Paradigm shift needed

We need a paradigm shift in the way we do things, in the way we operate businesses and in the way we think. What we did before has got us all into the mess we are currently experiencing and trying to restore the world back to the way it was just will not work. There is a definition of insanity which goes something like this – “Keeping on doing the same thing again and again but expecting a different result each time.” This is the lesson that governments and business leaders must learn and learn quickly.

At any one time a person is a free individual; free to grow and develop as a human being and free to engage “in the pursuit of happiness” (US Constitution). Yet at the same time that same person may be considered as a cog in the industrial ‘machine’ to be discarded, down-sized, retrenched and generally treated like a piece on an economic game board to be moved around as is seen fit by ‘management’. All this leads to most industrial and commercial enterprises providing goods and services made and devised by people who do not really enjoy the work they are doing. This opens avenues for corruption and unethical conduct, both very prevalent today.
The emphasis in most organisations is not on the quality of the goods and services they provide but on money and the level of returns to the shareholders. Thus both the product and service provided are inferior and diminished no matter how many systems and controls are put in place. This is a sad commentary on our society but it need not be so.

Reflect for a moment on what any commercial, industrial or financial firm or organisation was actually formed to do. What did the original entrepreneur set out to do with his new company? It should have been and somewhere in the back of his (or her) mind most probably was, to provide a service. As an example, I have decided that I need a ‘widget’. I cannot make a ‘widget’ so I approach someone who either can make one or is already making them. That manufacture is providing a service to me for which I am prepared to pay.

The primary and only concern of any business should be to provide a service, the best and most excellent service they can, to help others on our common journey through life. If they do this I guarantee people will queue to buy or avail themselves of the ‘service’ provided and most will be prepared pay premium prices for that excellence (I know that I would).

Everyone has had the unfortunate experience of bad or sloppy service, be it at a bank, a restaurant, a doctor’s surgery or where ever – the list is endless – but we know what it is like and how we react. The standard reaction would be along the lines, “Stuff them. I am not going there again!”

The paradigm shift that industry leaders and managers must get their heads around is that service must come first, not as something codified in a manual, but something from the heart; not because of the money they can make but because of the help they can offer fellow wayfarers on the Road of Life.

This must be a genuine willingness to HELP people in life and this has to come from the top. It will never grow from the bottom up. If an excellent service is provided the money will flow.

This needs a huge shift and a lot of soul searching but what is the alternative? More of the same?