A new for something completely different: a crash course in Strategic Management.

I always wondered how certain companies stay in business. Everyone knows the little restaurant of shop in the middle of your town and every time you pass by, there isn’t a single customer. How do they survive? How do they pay their rent? How can they afford the BMW, whereas I and my girlfriend both work full-time and even I can’t afford me one? (This is not completely true, but you know what I mean). Well, thanks to my forth-coming degree in Commercial Sciences, I now know: They don’t. If you have a look at the statistics, there are indeed a lot of businesses that don’t survive, simply because the people who started them don’t have a clue about continuity and rentability. (Ok, I was planning to tell you about my new glasses, but one way or the other my story and mind always wanders off …)

Most of those business owners have a good idea, manage to realize this idea and are able to sell it, thus making a profit. After a couple of years, they’ve become quite profitable and then they get greedy and put all their earned money in the newest Porsche or a mansion. And everyone is happy. Well, not really, you can’t run a business on 1 idea or 1 product (well, honestly, a happy few can) and when the time comes to differentiate themselves, to keep the competition of their back, the money is gone and it’s too late.

So, stop, rewind, record, bottom line of my story : a business needs to differentiate themselves for their customers and according the some much smarter people than me (Porter, Tracey and Wiersema, …) you can excel by using some generic strategies and one of them is customer intimacy and the optician, where I bought my glasses obviously never heard of it.

Like every well-bred male, I hate making expenses for my appearance (Do you have any idea how much a good pair of shoes costs and I agree my present pair is ugly and worn, but they are still functional)/ My girlfriend has been bugging me about buying myself a new pair of glasses, since my (nowadays) old ones have been missing in alphabetic order: a bolt, some paint, a nose part and style. Why would I need to spend money on a new pair of glasses, if they are still functional and most of the times I wear contact lenses. So, the answer is no.

After 3 months of nagging, my mother pushed the right buttons to persuade me: if you buy a new pair of glasses, I’ll pay half of it. Right… So major irritated for having lost the battle against my 2 women, I drove to the closed shop to purchase myself some glasses.

First shop was bummer, the shop intendant didn’t even blink an eye to help us, although he was able to help the other customer, who incidentally spoke the same language as he did (Belgium has 2 main communities: French and Dutch speaking and they don’t get along very well) and the prices were …. high. So me even more pissed, I got in my car again and was on my way home, never planning to enter a shop again in life (which is indeed one of my life long dreams, besides the Aston, the yacht and a billion or 2)

But because you want to be a good boyfriend, I made the ultimate sacrifice, stopped in the neighboring village, entered a shop, choose myself a pair of glasses and went home (this took me about 5 minutes). My girlfriend was overjoyed and I was pleased the nagging would stop. (Guess again).

Three days later I called the shop and asked them if my glasses were ready. Yes, sir, they are ready and you can pick them up today. It seemed the shop that day was only open till 6’o clock instead of 7’o clock, so I told him I was determined to pick them up today and being 5’o clock at the time, I left work (too early, which I had to make up on Friday) and drove like a mad-man to the shop. Arrived at the shop, it was already closed, although it was only a quarter before 6.

Ok, that you have to close early I can understand, but that the shopkeeper didn’t even called me to inform me about this and thus saving both some times and a lot of frustration, is unforgivable.

So, Friday I had to work late to compensate for my missing hours (for nothing) and yesterday I and my girlfriend went to the shop to collect my glasses and had a little talk with the shopkeeper about me standing for a closed door on Thursday. He said sorry, and that’s about it. No explanation, no reductions, no good will, nothing. I must say I’m quite happy with the glasses now, but that’s about the last time I entered his store and If you come to think about it, there are a lot of businesses who don’t have clue on how to serve their customer, no customer intimacy at all.

Furthermore, I can say the last 2 days have been the most eventful ones in my life, but it’s too early to tell about it. But do keep an eye on this blog.