Tale of service delivery in two European countries - Greece and Switzerland

After visiting any nation, it is not that difficult to predict how the country would fare sooner or later. From personal experiences, I’ve chosen Greece and Switzerland (as case studies of two European countries), having visited both Athens and Zurich in the past. Hopefully, the big people on Ghana’s payroll - mandated to lead and manage the nation - may learn insightful lessons from the failures and successes of the selected settings, and please act to inspire and elevate Ghana accordingly.

Greece economic crises

I recall a David Frost interview of the former British Prime Minister, John Major, about Greece’s indebtedness and looming bankruptcy (Al Jazeera, November 18, 2011). Discussing the Greek crises, Major said, “In Greece, it is pretty awful; huge numbers of them are losing their jobs. Many people have had their wages cut by a third.” 

The plight of the Greeks expressed by Major was dire; at the same time, the situation hit a personal cord based on some unwholesome experiences I encountered on the holiday trip - with my wife and two little daughters - to Athens [to visit the Acropolis and the Pantheon] and the port of Piraeus in 1994.

There’s no smoke without fire. I recalled an incident at the airport in Athens where we approached three hostesses who manned the counter for some information. So completely aloof and engaged in a personal conversation, one wondered if they could hear the visitors. Not only that, puffing on cigarettes and blowing out the smoke openly, they were clearly not keen on being helpful.

Much later, at some point on the trip, we got to the Port of Piraeus, where we took a taxi to our hotel. Here too, the taxi driver puffed on his cigarette, showing no interest in the service he was to provide. At the hotel, he opened the trunk and refused to help with the luggage. Of course, he got no tip and got peeved.

In a restaurant nearby, the attendant insisted on ordering more items on the menu than we could possibly need, so I stopped him right there. Those scathing memories remained with me.  

In Major’s interview, he said, “Some commentators have suggested, just get rid of Greece (and) the problem is gone … If the Greeks went back to the drachma, at what rate of interest would they fund their debt? It will probably be very large indeed. Will they have an even bigger default than we now know is coming? … So it’s impossible just to isolate Greece, to say Greece is a mess, let’s push her out of the Euro.” 

Quality Service in Zurich, Switzerland

The Greek encounters reminded me of an earlier trip on Swissair to Zurich in the early 1990s. Just before landing, one of my daughters complained of a throbbing pain in one ear. 

At the airport, I approached a hostess behind a Swissair desk for help. She asked for some details, picked up a phone and spoke with someone. After the call she said, “A medical personnel will be out here to help in four minutes.” In the course of our conversation, she looked at her watch, and then up in the hallway, and said, “Ah, there he is. It’s four minutes.”

I followed her eye, and saw a young man in a white jacket and pants with a bag in one hand walking towards us. At the counter, he introduced himself and then got out a device with which he took a peek inside the troubled ear. He then took out a syringe, adjusted a bowl by the ear, and squirted water into it. After a few such squirts, a small piece of wax fell out into the bowl. He peeped into the other ear, smiled, and said, “That’s it. It was the wax causing the pain.”

Now at our hotel, I requested a taxi to the airport for our next flight. Having received the necessary details, the attendant said, “There will be a taxi for you tomorrow at 11:59 am.”  I asked, “You mean about noon?” She said, “Yes,” and repeated, “11:59 am”.

The next day, the phone rang in our room. I picked it up. A lady from the concierge announced, “Sir, it’s 11:59 am, and the taxi is here.” I looked at the clock on the desk; it was 11:59 am. I now realised that the whole country – from air attendants, medical personnel, hotel staff, taxi service – all ran like clockwork. Every minute counted! In other words, while scores of countries typically advertised their nations with attractions in concrete terms – raw materials, animals, festivals, hotels, beaches, food, etc, Zurich – on the other hand - advertised herself in powerful abstract terms, as a brand, with an unrivalled culture of precision in its service delivery, like a magical island created out of poetry. 

Investment in skilled labour

The investment in skilled labour and the high degree of motivation provide the high levels of productivity that Switzerland enjoys. Her quality of life is often cited as one of the highest in the world.

With a national ethos stressing quality service delivery, Zurich’s complementary structures were managed harmoniously to support precision in every step of the way for high consistent productivity. 

Though both European nations, Switzerland enjoys Gross domestic Product (GDP) per capita of US$80,214, with Greece trailing at US$18,035 (World Bank figures, 2015). The management guru, Peter F. Drucker, once said: There’s no such thing as an underdeveloped country; there are only undermanaged ones.