Go Ford!

I just have to say that the Ford Motor Company is making me very happy.

Some time in 2008, I said to someone that if I had the wherewithal to do it, I would be Ford shares. Unfortunately, I really didn't have the funds so I couldn't buy. At the time, I was also saying that I needed to decide whether the buy a Ford motorcar or Ford shares. I decided on the shares because I really felt that of all the American auto companies, Ford was the one to watch. I was right. Look at what Ford has been able to accomplish in 1 year!

The $4 billion earned in the past two quarters is a testament to the value of real leadership in the boardroom. Even before the rest of the auto world seemed to be aware of the challenges ahead, Ford was mortgaging everything to access the cash needed to reinvent itself. That is leadership. I'm sure that at the time, there were analysts who, not knowing or seeing what the Ford leadership was seeing or knew, thought that Ford CEO Alan Mulally was out of his mind. Why would you take on $20+ billion in debt when there was no obvious crisis at hand? Well, the answer to that question is: so that when opportunity knocks, you can open your doors and welcome it in.

And so here we are. Over the last 9 months or so, consumers have been taking a long hard look at Ford and thinking that maybe, just maybe, this company knows what it's doing. The buying public's loss of confidence in Toyota coming at the same time as reports of increasing reliability of the Ford products have proved to be a magic elixir for Ford. That was opportunity knocking and Ford was ready to open the door.

It is very easy, as the new leader in an organization, to go with the status quo. To some extent, it may actually be necessary. Some time needs to be spent observing how business is done, before any significant changes are made. Add to that, a new CEO is entirely dependent on the information provided to him/her by direct reports seeking to establish themselves in the new pecking order. All the internal politics and poli-tricks aside, CEO Mulally chose this path. And a good thing too!

As a stranger to the auto world, Mulally came to Ford from Boeing, the new CEO had the advantage of clear sight uncluttered by old mores and protocols. That he trusted his insights and experience is a testament to his skill as a manager and leader. One of the things that often holds us back is the inability to see things in a new way. In the case of Mulally, he had never been in the industry before, so he could only see what his instincts as a businessman would allow him to see. He wasn't blinded by the 'this is the way we do business' line of reasoning. As it turns out, what he saw as an outsider allowed him to come to DC in the summer of 2009 and not take a penny from the Federal Government. Lucky him. Lucky Ford, because Chrysler and GM have faced a fair amount of hostility as a consequence of their borrowings. Opportunity. Knocking. Again.

At the end of the day, it's all about the quality of the product and Ford's got that. At the end of the day, it's all about organizational leadership and Ford's definitely got that. Would that every company had the benefit of visionary leadership.

Learned Helplessness?

Are Trinidadians & Tobagonians learning helplessness in the face of an unabated crime (especially murder) rate?

I ask the question because some days ago, a friend posted a link to a survey done in the Caribbean that lists Trinidad as the fourth best place to live in the Caribbean. Well there was a time whenI would have said, "How come we not first?" but these days, what with the crime, the corruption, the health system in disarray, water woes and what all else, I wondered what the criteria were for the selection. So, I asked. Well who tell me do dat?!

Two responses to my post included the standard, "there's crime everywhere" retort. Yes indeed. There is crime everywhere in the world, but how many places in the world does a woman drive in to the Police Station parking lot and get shot there.....in full view, one would imagine, of officers on duty? Where else in the world is kidnapping a cottage industry? Where else in the world is the murder rate more than 1 per day and I'm not considering war zones? 550 killed in 2008; 509 in 2009. These are not normal numbers.


The more I think about it the more I think that as a people, in the face of this dreadful reality, we are simply becoming more and more inured to the horror. Truth to tell, that's probably not unheard of. What might be occurring in Trinidad & Tobago might be some kind of modified Stockholm Syndrome. Trinidadians and Tobagonians, particularly those with no place to run to, are hostages. They're held captive by a government that seems to be making limited efforts to deal with criminal activity and they're held hostage by the criminals themselves. The violence is in some instances completely random, in others, pointed directly at other criminals or persons with knowledge of crimes committed.

At the end of the day,what seems to be happening is that people are becoming defenders of the status quo, in an attempt to protect the reputation of their country. Hey, I love my country as much as the next person, but that's not about to stop me from expressing deep dismay at the situation. My love isn't enough to cause to me to blind to the danger and scared when I set foot on the ground there.

From self-interest to enlightened self-interest. That's the change we need now.

I had an epiphany today and I have to write it down before I forget it. It is simply this: a major part of why there is so much discontent in America today over President Obama's policies seems to be that the 'change' we all said we wanted has come at a price. The price? We each actually have to give up something, and that wasn't in the contract.

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. America is also the land of the rugged individualist who wants what he/she wants and isn't planning on giving it up so someone else can have what they want. Therein, it seems, lies President Obama's current problem. Well one of them at any rate.

The polls indicate that people are still unhappy with the Health Bill. I keep trying to ascertain why that might be and all I've been able to come up with is this idea that if people feel that their benefits are in any way threatened, they balk. It also explains (which I couldn't understand until now), why Americans are so willing to give charity, but so much more uncomfortable with entitlement programs. Charity you see, plays two roles. First, it makes me feel good about myself. Nothing wrong with that! Second, I get to decide who gets and how much and I get to decide when to stop giving. Entitlement programs on the other hand are the gift that keeps on giving. Well beyond, we fear, the point when there's no more to be given.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still not conservative enough in my thinking to believe that it's ok to let some folk die for want of health insurance. I'm still not conservative enough to think that the cost of a nutrition program in schools is so much that the nation should simply allow ignorance to kill or maim. But as liberal as I am, I'm starting to think that if President Obama wants more than a single term, he's going to need to address the self-interest of each American and show them that enlightened self-interest is where they need to be. Some effort needs to be expended spreading an understanding of the shared benefit of these long term giving programs. Otherwise, it'll be one term and one term only, and worse yet, it may be followed up by one term of Sarah Palin. And Lord knows that would not be good for any of us.

Serving vs. Servitude

Today I went to a hospital where the staff is primarily like me - chocolat - and forgive me for saying so, but there was an alarming lack of service. So now I'm asking myself whether there is some connection between being of African descent and an inability or unwillingness to 'serve'? I am forced to ask the question because several months ago, I went to my country's Embassy and had the same dread experience. Service quality: pretty close to zero rating. Everybody wanted to be your chum and was very chatty and so on, as my people tend to be, but in terms of actually getting the business done, pretty close to a zero rating. In fact, it took me four trips to get done what should have been done in one.

So I'm wondering whether, given several generations of forced servitude, given an inherited distrust of 'service', we now refuse to serve? Perhaps we think it beneath us and frighteningly reminiscent of slavery? Now, we serve, but we do so sullenly because we can (no risk of the lash here) or not at all, because who are you to expect me to serve you anyway? The attitude is, "I'm not doing this by choice and you my friend, will take whatever the hell I give you."

The trouble with this approach is that it is self-regenerating. If you serve me badly, you can believe I will serve my clients badly. And so the bad service goes down the line, until the first server is finally the recipient of his own bad service.

Clearly, we haven't learned that "to serve" is not the same as "to be in servitude". First of all, servitude didn't come with a paycheck. If you're getting a paycheck, you're already streets ahead of your forebears, so please thank the Lord and move on. Second, if you had a grandmother or mother, you should know that it can be a wonderful thing to serve others. Think of how your lunch was served on Sundays or other special days. My guess is it was done with pride and joy. I know it was in my family. Still is. Neither of these [pride, joy] is inappropriate in a role as an employee. If it helps, we should think of our clients as members of our extended family, some of whom we love dearly, others of whom we tolerate. Barely. Either way, we do not throw food in their faces nor do we slap it down on the table and walk away.

Based on what I experienced today and at the Embassy late last year, it is clear that there is much to be done in the inculcation of service standards both at home and abroad. The more I think about it, the more I think that some of this is a Black thing that dates back several hundred years. Unfunny story: I once planned a retreat, the centerpiece of which was - you guessed it - service. Each individual was assigned another individual in the team for whom they would be 'responsible'. They were to ensure that the person had a good time during the retreat and that they were taken care of at meal times. This was likely to be difficult because everybody was going to be serving everybody else, but I guess I was going for organized chaos. Well, to make a long story short, guess who never got served? That's right. Me. My assigned person asserted very loudly and clearly to the entire gathering that she "wouldn't be serving me". End of story. She was served I presume, but I was not. And so it is. It takes only one ugly act to tear the whole very fragile, house of service cards down.

So I ask you, what are you doing? Are you building the house or destroying it?

The President Makes Higher Ed more affordable

Making college more affordable can only be one piece of a very complex puzzle. And for the record, given that an education is a permanent asset, even in the face of an economic downturn any investment in education always yields benefits. So while I agree that it may be painful (and I speak from personal experience here), I emphatically disagree with any assertion that it “doesn't do much good to rack up $100K in student loans to pay for your education”. Some days it may feel that way, but that’s just weariness talking.

There seem to be two problems here. First, this developed nation may have forgotten that there are costs involved in development. Second, we may have forgotten that development is a journey not a destination.

In the developing world, it is widely accepted that there are costs to be borne if nations wish to catch up with the rest of the world. In the developing world, we often cringe at the price tags to do any major infrastructural development, but we accept at some level that there are few choices. ‘Do’ and compete; ‘don’t’ and languish at the back of the pack. And so sometimes we ‘do’ and sometimes we ‘don’t’, but in all things we understand that each choice brings with it certain consequences. What this country may not have realized or may perhaps have forgotten, is that there are also costs to be incurred if a nation is to stay ahead or keep abreast of the rest of the developed world – that’s the ‘journey’ part of the development equation. Both the choices and the consequences are the same: ‘do’ and stay abreast or ahead; ‘don’t’ and fall behind.

Among developed nations, the US ranks 15^th out of 29 OECD nations in Reading Literacy, arguably the bedrock of all academic pursuits. The US ranks 21^st out of 30 nations in Scientific Literacy, arguably a critical skill for any innovation this millennium. The US ranks 25^th out of 30 in Mathematics Literacy and 24^th out of 29 in Problem Solving. Given that there are problems aplenty to be solved, I don’t imagine that that ranking is going to yield the best outcome for this country. In addition, the report by the Alliance for Excellent Education (March 2008) (link provided below) goes on to say that “[h]alf of American students fell below the threshold of problem-solving skills considered necessary to meet emerging workforce demands (OECD 2004)”. When you look at this legislation through the prism of the ‘emerging workforce demands’ and the economic consequences of not meeting those demands, maybe we would do well to ask what else needs to be done?

Some may feel that making Federal Government loans available to prospective students is tantamount to “throwing money out the window” but nothing I think, could be further from the truth. One of the most important investments a nation can make is in the intellectual capacity of its citizenry. What we need is to address the educational achievement of US students at all levels: attack quality at the K-12 level and accessibility at the tertiary level.

http://www.all4ed.org/files/IntlComp_FactSheet.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10educ.html