Too Big to See : Part Two

“They don’t know what they don’t know." (...and their management and operating practices are built to keep them from finding out)

Did you ever try to contact a corporate management team member whose title implies they should be your point of contact?

Have you ever had the store manager condescendingly tell you that you should speak with corporate about the matter, and when you ask, “Where is corporate, and who do I contact?”, they have no clue?

If they said out loud what they were thinking, it might be more like, “I don’t want to be bothered by you now or any other time because that would require me to think for myself, which is not encouraged in this company.”

Then, not to be discouraged by this exchange, you might type “XYZ company management team” into a search engine to find the right person. Too often, this leads to another dead end. And if the company website has a link for current and potential vendors, it is usually designed to accommodate a very narrow range of options. Yours is not one of them.

There are many potential vendors whose intention is to assist large enterprises, but this fact is often overlooked. These vendors have a product or service that they believe could be beneficial in a variety of ways. Despite this, they are not given access to the correct contact in the company. Is this acceptable in today’s business environment? Is this a uniquely American shortcoming?

Is it really true that large companies think they know everything they need to know about continuous improvement? Their actions indicate that they believe they do. Their blindness and ignorance are so deep-seated that they see no reason to provide access to those outside their tightly controlled fraternity.