"How often is this train late?" It was called the Hikari Super Express. He said, "This line has been open for seven years. The cumulative lateness of the Hikari Su per Express over those seven years is 120 seconds!" Anyway,we got on the train, we went down to Osaka, we had three days of business in Osaka, we went back to the station, back to the ticket office to buy our return tickets to Tokyo and there was a sign which surprised me because it said "All trains cancelled".So I turned to my Japanese guide and I said "Aha! Mr Yomadi, you see Japan doesn't always work."Do you know what he did, he took out his handkerchief, he mopped his brow and he said,"It's all myfault!"Now what had happened was that the worst typhoon in thirty years had struck Japan, washed part of the line away but he took it per sonally. It was all his fault. And I thought, that is the difference between Japan and South Africa, because those four words "It's all my fault", do not pass South African lips! It's all your fault! The Government's fault, Cosatu's fault, it's Anglo's fault-it's everybody else's fault but it is never, never, ever your own fault in this country. The buck stops nowhere. That's why the na tionalemblem is the flying Springbok!You have to have a buck that stops.It has to stop in business.Those things that you produce out there have to be quality products. You have to supervise that quality yourself.Ifsomething goes wrong with a product that you produce, you have to follow up and ensure that you putit right. You have to have quality of service in shops. You have to have peo ple,when they see you as a customer,smile at you.The buck has to stop. And that's how you run a successful society. The final story comes from a visit I made to one of the gold mines in Anglo the other day called Western Deep Levels, which is the deepest gold mine in our group. I was there for a profits meeting and before the profits meeting I had breakfast in the single quarters. A young black lady came and sat opposite me and we got talking and I asked her whatshe did.She said"I'm in the medi cal department here.Ilook after the children ofemploy ees.My parents live in Mamelodi so I go there at week ends and I come back here during the week." She said, "That's my life,that's whatI do.Whatdo you do?"So I said, "Well," I said "I'm Chairman of Division!" She immediately said"I didn'task you what you are,I asked whatdo you do?"Phew,I spentthe restofthe day think ing,"What do I do? What do I do? What indeed, do I do? I came to the conclusion I do two things. One is delegate and the other is MBWA,which is Management by Wandering Around! It was a perfectly valid question and I've gone to all my colleagues and I've said"Whatdo you do?"and invari ably they tell me what they are! I've asked all my busi ness people on planes,"Whatdo you do?"and they tell me what they are! and you get the impression that eve rybody in this country wears a great, big shiny badge saying what they are and they get paid a lot of money for wearing that badge but they do very little.(You real ize in fact that organizations must be completely re thought in South Africa where you assume,like George Orwell did in "Down and Out in London and Paris," that the lowest level is the doers,and if you add level to the lowest level, it's because they really add significant value to the lowestlevel otherwise,don'tadd them.)It's a totally different philosophy. You look at most organi zations in South Africa, you've got 15 to 20 layers of management-can you imagine that! And two of the largest organizations in the world only have three lev els. That's the Catholic Church and the Mafia! The Catholic Church is Pope, Bishop, Priest and the Mafia is Capo di Tuth,Capo Boss,Hitman! So,basically, you can run a very, very large organization on three layers. So we have to completely rethink organizational struc tures in this country. Anyway,I hope I've entertained you a bit. I hope I've given you a feel for how you've got to gamble in life. You know, life is uncertain. It's not like school where everything is programmed. You are going to have to make decisions based onincomplete evidence ofwhether it is a future wife or a future career or a future business, whatever it is. You have to make that decision on in complete evidence. So, the most important instinct you've got to learn about is the gambling instinct. Moreover, I hope that I've lit a fire in your soul to do something about helping this country to reach the High Road. Thank you very much. 20 Kearsney Chronicle 1994
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