Lesson on the Golf Course

I went golfing the other day and got paired up with a guy named Henry. During the course of the afternoon, I came to find out Henry is a very successful business man who spent part of his career in insurance and now owns more than a dozen hotels in ‘retirement’. To me, retirement means nothing but golf and sitting on the beach, so I’m not sure Henry is ‘retired’, but anyhow. He shared an interesting story with me.  He was having lunch with another very prominent business man, which if I wrote his name 80% of you would recognize. Henry asked him, “What is the key to your success?” This man considered the question for only a brief moment and said, “Oh it’s very simple”. “If a job is worth doing, then I hire someone to do it, if it’s not worth doing, then I don’t do it at all.” I was struck by how profound and simple that was. He had created a simple method for deciding how to focus his energy where it counts the most and avoid becoming entangled in the day to day details. I was thinking about this in relation to our business and was struck by the fact that many vendors that come to us for EDI 852 and POS reporting, are only doing so because their buyer told them they needed to, or because an executive at their company thought it might be a good idea. They are not committed to analyzing and using the data to improve their business. On the other hand, we have vendors who dig into the details of the data every week and find out of stock issues and sales opportunities. They are making the most of the data and the results show in their growth and inventory GMROI. So, the bottom line is this; if you are considering EDI 852 / POS data analysis, don’t stick your toe into the water, jump in all the way and make the most of the data, and your business will improve.