Rising above ordinary in a global economy
I was reading this post from Seth Godin:
Ordinary is cheaper than you
The folks who answer the phone at information and the airlines aren’t folks any more. They’re computers.
And the person taking your order at the drive-through isn’t in the same state as you. They might not even be in the same country.
It’s now clear to employers everywhere that they can hire ordinary, perfectly-acceptable staff for a fraction of what they have to pay you to do the job.
In other words, if all the best you can do is ‘good enough’, then why on earth should I pay you the benefits and wages that it costs to get you to do that work
And I can offer one reason why. Henry Ford paid his people more than the lowest rate for a couple reasons not the least of which was so that they could afford the products he sold. We keep going for the lowest price in goods and service and we’re surprised that we’re unhappy with the quality. Ok, that’s like an immediate return on investment. But if we keep pushing these things lower and lower eventually we won’t be able to afford the low prices on low salaries.
Now, I understand the point of Seth’s post… be better than ordinary. I do think there are many ordinary folks out there who are getting caught in the lowest price at any cost war and it is taking us all down.