Globalization, Change and Education -- What It Takes to Prosper in the 21st Century

In the US and most developed western countries we think of education in terms of math, science, history and literature.  These are the tools necessary to understand and succeed in the secular world.  It's easy to forget that not all the world views education this way and, unfortunately, this difference in educational perspective may have much to do with the gap between the haves and have-nots in the global marketplace of the 21st century.

If you are doing business in predominantly Islamic countries, I commend to you the article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal profiling Azim Premji, the head of Wipro Ltd., the large Indian firm that provides outsourcing services to many global brands.  With a net worth estimated at $17 billion, Mr. Premji is reported to be the world's richest Muslim who has not derived wealth from the royal control of oil resources.  He is also a Muslim thriving in the predominantly Hindu culture of India.

Apparently Mr. Premji is the object of criticism from many struggling Muslim's who are among India's most impoverished residents because his fabulously successful company hires only a small percentage of Muslim employees relative to the proportion of the country's population that adheres to Islam despite the Islamic faith of it's CEO and principle owner.  The limitations imposed upon Mr. Premji by his country's and his faith's perspectives in this regard are instructive about the education gap and the consequent wealth gap found between developed and developing countries in the world today.

As background, one should appreciate the extent to which Wipro is a paradigm of the need to be flexible in order to survive and be successful in a global economy where the rate of change is ever increasing.  When Mr. Premji took the reins of what was then known as Western India Vegetable Product Ltd. in 1966, the company had annual sales of $2 million and produced primarily sunflower oil.  When India took a turn toward socialism in 1977, many multinationals fled the country, leaving a vacuum in India for the products that they had been producing or importing, including electronics and computer hardware.  In a radical departure from the vegetable oil business, Wipro entered the vacuum, becoming one of the country's leading manufacturers of computers and consumer electronics.

In the 1990's, India moved quickly back toward capitalism and the rush of global corporations back into the country displaced much of Wipro's market -- a global economic change that would have been the death knell for many less flexible companies.  But instead of wilting in the face of this onslaught of new international competition, Mr. Premji again saw opportunity instead of threats and once again completely retooled Wipro's business.  Today, of course, Wipro is a global powerhouse listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a $20 billion market value.

So why does Wipro hire so few Muslims?  Being that Wipro's customer base is made up of global companies and that English is the international language of business, they look to hire people with some proficiency in English.  Not surprisingly, they also look to hire people with some education in mathematics, science, engineering and business so that they can understand their client's businesses as well as become successful employees supporting Wipro's own successful business strategies.

Most of India's Islamic population who attend school attend traditional Muslim schools.  Here they work on memorizing the Quran in its original Arabic.  There is no science and no English in the curriculum.  This is not an oversight but done with intention as these schools see a career in a global capitalist market as a bad thing not to be desired or pursued.  The WSJ article reports on an interview with an imam who runs one of the traditional Muslim schools in which he opines that "a future as self-employed shopkeepers or peddlers is preferable to seeking formal work at a large company."  The imam is quoted as adding "A job is like being a slave."

For most of us with a Western world view, education is the principle vehicle through which we would hope to overcome the cultural divides that separate people in a world becoming ever smaller through communication and transportation technology.  We also believe that education is the means for providing people with the opportunity to create a better and more prosperous and vital future for themselves.  Clearly Mr. Premji shares this view, but the fact that it is not a universally held perspective presents some significant challenges for Mr. Premji as a Muslim in a capitalist world -- to say nothing of the challenges faced by companies seeking to be capitalists in the Muslim world.