Sunday, August 2, 2009

Malaysian Attitude

The problem with my microwave oven was fixed some time back thanks to the very helpful GM. He sent and engineer (not a contractor) who demonstrated a professional attitude that I have come to know and expect of a true quality Japanese corporation (I used to work for Fuji Xerox). I think high quality products and services will be the key differentiators for Japan as manufacturing costs get hit with that of China, India and the rest of the world. One area is common criteria compliance in consumer products such as digital cameras etc. Can you give me an assurance that the picture taken in the camera has not been manipulated and tampered with with the correct meta data such as gps location, time etc? This means that the data in the camera and other products become trustworthy and can be relied upon for whatever legitimate purposes. This has great significance in the world today as cyber security and cyber warfare becomes the new arena for potential conflicts.

The reason I highlighted this particular issue was the issue of the Malaysian attitude and how we lag behind the developed nations despite having a highly developed infratructure. It is the little things that matter such as professional commitment on the part of the individual. Professional commitment means doing the right thing (not just because it is expedient to do so) and doing things on time. This is quite important as if you really know your job you should have a good idea of how long it should take you even with all the real world interruptions that occur. If you don't, then something is seriously wrong and maybe you should not be in that role. There first few times is OK as one is learning about what to do but if this goes on and on, maybe the conclusion we can draw is that you are not interested in doing the job...