Steam On Through to Success

According to fable, when Robert Fulton first demonstrated his steamboat, a man standing on the banks kept yelling loudly, “He won’t be able to start ’er.” Then as the steamboat did move with increasing certainty, the heckler stood silent, a shocked look on his face. Moments later, though, he yelled again. “He won’t be able to stop ’er.”
     This anecdote came to my mind as I was going over notes about retailer profitability initiatives I’ve been implementing. In collaboration with merchants in a specific neighborhood, the Small Business Development Center serving that area, and a grant maker, I coordinate initiatives based on my “Profitability Tactics for Small Retailers.”
     Producing the best results from these projects involves more than training and consulting. Direction comes from focus groups, surveys, and other assessments of the retailing neighborhood’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities.
     Often, what makes the difference between a successful initiative and a less successful one is the ability of the neighboring retailers to collaborate. And it takes no more than one heckler to hijack the collaboration. The heckler asks perfectly reasonable questions about the profitability tactics, questions which stimulate thinking by the others. So far, quite good.
     But then there is no end to the probes and the doubts. Soon, the heckler is not moving the discussion forward, but instead freezing it in place. A voice of caution becomes a force of obstruction.
     When this happens, the organizational dynamics don’t stop there. Merchants are, after all, action-oriented. In the retailer profitability initiatives I’m coordinating, I’ve seen how others in the group meetings react to the heckler’s obstructionism by lurching forward prematurely, pushing for action without full consideration of what the retailers will be getting themselves into.
     Early versions of Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston’s steamboat did have difficulty progressing up the river because the designers had not sufficiently accounted for resistance from the water. During an August 8, 1803 trial, the boat sank. Even at its best four years later in New York State, steamboat travel was deliberate, but slow.
     In your own retailer profitability initiatives involving collaboration among merchants or among your own store’s team members, steam on through to success. Think deliberatively.
     Also keep in mind that if you waste enough time looking in unnecessary detail, you can always find something to complain about. You won’t be able to start ’er or stop ’er in highly profitable ways.

Click below for more:
Be Creative, But Only Sometimes
Hobnob with Your Neighborhood Retailers
Form Retailer Groups for Practices Recognition