In Pursuit of Excellence

Possibly the first thumb rule a person is taught through any kind of teaching; formal or informal, try to do the best at whatever you try your hand at. Then it might be sports, academic or building your hobbies. Knowingly or unknowingly, we all do become slaves of the rat race called the pursuit of excellence

People across the world have built their reputation of excellence in almost anything you will find on the planet. A French Wine to Italian Leather, a Persian carpet, a Cuban cigar, the production efficiency theories from Japan or even the Marketing practices out of US. Each one has held its own unique association- a matter of pride. So who can carry the accolades as a country known for its engineering excellence? Of course, Germany!

German Engineering- take any car brand, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen… and by now
you already have a shiny car before your eyes. Each one has defined themselves to a high level of aspiration- no matter where you are. Germans take pride in the fact that they can create master pieces when it comes to machines.

But here comes the flip side of it. Sometimes this pride can become a passion and become the reason for downfall. The Pursuit of Excellence can actually become the most dangerous cause of self destruction. I just came across two examples where the tides just turned from bad to worse when excellence became the operative word rather than what the need of the hour was.

Take for instance the Tanks in World War II. Search the net and you will find a lot of people saying that the German Panther and Tiger tanks were superior in terms of specifications compared to an American Sherman or a Russian T-34. But major tank battles like the Battle of Kursk saw Germany actually lose out to supposedly inferior competition. How did this happen?

The American Sherman was more like an offshoot of the road truck, simple adaptation prepared for war. The T-34 was a hasty production and was coming off production lines that made farm equipments. But the German tanks were designed war machines. Engineering marvels- master pieces that took time to make. They had power trains that can draw the awe of an engineering brain any day.

But when the average life of a tank was down to 150 kms on a battle field, the Panthers and Tigers were simply outnumbered. Inch by inch, the Allies just got closer as the Germans suffered in their cause to excel in their work.

Well this is certainly not the only example where pride became the reason for losing out in the bigger race.

Let’s talk about Motorola- a Company boasting its Six Sigma standards. The Black Belts becoming consultant to organizations throughout the business circles. Motorola actually has a university dedicated for Six Sigma. But sadly, this became a passion that they just could not get rid of.

Motorola became a world leader in Analog Telephony and Communications in the late 90s. No one could match the sound quality of a Motorola. It’s a Walkie- Talkie... oh... must be a Motorola. It’s a Pager, Must be Motorola.

But the times were about to change. Cellular technology was taking the World over by storm. Transition from Analog to Digital should ideally have suited the leaders much better than the followers. But it certainly didn’t happen. Motorola never became a leader in Mobile Phones. The Six Sigma in sound was no more a priority. The big shift in technology got in something called Short Messaging Service. So while Motorola was busy creating the Crystal Sound technology, Nokia came out with robust models for every country and flooded the markets.

Samsung got a camera into a phone; Kodak did not bother to add a phone chip to its Camera. Today, Kodak looks at shutting down its Camera Film Rolls manufacturing as globally more pictures are now taken on a mobile phone camera.

Bottom Line….. In Pursuit of Excellence cannot be a Goal if it is not the need of the hour.

People did focus to the last digit accuracy in Pursuit of Excellence - what they missed while they played with a Vernier, was the competition going past them by the meters.