Recently I received a package from a company with whom I had placed an order for shipment. There was a label on it which read, “Thanks for your order. We appreciate your business. Because of you we are working.” It would be inappropriate to name the company, so I would rather not. One may wonder as to what was wrong with it. Well, for one thing, “Thanks for your order. We appreciate your business” is an expression of gratitude and is always welcome. But going beyond that and saying, “Because of you we are working” is a sign of weakness. By extension it implies, “Please don’t stop ordering, else we will lose our jobs. We have a mortgage on our house, car payments to be made and mouths to feed and so on” and so looks childish.

I understand in today’s economy, there is large scale retrenchment and even skilled, highly qualified employees are let go by all kinds of businesses. There is a shiver in our heart, any time our status quo is threatened. I am not an exception either. As much as my heart goes out to those GM employees in Oshawa or Windsor whose future is threatened because of plant closures, I believe we have to give in to reality that the demand for certain products has disappeared and accept the inevitable. Staging protests in front of the plant may draw sympathy from the general public or some statements from the local politicians and would do nothing much.

A product or service should stand on its own merit and should not appeal to (or depend on) the sympathies of the customer. Not that the customer doesn’t care, but he has more compelling reasons to do as he pleases. So appealing to the emotions of the customer may even make him suspect the product or service.

Lee Iacocca (Autobiography – the Chrysler story) took a much debated government bailout while bringing Chrysler back from bankruptcy. But he delivered on his promise. He believed in his team and products and so pulled off a coup. Last week without so much of a debate Fanny May and Freddie Mac have been bailed out just so people can have jobs. It is a disgrace, a temporary prop and who knows what this additional public debt would do to U.S.A., the paragon of capitalism. I doubt if any single individual is taking responsibility for this.

Peter Drucker the management guru once said that there is no reason for a business to go on and on and should be shut down if it makes economic sense. That in all likelihood will lead to new businesses to sprout. It reflects the Tao or Zen teaching: “When I am completely destroyed, I am about to grow”