What Do the Simple Folk Do?

I live in the corporate world. We are a mighty and sophisticated lot, us corporate types. All the world's knowledge is at our fingertips. The engines of the economy roar at our command. We are omniscient.

That's why we constantly have new management fads and team building retreats to teach us how to "team up with the customer to create a synergistic, win-win scenario for lasting business growth." And lots of other assorted gibberish.

A scientist by training and a marketer by a series of career opportunites, I have decided to step out of my ivory tower, or perhaps ivory cubicle, and interview some local business owners to see how they handled things. Here are the first of my interviews.

Business Marketing Interview - Upholstery
Business Marketing Interview - Guitar Store
Business Marketing Interview - Tropical Fish Store
Business Marketing Interview - Florist

At my firm, we are very good at what we do, arguably the best in the world. We are not sophisticated marketers or business people. These four had been at their craft for years and had continually refined their strategies based on experience. When we do this as an organization, we invariably use some pre-packaged solution, such as Balanced Scorecard or Lean Six Sigma. Much of our time is spent learning the tool rather than honing our craft as managers and marketers.

For omniscient people, we've got a lot to learn.

Technorati tags: business / marketing / profit / retail / management