Career

Take a Right Turn

The Times of India Mumbai; Date: 02-Feb-07

It is a well-known fact today that India is growing at a staggering rate on the back of its knowledge-driven economy. Various studies have also estimated that the country’s trailblazing growth is slated to continue in the next few decades. Since education and knowledge are going to remain the key factors driving this growth engine, it is imperative to understand how a subtle change in our choice of education and profession can work wonders for the Indian economy and the nation.

Given our 50 years of post-Independence experience, parents have been traditionally risk-averse and made their children tread the beaten path: spend 10 years in school, two years in junior college, three to five years in graduation, couple more (for a lucky few) in postgraduation and then start earning. The parents’ intention was to make the child (read son) ‘stand on his own feet’ and make him an earning member of the family by the time he is 25 — well in time before his father is due to retire. This ‘hedging arrangement’ served the middle class well. Oblivious to where the child’s interest or natural talent lied, this also extended to the choice of professions. It was dictated by relatively safer options like engineering, management and civil services. Most of the youth today who were born in mid 70s to early 80s have ended up ‘left-brained rat-racers’.

But, the nature of not only the economy but also the family has changed dramatically in the last decade. Very few families today have a single earning member and earning is not restricted to the retirement age. This has not only increased the savings and spending potential of families but has also made women more influential decision-makers in the family. Moreover, with rising income levels, savings have risen.

To cut a long story short, the opportunity to take risks was never better. Today, one can afford to choose his own rat race. For example, parents today need not restrict their children’s career options to engineering, management, medicine or civil services. In contrast to these largely left-brained professions and risk-averse choices, parents can start encouraging their kids to pursue new professions like art, philosophy, sports, literature and culture studies. While one may argue that today these professions carry no substantial financial rewards, in a decade or two, right-brained professions like these will carry enormous value because of their innate strength to innovate and create.

Ask any business leader today about which quality he wishes his employees to have — the answer will tend towards creativity and innovation. With a booming economy and access to technology and finance becoming easier, the opportunity to squeeze returns are becoming fewer and fewer. Thus, instead of professionals who just add value, the demand will rise for those who can also generate or create value. Innovative and creative people do just that, and will thus enjoy a premium in future. The best example to study this trend is to look at the Indian software industry. While hundreds of engineering graduates are busy running the software-services juggernaut, it is inevitable that in a few years’ time the industry will need innovative and creative people to crank up the software-product engine.

We need to appreciate and be also proud of the fact that when it comes to activities and professions that involve logical and analytical thinking most Indians excel. These left-brained professions are known to develop the depth of thinking. But when it comes to right-brained professions like art, sports and philosophy, which develop our breadth of thinking, we usually struggle. Notably, given a choice between solving sudoku and crossword, most of us will prefer the former.

But developed countries like the US and Japan have consistently demonstrated that qualities like creativity and innovation help catapult individuals and companies from normal growth rates to exponential ones. India cannot afford to rest on its laurels, which are largely earned in leftbrained professions. We need to correct this imbalance in order to really take India to the big league. It is here that parents need to encourage children to create their own professional career, depending on where their natural strengths lie. The time to take the risk is now.

The writer is an investment banker.