B.O.A.O.T means Be Only Asked One Time!

Ask any of our Mondoro Staff what B.O.A.O.T means and they will immediately tell you it means Be Only Asked One Time. We pronounce it bo-a-ut. We use this device to teach an important principle that we introduced at our last annual meeting when we informed everyone that Mondoro was now a B.O.A.O.T company. Our associates are now expected to have to be only asked one time to do something and then to do it right. Further, they are expected to exercise self-responsibility and not need constant supervision to make sure their work is done.

We would like to believe that this principle of self-responsibility has been our goal and has been a part of our culture from the beginning. This is just another effort to “raise the bar” and serve our customers better. Ideally associates should only be told to do something once and then exercise self-responsibility to ensure it is accomplished correctly and completely.

It may surprise the reader that this simple concept is not widespread in Asian companies. The typical Asian way is to work under a boss who is more like a God than anything else, and whose management policy is to instill fear and obedience. The staffs are considered inferior subordinates and in some cases are treated almost as slaves. The typical meeting with an Asian boss will find the boss lecturing a staff who may only pretend to listen. Contributions or ideas from the staff are definitely not encouraged; since the boss considers himself fully qualified without any help from his inferiors.

This principle can also be seen in the school system where teachers will lecture to the students and rarely are the children encouraged to participate or to ask questions. Rote memorization is the way that most schools teach with the teacher giving a sentence and the children repeating it again and again. Self-thinking and self-responsibility is not generally the Asia way of education. Fortunately America and Western Europe gave up this system of education long ago. I think that few westerners realized how lucky they are to have been to have been educated in school system that generally encouraged self-thinking, self-responsibility and self respect.

It is for this reason that teaching these principles has been such a huge part of Mondoro’s focus and company culture. We encourage our associates to think and to take self-responsibility for their work. We encourage them be an active participant on our team. That is at the core of what the B.O.A.O.T principle is about—it is about Being Only Asked One Time, but it is also about taking responsibility for getting the job done and to personally follow through to see it is done correctly the first time.