I read once that what we focus on is what we head towards. The deeper meaning didn’t register immediately, but I understood the basic premise of the saying. It was a while later whilst watching motorcycle racing on the television that the true meaning revealed itself to me. The event was a World Superbike race, and two riders were battling for the lead position. The viewing perspective changed to the onboard camera that was pointing at the rider, and you could see the rider’s helmet and visor as he approached a fast left-hand corner. As he leaned the bike into the corner, his head turned to the left at a more acute angle than the bike was turning. “He’s not looking where he’s going, isn’t that dangerous?”, commented my wife. As a lifelong motorcyclist myself, I explained that you always concentrated on the exit of a turn or a corner, as bikes don’t have steering wheels and you have to use your body weight and positioning to change the direction of the bike. It was then that the metaphoric light bulb over my head switched on and I truly understood the meaning of the saying. What you focus on is what you head towards.
To carry on with the motorcycling analogy, I realised that this saying was the underpinning basis of motorcycling safety. As part of learning defensive riding, you are taught to always look for your escape route or exit. If a vehicle pulls out in front of you, immediately look to see a path that will not only avoid the vehicle, but will also not put you in further danger. This is something that I was never taught when learning to drive a car, and I believe this is why so many people have crashes. Drivers tend to concentrate on the car that has just pulled out in front of them rather than trying to avoid it and inevitably the two collide. In the US, there is a famous stretch of straight road that goes for mile after mile across endless desert. The local state troopers are amazed at the constant stream of accidents they are called out to where drivers have embedded the front of their vehicle into a telegraph pole. With mile after mile of straight road and an unchanging view out of the windscreen, a telegraph pole can become fascinating. What you focus on is what you head towards!
I soon realised that this principle can be applied to all areas of your life and if adhered to diligently, it can make a world of difference. How many people make plans to do something, whether it’s to get a new job, or to lose weight, only to find that a few short weeks later they are no further forward with their plans. Sure, CVs were sent off, the gym was attended and in the first couple of weeks the enthusiasm was high. But when the results don’t materialise quite as quickly as we would like that enthusiasm starts to wan. We start to find excuses not to do that workout, or we persuade ourselves that we quite like our current job, and anyway, we might get that promotion after all. In short, we lose our focus. No matter how detailed our initial plans were to achieve our goals, without dedicated focus, our attention soon starts to drift.
Don’t worry, this isn’t some motivational diatribe aimed at pumping you up to change your life in ten easy steps! No, instead, what I want to explore is just how our focus can affect and change the outcomes of our actions. More importantly, it is when we examine the focus of those around us, that we start to see the true picture and understand what is going on. A short while ago, I wrote a piece on this blog about how I had the answer to all the world’s problems The Answer To The World’s Problems! ALL OF THEM!! – abolish money!
Now, on the basis that this is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon, perhaps we need to analyse our attitude towards money and especially where it relates to the world of commerce and industry. Once upon a time, a company would offer a product or service, and money was a by-product of offering these said products or services. A well-made product or well delivered service would result not only in the proffering of money in exchange, but also the promise of further revenue for the supply of more of the same products and services. The focus of the company would be to ensure that their products and services maintain the standards that their customers had come to expect, and this would be their reassurance to place repeat business in the future. Not only this, but the company would grow a reputation for supplying great quality products and services and this is how they would grow their customer base. Word would get around, the wheels of marketing would turn and slowly but surely the company would grow. More products and services would be sold and in turn the company’s revenue would increase. Happy days!! But should the quality decrease, so would the sales and ultimately the revenue, so the focus was always on maintaining the quality that company’s reputation was built on.
Change the focus though and the picture begins to change. Slowly, as the company grows and revenues increase, the things that were paramount in importance start to be replaced by new goals and directives. Things such as quality, value for money and high levels of service start to slip as they are replaced by gross margins, working capital and EBITDA. Financial metrics start to become the new focus. To some degree, it makes sense, as staff need to be paid, suppliers need paying and you need to ensure that you can keep the lights and heating on.
In the day-to-day hubbub of everyday business, it is easy to lose sight of the things that really contribute to these financial metrics. Namely, maintaining high standards of quality and ensuring that your customers are happy. Instead, the attention is drawn to the rising wages bill, how are we going to pay the suppliers on time and thoughts slip to how we can make savings instead.
In short, the focus shifts towards money. How many of us have been told by our boss, that, “it’s all about the bottom line”; “this is a business and not a charity; “it’s all about making money”. As money becomes the main focus, attention to quality and value for money shrink ever smaller. As revenue and profits start to plateau, companies look to other means to hold their profits. On one side of the equation, you have revenue and on the other you have costs. If one side isn’t going up, you need to reduce the other and this means, cutting staff, lowering wages, renegotiating purchasing contracts, or looking for alternative, cheaper suppliers. With the combination of less staff doing more work along with the quality of the raw materials dwindling, it doesn’t take long for the quality of the product to decline. However, the company has no intention of lowering their prices, so the result is the customer getting an inferior product and therefore less value for their money.
This is nothing new and we have all experienced this a lot over the years. However, real costs now being almost as low as they can go, companies are having to look to new areas in order make these savings and what I am talking about is a relatively new phenomenon – shrinkflation! At first it was quite surreptitious, and a lot of people didn’t notice. The size of things seemed to shrink. That chocolate bar that we remember as being huge as a kid now seems a tad smaller. “No, it’s not!”, the manufacturer cries, “It’s just that your hands were a lot smaller as a child!”. That must be it, we try and persuade ourselves, but deep down we know it’s not quite true.
Thinking they have got away with it, the shrinkflation continues. Products continue to get incrementally smaller, packets of biscuits now contain two or three less than before, multi-packs now have one less item, but in every case the price remains the same. The quality of the raw materials and ingredients used gets compromised and slowly we start to notice that things don’t last quite as long, or taste quite the same. Still, we continue to pay the same price.
In one case, a food manufacturer was accused of using horse meat in some of its products as a replacement for beef. And again, with no amendment to the price to take this into account – even if using horse meat had even been acceptable in the first place.
The other tactic to hoodwink us into thinking that lowering quality standards is acceptable is another new phenomenon – inbuilt obsolescence. No longer are products built to last as long as possible. Kitchen appliances last for mere moments in comparison to the lifetime that they seemed to last. Hell, I remember my mother using the same vacuum cleaner for my entire childhood and we had a fridge that lasted for well over twenty years. Not any longer. We are now told that it is better if we replace our electrical items and gadgets every couple of years, but no one can ever give a satisfactory reason to back this up. And just who does it benefit – us the consumers, the environment perhaps?? No, of course not. The only ones to benefit are the manufacturers.
And why? It is down to the all-consuming pursuit of the dollar (please substitute the currency appropriate to your own region! 😊). The focus is on money and nothing else. How can these companies make more for less. How can they maximise their profits. How can they placate their shareholders. How can they grab a larger share of the marketplace. How can they satiate their never-ending greed. And who pays the price? The real price?
You and me, of course.
If only there was an answer.
Well, there is. Change the focus. Remove it altogether.
Abolish money!!
