Whatever the rights and wrongs of Rick Wagoner’s ousting from GM, he provides a wonderful example of the difference between Vulcan and Earthling thinking. On what planet is it acceptable behavior to take your private jet to a meeting where you are asking for a hand-out of billions of dollars?
You might be surprised to learn that the answer is “on the planet Vulcan.” From a narrowly rational point of view, it makes sense for Rick Wagoner to argue that ”my time is so valuable that I will not waste it by waiting in line at an airport for a commercial flight to Washington.”
On the planet Earth, however, things are not that simple. A man who is asking for money needs to avoid creating the impression that even a single cent of the money will be used to subsidize his lifestyle as opposed to saving what was once one of the world’s great companies.
It seems obvious – but this failure to consider the human dimension of business is repeated on a daily basis by companies that really should know better. We do business on planet Earth and that means that we need to recognize that our customers are never satisfied with an answer to just “what will you do for me?” – they also want to know “what can you mean to me?”
