The following story is about compassion that flowed out naturally. Taken
from John Kotter's book - Matsushita Leadership.
Matsushita is better known for the brand Panasonic and National, &
Matsushita Electric '96 sales was about 65 BILLION US dollar.
The setting was a restaurant in Osaka in 1975. Matsushita met w/ five of
his managers. When all six finished the main course, Matsushita leaned
over to one of his manager, Ogawa, & asked him to find the chef who cooked
his steak. "Not the manager, the chef." Ogawa then noticed that
Matsushita had only eaten half of his entree.
Preparing himself for what could be an extremely awkward scene, Ogawa
found the chef and brought him to the table. The cook arrived looking
distressed, for he knew that the customer who had summoned him was an
exceptionally important person.
"Is there anything wrong?" asks a nervous chef.
"You've gone to all the trouble of broiling the steak," says Matsushita,
"but I could eat only half of it. It's not because it's not good. It's
quite delicious. But you see, I'm eighty years old and my appetite isn't
what it once was."
The chef and five other diners exchange confused expressions. It takes
everyone a few seconds to realize what is happening.
"I asked to talk to you," Matsushita continues, "because I was afraid you
might feel bad if you saw the half-eaten steak back in the kitchen.
Slamet Hendry (sh@earthling.net)
Jakarta, Indonesia
--"Slamet Hendry" <sh@earthling.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>