What ISO can learn from ‘A Message to Garcia’

You may or may not have heard of a piece of writing called: ‘A Message to Garcia.’

So just in case you haven’t, we thought we’d explain.  It’s actually an essay that was originally published in an American monthly periodical called The Philistine in March 1899. It was written and published by Elbert Hubbard under his, ‘The Roycrofters,’ publishing house.

The essay tells the dramatised story of a daring escapade performed by an American soldier, 1st Lt. Andrew Summers Rowan (April 23, 1857 – January 10, 1943), just before the start of the 1898 Spanish–American War. The essay describes Rowan carrying a message from President William McKinley to “Gen. Calixto García, a leader of the Cuban insurgents somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba—no one knew where.” The essay contrasts Rowan’s self-driven effort against “the imbecility of the average man—the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.” You can tell from the tone of the essay, that’s it’s now somewhat dated and possibly too strongly expressed in our modern day politically correct world.

But the overriding message within Hubbard’s essay is one highlighting the importance and value of individual initiative and conscientiousness in work – a message that is still highly relevant today.

As ISO9001 lead auditors and specialists it’s a subject we take very seriously at ISOAims.  The philosophy of ISO9001 is: ‘to meet and exceed customer expectation,’ and how can you meet and then exceed that expectation without a commitment to excellence?  In our view – quite simply you can’t.  Too many organisations are satisfied with ‘average,’ and as we know average is the best of the worst and the worst of the best.

What we do know is that one of the best ways to sort the, ‘wheat from the chaff,’ is to sift the average out leaving only excellence and you can do that by gaining certification to ISO9001.  We can help you do that with our expertise and our technology.

IF you would like a FREE white paper on What is ISO9001 AND a full copy of the Elbert Hubbard’s essay A Message to Garcia, just contact us here.