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By Alazar Ahmed |
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Monstrous Monopolies By Alazar Ahmed alazarahmed@yahoo.com Be it in the old days or in our times, there have always been titanic organizations with the potential knowledge and ability to react and crush any competition and rivalry. The fight might step up the reactors to a state of monopoly. History has proven that laws are the only safe havens that can safeguard the public from the repressive existence of monopolies. Laws are ratified, amended, or quoted to disband monopolistic practices for fear of unfair and in some cases lethal moves taken against customers. In the Ethiopian case, governmental or private monopolies have come into being since 25 years ago. Most of the state corporations, though they keep the interest of the government in generating tax and percentages of income for infrastructure expansion and other areas, can be classified as monopolies. By and large, when customers visit on these monopolies, it is known that they lose the very concept of being in a commercial enterprise. Any way, have you ever visited any such corporations? You better not. All the facts and acts resound with extreme carelessness with a message on the customer’s irrelevance. It is quite common to experience a high rate of absenteeism or hear an excuse that the employee has left for tea in a busy moment of the workday. Institutions, which are mostly victim to such practices, are postal services, telecoms, the electric industry, just to mention a few. These are cash dogs in the quadrant of wealth accumulation post earmarking of initial investment and, latter, expansion cost. Sometimes, questions should be raised: why are they not so concerned about their customers that are their sources of income; why are they so careless about customer satisfaction in their performance appraisal? You only have to look at the poor networking and connection quality of mobile and the sole Internet service in Ethiopia. You will surely witness unprofessional technical performance, sluggish maintenance, uneconomical supply of services, unclean potable water, or delayed delivery of envelopes and packages. The local customer is not earnestly concerned about private ownership of the companies but rather about improved service delivery. Excellent quality succeeds earmarking of investment. As far as I know, governmental institutions are currently dependent on donor alms knowing that the long run burden of debt servicing is unbearable. Of course, long run debt might produce offsetting returns. Whatever the case is, monopoly cannot be accepted as an alternative. That is why a proclamation to set up the Trade Administration Commission was promulgated. At least the government believes in unfair practices, precluding its monopoly companies. Paradox! Ok! If the governmental corporations cannot be privatized, then what possible actions may customers demand which is attainable and satiating? In most cases projects can be made successful if customers are invited to contribute ideas as they are forced to pay bills. Though anything good is not expected from a monopolizing firm; government or private, some ideas might help to upgrade performance and service delivery. Interactive marketing unitMost of the employees in various government corporations are either technical personnel or have only technical knowledge with little concern about human values or customer satisfaction. The problem here is that all attention and resources may be directed and redirected towards project feasibility studies, purchasing new equipment, and upgrading latest technology. Such a technocratic view results in resentment because it has not room for customers’ ideas. The corporation might have a customer representative division but it is just for collecting payment or registering technical failure. However, customers demand not only technological gadgets but also humanistic approaches. The monopolies should understand what technology should be imported in light of local needs, problems or opportunities. The customer representative ought to be consulted whether the technologies have real value to the local demand or not. Ad-hoc technical assistance unit Sometimes when a technician happens to be present at home or in an office, customers need to beg to tears for a maintenance service. All formal ups and downs and bureaucratic channels make customers procrastinate or monopoly-phobia. Anyway, subunits totally dedicated for quick service rendering need to be established. The technical unit’s should be dedicated to offer all possible services. Time and customer satisfaction are the major issues, with the excellence of technical maintenance. Incentive package Don’t call it jealousy but expatriates with the same practical experience and certification are paid attractive salaries and perks. The incentive package should be, whether it is a civil service office or not, similar. The package needs to be merit based than seniority. The more a worker contributes, the more he/she should be rewarded. The incentive package can be attached with customer value. An employee with positive customer references and achievement should be a candidate for reward. I am not ignorant of how costly it is; but a corporation is widely recognized by sharing gains with its stakeholders in various forms, either financially or in any value. No governmental corporation is an exception to this. Such action might serve as a machine toward motivating employees. Technology leader than chaser Looking back to the history of the Asian Tigers, my readers would imagine that most of them were technology chasers. Some of them currently are turned into recognized technological leaders and are groundbreakers as well as originators of realizable ideas. Some others are heading in other paths of success. As aforementioned, the concept of privatizing some monopoly industry is kept as a ‘holy cow’ matter. Never talk about it. Never dream of it. It is just a big brother- government- issue. Most monopoly firms are crippled by fierce competition. They are not in a position to invent but rather to fail. Federal subsidy might help. But unless, there are strategic alliances with leaders or innovators, no matter how much finance pours in they are just on swampy ground. One day, with out any warning, they are prone to face a Babylonic failure. Local knowledge Brain drain is a phenomenon that bothers a lot of local scholars; it, in the end, afflicts the national interest with professionals abandoning their sincere contribution. Now, how can brain drain be checked? The local market-oriented government corporations should give room to professional management. A good example that can be referred is The Graduate School of Telecommunication and Information Technology; the new Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation backed Institute. The profile of its human resource inventory is quite encouraging. Exploiting the experience and guidance of such local scholars is undeniably of valuable. The other good example that can be pointed out is cancellation of the subscription fee for text messaging. That is a good and simple marketing tactic of ETC’s personnel. Never even try to persuade people about the goodness of monopoly. It is a black and white fact that it, in the long run, is an act of waging war on customers or in general on the nation. That is why the Clinton Administration pressed charges against the Microsoft Corporation. Apart from a stubborn governmental and macro-economical analysis, customers do not enjoy the dominion of a monopoly, which might deny them their alternative choices.
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Tuesday
February 1, 2005
