A CALL FOR COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS AND INITIATIVES IN THE 21ST CENTURY STUDENT LEADERSHIP LANDSCAPE
On behalf of the KASAMA/SSC Executive Committee, I congratulate the entire Louisian student community for taking part in the activities of the SSC and the different student organizations which aim to bring together student leaders who are committed to continuously reinvent and sustain optimum leadership development opportunities towards having shared ideas and visions for all Louisians alike. To the different student organizations, we applaud you as well for courageously assuming the role as the strategic partners of the SSC in bringing out what’s best in the capabilities of our fellow students. To Maam Dots, Sir Ronald, Sir Andrew, Maam Trish, Sir Gil, and Sir Noel, as well as Rev. Fr. Gilbert Sales and other university administration officials, words cannot express how grateful we are with the support that you are consistently providing us. Rest assured that our initiatives for the betterment of the quality of our student activities here in SLU will be geared towards achieving optimum returns on investment through the development of future professionals who are competent, creative, and socially involved while being imbued with genuine Christian spirit.
Saint Louis University gives premium to academic excellence and to professional expertise. Hence, it aims to mold students and human resources who are able to work together well through mutual exchange of knowledge, values, and skills. Competence is the ability to seek together with others ways of improving each other’s talents and tasks, thus giving everyone a sense of purpose and future of one’s work. Moreover, competent people are highly motivated and are self-propelled. They are individuals who constantly seek to do the best in whatever task assigned to them. They also exhibit a capacity of tackling issues with maturity and sound judgment.
In line with this thrust of our university, I want to make a proposal. As a member of the student leadership community in SLU, I want to take this opportunity to call for a more effective leadership development cooperation across the different organizations that we have – a united realm which is more inclusive, more interdependent, and more responsive to the changing needs of our respective areas of specialization. As we all know, Baby Boomers are now retiring at mass scales, and this means a lot for most companies and organizations. A huge amount of intellectual capital and intangible people skills will be lost, and numerous research findings show that the current workforce available to replace these Baby Boomers do not have the sufficient knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other competencies necessary for them to assume top management roles. What’s it in for us? As student leaders, we have this grand responsibility to promote optimum leadership development opportunities for our fellow students which are generally inclusive, interdependent, and responsive in nature. We, in student organizations, should promote a culture of collaboration so that we could together talk about problems facing the national and global business environments today and altogether provide solutions to those problems. It is truly our commitment to take on this strategic role in alignment to the long-term goals of our university in providing quality Catholic education to learners and sustaining a workforce that is competent enough to make effective and efficient decisions for lots of other people at stake.
Today is also a time where we should shift our focus from traditional leadership to the concept of leadership ecosystems. In business, this refers to the network of organizations – including suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors, government agencies, and so on – involved in the delivery of a specific product or service through both competition and cooperation. James F. Moore, an American business strategist defines a business ecosystem as an economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world. The economic community produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the ecosystem. The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their capabilities and roles, and tend to align themselves with the directions set by one or more central companies. Those companies holding leadership roles may change over time, but the function of ecosystem leader is valued by the community because it enables members to move toward shared visions to align their investments, and to find mutually supportive roles. As young business leaders, we also need to co-evolve the capabilities and roles of our organizations for us to be aligned with the directions set by SLU and by the other universities as well, both in the Philippines and abroad.
As Baby Boomers retire, it’s time to replenish talent already. It’s time for us to create a mechanism where we could foster an environment featuring a more interactive facet of cooperation – activities where we could facilitate partnerships with one another, a fruitful exchange of ideas so that we could synthesize or put together our perspectives about specific issues in business, and more linkages with other schools, universities, and other institutions so that we could enhance better the quality of student leadership experience in SLU while also sharing to them the best leadership practices that we have on our own. With this, the KASAMA/SSC is exerting optimum efforts in establishing and maintaining a more inclusive, interdependent, and responsive student leadership environment in SLU. Inputs and other suggestions from you will also be taken from you so as to ensure optimum participation of all organizations involved and to be sustained in this undertaking. Consultations will also be made with our school and university officials so that we could more efficiently achieve this goal of ours and more effectively implement our plans for a better KASAMA/SSC, a better SLU student leadership environment, and a better world for us to live in.
We expect the full cooperation and participation of the entire Louisian student leadership community in these new initiatives from the network of student council leaders not only in SLU Baguio City but also of the all CICM schools within the CICM Philippine province.
Mabuhay ang mga nagkakaisang Louisiano!
