By D Chandramouli

A few years ago, I came across an ad released by Philips, the multinational company, under the title “Let’s make things better”.  It was a signed declaration by the company’s President & CEO.  I take the liberty of reproducing this interesting ad in its entirety: 

“Anyone who makes anything is driven by a common instinct.  From the infant attempting its first scribble to the multinational manufacturer.  It is an instinct as fundamental as taking your next breath.  It is taking the next step and making whatever it is you are making, better”.

As we seek to understand, we create, we enhance, and we progress.  And as we do so, we make the world a better place.

Whether we are infants making better drawings, scientists making better medicines, governments making better laws, manufacturers making better products – all are making someone somewhere somehow happier.

So, when the people say “Let’s make things better”, they speak from the head – and from the heart.  Read what Philips had to say further, in their quest for making things better:

“We at Philips will strive to embrace this duality.  In everything we do.  In all our dealings with our customers, our suppliers, our shareholders and all who share our planet.  AND WHILE WE’VE LONG BEEN KNOWN FOR MAKING BETTER THINGS, PERHAPS FROM NOW ON WE’LL BE KNOWN FOR MAKING THINGS BETTER”.

An organization’s commitment to goals and shared values could not have been better stated.  See how an organization’s role could grow and blossom from a mere “customer satisfaction” to making our planet “a better place to live”. 

Thomas John Watson of IBM summed this up just in a few words: “He who stops being better stops being good”.  If every one of us attempts to make improvements, in whatever activity we’re engaged in, whether at home office, factory, school or government, we actually add on to the global wealth.  The urge to do better should be encouraged in all organizations. 

Matsushita Co. tells its employees:  “Think about your job; develop yourself and help us improve the company”.  Praise and positive reinforcement are important part of Matsushita”s philosophy.  No wonder, Matsushita’s Suggestion Scheme, in one year, generated over twenty-five suggestions per employee!

People who do their jobs know best how to make things better.  What is required is just enough motivation on the part of management to make their employees THINK. 

The key to success, therefore, is thinking.  Focus on positivism but for God’s sake, avoid perfectionism.  Compulsive perfectionism may actually lower performance.  A perfectionist is rightly defined as a person who takes infinite pains and gives them to others! 

Positive thinking influences our sub-conscious mind too.  It was Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motors of USA who said: “Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible”. 

Let’s, therefore, not settle for the status quo.  We should assume that anything being done could be done better.  

If we believe we can, we will!

------ D. Chandramouli