Friday Reflections

My Response Is Gratitude

POINT TO PONDER

"Feeling gratitude isn't born in us - it's something we're taught, and in turn, we teach our children."

                            - Joyce Brothers

STORY LINE

Last Sturday night on September 21st, 2013, Prabhjot Singh was brutally beaten by young assailants in New York city who yelled out slurs such as "terrorist" and "get Osama" as they proceeded to rip at his beard and break Singh's jaw.

Singh is a practicising Sikh that walked his wife and young son along the very same path where he was beaten, every morning close to their home in East Harlem. Singh had to have his jaw rewired and after he was released from the hospital, he became the latest in a much too long line of hate crime victims. 

When asked about the violence he suffered, Singh said that he did not feel anger or hate towards the men that attacked him. If anything, it strengthened Singh's commitment to the community and that forgiveness and education were needed. It surprised and moved me to read about Prabhjot Singh's response in the article below:

http://www.nydailynews.com/hate-victim-prabhjot-singh-feeling-gratitude-article-1.1466721

 

REFLECTION

Perhaps past fear, violence, and retribution there is a place where growth can occur? There's a passage from Shataram, a novel by Gregory David Roberts, that I would like to share:

             ...I know it isn't cruelty or shame that characterizes the human race. It's forgiveness that              makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in              endless retributions. Without forgiveness there would be no history." 

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten.*

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten" - Benjamin Franklin.

POINT TO PONDER

“When it comes to your Defects Per Million (DPM) level quality goal, I don’t care as long as I do not get that one DPM” - Customer’s answer in a supplier survey about an acceptable quality level goal in 1987.

STORY LINE

In the early '80s, companies used terms AQL (Acceptable Quality Levels) or LTPD (Lot Tolerance Percentage Defective) to define the levels of quality of the products being shipped to customers. Simply put, it meant that with certain level of confidence (defined by statistics) a certain percentage of materials shipped to customers can be defective (defined by AQL, LTPD level).

One term was called "Producer's Risk" and the other term was called "Consumer's Risk". In reality there was risk all the way, the risk in shipping something that was defective to customers ‘with confidence’.

The first encounter with “pragmatic” use of this term happened in 1981 when a company did final testing on a production lot where 100% of product units turned out good. The production manager (who had the full blessing of the Plant Manager) went to the operator and asked for rejected product from another lot. He did some calculations on paper, took certain numbers of good units out of the lot and replaced them with bad units and stirred the container containing that production lot.

To satisfy my naïve curiosity, he mentioned that he had made a “Business Decision” to ship to promised AQL level and nothing more. “Give customer what he pays for” was his final statement. However messed up his understanding of statistics may have been, his understanding of consumer behavior was even poorer.

Sometime later, the company lost many customers. Their offers to drop prices significantly to regain these customers fell upon deaf walls. In 1984, that company closed its doors.

There are numerous such cases, where customer will never deal with a business once they have been burnt by poor service or poor product quality, no matter how low is the price.

Here is a first hand account of five restaurants near my office: all of them were thriving at one time. But two of them, even after significantly dropping the prices, are running empty - because quality of food is on decline.  The other three, however, have not dropped prices even one cent - and their businesses have gone up 1.5X to 2X in number of customers, even in this economic environment.

REFLECTION

Except for some very basic needs, consumer always has a choice whether to buy something or not. And that choice is not between you and your competition; it is between buying a thing or not buying at all. Consumer behavior in current economic environment is a good example of this.

Cost is important to consumer but in addition they want the one that fulfills their expectations; and those expectations are very high and uncompromising nowadays.

 

*reposted from 8/20/2009

Give the World a Reason To Dance

POINT TO PONDER

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."

                            - Peter Ustinov

STORY LINE

 

 

REFLECTION by Rajiv Shah

Every now and then we need a little laugh. Our enteries have included biographies, inspirational stories, andecotes about courage/determination, and articles meant for self-reflection. A friend of mine mentioned that he was enjoying all the thought provoking material but wanted to see something a little more light-hearted that could make him laugh and inspire him at the same time.

It is for him and all the readers of Friday Reflections that I present Kid President, a part of the Soul Pancake Channel on youtube:  www.youtube.com/user/soulpancake

I hope he brings a little laughter and inspiration to you all this Friday!

What Keeps You Awake At Night?

POINT TO PONDER

"A well-spent day brings happy sleep."

                       

                            - Leonardo DaVinci 
 

STORY LINE by Anand Shah

In last few years, I have encountered some work situations where people have asked questions to others, “what keeps you awake at night?” That question has always puzzled me as I get very good sleep at nights (except at times when I have eaten exotic foods and experienced the subsequent turmoil). Initially, I felt guilty wondering if I was doing something wrong by not keeping up with the Jones or whatever in our highly competitive world.

Then I realized that I had to be honest and confess the reasons to why I am sleeping well at night; even if it means risking my job.

 

Here are the few reasons I get a good sleep a night:

 

1. Knowing that I have a lot of problems at work and when I wake up in the morning I have something challenging projects to look forward to.
2. Knowing that my employer sees value in my work and I have been invited to the meetings that deals with creating higher value for the customers, investors and employees.
3. Knowing that my badge was still with me when I left the previous night.
4. Knowing that I am working with a great team of passionate, focused people who believe that “the real measure of their performance is by their customers in value chain.”
5. Knowing that our team is a functional family where teams interests come before the individual interests.
6. Knowing that the people I work with never rest on their laurels. They are on the never ending journey of being the best and then better than the best.
7. Knowing I have a wonderful loving and caring family that I look forward to once work is over.
8. Knowing that the world is so big with an abundance of opportunities and there is always room somewhere in this world for my talents. 
9. Knowing that my life has been fulfilling with the people I met, the places I visited, experiences I had and contributions I made. 

 

REFLECTION

What gives you good sleep at night?