Are the British Better Than the Americans?

By Ray Piggott

A question such as this will immediately evoke polarized attitudes and opinions. Many British citizens will call to mind an instinctive reply without first questioning the validity of whether the British should measure themselves against the world’s most powerful nation - and the most productive. Many Americans would find it both preposterous and faintly amusing that such a question could be posed at the beginning of the 21st century. Yet it is unlikely that any other two nations would attempt to be in a contest of comparison.

Perhaps the claimed 'special relationship' is no more than an axis of hubris created from the British sense of history and the American sense of economic power. Yet the world is no longer dominated by colonialism but by economic power. Despite its wealth, originating from its powerful past, Britain has yet to re-create its economic power in a world, and at a time, where most countries make no assumptions about their historic right to prosperity. America, given its independence from the British, and its determination to write a constitution free from the perceived shortcomings of the British way of ruling, remains the best example of a country that has no weight of history to impede its economic ambitions.

But even today, the British, across the whole spectrum of society, cannot shake free of the many attitudes inherited from that era of colonial power. An era in which, in Britain, there were the rulers and the ruled. Thus, Britain will not assume a place that it could rightly inhabit, given all its intellectual strengths - also arguably borne of its colonial past - until it includes all of its citizens in the meritocracy that, for all of its other possible shortcomings, is the bedrock that gives America its strengths.

In her book, Estates, Lynsey Hanley says of children, "The aspirations and expectations of the rest of society are not for you. It’s not so much that you get told kids like you can’t ever hope to fulfil their full potential: it’s just that the very idea of having lots of potential to fulfil isn’t presented - inculcated into every child - it is the idea that you shouldn’t hope for too much" Now, Ms Hanley is talking specifically of council estates but to a lesser or greater extent this attitude can be extended to almost all forms of state education, particularly that provided to inner city schools.

In today’s world this results in an appalling, unaffordable waste in economic and commercial terms alone, not to mention the sociological consequences. Is it fanciful to suggest that origins of the "Broken society" as articulated by the Conservative party leader, David Cameron, could be found by examining this educational phenomenon? The problem is exacerbated by the fact that everybody is part of, albeit at different positions, the same system.

This affords few people the opportunity to leave the system and examine it from an outside perspective and make comparisons with a totally different system or to compare it with a methodology emanating from within a totally different culture. So, in industrial terms, the commercial world of those steeped in the British way of doing things is unlikely to perceive that this way, emanating as it does, from our cultural heritage, is not fit for the purpose of competing with those operating in a commercial environment carrying no such baggage.

In essence, the management of a colony or even an empire, or a lifetime spent in a culture accustomed to managing a colony or an empire, is no suitable training ground for managing in today’s harsh commercial reality. In fact, it is arguable that former colonies, India, Singapore, Malaysia etc. are shaking themselves free of their colonial heritage to compete in the global marketplace faster than their former colonial masters.

The serious consequence of this is that the undoubted native intellectual skills of Britain are often wasted. Repeatedly we see Britain bring inventions and processes to the attention of the world only to see them developed by other nations. We have seen British inventions such as radar, the computer, the jet engine, brain and body scanners exploited profitably elsewhere and even up-to date phenomena such as the iPod and the World-Wide Web are the inventions of British nationals exploited by non-British companies.

If we consider the industrial revolution that had its origins in Britain, and consider the foregoing list of inventions and industrial processes then the claim made in the title of this piece might have some validity. But the country, if it is to take its rightful place in the industrial productivity league tables (it currently lies about 15th) must cease to take comfort in a form of national self-righteous obduracy and it must be prepared to adopt a completely different method of industrial and commercial management - and it must adopt a different educational system.

The country must resist the academic Luddites who decry the increasing numbers of young who go to university, those who yearn for and work to restore the elitist approach of yesteryear. Such an approach has made the country less competitive than its individual and collective intelligence could and should achieve.

By contrast the United States does not call for a reduction in numbers of people attempting to go to university in order to improve the quality of their output, rather it puts enormous pressure on students to improve their prospects by graduating with better grades. By this means, the educational standards generally increase in overall terms and selection for better career prospects is made by grades attained. The graduates of such a system enter into industry with a sense of zest and excitement; there is an instinctive cultural awareness of the financial realities totally unencumbered with any culturally inherited baggage.

Such a system produces Bill Gates, Michael Dell, the founders of Google and e-Bay and countless other start-ups; it also creates a more relevant managerial class. By contrast, British society and its educational methodology and its desire for, and belief in, elitism, together with an unjustified faith in the historical way of doing things, has deprived talented and eager youngsters of the opportunity to work in stimulating, exciting environments. It has enormous social consequences for the country in the 21st century.

Are the British better than the Americans? It depends on what vantage point one is lucky or unlucky enough to occupy.

Ray Piggott is the author of We Could Be Contenders: What a British Management Education Doesn't Teach You and What a British Education Doesn't Teach You.

Prior to his retirement, Ray was Chairman and Chief Executive of global networking equipment and systems manufacturer Cray Communications and was previously a Divisional Director with ICL and a General Manager with Data General.

Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Currency UK Ltd.