Klaus North

Professor of International Management, Wiesbaden Business School, Germany

Knowledge or ignorance for development?
What drives or hinders development of nations, regions, organizations, teams or individuals? Most of us would agree that knowledge and competence are at the heart of creating value and improving our lives. Currently we are witnessing a number of developments where deliberate ignorance and prejudice is instrumentalised to gain power, manipulate and reach unethical objectives. This shows that the availability of more and better data and information does not always lead to better decisions. It seems a paradox that the more we know the less we apply of this knowledge. Let us fight this ignorance and remind decision makers at all levels that after centuries of scientific research to advance society we will have to apply what we know and contribute to a better education of all of us so that we are aware of and critical towards manipulations of information and knowledge!