Chapter 8 - The secret heart of learning

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The secret heart of learning	279

  Compare this with other systems that are programmed to succeed - and where excellence results:
   The U.S. armed forces, for instance, where a 50 percent failure rate would never be tolerated. Whatever your views on the 1991 Gulf War, the electronically-controlled rockets that rained down on Saddam Hussein's armed forces spelled out a message of excellence in military technology, planning, efficiency and competence.
   Disneyland, where even a novice cleaner can't get to sweep a floor without a one-week extensive training course in the theme-park's philosophy, values and attractions.8 And where every visitor is regarded as a guest and every employee as a partner committed to being a vital part of a daily extravaganza that smiles excellence at every corner.
   Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett Packard, where the lower-skilled computer assemblers work, eat, exercise and play alongside the Ph. D. systems-designers; where all, without exception, are encouraged to take computers home to explore new ideas with their families; where all are partners in achieving excellence; and where most even have full authority to work their weekly hours at any time to suit them, without punching timeclocks.9
   Japan's Matsushita-Panasonic, with its six million staff suggestions a year: 90 percent of them put into action in a day-by-day search to encourage all to share in a continuously-improving result.10
   McDonald's, with its $40-million hamburger university, the training ground for the world's biggest fast-food chain.11
   Japan's Sony, with its policy of disregarding every employee's former educational qualifications after he or she has been employed, because it wants everyone to be seen as an achiever, an innovator, a "seeker of the unknown" as part of a joint contribution to building a better world.12
   Andersen Consulting, the world's largest management consulting firm, which at its own company university in St. Charles, Illinois, each year spends more than $400 million to retrain the 10,000 new MBAs it employs annually from the world's top university colleges.13
   Or General Electric, the world's biggest company, which spends $800 million a year on its various training and educational programs. Ask CEO Jack Welch what he thinks GE will be in 20 years, and he replies: "I hope it will be the greatest learning institution in the world." 14
  Or take any computer system as an example of striving for excellence

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