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OUTSOURCING is one strategic solution to a management problem.
Or is it? But what if a contractor fails to justify its
existence as a decent business partner of major firms?
If you’re part of that “major firms,”
would you ignore it while thinking that it’s not your own business
that’s directly affected?
Take another case—last week’s incident in
Sampaloc that resulted to an oil tanker explosion that killed at
least one person, injured several others, and damaged properties
worth millions of pesos.
Who’s to be blamed here? The contractor who
owns the tanker, the driver who was accused of paihi (pilferage),
the gas company that outsourced the delivery or the authorities that
failed to strictly monitor compliance under established government
rules?
I’ve to emphasize this in the light of one
serious threat from somebody who is trying to silence me. In
so many threatening words, he said: “With all the serious problems
facing this nation, how come you write negatively about certain
business operations using those buzzwords as your refuge?”
To which I answer: “Because no one dares to
write about them. Further, this is my own small way of promoting
good governance in business. You can call me an idealist if you
want, but this is my opinion. Just the same, I can give you a fair
shake if you will own up to your responsibility.
“Further, by writing about buzzwords, I
believe that I can bring my readers—rich and poor, young and old,
paid-hacks or not, greedy or not and the San Mig Light beer drinking
managers out there—to a greater awareness of, and appreciation
for,—my interpretation of buzzwords as applied to a particular
situation.”
That’s how I was reminded of Eliyahu
Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) as a philosophy that aims
to continually achieve more of the goal of a system. If that system
is a for-profit business, then the goal is to make more money, both
now and in the future.
That’s how business enterprises played with
outsourcing in its attempt to earn more profit—by transferring
some processes to a contractor that could help reduce costs, except
you know that some of them don’t have the respectable means to do
it.
This is where TOC should help us—to identify
the constraint (problem) and promptly eliminate the same.
Unfortunately, some managers don’t see it that way.
More often than not, managers are prone to
wrongly define the problem—like threatening a columnist rather
than correcting a defective system or process that is within their
control anyway. They’d rather say: It’s you, not us!
Time and again, my idol—W. Edwards Deming
(1900-1993) was proven right when he said: “80 percent of quality
problems are caused by Management, and only 20 percent by the
Workers.”
To which I must explain with my own buzzword
called Elbonomics: “There’s nothing more frightening than our
own blindness to proximity.”
Of course some of us cannot achieve this level
of intelligence overnight. In my case, it took me 26 years (and
still counting) doing active management work while dealing with
people and their organizations.
Surely, we’ve to take the time to understand
buzzwords to realize that this country cannot progress with legal
and political nincompoops alone.
What we need are more scientists, engineers, and
technicians who are willing to use hammer, fliers, and saw to build
more roads and bridges. And of course columnists who are
willing to stick their neck out in the search for truth, justice,
and best management practices.
The question is—should we carry this further?
Without blinking an eyelash, I will say “yes.”
My point is that the buzzword issue involves
many complex issues, and we owe it to ourselves, as managers to give
them some serious thought. Now you go first. Define the
real problem at hand.
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Rey Elbo is a business consultant
specializing in human resource and total quality management as a
fused specialty. Reader’s feedback may be sent to kairoshq@info.com.ph
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