From Zurich with precision - National examples in timeliness, and productivity

The next day, the phone rang. I picked it up, and a lady from the concierge announced, “Sir, it’s 11:59 am, and the taxi is here.” I looked at the clock on the desk, and it was 11:59 am. I now realised that the whole country – from air attendants, medical personnel, hotel staff, taxis, etc. – all ran like clockwork. Every single minute counted! In other words, while scores of countries typically advertised their nations with common attractions in concrete terms – raw materials, animals, festivals, hotels, beaches, food, etc., Zurich – on the other hand - advertised herself on CNN in powerful sophisticated abstract terms, as a brand; that is the unrivalled culture of precision in its service delivery. Like a magical island created out of poetry, the city’s sense of time and precision are legendary.

Zurich as a hub - for railways, roads and air traffic - is the busiest in Switzerland. One central network alone, Zurich HB, has about 500,000 commuters daily, and it’s one of the world’s most frequently served railway stations, with about 2,900 trains every day.

The investment in quality education for skilled labour, the high degree of motivation, and low levels of absenteeism provide the high levels of productivity the area enjoys. The quality of life is often cited as one of the highest in the world.

Professional training incorporates a mix of practical work experience and academic study. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) has a reputation particularly in the science fields, and is credited with 21 Nobel Laureates associated with the institution.

With a national ethos stressing that time matters - that the present matters - and that quality service delivery is revered and non-negotiable, Zurich’s complementary structures are combined and managed in harmony to support precision in every endeavour for high consistent productivity. The management guru, Peter F. Drucker, once said: “There’s no such thing as an underdeveloped country; there are only undermanaged ones.”

In his masterly book, “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace”, Kofi Annan observed: “Africa’s problems are often portrayed as if they were predetermined.” He went on to say, “The responsibility lies with Africans, their systems of rule, and their leaders. Africa has had the experience it has, most of all, because of the decisions made by individuals and the systems of rule deliberately enacted by leaders and their supporters. Africa, the poverty of Africa, the violence of Africa, is not the inexorable product of its environment but rather the consequence of choices and decisions made by its leaders.”

Annan observed that often, the men in the ruling cliques “had no interest in allowing changes to the moribund status quo that ensured their narrow interests … The evils of colonialism in Africa was really their tool, thus diverting the people from the demands for real progress.”

On this very same planet, where the essence of precision and productivity are clearly visible in places, we in Africa seem to have chosen to be caught in the throes of the perilous absurdities one sees in far too many parts of the continent. As Shakespeare put it (and Kwame Nkrumah believed wholeheartedly) “Men at some time are masters of their fates: / The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Article by Anis Haffar