P/PC Balance

BuddyBradley flickr.com
True effectiveness is a function of two things: what is produced (the golden eggs) and the producing asset(the goose). If you focus on the eggs, you will soon lose the asset producing them, the goose. Conversely, if you take care of the goose, you will get the eggs naturally. Effectiveness lies in the balance – what I call the P/PC balance. P stands for production and PC for production capability. Short term goals and returns, ill-treating of employees, used colleagues as stepping stones, cutting cost to improve profits at the expense of good services. The above mentioned are extremely common in our world today. Many are often infatuated with good results and thus they tend to neglect the people or things that bring about these great results. They took them for granted. Over the long run, these people and things fail them, sales and profits plummeted. All these are just corollaries of the bosses’ own doings. These problems usually start when there is a breach of trust and understanding. When you are too obsessed with the golden eggs, you have the propensity to use unorthodox means to achieve your goals. In business, this is especially prominent and prevalent.

To illustrate the idea, I will use one of my own experiences again. In the past, I used to frequent a restaurant called T (actual name not used to prevent infringement of rights). They had impeccable services, renowned saccharine desserts and considerably large portions of main courses. Every time the waiter sees us feeling bored, she will walk over and tell us about the changes made by the restaurant. Once, she told us about her concerns regarding the restructuring as the company wanted to cut costs. And not long later, she was actually fired. On hearing the news, I was both shocked and appalled. How could they actually cut costs at the expense of good service? As anticipated, they continued to carry out the execution of the restructuring, the restaurant was renovated but the number of stuff dropped significantly and the quality of the food fell too. Our displeasure was further exacerbated by the slow services and the waitress end up forgetting and mixing up our orders because there were simply too many people. They apologised profusely timelessly but it had a irreparable damage on our confidence level which we used to have of them. We lost all faith as both the quality of the food and services dropped. No doubt the new restaurants look exquisite and exhibits opulence; it was just not enough to keep us coming for more.

Day by day, the business of the restaurant dropped as an increasing number of customers were aghast with the changes made. The essence of the business (large portions of high quality food coupled with impeccable services) was vanishing away. People lost the reason to continue patronising the restaurant.

Based on my observations, I strongly suspect that the boss’s strategy was to provide a more unique dining environment for the diners, which is perfectly understandable. However, it could be because he was short of funds to support the change which explains why he resorted to the firing of staffs and the reduction of portions served. It sounds perfectly reasonable but in fact he could be desperately finding means to recuperate the cost used to renovate the restaurants. He did not notice that the service and the quality of the food was what keep the customers coming over and over again. If there were really mindful about the environment, they would have gone to other restaurants.

Sometimes, we are deluded into grabbing the golden eggs as fast as possible. We soon forget that we have actually neglected the people that brought to us the eggs. Look back at yourself and reflect for a few minutes. Identify the gains you have made recently, for instance, your promotion, your great sales results, your clean room or even your satisfied outing. Have you worked with your subordinates so hard just to get your promotion? Did you enquire about their health status? Did you remunerate your employees for the help they provided or did you think that they were obligated to help you in the first place? How about the immaculate room that is packed and cleaned by your maid or mum? Did you thank her sincerely or did you think that it was her job and besides it wasn’t exactly spotless. How about the outing that brought you so much joy? Have you considered that some of the people at the outing were compromising in their own ways to make you happy? One very good example is the day which your birthday falls on. How many actually gave in and put in so much effort to plan the celebration? Have you shown your appreciation or have you took all these for granted?

Reflect