Culture clash is unavoidable. I’m sure there are people who think Martin is from Mars. I always say our common goal of quality should overcome our differences though that may be innocence itself.
There’s a Lao company that produces hand-woven cotton. They’ve been approached by a major Japanese retailer with orders in the tens of thousands. Sounds great, but we’re working with different standards; Mars and Neptune. In village, there are funerals. Then, villagers can’t weave. Nonetheless, the Japanese company wants updated Excel spreadsheets on time. Otherwise, they’ll have heart attacks.
Apparently the company CEOs visited the village and were entranced. Here were villagers weaving to the sound of rain and frogs croaking. Chickens at their feet, the smell of soil. “Hand woven cotton from a developing country! This is it!” It’s green, it’s ethical, it’s developing country. It’s got to sell. Then the project managers came and were appalled. “You can’t weave with all this dust! What are you going to do about the chicken shit? We need quality!”
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t have your organic hand woven cotton from a developing country delivered on time with Excel spreadsheets. They should have known better.
For me, the quality in this fable is not about expedient shipments for a major company trying to make a profit off of romantic cheap labor. For me, it’s the heroism of the Lao entrepreneur. Against all odds, if she can pull this off, she’s done something historic.
