Why Malaysia has to be innovative to compete globally and what is Genovasi?

Why Malaysia has to be innovative to compete globally ?

 It won’t be easy, changing the mindset and culture of the nation to be an innovative driven society but this is one transformation that must be done.

We’re eight years away from 2020, the deadline we placed upon Malaysia to become a self-sufficient industrialised country. Eight years is certainly a short period of time, and we have a lot of work to do to achieve the goals enshrined in Vision 2020.

This is why the government has made Innovation and Transformation as the key thrusts in our way forward.Through bodies such as Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, the government is revamping the necessary elements of innovation to ensure that all groups in society, including academia, industry, and government itself, collaborate and move in the same direction.

To enable innovators to get their creations to the market, we’re looking at making funding more accessible and streamlined. With more emphasis on deliverables and results, grants and loans given come with more accountability. We’re introducing innovative thinking skills in the education system to produce an innovative workforce that can satisfy future industry needs. Initiatives such as the i-THINK programme will produce students who have critical, analytical and creative thinking skills, a skillset needed in an innovative society...

Nowadays, if there are companies which continue to do the same sort of business in the next five years would find themselves out of business, unless they adopt a proactive stance versus a reactive one in a scenario where "Innovate or Die" has become a war cry. It is time to become a world-class cosmopolitan. The world’s top marketing guru and founder of Philip Kotler Center for Asean Marketing, Prof Philip Kotler said “Being a world class gives you the options of which market to pursue.”

In such a scenario, there will be several offerings - consumers who want products to have the same attributes and quality of products in developed countries at global prices, consumers who want products of near global standard and willing to pay a shade less, consumers happy with local quality and local prices and the people who can afford only the least expensive products.

So, at last but not least, Malaysia will have to be innovative in order to survive in the tough competitive environment to remain relevant. Because innovation is the one of the step for Malaysia to move forward in improved quality, creation of new markets, improved production services and others. From this, Malaysia can become beyond value creation and towards sustainable transformation, empowerment and domination.