Breton Horses - thecbj.com

Central Brittany Journal – October 2010Mr Biznuz 19Mr BiznuzThe Spirit ofCompetitionCompetitionThings seem to have cooled down a little nowin terms of the the 'financial crisis', and perhapsthis affords an opportunity to take a more reasonedlook at one of the issues that lies at theheart of the debate about business: competition.Most people in France would take the view thatthere is something fundamentally wrong withthe Anglo Saxon way of doing business - becauseit rewards greed and generates divisionsin society - and they would say that it does thisby allowing unfettered competiton.The other side of the argument is that thereis too much control in France, and that as a result,businesses no longer serve the customersbut instead focus on pleasing the regulators. Itis suggested that the remedy for this would bemore competition.Neither of these arguments seem to take accountof the fact that customers are becoming increasinglyunhappy with business on both sidesof the channel. Perhaps it is normal for peopleto complain about things that they do not like,and to keep quiet about things that are working,but it is always unwise for business people notto take customer's concerns seriously.It is becoming increasingly common to hearpeople complain about the quality of goods;about the fact that production has been transferredoverseas, so that it is almost impossibleto hold manufactures to account for their products;that products have been made too complicatedand can no longer be repaired; that toomany companies have become unresponsive tocustomer concerns and make use of automatedanswering services and remote call centres; andthat businesses collude so that prices always increase.These are very serious complaints, andwhat is particulrly striking is that there is verylittle difference in these key concerns between,France, the UK and the USA, in all three countries,people do not feel that they are being takenseriously, and therefore the issue of whether USstyle market forces, or French-style regulationis better is really irrelevant.Neither the 'free-market' capitalism of theUnited States, nor the centralised economy ofFrance, is giving people what they want, andthis is perhaps because people have adopted thewrong idea about business and competiton.In the US the ethos behind business seems tobe that it is a means to make money; in France,the underlying principle behind business is thatit allows people to fulfill a role for which theybeen trained. Another way of looking at it, however,could be that business allows a person todo something about which you are passionate.When this is the case, then competition reallycould become a something that they viewed ina positive light: a competitor would be someoneshared their passion and from whom they couldlearn. The benefit to the customer would be thatas people competed to achieve higher and higherstandards, the service provided could onlyimprove.www.thecbj.com