When to stop, and when to go

In business, you’re never guaranteed to succeed. It take hard work and hard decisions go truly get ahead. I’m no economics or MBA, but I get the basic concepts. You need to know when to stop doing what is not helping, or even hurting you, even if doing so upsets a couple of your clients. Every little (and big) thing you do will please a portion of your customers. One of the big problems with this idea is that if you decide not to carry that “product” anymore, you will upset part of your customer base.

The key to this is that if you are good enough all around, if the core of what you do is good enough, that in the big scheme of things, it won’t matter. Trader Joe’s is a good example. I don’t fully understand their way of managing product count or what they decide to stock, but I know what they carry changes to suit what they want to do. A good example are their Cinnamon Raisin Cookies. We used to go through a package of those in like 3-4 days at my office. They all of a sudden stopped carrying them. Did that keep us from going to TJ’s? Not at all. We shifted OUR purchasing habits to accommodate THEM.

We appreciate the quality of the product they carry. It’s a rare occasion that I (and many of my co-workers) dislike something they sell. They have great pricing for the items they sell, more likely than not better than your local Shaw’s or Stop & Shop. And to top it off, it’s many times organic or more healthy than the stuff you get at the other chain places.

My whole thought on this post started from this article about Australia and New Zealand Banking. The CEO and Director John McFarlane had an interview with Alan Kohler of Inside Business about their decision to pull out of Asia, and their subsequent renewal of business in that market. To summarize, they found that their actions in that market cost them more than they were willing to invest at the time, so they removed themselves from a market that was hurting them. Later, the market was found to be much more worth their time and investments, so they moved back into it. Sounds like good decision making to me.

Retreat when it makes sense, and forge ahead when it seems like a good idea. Your customers will let you know when it’s a good time to try something new. Maybe we should be truly customer-centric and really pay attention to what it is they’re really interested in, and what we can do to help them out. In the long run, yes, it can either make us a huge profit, or it can destroy us. But honestly, who can truly tell? ANZ went into Asia the first time thinking it was a great idea. Unfortunately, it was much too early. They realized it, and decided to pull back until it was something they (and their customers) were really ready for.