We depend more and more on sophisticated technology in our society. The complexity is rising quickly: large information technology (IT) projects have a worse track record than infrastructure projects when measured to “completed-on-time-and-within-budget” . Climate and energy issues require a lot of knowledge of physics , of complex modelling, of research and development, of innovation.
A daunting task for our politicians. One should hope that at least some of them have had an education and preferable some work experience in “hard” environments : where hard science is required, solid engineering is important, professional management of big complex projects or products is vital to survival. They would have much more feeling for the daily reality of these challenges, understand what the effects would be of policy changes and laws written.
So lets look at their backgrounds in this respect. Over here (20090116 Overzicht Beta achtergrond TK-leden 2007-2011.xls) you can find a spreadsheet with our members of parliament, over here (2008 Overzicht Beta achtergrond ministers en staatsecretarissen.xls) with the members of our cabinet.
An interesting overview. You can draw your own conclusions. Approx. 20 % of parliament has had a “beta” education (including health care and MBA), approx. 10 % has some work experience in this arena. In the cabinet things are not really different.
So next time you question yourself why large technology projects and IT projects which are run by our goverment seem to be not-so-well-run, or why our policies regarding technology and innovation seem to be lacking in effectiveness, or why the high-tech manufacturing industries seem to be left out in the cold, look again at these spreadsheets.
Do we get enough people in office who “get it” and have more than a theoretical understanding of the issues?
