Rajeev Karki

Historical perspective
Most modern scholars consider the period between 1300 and 1600 in European History to be the Renaissance period. The Renaissance period was a time of exploration and learning. People started venturing outside their comfort zone, making new discoveries and inventions. The printing press, which was invented by Johannes Gutenberg during the Renaissance, was revolutionary in the way it made information available to the general public. Before the printing press, all the manuscripts were handwritten, making them expensive and accessible only to the select few. The new access to information beyond the teaching of the church made people curious, leading to an increased value being placed on experimentation and scientific proof.

The European Renaissance was an era of travel and discovery of new land. It was during this time that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas and made it possible for Europeans to settle in this new found world. The European Renaissance also gave birth to geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo who made tremendous contributions in the fields of science and art.

In my opinion, a leader during the European Renaissance would have been expected to lead by example. People were engaged in learning things that they had never encountered before. They needed leaders to take them to these new levels, and they needed this to be done in a practical way. They had not had access to personal learning, so they were in need of mentors to actually educate them and show them what was possible. A leader would have been required to have the skills that would allow him to train his followers. People needed to learn to read. They needed to learn how scientific processes worked. A leader at that time could not just be concerned with ideas. Instead, he had to be able to work with people who wanted to learn, and to be willing to get his hands “dirty” and get the job done. A leader during that period would have played just as big of a role in mentoring the people as he would as a visionary.

Shift to information age
Currently, we are living in another period of change - The Information Renaissance. The invention of computers and more specifically the ability to network them has brought a paradigm shift in the way we think and value information and communication. We are a no longer confined by geographical boundaries. The Internet is transforming us from being a national to global community. As more countries build their infrastructure and start participating in the global market, it is affecting the world economy. Countries that used to rely heavily on industrial economy are now shifting more towards information and communication economy. This phenomenon is evident in USA more than anywhere else. Just like the pioneers rushed for gold, in this Information Renaissance era, we are rushing to gather as much information as we can. The value of information and communication is made clear by corporate giants like Google, Yahoo, AOL, AT&T, and Viacom.

As we transition into this new Information age, the leaders of our society also need to transform themselves to the new ways of doing things. They need to have a broader perspective on the world and take into consideration the impact of social and cultural values. A leader needs to be aware that the leadership values favored in the west, “i.e. a stress on individual, the confidence in market process, and the focus on managers, are not well-received in many parts of the world.” (Wren, 1995, p. 250). The strategies that have worked historically most likely will not work when applied to a global economy.

Practical use of information
In order to understand the Information Renaissance, it is helpful to get a clear definition of Information. According to Dr. Jay Gillete:

Information is a set of applied data. That is, data that are applied for useful purposes to the information user. Information is useful data. To define it informally: information is news you use. Information value is intrinsically relative to the user – that is, data in stock market tables are useless to you if you have not invested in the market. But, if you have, then data in the stock tables can be turned into information for you, if you understand them. (Gillette, 2002, p. 9)

A practical use of information usually goes through five stages:
1. Access
2. Filtering
3. Storage
4. Retrieval
5. Using

(Gillette, 2002, p. 16).

A good leader of the Information Renaissance needs to be adept in all of these steps. The following table shows a few examples of how a leader might implement these steps in a corporate setting:

In reality, these steps actually operate in cyclical fashion. When certain information is applied in the real world, the results from this step are actually stored, filtered, and accessed later for use in a different situation. The diagram below illustrates the various steps involved in information processing.

Conclusion:
Through the years we have seen leaders of every type. However, it has been essential for each of these leaders to be relevant to the time in which they lived. As the world moves from one stage to other, the leaders must change and learn to adapt.

The Information Renaissance period that we currently live in has made the world a much smaller place. It has also changed the economy of the world, bringing in more players from the East. For leaders to be effective, they must be aware of cultural differences and be able to use these differences in positive ways rather than letting differences separate people and hinder productivity.

The amount of information that we generate is growing exponentially. It is believed that one week of The New York Times contains more information than what an average person living in the Middle Ages would have been exposed to in their lifetime. In order to take advantage of this information, a leader must be able to access, filter, and store this information so that it can be retrieved and used later. Anyone not willing to change and learn will perish.

Bibliography:
Gillette, J. E. (2002). A practical framework for understanding KM. In Knowledge Management Strategy and Technology (p. 9). Boston and London: Arctech House.

Wren, J. T. (1995). Leader's Companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.