The failure of success
Ihave come across many situations where companies or people claim success and upon closer examination it would seem that it was a failure. Immediately what comes to mind when a success is actually a failure are three basic types, namely; Pyrrhic victory, wrong goal, and a changed objective.
Many of you have heard of a Pyrrhic victory, from Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus who defeated the Romans in 279 BCE but whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans. Modern concepts relating to this is the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) where a nuclear power may be able to successfully launch a nuclear attack on another country with nuclear weapons, for example Russia and the USA, but would likewise suffer from nuclear annihilation as well.
We see this type of situation happening all the time when heavy competition leads to a price war, resulting in heavy losses on both sides. It can also happen that in trying to win a court case, the cost bankrupts the winning party. This can also happen in other situations such as running a marathon that upon crossing the finish line, the winner dies from exhaustion. The lesson here is that for success to be recognized, the victor must be able to live and enjoy the outcome.
Another sad situation is when wrong goals are set with only one parameter given due course. In the automotive business, the brand with the highest market share ends up with the highest profitability. However, if the only consideration is market share and the only performance metric for these auto executives was market share, you can imagine a situation where the company does gain impressive market share and an equally impressive net loss wiping out its equity.
“Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!” is an old saying from Aesop’s Fables. There is much truth to this when your only goal is one thing without taking into account the other equally important aspects. As a student, any parent would consider it a big success if their child was the class Valedictorian. However, in reality, most of the time, the class Valedictorian does not end up having the best life. This is perhaps due to the singular focus on getting the best grades that the student fails to take into account the other important things such as social interaction, networking, street smarts, sports, and many other non-academic elements.
We live in a changing world and we must learn how to adapt to these changes. We should also realize that an objective set at some time in the past may no longer be the best objective today. As an example, prior to the Covid lockdown, many small businesses were aspiring to get a stall in malls such as SM, 168 and many others. However, with the advent of online shopping through Lazada and Shopee, better alternative distribution channels are now available.
The dynamics of demographics, advancing technology, politics and the environment forces us to take into account our understanding of what success is. What may be considered as a success now may not be so sometime in the future. Back in the late 1980s, having a mobile cellphone was a definite symbol of success, now, even your maid has one! Things are not always what they seem. Ultimately, the only one that can decide if something is a success or failure is yourself!
(The views and comments of the author are his own and not of the newspaper or FINEX. Dr. George S. Chua was 2016 FINEX President, 2010 to 2020 FPI President, an active entrepreneur, regular member of the National Press Club, Professorial Lecturer 2 at UP Diliman and BGC, Trustee of the FINEX Foundation, Vice Chairman of the Market Governance Board of the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. and loves playing golf. Comments may be sent to georgechuaph@yahoo.com)