Regular readers will remember my recent post on the non-existent silver bullet, addressing society’s blind faith in simplistic solutions. (And in the charlatan purveyors of those misconceptions.) I am constantly exploring the notion of success, and what it takes to be successful. Those posts above link to the challenges of success and focus on what it is not. I have been searching for an analogy to explain in a simple way what success is and how complicated it is to achieve success that is
true and relevant to all types of retailers, and I realised the traditional periodic table is a good starting point.
Most of us will have been exposed to the periodic table of chemical elements in school. The accompanying image will remind you of what it looked like.
All things known to man are contained in the periodic table. In fact you and I are not much more than buckets of chemical soup.
The latte you had this morning is just chemicals, the computer screen you are looking at right now is comprised of the elements reflected in that periodic table.
Let’s say you want to make a milkshake, it would be (hypothetically) comprised of elements 1, 2, and 3. The same ingredients can be turned into a thickshake, and of course it can be offered in dozens of sizes and dozens of containers. And with the addition of element 4 (a flavour element) you can now create another dozen varieties of the same thing.
With just a few elements, you can literally create hundreds of variations of the same thing.
Achieving success in your retail business is very similar to the mad scientist mixing together elements to create that new milkshake.
The ingredients are known to all, but we all know that not all milkshakes are created equal. And the same goes for you and your business: There are no secrets.
But this is what you should know -there are a number of different elements to consider. In fact, on this table you must consider all of them.
It is the same for everybody in retail, whether you sell shoes or kebabs.
What you have to do is to mix those same elements (that everyone has access to) in such a way that you create a milkshake that everyone wants.
It helps to know how people like their milkshakes, what they are prepared to pay for one and then to deliver that consistently, and that is no secret.
Have fun
Dennis
Ganador: Trainers to the stars
