POLITICS HAS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN DOING A JOB WELL

POLITICS HAS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN DOING A JOB WELL

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

American business has changed from its main goal of production excellence at the lowest cost to branding through marketing research. They learn what the customer desires more than the quality of the product. For larger companies the quality of the service or product is no longer the prime concern. Bloated, inefficient corporations rely more on dubious advertising instead of word of mouth, from supposedly unsolicited recommendations of users of the product or services.

Modern technology has allowed companies to have online recommendations posted by individuals anonymously. These anonymous people are different from personal friends whose word and values a person knows. They can be anyone who may have a personal interest to make a positive comment or have a grudge or is never satisfied with anything. This process is not a reliable method to choose one product or service over another but many of us still read those reviews when considering a product.

Branding is done by celebrities, actors or sports figures or the owner himself who tries to befriend the audience to try his product. “My pillow guy”, PC-Matic, Progressive Insurance Flo and Choice Hotels “Bada Book, Bada Boom” man introduce their product or services to the general public by large advertising campaigns. These campaigns show professional slick clips of actors portraying positive results of using the item or service. Owners themselves are advertising by coming into your living room as friends through the television or computer. Most individuals that purchase a new product have not been informed by a friend or relative’s recommendation, rather they have seen an impersonal, and at times a fictitious, sophisticated subliminal advertising blitz that motivates them to buy into what the company is selling.

Modern companies usually are enormous, highly specialized entities. Each department is assigned to deal with a specific part of the operation not with the final product, rather only a small part of it.  These compartmentalized, middle level managers are more concerned with impressing their superiors than improvement of the product in order to move up in the chain of command. Directly interacting with subordinates to motivate or pressure them to be more productive or use their ideas to improve production is no longer the way to go. It is much more beneficial to have his superiors feel that the middle manager is a person who is not a threat to the superior’s climb to the top. Minimizing future hassles by middle managers that are willing to play political games makes their superiors look good and sadly cements their security.

A highly competent individual understandably has become a toxic cog in the chain of command of a bureaucratic business. These bright, knowledgeable and ambitious people could make the proprietor greater profit in a small business and would make him an asset that would lead to higher compensation. However, his value to a bureaucratic superior in a large corporation would be detrimental as there would be no immediate benefit and a potential danger to his own position. A manager whose career is based on inner office politics is vulnerable because of the lack of nuts and bolts understanding of the business. This would make a knowledgeable “can do guy” possibly a liability to the superior’s upward mobility.

Excellence as an employee or in the final product or service has been replaced by political jockeying through lobbying contracts, false advertising, inner corporate self-promotion and lower prices. The corporate world has learned to use psychological illusion techniques to sell their products, especially in the pharmaceutical and alcohol industries. These products will miraculously, rapidly and positively change the entire life of the individual.

Perfecting the end product and service quality has become passé. In the short run this strategy of hyper advertising does work.  An Old Italian saying says it all. “When a man deceives me once, it is his fault; when twice, it is mine.” We Americans are seeing this too often in today’s over-the-top advertising hyperbole and we are still being duped.

Americans are realizing our modern methods of appearing to do a job well are wrong and un-gratifying. Political and technological sleight of hand is being exposed. We are witnessing a reawakening of quality over quantity. Small businesses are again proliferating with hard-working competent people who are turning out superior products and services at reasonable prices. 

Doing a job well is essential for quality and cannot be replaced by ridiculous claims. Fake internal politics and phony advertising had replaced it but hopefully only temporarily. Let’s get back to real quality over relentless branding.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new just published book, entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.