Vernon Chalmers Academic, Business and Training Development Journey
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| Labour Relations Training SAS Simonsberg Photo Credit: SA Navy |
“As a young first-year student in Cape Town I made a solemn promise on my way to my first lecture - if ever given the opportunity, I will educate, train and develop others for the rest of my life.” ― Vernon Chalmers
"An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature." ― Viktor Frankl
Image 1: Vernon Chalmers Training Officer South African Navy
With my students (I’m back row on the left) after my first ever self-designed training course (on Labour Relations). My KPA's included the lecturing of Military Leadership / Military Management / Labour Relations Strategy and Consulting for the SA Navy at the Military Training School, SAS Simonsberg, Simon’s Town and the SA Naval Staff College (for Naval Officer Training) in Muizenberg during the early 1990’s.
Some of my (personal) biggest achievements were two Chief of the SA Navy Excellence Awards for Labour Relations / Military Management Training (SAS Simonsberg), SADF Joint Senior Staff Officer College Labour Relations Course Selection (as a junior officer) - completed Summa Cum Laude (Pretoria). I was trusted with the autonomy for continuous research / development of Classified Military Management training (for Navy Petty Officers and Warrant Officers Qualifying) curriculums and being selected as one of the youngest members to serve on the Chief of the SA Navy's Steering Committee for Military Management and Leadership Training (and the curriculum development / facilitation of civilian Labour Relations Training to current / future Naval Base Commanding Officers) Naval Officer Staff College (Muizenberg).
It was an honour to work with some of the Navy's finest senior officers (during some of my assignments) who served as Commanding / Executive Officers on some of our Navy's most prestigious ships and / or shore units. Many retired years later as Rear and Vice Admirals.
Border Duty mention: As part of my initial compulsory (conscript) military service, (SA Navy), I spent three months volunteering with the SA Marine Corps in two operational units in the 'war zone' (SWA / Namibia) deep into the Caprivi Strip, with the second deployment a few kilometers north of the Chobe National Park - where we regularly observed the 'enemy' across the Chobe River, Zambia. It was a personal dedicated (auxiliary) border service, and at times volunteered in assisting some of the Marines with minor psychological challenges - for my border service I received the SADF Pro Patria medal. For me, personally, this period was quite a paradox, as 1000s of young men across the SADF had no choice. Most of them (SA Army) were engaged in physical infantry warfare in Angola during the same time. I still, up to today, have many days assimilating this. Sentinel Projects (by Barry Fowler, Clinical Psychologist, SA Army during the same period) assisted me in a very thoughtful way in reading his online publication with some interesting anecdotes / journals from various SADF members during this challenging period - I starting reading Sentinel Projects since 2020. I also read Barry Fowler's book - Pro Patria 2nd Ed. 'SADF Border Duty 1984 -1988'. Books by Barry Fowler.
Border Duty mention: As part of my initial compulsory (conscript) military service, (SA Navy), I spent three months volunteering with the SA Marine Corps in two operational units in the 'war zone' (SWA / Namibia) deep into the Caprivi Strip, with the second deployment a few kilometers north of the Chobe National Park - where we regularly observed the 'enemy' across the Chobe River, Zambia. It was a personal dedicated (auxiliary) border service, and at times volunteered in assisting some of the Marines with minor psychological challenges - for my border service I received the SADF Pro Patria medal. For me, personally, this period was quite a paradox, as 1000s of young men across the SADF had no choice. Most of them (SA Army) were engaged in physical infantry warfare in Angola during the same time. I still, up to today, have many days assimilating this. Sentinel Projects (by Barry Fowler, Clinical Psychologist, SA Army during the same period) assisted me in a very thoughtful way in reading his online publication with some interesting anecdotes / journals from various SADF members during this challenging period - I starting reading Sentinel Projects since 2020. I also read Barry Fowler's book - Pro Patria 2nd Ed. 'SADF Border Duty 1984 -1988'. Books by Barry Fowler.
Classified Information and Communication Technology Student Employment
As a Human Resource Management and Social Science student I was unexpectedly awarded an international Curry Merit Award / Bursary towards the end of my first year and was subsequently recruited (from my second year) by a covert Information Management and Technology agency involved in Secret and Top Secret national and international projects for the South African Defence Force (SADF). After some intense scrutiny I was granted an official SADF / SA Government Intelligence Secret Clearance and over a three-year period was exposed to some of the best Information Technology (IT) software engineers / computer systems in the country. What was quite ironic (to keep a secret) was the many days I attended lectures in full business attire - under the pretence of working as a part-time sales representative.
As a Human Resource Management and Social Science student I was unexpectedly awarded an international Curry Merit Award / Bursary towards the end of my first year and was subsequently recruited (from my second year) by a covert Information Management and Technology agency involved in Secret and Top Secret national and international projects for the South African Defence Force (SADF). After some intense scrutiny I was granted an official SADF / SA Government Intelligence Secret Clearance and over a three-year period was exposed to some of the best Information Technology (IT) software engineers / computer systems in the country. What was quite ironic (to keep a secret) was the many days I attended lectures in full business attire - under the pretence of working as a part-time sales representative.
I was prohibited from talking to anyone (via Classified / Secret Non-Disclosure Agreements) about the existence and / or my affiliation to the agency (and / or the SADF) - and I worked there most afternoons, evenings and weekends. During many all-night operations I would shower at the agency in the morning and drive back to campus attending lectures from 08:30. Some afternoons I would drive straight back 'to work' or spend hours researching 'specific criteria' in various university libraries for the agency. One of my (lessor) classified assignments involved the facilitation / strategic implementation guidelines of the SA Labour Relations Act for the agency's management (seeing that they worked in tandem with the SADF and its application of the Military Discipline Code (MDC) Act - for SADF military units). At the time there was little guidance / application of the civilian Labour Relations Act regarding the future of the soon to be formal all-inclusive (mostly unknown) definition of all SADF-involved civilian employees. I was ultimately offered a permanent position in 'Psychometric Analysis - Secret Intelligence Selection and Recruitment', but I turned it down for other opportunities.
Little did I know that a few years later I would become (more than) strategically involved in the consulting / training of civilian labour relations / labour law to SA Navy officers, non-commissioned officers and civilian staff (in the Western Cape Command). The more liberal labour relations policy approach of the SA Navy leadership (during the early 1990's) offered me this unique intervention as an important organisational / personal goal and responsibility (in the context of the country's political ideology at the time). The Navy's leadership trust in my ability to fulfil my self-defined research and curriculum-development objectives across rank and region motivated me even more. At first I was slightly overwhelmed with the academic freedom of guiding so many different levels of stakeholders, but I was well supported by my senior naval officers, military training psychologists and other members who, like me, believed in the shared goals and essence of staff development and motivation.
From Human Resource Development Education to Personal / Corporate Computing
My first postgraduate majors included Applied Industrial Psychology, Compensation Management, Human Resource Development and Organisational Behaviour. At the same time (while working at the agency) I developed a stupendous interest in the fast-developing global semiconductor industry with specific reference to the 'brain of the PC' - the Central Processing Unit (CPU). An early personal 'AI' interest I suppose, in terms of executing specific human / logic instructions via the CPU (chip) through programmed purpose; the Arithmetic Logic Unit, Control Unit and the Storage Unit (memory) functionality. I was fascinated by the idea that such a tiny wafer of semiconducting material with an embedded electronic circuit could potentially change the way we apply a broad spectrum of quantitative analysis, electronic communication and general office / personal productivity. With almost a million transistors at the time on each chip and increasing with every new CPU generation (thanks to Gordon Moore of Intel's scientific observation that eventually became Moore's Law - that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years) - this evolution had a significant impact on the continuous global scientific, engineering, business, socio-economic, technology and digital communication efficiency since the 1960s.
It was a fascinating time - and this was just about the beginning of the universal technological influence of the microchip, independently invented in 1959 by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce (Noyce together with Gordon Moore founded Intel Corporation in 1968, California, United States). The introduction of the first IBM Personal Computer (PC) in 1981 provided opportunities for business and individuals to acquire cost-effective multi-tasking desktop computers that were simply not available in such small form factor(s) before. Not long after the introduction of the IBM PC the Intel CPU became the microprocessor of choice for most desktop and workstation / server (network) computer data processing around the world. Millions of Intel CPU's were integrated into 'cloned' IBM PC's with seamless compatibility and more cost-effective than most IBM components (i.e. cases, power supply units, motherboards (compatible with various Intel CPU's), DDR memory modules, internal IDE hard drives, graphic / sound cards and other primary input / output peripherals) when the Intel XT 80286 CPU became available in 1982. It subsequently dominated the 'CPU of choice' market as the 'de facto' standard for many business, laboratory, office and classroom desktop computers. Bill Gates and Paul Allen's Microsoft provided the 'disk operating system' (DOS) software and over the years evolved in tandem with Intel to the current 14th Generation Intel (Raptor Lake) CPU's with Microsoft Windows 11 as operating system software (OS) of choice (together with a quite a few open-source Linux OS distributions). I was always aware of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's development of the Apple Macintosh computer system, but my (historic) fascination remained on the 'Intel Inside' side only.
It was a fascinating time - and this was just about the beginning of the universal technological influence of the microchip, independently invented in 1959 by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce (Noyce together with Gordon Moore founded Intel Corporation in 1968, California, United States). The introduction of the first IBM Personal Computer (PC) in 1981 provided opportunities for business and individuals to acquire cost-effective multi-tasking desktop computers that were simply not available in such small form factor(s) before. Not long after the introduction of the IBM PC the Intel CPU became the microprocessor of choice for most desktop and workstation / server (network) computer data processing around the world. Millions of Intel CPU's were integrated into 'cloned' IBM PC's with seamless compatibility and more cost-effective than most IBM components (i.e. cases, power supply units, motherboards (compatible with various Intel CPU's), DDR memory modules, internal IDE hard drives, graphic / sound cards and other primary input / output peripherals) when the Intel XT 80286 CPU became available in 1982. It subsequently dominated the 'CPU of choice' market as the 'de facto' standard for many business, laboratory, office and classroom desktop computers. Bill Gates and Paul Allen's Microsoft provided the 'disk operating system' (DOS) software and over the years evolved in tandem with Intel to the current 14th Generation Intel (Raptor Lake) CPU's with Microsoft Windows 11 as operating system software (OS) of choice (together with a quite a few open-source Linux OS distributions). I was always aware of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's development of the Apple Macintosh computer system, but my (historic) fascination remained on the 'Intel Inside' side only.
Higher data transfer rates became an ever-increasing essential requirement for desktop / server information processing and for enabling digital communication / networking between computer systems (not just intra-corporate, but across industries and the fast-developing international private / public digital global landscape). A rapid demand for IT skills, systems, products, services and subsequent growth in electronic commerce redefined (digital) workflows for the continuous increase in (global) corporate competitiveness. Faster, reliable and scalable computing / networking bandwidth pushed semiconductor manufacturing performance requirements for increased individual and corporate efficiency. During the 1990s the revolutionary development of the new 'digital economy' via the Internet accelerated change to strategic / operational analytical decision-making for increased competitive advantages and efficiency. These 'inflection points' benefited SMEs and large multi-national / international corporates alike. Many government agencies across the world started vigorous research and (software) application developments in terms of various regulatory changes, updating international trading standards and defining new cyber security risk protocols. 'Who is spying on who..?' Suddenly, international business / economics became very enticing subjects to study and / or to lecture - right through the retail dot-com implosion during the early 2000s. All very exhilarating indeed for anybody remotely interested in semiconductors, silicon processor (CPU) processing, increased productivity and making lots of money - or losing it after the dot-com crash.
“A strategic inflection point is a time in the life of business when its fundamentals are about to change. that change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end” ― Andy Grove, Intel
During my studies the agency assisted me in acquiring my first own personal computer - an Intel-based XT 80286 desktop computer (with Olivetti dot matrix printer) and within the next year upgraded to an Intel-based AT 80386 just to upgrade again to the more advanced Intel-based 80486 (as it became available in the local market). After these upgrades I was freely and generously supplied with some of Intel's Europe, Middle-East and Africa (Intel EMEA) market's first assigned high-performance multiprocessing Intel Pentium and Intel Pentium II CPUs after joining Intel Corporation.
One of my prescribed reading resources during my first postgraduate studies during the 1990s was Alvin Toffler's futuristic book, 'Future Shock'. In short, the book was more a pragmatic assertion that the accelerated rate of structural change(s) in global social and technological environments will have a profound psychological impact on most individuals and societies. In our small class of about fifteen students I was one of the only students who made an attempt to read Toffler's head-scratching future 'social science fiction' narrative predictions from cover to cover - one of our final examination case studies was based on various chapters from Future Shock (not included in the paper) and I could not have been happier. In contemporary society many scientists and technologists still acknowledge the literature contributions Toffler has made to international technological revolution, change and development. (Source: Vernon Chalmers Academic, Private and Corporate Information Management Applied Research)
"With the help of technology, teachers will be leaders in the transformation of education around the world." ― Craig Barrett, Intel
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| Open Socket with Intel CPU on a Motherboard with two open RAM Slots on the Left |
Applying IT Systems for Enhancing Management / Employee Productivity
I became fascinated by IT Systems to such an extend that I quickly mastered not only to design / integrate purpose-built desktop / workstation computer systems, but also vigorously researched how corporate IT architecture (and the fast-developing Internet) could be applied for improving strategic / management decision-making, organisational productivity, corporate communications and analytical / data management performance objectives. As HTTP protocols and HTML became more universally available I developed a self-designed Intranet for an academic institution in Cape Town - for improving digital communications between the IT department and every PC across their campuses. Working for / and be further trained by Intel Corporation (EMEA / US) engineers and MBA marketing a few years later enabled me to consult large corporations, universities and SME IT Systems development and future 'IT roadmapping'. These strategic interventions created many personal opportunities for lecturing a variety of Information Systems Architecture Design, Software, Social Media, E-Commerce and Internet Marketing modules to various groups of graduate and postgraduate students. However, my most important personal learning interests were, above all, still focused on the cognition, development and applied research in human behaviour / motivation.
Academic / Private Sector Education, Training and Consulting
The years between Image 1 and Image 2 was quite a journey. During these years I have had the privilege of lecturing (and designing / facilitating many training courses) at various business schools, universities and private training institutions across South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban). I was provided with many opportunities for consulting / lecturing / facilitating subjects such as Strategic Management, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Training Management, Labour Relations / Law, Industrial Psychology, Self Management, Small Business Management, Entrepreneurship, Organisational Behaviour, Consumer Behaviour / Market Research, Corporate Communications, Business Economics, Macroeconomics, Accountancy, Advertising Management, Project Leadership / Management, Supply-Chain Management, Marketing Management, Change Management, Information Systems Management, Information Systems Architecture / Design / Integration, Corporate Website Strategy / Design / Implementation / Analytics, E-Commerce Strategy / Application, Internet Marketing Strategy / Application, Social Media Strategy / Application and Quantitative Analytics / Global Consumer Visitation / Market(ing) Behaviour Analysis (where applicable).