Service

A business with very good service is going to provide that good service because it is necessary for their success. Certain kinds of companies must provide better service than their competitors to succeed. While some businesses can be very successful without worrying very much about service, most industries rely on it for its obvious ability to attract customers.

High – end restaurants must have the absolute greatest service they can possibly manage. A large part of the experience of going to an expensive, fancy restaurant is to be treated like a very important person; like you actually belong in a place with $300 meals, where everyone around you is wearing $4000 suits. A restaurant like Four Seasons in New York could not survive on its food alone; it depends on the atmosphere created by elegant presentation and service. McDonalds’ mission, on the other hand, is to get as much food out to people as quickly as possible at the lowest quality sellable, and good service is not too important for that mission. A high end restaurant’s mission depends on great service.

Everyone knows a car salesman will do practically anything to sell a car and make a profit. This is because one people do not buy cars often, they stick with one for a long time, and two, it is tradition to try have better service than everyone else in that industry. Tradition of service in an industry can be a strong determinant to how service – oriented certain businesses are.

All competing businesses must rely on service to an extent. As opposed to businesses with monopolies, or government operations, businesses with competition must make sure their service is at least at par with its competition. Even McDonalds cannot survive if they have terrible service compared to their competition (even if their service is terrible compared to a nice restaurant’s). Competition makes people bring out their best, or at least as much as it takes to win. The Department of Motor Vehicles has no competition, and look at its service.

The fact is, a businesses service is only as good as it needs to be. Businesses with great service have it because they must to succeed. Their central goal is not to make you happy, but to make money. The people driving the best service could be the worst, most senile, make – money – at – any – cost type of people. The business industries with the best service are always those that require it the most to succeed.

Success and Ethics

Ethics and success differ mainly in that one, ethics, deals with the intrinsic state of a person, while success is an extrinsic measure of achievement in the world. The person is first in line before the effects that person has on society. What the person is decides what the person does, in other words. Ethics is first, success is second, but that does not mean ethics is more important; is the door more important than the house just because it comes first in line in the function of the house?

Firstly, I will elaborate on the nature of ethics and success. Ethics deals with the soul of a person, their conscience, the state of their thinking, and their actions. Ethics is intrinsic to the person, in other words. Success is extrinsic to the person, in that it is something judged and determined by society.

What ethics a person chooses to follow determines the nature of their success, to a large extent. Bill Gates and Adolph Hitler were both very successful in life. Adolph Hitler’s success was dominated by a code of ethics that made his success a terrible thing. Bill Gates’ success was determined by a code of ethics that said make as much money as you can and give to the poor and afflicted, which made his success a good thing for both him and the poor and afflicted.

Ethics is important because it makes a person either good or bad, and success is important because it makes the world either good or bad. No one is more important than the other. A good code of ethics combined with success is the ideal thing, because then the person and the rest of the world benefit. The opposite is true of the combination of a bad code of ethics and success.

It is not right to say that ethics is the most important. Ethics only effects one person. A good code of ethics is not very useful if it only effects one person. It is much better to effect the whole world in a positive way, and that only comes through success. You see, Machiavelli was not wrong because he emphasized success over ethics. He was wrong because he emphasized success with bad ethics. On the other hand, Socrates was good for the world because he was successful in getting the message of his good ethics out into the intellectual circles of ancient Greece. The initial reaction to the question his to say that of course ethics is more important than success, but without success ethics doesn’t really mean a whole lot.

Microsoft

It doesn’t matter if this is cliché or an overused prediction; Microsoft is going to make a good deal of money this year. People have been saying it over and over, and they keep failing to come up with anything, but now we have fairly bullet proof reasons to believe that Microsoft is going to see a substantial incline in the next year. I think they are going to have some advances that are going to shock a lot of people who have paid way too much attention to an Apple company that is old news.

First off, the summer Olympics are of course going to be a enormous event, and Microsoft has the television coverage covered like no one else. They will be offering, online, every event, even badminton and archery. This is unprecedented and no one else is doing it. People will swarm the internet for this, and then Microsoft will implant in them a deep desire to once again only trust Microsoft for everything electronic. It’s going to be an advertising extravaganza for Microsoft, and countless mindless consumers will once again be converted to Microsoftism.

Secondly, the Xbox360 will become the ultimate gaming system later this year as Microsoft expands its download capability to include countless more TV shows and movies, music files, and video games. All of these things will be available right from your bedroom Xbox360. Even itunes feels compelled to jump on board. Revenues from such a boost in online downloading, straight to the system, will be massive.

In addition, Microsoft is planning several other future – tech advancements, as will as an ongoing attempt to get people to move on to Windows Vista. In technology advancement, Microsoft is developing a “Smart Table” that will be implemented at chain restaurants. The Smart Table allows customers to order their food by interacting with the table, through touch – screen technology, instead of with a waiter. Although the success of such a system is questionable, it could lead to bigger things in the future. And although Windows Vista experienced a very negative welcoming, eventually the vast majority of issues will be worked out and people will have no choice but to switch.

Microsoft has been in the dark for too long. But that just means that it is about time they experienced a resurgence, and their Olympics coverage and Xbox360 online store are bulletproof advancements that will yield good – sized revenues for the electronics giant, and will furthermore encourage people to put their faith back into the company. I’m not saying we will see any kind of explosion like we did with Apple a while back, but I think Microsoft is on the rise again.