Speed, efficiency and time In the world of business, these concepts are inescapable. Customers demand faster and better service. Managers demand more from their employees in less time. But are speed and efficiency really what they want? As with anything, there are tradeoffs (权衡). More speed often brings higher costs. More efficiency often leads to less direct contact with customers. As the saying goes, "Be careful of what you ask for; you may get it." We spoke recently with a manager at a manufacturing company who had just finished a year-long ysis on how decreasing delivery time to their customers led to increased customer complaints. Over an 18-month period, they had successfully lowered the time shipments took to get to the customer. What the manager discovered, however, was that during those 18 months, employees and management were so concerned with time reduction that other issues fell by the wayside. In hindsight (后见之明),he now recognizes that they may have been able to accomplish both goals at the same time. As a result of their focus on delivery time, customer complaints rose by 35 percent and sales were off by 20 percent. He attributes much of that decrease to the one-goal focus. The company is now attempting to learn from its mistakes and to rebuild customer service while keeping distribution time at its current levels. Their experience teaches a lesson that many of us might keep in mind.