KUALA LUMPUR: As the Asean region bustles with development and economic activity, Malaysia is latching onto the momentum and continues to seek ways for further nation development.
Source from (The Star Online): http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/9/11/business/11951289&sec=business
Published: September 11, 2012
One of the initiatives most recently announced was Genovasi, an initiative launched early August by the Prime Minister to produce innovation ambassadors who will have the competency to innovate.
The ambassadors, somewhat like students, go through a structured programme to pick up skills to innovate and bring it back to the workforce to be applied to real jobs.
Genovasi was established by Unit Inovasi Khas (UNIK), a unit under the Prime Minister's Department, last month. UNIK chief executive Datuk Kamal Jit Singh says that Genovasi is a way to address the shortage of innovative minds in multi-national companies (MNCs).
Kamal: ‘We will be collaborating with all MNCs.’He said talent was one thing Malaysia had advantage over lower cost countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and China. “We have the hard skills. We've got the common soft skills. What Genovasi is meant for is to build the next level of skills the MNCs require.”
Kamal explained that MNCs had the demand for innovative talents while Genovasi was the supply side of these coveted talents.
“Currently there isn't a place in Malaysia where you can go and say you want to learn to innovate. Genovasi is filling a gap in the market,” he noted.
He added that the initiative aimed to promote innovative thinking among youths. “When we are dealing with our juniors we often tell them that they need to think out of the box. But how do they do that? That's the gap Genovasi fills.”
Aside from MNCs, Kamal said that innovation skills were important to local companies and SMEs as well.
“MNCs really need innovation skills, that's given, but if the SMEs hope to move up the value chain and meet the needs of the customers, many of which are MNCs, then they would need the same skills,” he said.
To this, Kamal pointed out that many SMEs, because they were run by the older generation, were somewhat resistant towards innovation.
“A lot of the people operating the shops and smaller enterprises are senior and do not seek new ways of doing things or respond to changes well. That hampers innovation,” he said.
Kamal added that through innovation, businesses could run more efficiently thus creating a direct impact on the local economy.
“When we talk about the Economic Transformation Programme, it is completely driven by the private sector.
If the private sector wants to move up, it has to innovate. It needs people who can innovate,” he said, adding that Genovasi could upskill the people so that they could innovate for the private sector and create new products and services that would lend to direct economic impact.
“Part of that training will include applying the skills to a practical project so that they know how to transfer that skills to their work,” Kamal further explained, noting that innovating was a structured approach, “nothing is left to chance in innovation.”
The Genovasi initiative, which Kamal described as a boutique academy, includes partnerships with institutions like Germany's Hasso-Plattner Institute and Stanford University for their expertise in innovative learning to teach participants the skills and methodologies.
In his announcement, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that Genovasi would produce at least 5,000 innovation ambassadors over the next five years, with 1,000 at end of next year.
Genovasi will be open to working adults as well as university students and will start recruiting its first batch of ambassadors at the beginning of next year.
There will be three tracks for the participants to learn innovative skills community-centric projects benefiting the society, economic-focused projects and government-enhancement projects.
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