Mousetraps and Aircraft

“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”

This popular expression (attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson) exemplifies the general attitude of an earlier time. Although many modern commentators see in it an exhortation to innovation, the people with whom I grew up simply understood it to mean that if you build something (even a lowly mousetrap) better than the others, or do something better than the others, you will be rewarded with success.

However, some time ago, I began to notice a shift in our application of this ideal. To paraphrase a popular cliché: We’re putting the cart in front of the horse. Instead of thinking of ways to build or do something better, many people are first thinking about the reward (which nowadays means only money) and how can they most easily make it.

Over the last few years I have mentioned this to several people, (all of whom I was not well acquainted) and was surprised by their enthusiastic agreement! Well, at least I’m not alone in this.

A little story may help to illustrate:

Like most guys, I like mechanical things, and one of my favorites is modern aircraft, specifically, commercial jetliners. It may have been two years ago that I watched a documentary about the old Douglas Aircraft Company, and it told of a time when the company’s founder, Donald Douglas Sr., walked into a meeting expecting to see a table surrounded by aviation engineers (aviation geeks we might call them today), with their proposals for better, even revolutionary aircraft laid out before them. Instead, he was greeted by accountants and marketing experts with their analyses of what was needed to boost the bottom line.

Mr. Douglas retired at that time; an era had ended. The profits no longer followed the product. The product was no longer limited by the imagination, but by the dividends.

As long as we’re using aircraft as an example, recently I saw another documentary, this one on YouTube, about the Boeing 727. What struck me most was that they had issues with cheap foreign labor even at the time of the 727s inception back in the late 1950s. The difference then was that some of the cheap labor was found in France and Great Britain, which happened to be the homes of their rivals such as Caravelle and Hawker Siddeley.

So, what did Boeing do?

Did they look for ways to reduce labor costs?

Did they go to Capitol Hill and complain about “unfair” competition?

No!

What Boeing did was something that I find unimaginable today. They resolved to build an aircraft so much better than their competitors that the airlines would gladly pay more for them. They decided to build a better product and were rewarded with success, in other words – money, profits, you get it.

Imagine that!

Now, it’s a coincidence that at the time of this writing, Boeing is in the middle of an investigation, with many fingers pointing to cost-cutting measures. I do not doubt that that is a part of the problem, but to think that we need to do nothing more than to say “sic ‘em” to the FAA and FBI and the “Bad Boys at Boeing” will get their due reward, is naïve. The problem isn’t just at Boeing, it’s inside of us. It’s part of our culture, our values, you may even think of it as spiritual.

Whatever the findings turn out to be, when progress is being made, we’ll feel it.

Why do I say that? Well, when I’m drinking beer, I sometimes enjoy speaking with older people about their jobs, and comparing what it was like when they started, and what it’s like now. Interestingly, I have heard time and time again this same comment: “It’s just not fun anymore”.

That’s a sad statement.

It’s something to think about.