Results Count ... everything else is conversation.: “Everything is possible until it’s not.” Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

Creatures of habit get squashed by the steamroller called "change"

Why this is important: Many of traditional retailers are stuck in the ruts of what worked in the past. Instead of focusing on the "nots", retailers need more people specializing in the "impossible" and making it doable for consumers.

Ok, you are from South Africa visiting the US. The battery in your laptop computer dies and you are depending on it for a major convention of the year. You go to computer stores in search of a solution, but sorry … it will take a week or more. Amazingly, Amazon is no help either – not one selling partner has the battery in stock or can ship it in time. A search of the web reveals a regional "battery specialist" who can get the battery to your door in less than 24 hours. What everyone else said was impossible, someone made happen. Rules changed.

The collective negative power of the "n'ts"

Image Credit: Stuart Miles

As I travel around the world working with retailers, I continue to be amazed at how many sentences start with can't … "We can't do that here". Can't is typically followed and supported by an assertion of won't … It won't work." If really pressed, some will resort to didn't … "We tried that once, but it didn't work". And, the final coup de grace for many retailers today comes in the form of don't … "We don't have a budget for anything like that".

Of course, implicit in all of the "n'ts" is the word "NOT". Many of today's retailers see the world through the lens of what is not possible, based on their historical heritage of the past. For a bricks and mortar retailer who built their brand and differentiation on having the widest selection with hundreds of products in store, it is simply "not" possible for them to conceive of offering tens of thousands of products as online sellers do. The danger of starting with "nots" is that most are based on perceptions framed from past experience, and those perceptions are not aligning with what today's consumers deem possible … and now expected.

Habits are a good thing until the rules of the game change

To carve out a niche, bricks and mortar retailers specialized in many ways, and limited their focus. Traditional retailers focused on core segments. They specialized their marketing to attract their core customers. They fine-tuned and narrowed their assortments to appeal to their core customers. More recently, they have streamlined operations to improve in-stock availability of core products, while driving out costs.

All of those "habits" and business practices have helped traditional retailers compete in a product centric, store based world of retailing. Only one major problem with that…consumers changed their "habits" in terms of shopping behaviors. They don't just shop in stores. In fact they shop "any time and everywhere".

The consequences of these changed consumers was highly evident this past holiday season. Online ecommerce traffic and sales were up significantly, and most stores had flat or even declining sales. Far too often the traditional retailers' response regarding what needs to be changed, is a litany of what is not possible:

We can NOT compete with ecommerce on price
We can NOT compete with Amazon on all their services
We do NOT have the budget to hire more staff or more talented staff
We tried "training" and XYZ … and it does NOT work
Consumers are simply NOT loyal any more
We do NOT have the resources to become omni-channel
Our shareholders will NOT tolerate risk and will NOT invest in change

The only real show stopper in retail is NOT having customers in the store!

Yes, retailing is a very tough, competitive, low margin business these days. All of the "NOTs" listed above have some degree of truth from a traditional retail financial perspective. But, most of the parameters for bricks and mortar retailers are based on efficiency and profitability of operating product centric distribution to bricks and mortar stores.

The interesting paradox is that the retailers in real trouble are the ones most focused on "expense cutting" themselves to profitability. The retailers most focused on EBITA (earnings before the deduction of interest, taxes, and amortization) and net operating margins, are most likely to be the ones on the brink. The only real "NOT" that is a true show stopper for retailers is … NOT having consumers come to the store (whether it is virtual or physical). The tipping point for the future of retail is that it is no longer about selling products … it is all about serving consumers in ways that they return.

"It always seems impossible until it's done". Nelson Mandela

I started this post with a story about my South African friend visiting the US. It simply is not in his customer experience realm to imagine being able to get a battery for his laptop in 24 hours, let alone a week's time within Africa. It also seemed "impossible" in the US just a few years ago. Yet, is now not only possible for highly specialized items like a unique battery, but it is becoming expected that 24 hours is possible anywhere in the US.

Speaking of quotes on the "impossible", I love the Nelson Mandela quote. Here's a man who spent much of his life imprisoned by his country, yet was able to change the very essence of his country's vision and values by what he did through a life will lived. He is the epitome of not accepting the current vision of "impossible".

"What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible." Theodore Roethke

Image Credit: Tanatat

While he's a fictional "Captain" in the Star Trek series, I think that Jean-Luc Picard's famous line captures the current state of retail the best: "Everything is possible until it is not". We have written previously about the fact that traditional retailers are on the "defensive" … they are simply not innovating fast enough. Retailers simply need to start believing that everything is possible (until it's not).

What if retailers started by ignoring all of the "nots" and tested:

Hiring the best talent from the best restaurants for store floor Associates
Making the store "mobile" and taking it to the consumer vs. having them drive to it
Having retail Executives work on the sales floor as Associates 4 times a year
Not stocking any inventory in store, but having custom delivery to their home
Enabling consumers to shop by mobile app and then pick up at store checkout (wait a minute, I think Walmart has already dreamed up "Scan and Go")
Following a number of customers home to see how they actually use products

Ok, those are just some wild, big ideas that have been brainstormed by some retailers. Can you hear the finance people screaming out loud: NOT!!!

Theodore Roethke has perhaps the best quote regarding the "impossible". Like a Walt Disney, he simply asserts: "What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible". As more and more traditional retailers race to the bottom on price and cutting costs, I couldn't think of any better advice than to try something extraordinary. When a retailer focuses on cutting costs to the bone, and no longer differentiates to the point that consumers do NOT come, they have reached the final NOT of their existence.

Traditional retailers are in a desperate battle for their survival. What they need now is more creative people focused on making the impossible doable.

Personal Challenge of your Perceptions of what is "Impossible"

We are all creatures of habit and "boxed in" by our personal experiences that set boundaries of what we perceive to be possible, and impossible. Based on your past experiences of riding a bike, the following video will challenge your perceptions of what is possible by exceptional talent.