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The 100 Billion Dollar by 2040 Economy: Imperative Fundamentals for Success

By Simon Bere Attaining a hundred billion dollar economy by 2040 is a strong bold vision. True, there are some critics who view this vision as wishful thinking, and they, despite their influence in the commercial and social circles, refuse to the part of the 100BDE2040 Agenda. It is a fact that economic initiatives like this one do not require mandatory participation and people have their right to choose what to believe and what not to believe. It is also true that their participation would make a difference. Brining out their grounds for skepticism too would be extremely valuable in refining the strategies for attaining this vision. In the same vein, it very true that a great vision may fail to materialise if the operational fundamentals are not defined and if there is a big gap between visionary effort and tactical effort. In my mind, the real question is not whether or not attaining a 100 billion dollar economy is feasible, but what must be done to attain this vision. Now that we have a national consensus on the vision, we must swiftly move on to next stages in the journey towards the vision. This is critical because it is human nature to catch on to the fire of anything new and to die out again if they do not sense any movement. Many bold and great visions perish this way and once the fire of a vision dies in the minds of people, it is very difficult to reignite it. What is this next critical step? I have been partially involved in the ongoing 100BDE2040 processes going on and being championed by the Deputy Prime Minister Professor Mutambaras office. We went through an exercise with a team that included brilliant entrepreneurs and visionaries like Nigel Chanakira, Kenias Mafukidze and Professor Hope Sadza. Some very important ideas came out of the discussions and hopefully these have been rolled over to a next practical step towards the visions. My greatest concern is that we Zimbabweans have been labeled non-acting great thinkers and talkers and its sounds to me that if we continue to live by this label, this great 100BDE2040 Vision will find its final resting place in documents stashed in computer files, filing cabinets, office desks and in our heads and nowhere on the Zimbabwean landscape like many of our great mental inventions of the past. It is important to beat our chests for being bold enough to declare a vision because it is the most important starting point for all great things, but what use is a great starting point without a great follow through and photo finish? What great use to have a vision for winning a race, do all the preparations, get on the track and burst into a sprint with rocket power lead the pack for some distance and then to suddenly come to a screeching halt and quit the race?

2 There is one thing very clear about our great national aspiration to attain a one hundred billion dollar economy by 2040. This feat will not be achieved by reckless action and operating in a disjointed fashion and with our thoughts, energies and emotions in scattered and in disarray. I have said this before. This feat will not be achieved by people who are in it for personal glory or for personal benefits. Many people may not see that attaining this feat has all the components of an engagement in a war. And in war, it is known that the foundation of victory is not available material resources but strategy and victory engineering. Any successful outcome in war is guided by a simple 6 step strategic sequence which is 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Define Outcome Think Plan Organise Engage Monitor Response to the ground realities and go back to step 2

If we adopt this military model to our vision, where are we now? We have defined our outcome; the next phase must the thinking stage. When I say the thinking stage, I mean brutal, intense and guided thinking to generate the critical thought frameworks that will help us achieve our outcome. This thinking must generate a strategic grand master plan that will form the bases for developing a system of strategic plans for achieving the vision. People with highest level of strategic thinking capacity must be involved in this team. This takes into account that people have their natural planning horizons, with some natural suitable for generating 20 year plans once others work best planning on short term plans. Most people who read this article already know this but for the benefit of doubts, achieving goals for a vision as complex and broad as a national economic vision requires a systematic multilevel structure of strategic plans and tactical plans for operationalising the strategic plans at each level. I cannot at this moment figure out how many levels will be required and determining this level requires a combination of logical reasoning and intuition. The traditional strategic hierarchy follows the following broad format: Vision, Strategies and Action Plans. This means traditional strategists even in business define their business, then they formulate strategies and action plans for attaining that vision. Once this is done they apply their resources (people, energy, equipment, money) on the actions plans in the hope of attaining the vision. My research with many businesses on why, on a global scale, many businesses fail to achieve their target revealed two deep holes in traditional strategic planning formulation. Most failures to hit targets are caused by these two deep holes. I have not been involved in economic planning, but my suspicion is that these deep holes also exist in national economic plans of many countries who, day in and day out fail to hit their economic targets. This subject is important because unless the effect of these two deep holes is not taken into account in strategizing for achieving the 100BDE by 2040, we are certainly bound for failure even if all the other critical success factors are taken into account. Sadly, even the most brilliant of strategies will not compensate for the impact of these two big holes. Some planners and strategists may have some hints on these two big holes, but few of these planners and strategies do justice to plug these holes so that their strategic plans will at least hit the target and even exceed it. I will not discuss

3 more details of the big holes here because it will not help the process of attaining the 10 Billion Dollar Economy by 2040. All I can say is that these two black holes are sorted out at the planning stage of the grand master planning. Capable military commanders know that the most critical resource for any success is not weapons; it is people. Even the most sophisticated weapons in the hands of incapable soldiers will not deliver victory. For a start, the inherent sophistication, effectiveness and lethality of the weapons reflect the quality of people who invented and engineered them, while the battlefield effectiveness of the weapons is a factor of the capabilities of their users who are the combatants. Four critical elements are critical for a capable warrior; a well trained, well equipped, well fed, well led. In the same way capable generals and commanders, once they are instructed of the necessity of war, they assemble and go through the early stages of briefings and beginning the preparations. One of most important task at this stage is to determine the nature and size of the army that will be required and put them on standby for duty while further preparations are going. Armies are not assembled piece meal. Soldiers are selected for their capabilities and training and not just on their war experience. Its the nature of the military task and the conditions that determine who becomes part of the combat team. In the same way, this process in attaining the one hundred dollar vision yet to be adequately addressed. Who are the regulars for the war to attain a 100 Billion Dollar economy by 2040? Who are the regular strategists, who are the regular commanders, who are the generals? What firm command structure exists to coordinate the plans and operations at different planning levels for this Grand Economic War? Let me conclude this article with a four combination key that will unlock the gateways to our 100 billion dollar economy. The combination is Think, Plan, Organize and Act. This means that success will come off from a combination of thinkers, planners, organizers and actors acting with total commitment within a well ordered, strengths-driven operational system. Simon Bere, 2012 +263774447438 megashiftsolution@gmail.com Simon Bere is a natural strategic thinker, results engineer and peak performance strategist. He works with business executives, entrepreneurs and ordinary people, sharing with them tools, strategies and skills for creating results at business and organizational levels and achieving peak performance states and high performance levels at personal and organizational levels. He holds a Master Of Science Degree and is a Certified NLP Practitioner. He is the creator of The Megashift Solution as well as many other proprietary models and tools to guide people in thinking, creating results, and achieving peak performance levels.