Is there any place for altruism in the
business of food safety & quality management?
¿
Are there opportunities for showing professional magnanimity in the food and health products industry?
Let us say
hypothetically that you are a food safety and quality management expert with
extensive industry experience in that field. You can also do sales because of
your friendly and persuasive personality. You are given two job opportunities.
One is with a food manufacturer with direct responsibility for food safety and
quality assurance. The other is a sales management position with a food
packaging manufacturer. The sales job has no direct involvement in food safety
or quality assurance. You are capable of performing well in either position but
the pay for the food safety management position is about 10% lower than the
sales job. Which position would you take? Would your choice be governed by any
altruistic motivations?
As a father, I have
observed that very young babies are quite selfish but they increasingly become
altruistic as they get older. Some never grow out of selfishness. Strangely
perhaps, but realistically, this has provided me with a basis for comparison as
I watch the maturing process of different participants in the food industry. Having
been professionally engaged in the industry for many years now, both locally
and internationally, I have had both the privilege and opportunity to observe
the behavior of different participants. The picture of selfishness and altruism
that I see is not different from that of a child’s progression as he or she
matures. Some participants also appear to stagnate in their development. They remain
extremely and sometimes disastrously selfish. The common terminologies or
phrases that expose this selfishness are: “bottom line”, “profit margin”, “returns
on investment”, etc.
Like the infant and
toddler that inevitable takes everything to the mouth – hence the common
warning to keep hazardous materials out of the reach of children – some (not
all) people in the food industry take everything, as it were, to the mouth with
the ever-repeating question: “What is in it for me”.
People in the industry also grow from business
infancy through the “adolescent” and “young adult” phases. At these later
phases some industry players remain selfish and self-centered with the thinking
that they know everything, are self-sufficient and invincible. However, some
players act more like wise and less selfish adults with highly commendable
altruistic tendencies.
Truly successful food businesses are run by people who genuinely care about others. This caring about others go far beyond merely handing food to them, although that is a good thing.
Imagine if, from the company presidents and CEOs to the line workers, everyone genuinely cares about the safety, needs and satisfaction of the consumers, what would their attitude be towards the products offered for sale or for humanitarian distribution? What degree of commitment to the safety of consumers would we see? What level of self-discipline to do what is right at all levels within the industry would we see? Would there not be much self-motivation to the point of almost eliminating any great need to enforce "rules"? Would compliance or conformity to this or that rule, scheme, or even to regulations be considered sufficient?
Imagine if, from the company presidents and CEOs to the line workers, everyone genuinely cares about the safety, needs and satisfaction of the consumers, what would their attitude be towards the products offered for sale or for humanitarian distribution? What degree of commitment to the safety of consumers would we see? What level of self-discipline to do what is right at all levels within the industry would we see? Would there not be much self-motivation to the point of almost eliminating any great need to enforce "rules"? Would compliance or conformity to this or that rule, scheme, or even to regulations be considered sufficient?
Posted by Felix Amiri
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