Q. How do you
determine whether a new
idea is working?
To me, it’s looking at how the
customer is behaving. Is (the
idea) getting a lot of traction?
We’ve got some good ideas
that haven’t worked. But we
keep at it for a while, and you
make that call when you’re not
getting traction with the customers, when you’re not getting the growth and you’re not
getting the buy-in.
Then, the economics aren’t
there if it isn’t working. You
are not getting a good return
on your investment. If you’re
investing a lot and you are not
getting the traction, that’s a
pretty good indicator that it’s
not going to work. We would
invest in things where you’re
not getting a short-term return
but you can see the traction
with the customer — then you
keep at it with the idea that
you will get future returns.
Obviously, if it’s screaming
right out of the gate, then it is
pretty easy. Or if you are getting very little traction from
customers, then it’s easier. It’s
the ones in the middle that are
hard.
Q. How do you decide
whether to stick with an idea if
it’s performing in the middle?
For example, we’ve moved
into beer. It wasn’t really totally profitable out of the gate.
We actually struggled at first,
but there was definitely continued demand from customers for the products.
Also, we were making
progress on making it more
efficient, a little step at a time.
We still have a ways to go, but
you can see the growth, the
acceptance from the customers, and there is very little
competition in that segment.
So we’ve gotten enough good
indication that we are continuing to work away at it.
Q. How do you communicate
your direction to employees?
I develop a strategy for the
year, and I keep going back to
the strategy we developed and
hit on the points of the strategy and update everyone on
where we’re going. Then, I
openly share the financials
with how we’re doing and
what the targets are and how
we’re going against that.
A few years ago, our strategy was we wanted to diversify revenue streams more. So,
at every company meeting, I
would get up and reiterate,
‘Here’s our diversification
strategy, this is how we’re
going to do it, and here’s how
we’re progressing against it.’
Then, you have to champion
people who are executing
against that — single out certain employees who are
exceeding expectations and
really driving toward the
strategy.
HOW TO REACH: Winery Exchange Inc., (877) 946-3793 or www.wineryexchange.com
