Farm Teams

A high school football team near where I live recently finished their regular season with a perfect record.

I am writing about this team not because of their noteworthy record, but because of what the long term coach has said all season in articles and interviews.  The coach consistently credits the players on the field.  You never hear about this coach crediting his preparation or play-calling.  Many of the players and community members credit the coach and his leadership of the team but the coach, in every interview, credits the players.

The coach also frequently mentions the lower levels.  The freshman and sophomore teams, the middle school and junior tackle teams that a lot of the current players grew up in.  In fact it is rare, the last couple of weeks, to read a story about this team without reading that the juniors and seniors on the team did not have a single win as freshmen.

A good farm team or feeder system is an almost indispensable ingredient of success in football or most sports.  But is just as valuable in business.

In the trades, an apprentice system has helped newcomers to learn the skills necessary to master their trade for centuries.  In office work, interns and trainees often fulfil a somewhat similar role.

But, unlike the local football coach, it doesn't seem as if most businesses appreciate the value in investing resources in those just starting out.  I don't think most businesses appreciate the lessons and value an early winless season can have if you have a system that focuses the players on the fundamentals and on what's important in the long run.

No high school team is judged by the record of their freshman team, just as no organization is judged by the number of sales that their trainees make.  That is probably why so many businesses, and sports teams, fail to invest time, energy and resources on those farm teams.

In an era when companies are looking from quarterly to quarterly earnings report and "what have you done for me lately" philosophies, it takes vision and leadership to make an investment in a farm team that won't pay off for maybe four years!

The Many P's of Marketing: Perfection

Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers.  It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school.  In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.

Perfection:  There are few things I enjoy more than a perfectly ripened peach.  It is firm yet juicy, sweet and tangy, an adventure to eat and simply delicious.  It is fruit nirvana!  The problem with peaches is that they are perfectly ripe for such a short period of time that is almost impossible to experience this state of perfection very often.

Despite this, farmers still grow, harvest and ship peaches.  Grocery stores still stock them and sell them.  And I still buy them, hoping for that rare occurrence of a perfect peach.

The point is the great peach infrastructure isn't letting the difficulty of delivering their best, get in the way of delivering good.  They do not throw in the towel because they know only rarely will a piece of fruit hit the table at the perfect time.  Instead, they work to get the peaches they sell as good as they can.  And then they sell them.  Voltaire stated this more simply in his poem La Bégueule or The Prude Woman:  "The best is the enemy of the good."

In marketing terms, this means that there is an opportunity cost to waiting for perfection.  An imperfect ad that is placed in the media always generates more sales than the "great idea" that is still on the drawing table.  A product that is in the market, being purchased, used and tested by consumers will outsell the product that never gets released because the designers or the engineers or the factory "just can't get it right."  You can read more about this in a blog I wrote last summer, titled "Don't Wait For Perfection" here.

We have all read countless articles and blogs about the late Steve Jobs' obsession with perfection.  I would argue that even Mr. Jobs realized that perfection is the enemy of the good.  Eventually, Apple released the iPhone, the Macbook, the iPad.  They put each item out on the market and learned how they could make it better and did.  If the iPhone had been perfect when it was first released, Best Buy would not be selling iPhone 4, 4S and 5 right now (with another version right around the corner!)

I am not saying that you shouldn't strive for perfection.  Every marketer should.  But like growing peaches, if you wait until you have perfection before you go to market, you are probably going to be too late!

Don't Wait For Perfection

"Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything."     Eugene Delacroix  (1798 - 1863)

I read an online article recently that advised that entrepreneurs and dreamers seeking to start a business shouldn't wait until they have everything worked out perfectly before they make things operational.  Better to get into the marketplace and test out your vision and theories in the real world, the article advised, than to tinker away in the ivory tower striving for theoretical perfection.

I guess I am doing just that with one project I am a part of.  I am working with a group of much more talented and much harder working people that are starting a community radio station. We certainly did not wait until we had things worked out to perfection, had the line up nailed down or even the entire venture completely imagined.  Instead, we started broadcasting and started talking about what we are trying to do with anyone and everyone who would listen.

The community support we have received and continue to receive has been nothing short of remarkable.  People want to see this happen.  I think that it is true that people tend to want to support what one mentor I had called BHAGs, Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  This is especially true if there is evidence of some amount of energy, effort and resources being devoted to the BHAG.

Also, when you road test a dream, when you drag it off of your sketch pad and into reality, interesting things start to happen.  Opportunities occur that you never would have been able to anticipate or plan for.  Bumps in the road, some good and some not so, help to start to shape the culture of your budding enterprise.  New people step up and a few step back.  Reality, when it meets dreams, can create some awesome and plan-altering fireworks!

One of the lessons I have taken from this venture so far is that it is worthwhile to roll up your sleeves, put your shoulder to the wheel and roll your dream into the marketplace.  While it is almost always scary, it is a also a great way to see how your plans and dreams stand up to the harsh spotlight of reality and the marketplace.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to listen to our station, we broadcast 24/7 on www.harvardradio.net or at AM1610 if you are in Harvard, IL.  Thanks for listening, even though things aren't yet perfect!