Failed to Doom

by Don Harkey

During a break at last week's Success Seminar (which was a great event in Springfield!), a participant lamented all of the examples of bad management within his firm and other organizations. The question he had was "how are we going to overcome all of this bad management?". My answer was simple.

"Failure."

Bad management within a free market will eventually lead to failure. Bad management is like a disease. Bad management creates a system that breeds more bad managers. When an organization is completely overtaken, it will fail over time either under its own inept weight or when it gets outmaneuvered by a better managed organization.

Such occurred with GM and Chrysler... or at least it was supposed to occur.

As organizations such as Toyota and Honda created some of the best management seen on the planet (stemmed from ideas of an American named Edwards Deming), organizations who had grown with almost unlimited resources and a strong cultural backing became more than lame. They became incompetent. We should have forecasted the doom of these companies when their strategy focused on purchasing their products because of where their corporate offices are located versus the true value of their product.

Even in 1986 when my mother from Detroit purchased her "Born in America" Plymouth Voyager and learned that it was actually built in Canada with a Mitsubishi engine, we should have known. Meanwhile, my 1983 Honda Accord (built in Illinois) ran reliably until the bottom nearly rusted out almost 17 years later.

Believe me, I don't blame GM or Chrysler; I believe the American consumer who decided that "Born in America" was good enough is now paying for it again. In a free economy, we get the best products when we buy the best products built by the best companies that utilize the best management and the best people. Reward good business with your dollar and it will succeed.

The cure for bad business in a free market is failure. Government intervention or purchasing products based on anything other than good service or good producs is... well... bad management!