2 posts tagged “movies”
Yesterday I posted about how important it is to spend your time and effort on worthy targets. Speaking of shooting at targets and hitting them, check out this amazing video:
Fastest and most accurate gun in the west
Today I am going to go on a bit of a rant about selling to customers. Why in the world do companies make it so difficult to sell things?
Did you ever see the movie, Zulu Dawn? No, not Zulu, which is also an excellent movie staring Michael Caine, but Zulu Dawn.
The movie showcases the Battle of Isandlwana, which was the last battle in which native forces defeated a much more advanced army, in this case the British Army...sorry David Power, renown hypnotist. I am not going to discuss the battle in detail.
In the movie the British base camp was attacked by a far larger force of Zulus. The Brits formed a laager, which is basically a circle, and used their superior firepower and weaponry to hold off the Zulu forces. The Zulus would charge forward and the British would mow them down.
Eventually the English front line started to run low on ammunition (there is that word again) and sent back runners to get more. What happened when they arrived at the supply wagons? It's a classic mistake that cost the British their army and often costs businesses profits.
The supply wagons refused to issue the ammunition for several reasons. One, the system wasn't set up to handle the volume needed. They couldn't get the ammo out of the boxes fast enough to meet customer needs. Secondly, the runners did not have the proper forms to requisition the ammunition. The supply personnel were interested in accounting for every round and therefore held up issuing the ammunition until it could be accounted for. Thirdly, the people involved in issuing supplies did not like having to supply the native troops. They were more concerned about keeping them in their place then in meeting the immediate needs. They failed for all these reasons.
We see something similar in business everyday. Businesses often make it hard for people to buy from them. Counterintuative? You bet. But it happens because people involved in the business lose sight of the goal, which is to sell products. Without a sale nothing happens. Sales is everything. Everything else is a cost. Managing costs and tracking inventory is important, but you, and your employees, never should lose sight of the prime objective...selling products at a profit.
Now go out and sell something.
Like a lot of people, I love movies. I always have. Movies can teach, enlighten and entertain. I always find them a fascinating glimpse into the current culture. For instance, did you know that movie genres reflect patterns in the stock market? They do. Let's look at horror movies.
Horror movies were extremely popular during the period 1930-1933, the darkest period of the Great Depression. Five classic horror movies were produced in that short three year period, Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Mummy and King Kong. It was as if the movies reflected the dark mood of the times. Coincidently, Hitler came to power in 1933. Horror films enjoyed a bull market for a period of thirteen years, until just after 1942, when the bull market resumed in stocks.
With the bull market beginning in 1942 the theme's in popular and successful movies shifted to patriotic films, love stories and, in the 1950's, to Science Fiction. James Bond was popular in the early 1960's. In the late 1960's, with the cynicism and loss of faith in the United States that came from the Vietnam War fiasco horror movies made a comeback, with such classics as The Night of The Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the early 1970's. Like with anything you can read a lot of information into this data, but it seems natural that our art and culture would reflect our mood.
The observation made above has nothing to do with what I learned from the movie, "The Wizard of Oz". The Wizard of Oz taught me the limited value of credentials. Take the Scarecrow for instance. He wanted a brain. In actuality he already had one and didn't realize it. The wizard tells Scarecrow, "What you haven't got my boy is a piece of paper!" How many of us are stopped from achieving something because we lack some sort of credential or diploma telling me we can't do something? My guess is that all of us are included in that list.
I remind myself of this whenever I find myself stopping because I don't think I know enough about whatever I am about to do. Think about it. We are taught in schools that we should rely on experts before we do anything. We are told this of course by teachers who have credentials themselves. I don't know about you but I have learned more things that were useful and of value from people who were actually out in the arena, doing something and taking action then I ever did from credentialed teachers in school. It's like learning about entrepreneurship from the government, not a wise move.
The Wizard of Oz taught me to take risks and to rely on my own wisdom and understanding. Later, I'll tell you what I learned from the Cowardly Lion and Tin Man.
