Is Mo' Betta'?

Every industry has a few metrics that it relies on to measure their business. In the cell phone industry it seems to be units sold, in the casino industry it is headcount and in the restaurant business it is covers. Are these the best metrics to use to determine success? It all depends.

Let's take the cell phone industry. I hear all these statistics that Android is catching the iPhone in u it's sold, how many units did Motorola sell, how many RIM products are out there. Many times what is easily to count is the judge of success. But what really matters is profit. How much of these sales is hitting the bottom line. The iPhone makes double the profit of Motorola and Samsung combined, while not selling any more phones. Samsung and Motorola sell low margin, cheap phones in a race to the bottom. Not only does this minimize the worth of the handsets in the industry as a whole, but doesn't make them as much money as Apple. I'll take Apple's mo' cause mo' money is betta'.

In the casino industry there is an obsession with head counts. How many players are on the slot machine at any given time. In this industry that metric has one major flaw. Every head is not worth the same amount. If this was Disneyland and everyone payed the same amount to get in, this would be a good metric, but when you count a player that is worth 10's of thousands of dollars the same as someone worth 10's of cents, mo' is not always betta'.

Restaurants are notorious for driving covers by giving food away. The obsession with covers can overcome the obsession with making money. It feels good when there are mo' people eating in the restaurant, but at what cost. In a past life I saw many coupon clippers fill my families restaurant never to return again. The point in sacrificing the margin to bring in customers to eat is that they enjoy the food and service so much, they will come back. If they don't come back, why continue to offer the coupons? It's not about the coupon trip, it is about the subsequent trips to the restaurant because they become loyal. If the coupons don't convert into loyal customers, stop driving covers and fix the issues. Sometimes becoming betta' can make you mo'.

Just a thought.