July 27 2006
Clichéalert: this post contains businessclichés
I’vebeen in the midst of absolute ton of work at my job—most of it borne out of anorganizational strategic direction to create a new division and then dostrategic planning around how to scale the business 4X to take a division withrevenue that ends with an “M” and get to revenue in an amount that ends with a“B.” This begets projects—a ton of projects—most of them having to do with somefacet of creating a plan for the future. Planning … and more planning … and then validation of the planning andcommunication to revisit the early portion of the planning and before you knowit the raconteurs emerge and chaos ensues.
Whyis this? I suspect its because we viewthe planning process as some sort of magic potion to create the end resultwithout the benefit (or virtue) of going on the journey. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happensto you when you’re busy making other plans.”
I’vebeen through these exercises before on the client side and the services sideand the planning that I’m involved in now is better then most because it atleast breaks off actionable projects to move forward—the “start with the end inmind” kind of intent. But, it’s stillplanning to plan.
Thesestrategic exercises usually rely upon the Alice in Wonderland quote as theirunderpinning for justification: “If youdon’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Gottahave a roadmap, goes conventional wisdom.
But,I’m not so sure anymore.
Withthe velocity of change in our world, the compounding rate of information andthe majority of people simply reacting instead of thinking, I think this way ofthinking may be outdated.
Nobodyfollows a five-year plan anymore. Howcan you? Three-year plans might beirrelevant, too.
I’vebeen thinking about this because if I’m a winery, how do I grow mybusiness? It’s like trying to lay afoundation on quicksand.
AsI’ve been following Josh at Pinot Blogger and his excellent summaries of athree week Marketing Short Course at UC Davis and I’m realizing that he’s gothis hands full, as do his brethren.
Considerfor a moment:
1) Distributionis consolidating causing challenges in securing representation and retail space
2) Retailspace is scarce in an increasing world of SKU’s across every consumer category
3) Wineshipping is opening up with more states allowing direct shipping
4) Consumersare drinking more wine
5) Wineconsumers are getting younger and adopting wine as a product vis a vis alifestyle decision
6) Onlinewines sales, today, is where Amazon.com was nine years ago
7) Theamount of wineries and the amount of labels is increasing at a pace thatoutstrips the increase in consumption
And,all of this doesn’t take into consideration that your product is variable fromyear to year and subject to the whims of Mother Nature.
Cananybody blame a winery for hunkering down and doing things they way they’vealways done
them? Synthesizing thedynamics of all of this change on a macro-level is like trying to get a Mastersdegree without the benefit of having received a Bachelors degree.
Unfortunately,wineries have got to do it.
Maybefor wineries, the concept of Non Finito is the way to go. Heck, for all of us, maybe Non Finito is theway to go.
NonFinito means “unfinished.” Used inreference to works of sculpture by Donatello and Michelangelo, whose work, bornout of blocks of stone were unfinished in that the stones remained with figuresrising from the form were not fully realized human shapes, but rather halfshapes.
Academicresearch attributes Michelangelo for helping other artists see their art“outside of the box.”
BostonConsulting Group uses this idea as an application for organizational innovationand creativity, but it fits for wineries in progressiveness for their businessdevelopment.
“It’san attitude that consists of just being ready, since we no longer know how tomake forecasts. It is in opposition tothe sinister approach that says, “We don’t move so long as we don’t know wherewe are going.” Instead, non finitowould say, “Let’s in any case do what has to be done,” even if it can’t befinished. Non Finito is humility in theface of one sole certainty: we don’tknow what’s going to happen. Non Finitois the will to act while leaving the future open, the habit of writing inpencil rather than ink, of actively participating in a world that is becoming,without knowing what it’s going to become. In the end, non finito is respect for others and the liberty we grantthem to finish in their own way."
Forwineries, I think the lesson is that’s there no way to anticipate thefuture. I think many wineries focus oncreating a good product and then let circumstances dictate its success—a goodreview, surprising pull-through retail, half-baked technology implementationsfor the wine club. But, in fact, that’sthe exact opposite of how it should be. Create a good product AND make incremental progress towards the future.
AsAndy Dufresne says in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
There’sno way to wait for the future to arrive in order to make a good decision. Strategic planning doesn’t work because youdon’t know what you are planning for. You have to make iterative progress daily towards an unknown futurestate--harness the variables and concepts that you understand: shipping is relaxing, consumers are gettingyounger, retail slotting is uncertain and work is perpetually unfinished.
Asa passionate consumer, I want wineries to do this, to understand this, to notlet institutional inertia take root … to make energy in motion a constant fornot only their product, but their business.
Why?
Iwant to discover and drink their wine.
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