Ignorance and Want
Message from Mr. Russell Ellwanger—TowerJazz CEO & TPSCo Chairman
“This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom unless the writing be erased.“
— The Ghost of Christmas present answering Scrooge regarding the two hideous figures covered by his robe in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Why beware of Ignorance most?
Ignorance of purpose and weak understanding will most certainly lead to ‘wants’ and desires that are not aligned to the ‘shoulds’ of life. Large gaps in information, knowledge and understanding are routes to personal defeat. The greater one’s knowledge, when integrated into understanding, the better he or she can extrapolate and make sound decisions taking the past, present and future into consideration. Knowledge and understanding also provide the needed tools and capabilities to assess and implement necessary, continuous small corrections to the course of one’s life.
Aligning Want, Should and Is, and Looking in the Mirror
Neal A. Maxwell, a political science professor and theologian, aptly stated regarding our society, “Never have so many been schooled so much as to their rights, while at the same time being taught that there are no behavioral wrongs.” Self-actualization occurs when the individual’s wants strongly overlap with that which one should be doing, and is evidenced in everyday life behaviors. Often cycles of learning to attain self-actualization require input from a trusted and caring third party (a loving spouse or friend). The language of a person’s actions may differ vastly from his or her intent. A third party can hold up a mirror and help translate intentions into the appropriate behavioral language.
Vision (Purpose), Mission (Wants), Values (Shoulds), Performance (Is)
An enterprise enters “prime” when these same three spaces — “Want,” “Should” and “Is” — strongly overlap. When an enterprise proceeds without vision, or with a vision that is not aligned to a market need, or one that is incompatible with its actions, it is ignorant of its purpose and “doom” is written on its brow. It will fail. Once the purpose is defined and validated, the mission (wants) and values (shoulds) are established and promoted.
Customers are the best third party input of how well the enterprise has aligned the values (shoulds) with the mission (wants) into company performance (the “is”). The overlap must continually be checked and adjusted by regular customer feedback and honest introspection with the integrity and courage to make needed changes at all levels and in all activities.
We have realized strong growth at TowerJazz in all aspects of our business and financials. We believe this to be a good indicator of progress towards prime. Our present and future success is fully dependent upon your inputs and our ability to quickly address them. Based upon your inputs, we are cognizant of and taking actions in areas of needed improvement. We thank you for your partnership in having brought us to the position of the worldwide leading analog foundry. We are committed to continuous evaluations of our “want/should/is” state and to drive actions towards full overlap.
Sincerely,
Russell Ellwanger
CEO, TowerJazz
Chairman, TPSCo
