My company is different!

There is a common belief among business people that their company is different, unique, and what concerns other business people is not relevant to them. Sometimes to the point where they reject all the possible sources of the problem given by the people from the outside.

Let’s see how much two companies differ in terms of selected processes and possible problems arising in them.

As can be seen above, when it comes to diagnostics, both companies don’t differ that much from one another, if at all.

It is strange and surprising that the same business people who believe so much in how unique and one of a kind their business is, plenty of times pretty much copy the actions of their competition without knowing the results of such decisions. I hear that a lot: „Let’s do it the way they have it, it does work for them, that is how they do it” Oh the irony!

Let’s now take a look at two cafeterias, as we have seen above they’re pretty much identical in terms of the processes occurring there. But are the process influencing factors themselves identical too?

Can the menu in both cafeterias be the same? It could, but will it result in similar profitability? No! The menu should differ, at least because of the caloric needs, a white-collar worker requires meals with fewer calories than when it comes to blue-collar workers, and then there is also the ethnic structure and accessibility of the cafeteria to the people on the outside. These are the factors that should mostly influence the choice of dishes for our menu, and not what the competitors, whose macro-environment is entirely different, have to offer.

As can be seen above, the differences are enormous. What will work out in the cafeteria no. 1, may have no place in the cafeteria no. 2.

Can we copy the competitors’ solutions as we please in such case and expect them to work out for us as well? – No

Can we assume that our financial problems can have their roots in lousy stock management, as was suggested, devised for a different industry? – Yes

Our companies differ, each of them is different, but just like they are different they are also alike.

What can companies in the Hospitality industry learn from a manufacturing company? More on that in the next post.