Global Strategies

The Example of Ziba Design's Diverse Staff

Laura Oppenheimer has a story in the Oregonian headlined “Portland’s Ziba Designs: where art meets science, turns 25” (here) that discusses the growth and development of that industrial design firm in Portland. It’s about to move into its new building.

Ziba Design has an international reputation as a design firm. So does Sohrab Vossoughi, its founder. Two quotes from the article are relevant to the themes of this blog.

Ziba sets itself apart by dissecting consumers' desires, delving beyond conventional wisdom. That's part of the reason Vossoughi prides himself on the company's diverse staff, which includes 17 foreign-born employees and nearly two dozen languages spoken.

What Vossoughi seeks in his staff, Oregon should cultivate by sending our high school students to study abroad and learn foreign language. It gives students fresh perspectives.

And note the articles views on future consumer directions in China:

One new client wants to target young people in China.

"There's this idea of, 'Oh, they're looking to the West,'" says Wibke Fleischer, a senior insights and trends specialist who grew up in Germany. "But we thought, 'Maybe that's not it. That doesn't feel quite right.'"

Ziba dispatched researchers, graphic designers and product designers, at least one Chinese member per team, to spend 100 days in China. They played badminton, shopped and sang karaoke with teenagers. They interviewed trend-makers. And they found a generation detached from tradition, ready to chart its own identity.

Marines Studying Pashto, Dari, and Urdu

I’ve argued on this blog (here) that it is essential for the US military to have many of our soldiers in Afghanistan fluent in Pashto for the US to have any chance of being successful there, whatever that means. So, I note with interest the following sentence in Elisabeth Bumiller’s NY Times article “With Boots in Iraq, Minds Drift to Afghanistan” (here):

At Camp Lejeune, N.C., the Marines are offering a new yearlong crash course in Pashto, Dari and Urdu, languages spoken in Afghanistan.

Now, this is good, better than nothing, but there are no number details. Just how many are taking these crash courses, and who are they? I’m guessing not enough.

If the US military wants to conduct successful counter insurgency operations in Afghanistan it should recognize (1) that it will take a long time, maybe ten to fifteen years, to be successful; (2) that, with a professional army, we can develop rotations that send the same experienced troops back to Afghanistan for repeated tours; (3) that those rotating into Afghanistan should be fluent in one of the Afghan languages and rotate in and out of areas that speaks that language; and (4) that part of their state side rotations should be spent on Afghan language training.

There is also a broader issue relating to success in Afghanistan, one that steps outside the military. The US educational system should play a role in developing these Afghan language skills. I don’t think school districts will find it possible to have immersion courses in Pashto, Dari, or Urdu. Maybe, high school courses in Urdu (but probably not). But school districts could support online, correspondence or the use of software like Rosetta Stone for high school students to study Afghan languages while in district. Both the school districts and the federal government could support intensive summer courses. And, of course, states and school districts could implement my Go Global High School Study Abroad Program (here), and pay for high school students to study abroad learning Afghan languages (wherever it is safe for them to be). The study abroad programs need not cost any additional local, state, or federal dollars.