The Hindu Business Line : See opportunity where others don’t

Every success involves “placing opportunities in front of customers, offering value, and providing an enriching, entertaining experience,” says A. Alfred Taubman in Threshold Resistance ( www.landmarkonthenet.com).

Figuring out how to make things better, not just different, is the first step in any business plan, he explains. “You’ll always face resistance. In fact, the better your idea, the more some people will want you to fail. Believe in yourself, and you’re on your way.”

Taubman, a US real estate biggie, and Sotheby’s former chairman, is currently said to be looking for retail development and mall management opportunities in India. The memoir on hand is both about the best and the worst times, including the short stint he spent in jail as 50444-054 after being convicted in an international price fixing scandal.

One of the early jobs Taubman did was to sell shoes. He would take ‘an assortment of stylish women’s shoes’ from the local shoe store to the on-campus sorority houses and with the permission of the housemothers, display the shoes ‘on the stairway leading up to the girls’ rooms.’ After dinner, the girls would pass by his display, he would take orders, and they would pay for and pick up their new shoes at the store over the next few days.

“I would hand the girls a slip of paper designating the style and size of their shoes. I always guessed their size correctly, but the girls didn’t see the size on my order slip. I had devised a graph with the storeowner to create a code only we could decipher.”

Intriguing? “Believe me, nothing kills a sale faster than suggesting to a girl who wants to be a size six that she really is a size nine.” Decades later, at a Wharton conference, he would reminisce that ‘the best thing about being a shoe salesman was the view.’ Threshold resistance, according to Taubman, is “the physical and psychological barriers that stand between your shoppers and your merchandise. It’s the force that keeps your customer from opening your door and coming in over the threshold.” To overcome this resistance, you need to see opportunity where others don’t. Lack of capital is no barrier to entry if you have a good idea, assures the author.

Can the Internet be a barrier to malls? No, says Taubman. “Despite the popular perception, cyber sales are not getting an edge on brick-and-mortar business,” he observes. “The technical limitations of computer screens make it impossible to effectively communicate such important product characteristics as fit, colour, and feel,” Taubman reasons. “There are no fitting rooms or tailors in cyberspace… There are no tactile experiences in cyberspace; at least not yet.”

He foresees that the Internet retail revolution will occur when television viewers are able to order goods right off the screen during prime-time programming. “A blouse worn by one of the cast members of ‘Desperate Housewives’ catches your eye. You click on the character and up comes a description of the item along with ordering information. Your computer knows your size and your credit card number. You click and the blouse is on its way. Technology experts call this ‘convergence.’ I call it impulse buying!”

When technology catches up to allow on-the-fly impulses to travel on the Net, on-premises retailing may have to concede sacrifices, the author cautions. “But for now, when it comes to women’s sportswear, shoes, men’s dress slacks, and fancy wastebaskets, the strongest fashion statements are still being made in the best department and specialty stores.”

Reassuring and irresistible.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com