A new book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua is generating buzz and debate both on-line, in print, and on TV. Chua’s goal in writing this book is to answer how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful children. As counterpoint, Chua decries American parents as wimps who coddle their kids and accept mediocrity.
Used interchangeably in the book are the words “Chinese” and “Tiger” to describe Chua’s maternal ferocity and passion. Chua’s parenting techniques are strikingly similar to “Tiger” companies found in today’s global supply chain.
The Quest for Perfection
Chua’s relentless parenting style demands no less than perfection. On her balanced scorecard, Chua tracks only two domains: Individual achievements (such as winning a piano concert, or achieving straight A’s) and disciplined respectful behavior. By those performance metrics, her children are superstars: musical virtuosos, “A” students, masters of foreign languages, etc.
It is good for a customer and suppliers to have demanding metrics in place that encourage the right behavior. Certain “Tiger” companies (Wal-Mart, Home Depot, McDonald’s, etc.) stipulate high execution (on-time, fill, compliance, etc.) from their suppliers. These companies know running low cost, high service supply chains demand perfection from all partners and that supplier unpredictability throws sand into their engine of efficiency.
While meeting these demands is initially challenging, successful suppliers should welcome these hurdles as both a way to improve internal operations and create barriers to entry versus other competing suppliers. As a side benefit, operational changes made to satisfy more demanding customers often carry over to less demanding customers.
For a new supplier, the transition to this new performance is rocky-demanding an extensive toolkit, robust processes, and new ways of thinking about and doing work. During this time suppliers should consider some of our Strategic Transformation tactics to achieve these desired results.
Tough Love
One area Chua is attacked by critics is her use of tough love with her children. If a child doesn’t meet expectations, the “Tiger” parent assumes it’s because the child didn’t work hard enough. Chua’s solution to substandard performance is to excoriate, punish and shame the child into higher performance. As examples:
- Chua rejecting poorly made birthday cards from her daughters and demanding new cards be made
- Chua threatening to burn all of one of her daughter’s stuffed animals unless she played a piece of music perfectly
- Chua calling her daughter “garbage” when she acted disrespectful
Widespread adoption of tough love sourcing tactics was one reason we proclaimed earlier that strategic sourcing is dead. It is difficult for suppliers to constructively invest in a relationship when “Tiger” companies:
- Threaten annual rebids despite stellar supplier performance and/or cost containment
- Demand year over year price concessions regardless of underlying commodity movements
- Refuse to do 360° business reviews where both parties are thoroughly evaluated
- Refuse to concede that some fault may lie internally as opposed to externally
- Constantly look to find supplier poor performance to build negotiation leverage
- Challenge paying a fair price for a high level of supply chain execution
An old proverb states “It is easier to lure with candy than with a sticks…” Tough love with suppliers is a dated approach that fosters a “fear-based” accommodation. It is at odds with developing a sustainable value-based partnership.
Individual vs. Group Performance
Critics also point out that Chua’s focus is on her child’s individual performance and she misses encouraging the “team” approach essential to success in business and in life. While individual achievements are commendable, our experience with High Performance Work Teams shows that team members with strong individual performance traits consistently make decisions that do not align with the best interests of the team.
Most people work in groups because groups are much more efficient at solving complex problems. During our training we typically have highly structured breakouts designed to amplify group and team dynamics. Inevitably we will have individuals who subscribe to “There is no “i” in team but there is in win” school of thought. These students will challenge our initial statement that the only solution lies with the group and ask to be placed on a team of one. They deliberately choose a path where they cannot win but believe they can perform better than the group.
Even worse, when placed in groups they will often withhold information to generate “the answer.” gained from other shared information. Obviously putting two or more of these individuals together leads to an information impasse in which the team fails.
Supply Chains need information and partner participation to work. These demand strong “team” competencies not individual excellence.
Summary
Chua is not a bad parent. She cares deeply about her children. She is willing to devote extraordinary amounts of time to ensure her children reach the high expectations demanded of them. Where there is a breakdown is Chua’s tough love tactics and her narrow focus on a set of performance metrics that don’t prepare her children for some of the real world challenges they will eventually face.
Today’s supply chains conditions are some of the toughest ever. But do tough conditions demand tough “tiger” tactics? Here are some questions for our readers
1) Culturally, is America slipping in terms of national expectations and achievements versus other more hungry “tiger” nations such as India and China?
2) Does customer tough love and high expectations generate better long term results?
3) Is Chua’s approach sustainable for a supply chain?