Goodwill.

Ask any entrepreneur or businessman worth his/her salt about the

concept of goodwill, and the response would most likely be that this is

essential in any business undertaking.  Accountants even put a

monetary value to goodwill.  Economists will consider it an

“economic” benefit (what can be said as a psychic income, as opposed to

only a financial one).

But some people just don’t get it.

To some, it’s always, always about the money.

Let me tell you about an experience I have with these entrepreneurs who

started up a pre-school and tutorial service a couple of years

ago.  Their business model seemed to revolve around the following

points:

1. getting as many students to enroll in their classes;


2. charging as high a tuition / tutorial fee as they could;


3. paying their teachers and employees as low as possible;


4. overworking their teachers and other employees–getting the most out of them in an unfair way; sulit in Filipino parlance;
   


5. mitigating, as much as possible, the fees paid to authorities for business licensing, taxes, and other permits;


6. Treating clients/parents in a biased manner.
   

Now the first and second point don’t jive, IMHO, especially when one considers quality of education.  Imagine cramming more than 20 pre-school

students in a classroom.  That’s toddler hell for both the teacher

and the students.  The quality of education (or even at least the

learning experience) takes a nose dive when you pass a certain

teacher-to-student ratio.  And yet they keep on welcoming, and

even pressing for additional enrolees, even right smack in the middle

of the school year, or even towards the end.

These guys should think about setting up additional classrooms and

hiring additional faculty.  But no.  They’d rather not.

All for money.

On to the third and fourth points.  Business

is business, I understand.  But the human resource factor in the

education industry is indispensable in ensuring the quality of

teaching.  I won’t dare send my children to schools that don’t

take this into consideration.  Overworked and underpaid teachers

will simply lose the drive and passion to provide an effective learning

environment–more so especially in the formative pre-school ages.

With the high tuition charged, it’s simply a mismatch.  I could

not imagine how a school that charges almost PhP 50,000 per year per

student could manage to pay its teachers only a couple of thousand

pesos above the minimum wage.  And without decent HR practices

such as a sound leave policy (no work, no pay), reasonable overtime

pay, among others, it’s simply disheartening.

All for money.

Fifth, rules are rules. 

While some rules are meant to be bent or even broken, I could not

understand why the establishment in question blatantly disregards some

essential considerations in setting up a business.  I don’t think

they pay the proper taxes if at all, or if they remit to the proper

authorities the funds amounting to tax witheld from employees. Talk

about setting a bad example.

All for money.

Sixth, bad P.R. is bad P.R. 

An entrepreneur in his/her right mind shouldn’t have to be biased

towards only the clients paying more money.  Good rapport

established with everyone (including those who could only afford to

avail the lower-end services/goods) goes a long way.  I could not

understand the logic behind treating children of well-off parents well,

while handling roughly the kids of those who don’t seem to be doing as

well.  It seems that these school owners only welcome children

whose parents they can squeeze the best buck off.

All for money.

Yes, these acts will ensure bug bucks in perhaps the first few years of

operation.  But this is unsustainable.  I won’t be surprised

if these guys close shop after a couple more years.  Once the

staffers get fed up with the insensitivities of their employers, and

once the parents learn of the bad service ensuing from this, and the

crappy mentality of the owners, money will stop flowing in.

Yes, business is business.  But I would treat a school

differently, especially a preschool.  I would look for an

environment that would best address the developmental needs of the

students.  A certain positive holistic aura brought about by

positive people is one sure way of attaining this.  And this has

to start from the top.

Tags: Business, Economics | Viewed 947 times