divided the brain into four separate sectors or quadrants with specific
strengths, two on the left (A & B) and two on the right (C & D), as shown in figure 793.
The left is more logical and the right works more with emotions, pictures and holistic
concepts. A number of activities can be utilised to teach people how to move from
quadrant to quadrant in their thinking processes. Within a group, some individuals will
master a single or number of quadrants, creating thinking diversity of a group, which
should be able to think collectively as a whole brain. This will enable explorers and
detectives to search out opportunities, artists to create concepts and engineers to translate
these concepts into reality through their solutions94.

Figure 7: The Four Quadrant Model of the Human Brain (Adapted from
Lumsdaine & Lumsdaine)

Number Crunchers
A C
Human Machines Logical Visual
Achievement Orientated Factual Holistic Entrepreneurs
Performance-Driven Critical Intuitive Explorers
Technical Innovative Future-Orientated
Analytical Conceptual Risk-Driven
Quantitative Imaginative

Conservative Interpersonal Teachers
Structured Kinesthetic Social Workers
Administrators Sequential Emotional Feeling-Orientated
Bureaucrats Organised Spiritual Value-Driven
Production-Orientated Detailed Sensory
Task-Driven Planned Feeling

B D

International markets must be seen as a possibility to enter and supply. Ideas and
products must fulfill consumers’ schema of fantasy to create differentiation and develop
some form of competitive advantage in the marketplace. This is where the new market
strategies of creating products according to consumer aspirations and using image and
channels, to make those connections, adds value if these products can appeal to the ego.
This is where real intellectual property can be created, thus providing a unique product
proposition to consumers (see table 5). This requires the development of a platform of
geographically based branding, such as the example of Sabah mentioned earlier in this
paper. Suitable channels of distribution must be sort out which provide interaction
between producer and consumer for maximum effect.

Table 5. Integration between a village group’s Core Mission, product/market
typology and the specific Intellectual Property they create

1. Recognition 2. Desirability
Selected branding paradigm to highlight The product technology, i.e., natural,
the project’s offering and values the organic, cultural and spiritual aspects
group stand for in the international should be reflected incorporated into the
marketplace. (see figure branding product. Thus the products require
typologies). This branding should show specific new knowledge, process and
natural (fully natural products) protocols to achieve these ambitions.
Organic, Sustainable production,
Community involvement, cultural and
religious identity, and within an ethical
business framework. Patents, Registered Designs,
Proprietary Knowledge and branding
Trademarks and certain Copyright
Information
3. Form 4. Emotional Connection
Product manifestations must reflect The products should reflect the consumer
where and why the products exist through ambitions for natural and organic
copy, materials and form. products with a cultural and spiritual base
and understand their direct contribution to
the community.

Copyrights and Trademarks Brands and Trademarks

Technology is the ingredient that makes concepts possible to be delivered to consumers.
Technology also includes artisan methods of producing things that may have been
forgotten or come out of practice due to perceived lack of demand for artisan based
products. Ways of producing products at village level with simple equipment require
development and this is where universities can assist through their commitment to
community development, which is a statutory requirement in most countries. It would be
good to see the day when students and ‘barefoot professors’ come down to the village
again in a similar vain as Homer Atkins, to develop new innovations of existing
technology that has great benefits to people. Its not necessary to invent totally new things
– adaptation and re-engineering existing complex processes is what is badly needed in
developing countries. Universities contain great amounts of knowledge that could benefit
people and are almost totally underutilized. Through technology downscaling, production
can be decentralized, thus allowing the maximum number of people to become involved.

Like technology, skills can be developed at the village level through informal and
relevant programs. It is not necessary to complete a degree in engineering, a BBA or an

MBA to be an entrepreneur. In fact many entrepreneurs have little formal education.
Mentors rather than teachers are needed to share the learning experiences available
through working on such projects. Villages need mentors, not teachers, who can share in
the development and successes. People need to be shown what is possible, and if they
take the challenge, how to think, feel and develop things. The emphasis has to be on
entrepreneurship education within paradigms acceptable to those that want to learn.
Education has to return to being a basic right, rather than a privilege, aimed at developing
individuals in communities where they live. Unfortunately, this is seen as revolutionary
and requires givers to make it work.

Resource gathering needs revolution to enable empowerment. The current systems of
finance available depend upon conventional business plans, collateral and experience.
People have little knowledge of where to get grants and little ability to apply for them.
Existing national grant schemes often make it so hard to get, many feel it is wasting time
trying. So much government development money is going to development projects
owned by the government, where it is hard to see how any people can benefit95. Within
Islamic communities large pools of funds exist through the Zakat mechanism which
could be channeled for empowerment. “Zakat revenue can be spent under tamlik
mechanism for providing an opportunity or raising productivity of the poor. Viewed from
the long term perspective the poor would become in time self-reliant, hense reducing the
national burden of spending money on social security schemes.96” Likewise public
structures like schools, mosques and community centres can be utilized for skills
development and village meetings.

Marketing channels and the existing financial system can be utilized through the unit
trust mechanism to collect subscriptions from consumers to fund venture development in
rural areas. This would be a direct link between consumers and producers, where the
consumers themselves could also become stakeholders in village enterprises and share
the same visions and dreams. Many consumers are looking for such a spiritual connection
and products can become a facilitator of their aspirations and dreams, assisting them in
how they want to see themselves, through spiritual materialism.

Young graduates are the hope for future entrepreneurship in villages around the region, as
the catalyst of change. They are tomorrow’s leaders and have a specific role to play in
development. Students have access and knowledge to the information tools of our age.
They are the potential mobilisers, liasers and leaders of village empowerment, should
they choose to stay and do something. Graduates understand their own and also
understand universities as a source of technology and can learn how to deal with relevant
agencies for their cause. Graduates and the young are the only people who can build
enterprises in rural areas in the future. Through linking all the elements together new
organizations can be evolved that are based on the village model and link with consumers
in developed markets in two way communication. Figure 8 shows what could be97. Due to
the advances in communication through the internet, graduates and villages now have
unprecedented access to a wider international community of buyers, retailers, Fairtrade
organisations and consumers directly, with which to communicate their intentions and

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