Imagination is Important than Knowledge - Essay Example

IMAGINATION IS IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Imagination entails the action or faculty of developing novel ideas. It is a human ability that enables people to see the sights of things that are not evident in the environment. Knowledge, on the other hand, entails skills, information and acts obtained by a person via education or experience. Albert Einstein asserts that imagination is more important than knowledge. Imagination rather than knowledge helps people to focus on productive upshots that develop and unite civilizations. Imagination lowers alienation and celebrates interdependence that facilitates globalisation. This essay discusses how a global business can harness inclusion, interdependence, openness, hope and opportunity to create a better world for all countries especially nations that failed to benefit from globalisation. Imagination is crucial to the success of a business. The subconscious mind of human beings comprises of a powerful force that makes one successful. The same force determines ones success in other areas of life. However, most people tend to overlook imagination and instead focus on knowledge. Imagination helps people to feel, perform and act with respect to what they imagine to be accurate about their environment and themselves (Crichlow & Northover 2009). The subconscious mind of human beings comprises of imagination, emotions and memories. Imagination being one of the two elements of the subconscious mind becomes stronger when integrated with the emotions and memories. For instance, when an individual imagine him/herself attaining a particular objective, the memories and emotions inspire the person to take the required action to bring the imagined future. Similarly, a business that practices voluntary control of its imagination through its leadership recognises scores of prospects and strategies to establish business value. Greater profits in a business entail a matter of choosing what is good for business and visualising the future image of attaining the objectives. A successful business calls for imagination that helps one to visualise things and dream. The benefits of globalisations can be attained through imagination. The imagining faculty is important in business and life compared to knowledge. According to Einstein, knowledge is limited while imagination is within people (Thompson 2011). Knowledge derives from intuition and imagination (Bilton & Cummings 2010). In addition, knowledge is acquired from learning institutions and through experience. Imagination can motivate global business and can prompt people to obtain knowledge and use it in creative manners aimed at ensuring business success. Imagination embraces the whole world and stimulates progress. Therefore, global business can use imagination to ensure that third world countries reap the benefits of globalisation. Bilton and Cummings (2010) assert that globalisation of markets assumes that innovation focuses on a compelling product idea. With the increased globalisation, consumers are greatly susceptible to market innovations and novel blueprints of delivery that are products of imagination and creativity. Global businesses can use imagination to increase interdependence amid nations. A business can make good use of its collective resources to secure equitable progress for all. To facilitate attainment of the benefits of globalisation to developing and all other nations, global businesses can focus on promoting interdependence rather than alienation. Interdependence requires nations to open their economies and exploit the opportunities created through globalisation (Bilton & Cummings 2010). Augmenting global interdependence requires people to be creative. While global businesses allow the world to evolve, mutual dependencies increase while unilateral activities that undermine the convolutions of global interactions fail. Global businesses can make world better for all through increasing their global links through rethinking and reshaping mental models. To enhance interdependence, global business leaders can exchange ideas concerning issues that affect both developing and developed economies. Common solutions and concepts are essential for practical interdependence. Globalisation is a socially unequal and uneven process. However, through promoting interdependence, global business can change the blueprints of inclusion and marginalisation. Global businesses have the potential to combat unconscious bias across disparities, culture, gender, race to promote a more innovative and productive corporate culture besides improved engagement with other businesses from different nations. According to Bryan (2010), global business can focus on diversity management as a way of promoting inclusion. However, the objective of diversity management does not only concern transformation of a firm’s culture through the pluralistic set of cultures and values, but it is also a form of organisational change. Beyond the simple contingents of management and leadership, the values of inclusion require to be shared by all employees in a given firm (Cameron & Palan 2004). Development of a better world for all nations calls for implementation of diversity and inclusion policies. For instance, in the United States of America, firms are required to embrace diversity as a reality because workforce is as diversified as pluralistic and firms address the contextual prospects of demographics. Firms in the United States are also required to offer workers equal prospects and enhance social justice via company programmes and policies. The policies and programmes are aimed at harnessing the logic of diversity management for firms in order to gain a global competitive advantage. According to Mermod and Idowu (2013), global business can foster inclusion to make the world better for all people regardless of race, nationality, gender and sexual orientation. Global businesses work intelligently and rationally to prosper and grow. They do so hopefully to win a competitive advantage and attain sustainability ( Merkel & Al-Falaji 2004). Modern global businesses are concerned with people’s lives and they quickly use imagination to visualise the ideas and strategies that facilitate creation of a better world for all nations. To ensure benefits of globalisation to all, especially the developing economies, global businesses can establish various strategies for addressing the intersection of natural environment, societal needs and corresponding business imperatives. Global business can provide opportunities to people in less-developed nations in order for them to reap the benefits of globalisations. According to Dobbs, Koller and Ramaswamy (2015), the economic environment of global firms is becoming less favourable with novel rivals from developing nations and technical sector putting major firms that do not focus on societal need on notice. The newcomers in the global economy focus on imagination rather than knowledge an aspect that make them to play diverse rules and bring an aggressiveness and agility that some global firms are unable to match. Global firms can use corporate social responsibility to promote inclusion, interdependence, hope and opportunities in both developed and less developed economies. These firms should anticipate the future through detecting the trends that mould the future each step along the way. The firms should adopt policies that focus on generating economic opportunities and benefits for all. Global firms should find consistency with their corporate values included in their vision. Working toward a better future requires feasible corporate social responsibility. According to Belal (2016), corporate social responsibility can include improving the working conditions of employees. Murray and Dainty (2013) further asserts that global firms operating in developing economies that have not yet reaped the benefits of globalisation should assume corporate social and global responsibility and ensure that mechanism for productive learning and development of enterprise culture are well in position. Firms operating in developing economies hold the key role of promoting environmental protection for future generations and promotion of technologies transfer that are capable of establishing learning opportunities for local firms. Local firms in developing nations lack the managerial and technical abilities for developing, designing, operating, surveying and executing infrastructure. Global firms can support these firms through corporate social responsibilities activities to make the world a better place for all. They should focus on improving the future of people through implementing the forward-facing perspective and looking further ahead into generations to come. According to Labadi and Long (2010), the benefits of globalisation are facilitated through corporate social responsibility with corporate social responsibility being stimulated by globalisation, intense public expectation for companies and international trade. Global firms are required to address environmental, social and cultural issues in order to enhance their competitive advantage, align economic and social goals and enhance long-term business prospects. Through corporate social responsibility, global firms can promote interdependence rather than self-sufficiency, inclusion instead of exclusion, openness, opportunities and hope to create a better world for all nations particularly nations that did not reap the benefits of globalisation. Conclusion Development is change for the benefit of society and human life. Development is a revolution of hope in the spirit of possibility and is enhanced through globalisation and other means of ensuring sustainability of society and human life. Firms have developed diverse strategies for addressing the intersection of natural environmental, societal needs and corresponding business imperatives. However, the strategies developed by firms do not only depend of knowledge but depend more essentially on imagination. Imagination is what is within people while knowledge is acquired from experience and learning institutions. Global firms can use imagination rather than knowledge to implement creative ways that foster the benefits of globalisations to all nations particularly the developing nations. It is through imagination rather than knowledge that global businesses can implement social corporate responsibility activities to create a better world. Imagination holds the potential to help global businesses create and develop feasible strategies aimed at ensuring the attainment of the benefits of globalisation in both developed and developing economies. Imagination as a daring voice allows the leadership and the management of firms to escalade beyond limits and attain what is believed to be unattainable by others. Imagination generates novel thoughts that prompt establishment of strategies linked to corporate social responsibilities and other growth strategies. References List Belal, A.R 2016, Corporate social responsibility reporting in developing countries: The case of Banglagesh, UK, Routledge. Bilton, C & Cummings, S 2010, Creative Strategy: Reconnecting business and innovation, UK, John Wiley & Sons. Bryan, C 2013, Cultural and technological influences on global business, UK, IGI Global. Crichlow, M & Northover, P 2009, Globalisation and post-Creole imagination: Notes on fleeing the plantation, USA, Duke University Press. Dobbs, R, Koller, T & Ramaswamy, S 2015, ‘The future and how to survive it: Corporate profits are beginning a long slide. Prepare for leaner times’, Harvard Business Review, vol.93, no.10, p.48-62. Merkel, J & Al-Falaji, A 2004, On the art of business, India, Llumina Press. Mermod, A & Idowu, S 2013, Corporate social responsibility in the global business world, USA, Springer Science & Business Media. Murray, M & Dainty, A 2013, Corporate social responsibility in the construction industry, UK, Routledge. Thompson, M 2011, The anywhere leader: How to lead and succeed in any business environment, UK, John Wiley & Sons. Cameron, A & Palan, R 2004, The imagined economies of globalisation, USA, SAGE. Read More