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Garry Jacobs is an American theorist, researcher and consultant on business management, economic and social development, and global governance. He is currently Chairman of the Board and CEO of the World Academy of Art & Science; Managing Editor of Cadmus Journal on economics, security and global governance (www.cadmusjournal.org); Vice-President of The Mother’s Service Society (MSS) (www.mssresearch.org), an educational and social science research institute in India; and an international fellow of the Club of Rome. The integrating theme in Jacobs’ research is the social and psychological process of growth and development as it expresses at the level of the individual, organization, nation and the global community.
Business Management[edit]
Jacobs is an author and consultant to international businesses in Europe, North America and Asia on the process of growth. The theoretical framework is set forth in two books: THE VITAL DIFFERENCE: Unleash¬ing the Powers of Sustained Corporate Success with Frederick Harmon, based on studies of highly suc¬cessful, multi-billion dollar companies including Apple, AT&T, Intel, IBM, Marriott, Merck, Dupont, Sears and Bata ; and THE VITAL CORPORATION: How American Companies Large and Small Double Profits in Two Years or Less, with Robert Macfarlane, based on the authors’ consulting work & research in over 30 fast-growing companies in North America, Europe & Asia, including Ben & Jerry’s, Chrysler, Federal Express, Ford, Gartner Group, GE, IBM, Linear Technologies, Marriott, and Merck .. The theory presented in these books is founded on the premise that organization is a form of social technology with virtually unlimited power for accomplishment and development. Applied in the context of modern business, this means that any business organization has the capacity to grow rapidly and profitably by fully utilizing the opportunities within its present frame of reference. Businesses are living organisms which grow through a process of energy conversion, releasing, directing and channeling human energy for higher accomplishment. Growth depends on maintaining active relationships and harmony with ever-changing conditions in society. Each business consists of five major inter-related components – market, technology, people, capital and organization – which function as integral aspects of a greater whole rather than as separate functional activities. Each in turn can be subdivided into 20 or more subcomponents. The overall performance of a business depends primarily on the balanced development of each of these components and their effective integration. Because of this integration, development of each component and subcomponent necessarily requires corresponding improvements in all other components. Therefore, the process of growth is unending and potentially infinite.
Social Development[edit]
Since the early 1970s Jacobs has been engaged in research at the Mother’s Service Society on formulation of a comprehensive theory of social development applicable to all societies, all historical periods and all stages of development. The central premise of the theory is that development is a process of releasing, directing and organizing human energies for accomplishment. This process expresses at the physical level through the progressive organization of physical infrastructures such as roads, farms, urban centers, factories, schools, etc. At the social level it gives rise to an unending plethora of innovative new political, economic and social institutions such as military, government, markets, money, banking, universities, and research centers. At the mental level it leads to the formulation of languages, technologies, ideas, theories, laws, values and beliefs. Technology, money and institutions are various expressions of a more fundamental social process, rather than its primary determinants. Humanity has a tendency to subordinate itself to the instruments it creates for its progress and become enslaved to its own creations . The individual occupies a central role in the theory as the catalyst for social change. The pioneer, explorer, inventor, social and technological innovator, revolutionary leader, creative artist, original thinker, genius and spiritual visionary are examples of the various ways in which individuals break through the patterns of established thought, belief and behavior imposed by the social collective and introduce new and more adaptive patterns. The response of society to the individual may pass through stages of indifference, resistance and ridicule before it begins to respond positively by imitation, replication, and dissemination. Eventually society accepts, organizes and integrates it through institutions, customs and values until it becomes a subconscious element of culture and individual psychology . The theoretical framework has been applied in India to evolve strategies designed to accelerate development at the local, state and national level.
Economic Theory & Measures[edit]
Jacobs is a strong advocate for establishing new foundations for economic theory based on the view that economics is human rather than a natural science and is not subject to immutable laws of nature applicable to physics and other natural sciences. He argues for formulation of human-centered economic theory that makes explicit the values underpinning economic policies and political structures and perceives economics as rightly constituting one component of an integrated science of society . The question of value and measurement is central to economics. Of particular concern is the value of current measures such as GDP to assign appropriate value to non-renewable natural resources and to distinguish between economic activity which is a measure flow and wealth which is a measure of stock. His work on alternative measures of social development in India in the early 1980s is one of the early efforts to develop and alternative to GDP . More recently, in collaboration with Ivo Šlaus, he developed the Human Economic Welfare Index as an alternative to GDP which incorporates indices for household consumption, income inequality, employment, education, health and energy sustainability .
Employment[edit]
Challenging conventional economic thinking that postulates limits to the capacity for employment generation, he has conducted both theoretical and applied research to demonstrate that society has the capacity for significantly expanding employment opportunities. In 1991 he headed the employment working group of the International Commission on Peace & Food and co-authored a study of employment potential in India which proposed a strategy to create 100 million new jobs within 10 years. The strategy was adopted as official policy.by the Government of India in 1992 . Since 2009, he has been Coordinator for the World Academy of Art & Science’s project on Global Employment Challenge and author of numerous studies document the potential for expanding employment opportunities in both developing and industrialized nations .
International Development[edit]
From 1989-1994 Jacobs was a founder and Member Secretary of the International Commission on Peace & Food (ICPF), a high level independent group examining solutions to pressing global issues, and chaired working groups on global employment and economic transition in Eastern Europe. He was the principle author and editor of the Commission’s report to the United Nations Uncommon Opportunities: Agenda for Peace & Equitable Development . He continues as Executive Director of the Commission’s successor organization, the International Center for Peace & Development, based in Napa, California.
International Security & Global Governance[edit]
Under ICPF and WAAS, Jacobs has written and lobbied extensively for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons . He currently chairs the World Academy’s Standing Committee on Peace & Development and is a member of a research group working on issues related to global rule of law.
Other Writings[edit]
Jacobs has spend four decades studying Sri Aurobindo's integral philosophy of consciousness evolution and has written extensively on the application of principles derived from his writings to business management, social development and psychology, including a series of published lectures Lectures on Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine. He has also written a 900 page novel entitled The Book: the spiritual individual in quest of the living organization – Codec for the Infinite Game translating these principles into a story of four entrepreneurs in quest for success in business and individual fulfillment.