Pet Product News Editorial Blog:
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Dangerous Assumptions
By Sherri Collins
Editor, Pet Product News International
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Never assume anything, the old adage goes, as it may make a, um, backside of you and me (the word even breaks down that way). While it may be good advice, it isn’t really very realistic. People make assumptions every day about most things. According to Webster’s, an assumption is anything taken for granted, a supposition. The true danger in assuming is taking something for granted that actually isn’t.
According to Peter Sheahan, a successful entrepreneur, best-selling author and keynote speaker whom I had the pleasure of listening to at the recent PIDA conference in Indian Wells, Calif., where many businesspeople go wrong is in holding the wrong assumptions. By assuming the status quo is, well, the current status, you are prevented from clearly seeing what is happening now. Indicators of change, whether large or small, are ignored so that when a major change does occur, many are blindsided by it. Change doesn’t happen overnight, as Sheahan pointed out, it is an ongoing process and in that process, there lies vast opportunities for businesspeople of all stripes.
As an example, take a look at the ever-increasing onslaught of social media venues. There are those in the pet world who assume the industry lacks sophistication, that the current way of doing business is fine for now. Perhaps for some, but consider this: your customers (especially the 30 and under crowd) are not unsophisticated. They’re tweeting and posting profiles on Facebook and are, for the most part, wired to the Internet 24/7.
With the need to gain more enthusiasts and hobbyists in various marketplaces (such as aquatics), it behooves industry participants to “flip their assumptions” and catch the wave now before it ends up wiping them out.
Change and innovation go hand and hand, and as Sheahan illustrated during his keynote presentation, innovation doesn’t always mean a new product; it is a new way or method of doing something, which leads us right back to social media. Do you do promotions and marketing the same way as your competitors? Do you interact with your customers in-store only? Do you have a negligible presence online? If you answered yes, then you may need to flip your assumptions. Get ahead of the pack by doing one, two or three things differently and better than everyone else does. By doing so, you can help secure your place in the future now.
Click here for more of Peter Sheahan’s excellent insights.
« All Editorial Blogs
Give us your opinion on
Dangerous Assumptions
Industry Professional Site: Comments from non-industry professionals will be removed.