EDITORIAL - A lesson from Steve Jobs

In the mountain of words on Steve Jobs, who died last week at 56, few of them, noticeably, pointed to primary inventions by the Apple chairman.

But there was unanimity in the fact that Jobs was a genius who, as The Associated Press put it, "turned gadgets into extensions of the people who use them".

Writing in the online newspaper, The Huffington Post, Steve Cohen, the executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, commented: "He took technology invented by others and through his genius as a manager- designer translated these technologies into commercial products."

The world knows these products by name - the iPad, iPod, iPhone, and so on. By the end of Jobs' life, they had helped to catapult Apple, the firm he co-founded 35 years ago, into a business valued at more than US$350 billion.

There is perhaps a lesson for Jamaica in Jobs' application of his genius and from the technology over which he had free rein. The first of these is the reinforcement of the old saying that there is no sense in attempting to reinvent the wheel. There can be genius, however, if innovation enhances its relevance.

Creating a Jamaican steve jobs

The point we make is that Jamaica has access to digital technologies utilised by the likes of Steve Jobs. More critically, though, we have the products they innovated or pioneered. We have, too, access to the platforms used by these products to facilitate, at great speed, a global flow of information.

The issue for Jamaica, therefore, is how to move beyond being primary consumers of the products left behind by Jobs and others to applying them to our economic advantage through value-added developments. We might, at the same, think about how we might create an environment that encourages and supports the emergence of a Jamaican Steve Jobs.

It starts with a deep appreciation of the new global environment where, increasingly, comparative advantage is measured less by ownership of natural resources and more by the capacity to control and manipulate data and information. In this environment, education and appropriate technology are the critical components.

Maximising use of ict

Just over a decade ago, Jamaica started to create a pathway towards possible substantial involvement in this new marketplace with the liberalisation of its telecoms sector. The rapid expansion of mobile telephone service, and business outsourcing, are benefits from this. The process, unfortunately, stagnated for a long time, partly because of management failures, in some instances, policy errors.

Recently, however, there are signs that Jamaica is seeking the renewal of its quest for advancement in information and communications technology (ICTs), starting with a new policy document and the appointment of an ICT czar in Mr Patrick Casserly, a successful entrepreneur in the sector.

But Mr Casserly traipsing the world seeking new business will not be sufficient if there is not the platform to sustain success. His effort must be underpinned by a structured project to expand digital broadband and for specialised education and training at all levels.

We might, in the end, tease out a Steve Jobs, but in the meantime, we might combine his innovations with the available technology to create what this country craves most: jobs.