"Innovate or DIE" "New ideas create more and better new products and services; create more wealth."
The Problem of Fading Professionalism
By
JCB
R090209
Just recently, the author attended a meeting in which the main resource person was late for two hours. And because the resource person was integral to the author's project, cancelling the meeting was out of the picture. Naturally, this experience led the author to ask: is professionalism extinct already?
Indeed, the most prevalent and pervasive problem in Philippine business nowadays is tardiness or the Filipino's penchant for being late. Filipinos think that on time means arriving 15 minutes after the designated time. This problem is a concrete reason why most foreigners feel that Filipinos are incapable of being professional
To solve the problem of Filipinos being late, the author proposes that chips be embedded inside every employee. And these chips will release electrical currents or mild shocks if the person is running late.
Another idea is that chips will be engrafted inside the earlobes of every Filipino. And if late for a meeting or appointment, the chip will trigger an alarm. And this alarm will continue to ring until the tardy person arrives at the meeting or appointment.
But, it's not just being late that erodes professionalism in the country: the Filipino's tendency to be meek and quiet when opinion when merited is also a problem. Being silent in this case is not only unproductive but it is unfair to colleagues and the organization. A case in point is the silence of Filipinos who attend meetings and never raise a point or question when asked. This leads to disastrous consequences because most of the time whatever had been discussed could have been better if only those attending spoke their minds.
To remedy the situation of Filipinos being meek and quiet, the author proposes that a machine be invented which will project the thoughts of person. This invention will be a thought bubble maker. Ideas in this case will be projected on air like a hologram. The machine can take the form of a helmet which will project what is in the brain of the one wearing it. Of course, privacy will be an issue, and that is why the machine will be calibrated to probe for thoughts related to the meeting. Personal and private notions cannot be projected.
Obviously, there are many more reasons why professionalism in Philippine business has been almost nonexistent. And there is no panacea that can solve all these ills in one fell swoop. But, there must be a start. Filipinos should learn that to be successful in business, respect, courtesy, and ethics are primordial. Without them, any Filipino will not thrive and survive. The time has come therefore to finally be professional. After all, that is the world's standard. And to refuse to follow that would be like going against the current. Only this time, it is not merited at all.
