Scaling Up Excellence
Mushtak Al-AtabiDean. School of Engineering. Taylor’s University. Malaysia
University Science Malaysia17 April 2014
Photo credit: Intel Free Press
Andy Grove- ex intel CEOEngineer
Photo credit: Remy Steinegger/World Economic Forum/Wall
Mike Duke- Wallmart CEOIndustrial Engineer
Don Thompson- McDonald’s CEOElectrical Engineer
Daniel Akerson- GM CEOEngineer
Carlos Ghosn- CEOEngineer
Ian Read- Pfizer's CEO Engineer
Rich Lesser- BCG CEO Chemical Engineer
Robert A. McDonald, Procter & Gamble CEO Engineer
Education has a dark side
Steve JobsDropoutReed College
Bill GatesDropoutHarvard Engineering
Mark ZuckerbergDropoutHarvard Computer Science
Observations
• We seem to be able to educate good graduates• We also educate very good graduates• But great, world changing graduates seems to happen
despite the system, not because of it!• Why?• I think there are 2 reasons
– Our education systems are industrial and standardised to cater for equipping the students with discipline specific knowledge
– We do not have many people who can teach innovation, creativity, collaboration, communication and entrepreneurship
Black Swan
• For centuries, all the swans we observed were white.
• “All swans are white”• Until a black swan was
spotted in Australia
Black Swans
• Highly unpredictable events and occurring• 11/9 (negative)• Financial Crises (negative)• Google (positive) • Facebook (positive)• Twitter (positive)
Fragile Systems
• Fragile (adj): breaks when exposed to stress• What is the opposite of “Fragile”?• Anti-Fragile (adj): A system that gets stronger
when it is stressed
FragileAntifragile Robust
Antifragile
• Complex systems can be antifragile
• Biological Systems , Culture, Ideas, information
Midnight’s Children
• A Novel• Do you know the writer?• He wrote another book• Satanic Verses• Do you know the writer now?• Why?• Ideas are antifragile, when they are attacked
they get stronger
Antifragile Examples
• The airline industry• Every air crash makes the entire system safer• Small errors and mistakes will benefit the
system in the long run• Posttraumatic growth• Tell someone a secret and beg him/her not to
tell anyone
What Makes a Fragile System
• When a bank fails, the government bails it out• A bigger bank bank is created that makes the
financial systems even more fragile• Infection can improve the immune system of
the human body. Prevent it and you will have a fragile immune system
Fragile SystemLo
ss
Time
Blac
k Sw
an
Gai
n
Robust SystemLo
ss
Time
Gai
n
Antifragile SystemG
ain
TimePo
sitiv
e Bl
ack
Swan
Loss
• We have the choice of being fragile, robust or antifragile
• Wind extinguishes a candle (fragile) and energises fire (antifragile)
• How to make our graduates antifragile?• How to make our education systeme
antifragile?• With all the Grand Challenges, a fragile system
is not an option
How to Antifragalise Education
• Encourage small failures• Return on Failure• Entrepreneurship• Multiple intelligences
MOOCs and Malaysia
• Enable students access to the best professors (scaling up excellence)
• Brand education in Malaysia• Attract international students• Enable our students to work with students
from all over the world• MOOCs is an Antifragile opportunity for
Malaysia
MOOCs for MalaysiaG
ain
TimePo
sitiv
e Bl
ack
Swan
Loss
MOOCs @ Taylor’s
• We deployed the first MOOC, Entrepreneurship, in April 2013
• 2294 students from 125 different countries• Success with Emotional Intelligence, is
underway with 1984 students• Global Entrepreneurship 1329 students• And more
Global Entrepreneurship
• Students are working in teams. Taylor’s students need teams from the online community.
• Teams will need to raise funds using crowdfunding
• Daily Brain Rewiring• MOOC Tools
Success MOOC
Brain Rewiring
Final Remark
• Education Systems are in the Fragile-Robust domain• The more antifragile components that we
introduce, the more the entire system becomes antifragile
• Antifragile education system will produce more antifragile graduates
• MOOCs on Open Learning are addictive• You can always scale up excellence, but it has to
exist in the first place
Dream.Big.Be.Different.Have.Fun Be.Antifragile
