In Carol’s recent post on entrepreneur.com, “Why Billionaires Focus on the Smallest Details,” she shares two stories that illustrate why it isn’t only the big things that matter. Sometimes big outcomes can come from the smallest changes. Carol begins:
“Several years back, I attended a business meeting with the former CEO of Coca-Cola, Henry Schimberg, who told me a story that illustrates how a minor tweak to thinking can have a very big impact on business. Henry is a highly engaging story teller, so I will do my best to do his business parable justice.
Back when he was with Coca-Cola, Henry was presented samples of new packaging for one of the company’s very important beverage products. The presentation was given by a project team in a very sleek, all-white room.
The packaging, as presented, looked modern and gorgeous.
The project team felt they had delivered a winning design. Most of the attendees in the room were suitably impressed, as well.
However, Henry broke up the self-congratulations by asking one simple question: “How does the package look on the shelf?”
On the shelf? The team didn’t understand.
Henry explained that the Company’s products were not sold in gorgeous, stark white rooms, but rather on crowded store shelves. What the package looked like in the environment where the customer was actually going to buy the product was absolutely critical to its success.”
You can read the rest of the post here.
