COMPLACENT MARKETING
COMPLACENT MARKETING
TAKE A STEP BACK
By Diana Obath
And so , 2017 begun . The newswires reported layoffs to come in the banking industry , Telcos , airlines , manufacturing industries , postal services , media houses . The numbers around 400 , one third of employees , 300 employees , 38 more workers , 1,000 employees , a team of 2,000 people , 600 jobs slashed . They say they will try and make it as easy for the affected employees as much as is possible . Only one question remains unanswered : What are we not learning from our mistakes ?
Looking at the news sources , I was reminded about the book Black Box Thinking and why we are more often than not slow to make amendments . When such things happen , a lot of the blame is on marketing and sales departments . If not , it resides squarely with the way the company was being managed or mis-managed .
Toyota for instance has been studied even by experts in the medical field to understand why they have few errors on their production line and how they prevent repeat mistakes .
In summary , at Toyota , there is no satisfaction . The company operates on the assumption of imperfection .
Toyota ’ s attitude is quiet , internal and self-critical . It is rooted in an institutional obsession of improvement throughout the value chain , where the chain includes the workers , but first the managers . Complacency in the production line is shunned and frowned . Little wonder then that there is a 75 % chance that ‘ the car in front of you is always a Toyota .’
‘‘ Bottom line is , you can buy the books , hire the consultants , implement the recommendations full proof then loose the gusto to carry the lessons : The result ? Business as usual ! Cutting edge companies are always looking for ways to improve and close the gap , remain ahead of competition , set the trend , or whatever other name you may want to call it . The shift will only be plausible through learning and self-correction .’’
In an interview with Fast Company , Toyota ’ s engineering manager Chad Buckner said , “ Improvements are not projects or initiatives . Supervisors and managers are not bosses .
Their job is to find ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness . You don ’ t stop because there is no reason to be satisfied .” He adds that there is in fact a process for teaching how to improve the process . The process he says is threefold : how to make cars , how to make cars better and then teaching everyone how to make cars better .
10 MAL 16 / 17 ISSUE