Commentary by Praveen Gupta

Innovation for Creating Jobs

There will always be a need for creating jobs. Governments around the world are looking into ways for creating jobs. President Barack Obama held a Jobs Forum like meeting at White House in December, 2009. I read that $5000 per new hire was offered to corporations. It sounds like that everyone expects to buy jobs from somewhere, get them by waving a magic wand, imagine them through an elegant strategy, or hope to energize inspire people through eloquent speeches. Creating jobs takes work. Foundation of the current jobs was created by earlier generations through sheer hard work and creativity.

One thing for sure businesses create jobs, and people create businesses. Shouldn’t our focus be then creating new businesses instead of creating jobs? We should plan for a number of new businesses to replace lost jobs and more for maintaining even certain level of employment. Government should develop a policy for, let’s say, creating a million new businesses at a specified rate, then appoint a champion for achieving the goal. Businesses make our nation strong. This would require mobilizing people and it is the job of leadership.

I believe we should empower our unemployed friends with education in innovation and entrepreneurship, reward them for creating new ventures, support their new businesses, and collaborate with them to create new jobs. I see this as a more viable approach than merely talking about creating jobs.

What do you think? Love to hear readers’ comments.

RSS