Calculators and Service

Looking back on an old oral presentation from Year 8, on Globalisation, I scrambled to fill five minute time allocation and at the time, had no idea what I was talking about. I was clutching at straws, advocating the power of technological advancement, its opportunities and improvements for all countries involved.

Looking at our community’s obsession with innovation for the sake of innovation, I fear that I may have been very wrong…

The stories of two companies, leaders of their respective fields, share insight on this observation.

Casio brought the first fully electronic calculator to market in 1957 and for a time, continued to use mechanical calculators to ensure that their software was accurate — before shipping to market. By 1970 the mechanical calculator was obsolete and those still making them were out of business.

Meanwhile a medical company (we’ll call this, Company B) was so far ahead of the competitors in their field, that the rate at which they were releasing out new products, near-infinitely outweighed the time required to generate enough interest and investment to fuel them.

This is the innovation-stagnation balance.

How does this relate to hospitality?

Before you make change, consider why you are making it.

Yes our beloved government is providing a substantial asset-write-off to small business at the moment, but a customer will only come in once to check out the new machine, grinder or set up — they won’t come back just to say “Yeah that’s still cool”.

They’ll return for your service, products and the smile that defines hospitality.

Globalisation has established a platform for tremendous advancements in technology and facilitated the sharing of new and innovative ideas, but the thing that keeps bringing people through our doors is the provision of good service.