...And Dignity for All: Unlocking Greatness through Values-Based Leadership

Chapter 12. Excellencia

It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

—SOMERSET MAUGHAM^*

^* Permission granted from the estate of Elizabeth Lady Glendevon.

Finally, the day came for hiring the workforce to run our magnificent factory. For me it marked the end of lamenting the loss of a positive culture in Japan and the beginning of building one of our own in Mexico. But this, too, was a challenge. It wasn't that the people of Mexico weren't intelligent and capable. They were. But their poverty, culture, and education did not produce the skills necessary for this great endeavor. Would-be workers often had the mechanical aptitude to work the heavy manufacturing equipment, but they had no mechanical ...