Heads Up!

Our English language is full of metaphors. When used appropriately a metaphor can be effective in making a point. What I find amusing is that some metaphors are based on completely false information. The widely used metaphor that comes to mind for this blog topic is of someone “hiding their head in the sand, like an ostrich.” It is used to refer to a person, business, group, organization that is foolishly avoiding facing up to the truth of a situation and not wanting to see the facts or pretending that something isn’t really happening.

Now an ostrich does a great number of things, but hiding its head in the sand isn’t one of them. Unfortunately many businesses do. In our blog post dated April 4th, I made reference to Eli’s Cheesecake in Chicago. Much to my surprise, we received a comment on this blog from Marc Schulman, President of The Eli’s Cheesecake Company thanking us for the compliment. I was impressed and feel we could learn a lesson from Mr. Schulman. I am sure he is a busy man, yet he is obviously taking time to scout cyberspace looking for what people are saying about his company and their product.

I have worked with companies in the past that have made major strategic decisions based upon what they think the perception of their products are in their marketplace, without doing the roll-up-your-sleeves work of finding out if what the company thinks is true, is really true. Over time, a disconnect can occur between corporate beliefs about a product and the market’s belief. And guess what? It is what the MARKET believes your product to be, that you really are.

Staying in touch with what customers, cyberspace, suppliers and media have to say about your product is vital. Major strategic decisions should not be made in isolation without knowing what those who use your product believe.

If your organization needs help in gaining a unique perspective on your business, give us a call! At the very least, take lesson from Mr. Schulman on keeping your head out of the sand!