Travelling with Bill - part 2
I travelled with Bill for five weeks but I learned so much from him. As we were teaching summer classes at several universities, we also met many professors and students. Regardless who they are, Bill always had a genuine way of talking with them. He was warm and attentive and often be able to relate things that they discussed at the detail level to a higher level. He told me: “Today students focus too much on the analysis of small detail but do not know how to synthesis them into a big picture. They know the pieces, the components but do not know the system. That is why they cannot think strategically or set a good vision for the future. It is a weakness of their current education system.”
As we travel to several countries, we often waited in line at airports. Bill made observation: “You can see in some countries, people wait patiently for their turn but in others, people often push and shove to get in first. People who bought tickets have seats on the airplane so why do they have to push others? It seems that there is a lack of etiquette training and self respect in their education. These countries still have a huge task ahead to be a “World class”. They may have economic strengths but they are still far from the best in-class. It is not about the big thing that is important but often the small things that determine how good their education system is. It is the behavior of the people that determine whether the country is “World class” or not”.
As we left the country, Bill concluded: “There is no good service system here as the whole country is focusing on product development. That is why there is a complete lack of skilled workers with a service mindset. They may understand product business but not people business. The whole economy is about building more factories, copy everything, and construct more and more products. They like to build everything, big products, small products but they will never succeed since there is no service mindset. They do not understand customers’ needs; they have no idea about customer satisfaction. From hotel managers to restaurants servers, from high level officers to low level workers, they all act the same way which is hurry to do something quick without even thinking. If you pay attention, you will see that most factories have foreign supervisors and most companies have foreign marketing people because their people cannot do that. That is the “half way” to do business. Products alone cannot succeed without services, and it is the services that bring the customers back.”
One day in S. Korea, we made a mistake on the subway by exit on a wrong place which was several blocks away from our hotel. It was dark as we asked for direction but no one spoke English. Finally a young college student came, he pointed us to the direction of the hotel but hesitated: “It is easy to miss the hotel since there are several right turns and left turns and you could get lost again.” So he offered to walk with us to the hotel to make sure that we did not get lost. We walked about fifteen minutes until we reached the hotel. As we thanked the helpful student, Bill asked if he wanted to come in and had dinner with us but the student declined as he need to go home. At that time we found that he must travel back to the opposite direction from where we got lost. The fact that a young person is willing to help some strangers even he had to go further to different direction in a late evening has impressed both of us. Bill told me: “When a young student of a country acts like that, that country has a future. That is what a world-class country is.” According to Bill, a “World class” is not about how strong the economy is; how many millionaire or billionaire a country has; how many universities or degreed professional it possesses; but world class is about the way its citizen’s act.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
