Be Careful Following the Practices of Others

There is an old story of a foreman who worked for a local factory in a small town. Since he only lived a few blocks away from the factory, he would walk to work. Each day as he would head to his job, he would pass the local jewelry store, and as he did, he would stop and set his pocket watch to the time on the big clock in the store window. He would then use his pocket watch to blow the factory whistle at 12 noon to signify the beginning of the lunch hour at the factory. One day, he was walking home from work and the owner of the jewelry story stopped and asked him why he would pause each morning and look in the front window of his jewelry store? The foreman replied, “I always set my pocket watch by your clock in the front window, so I will blow the factory lunch whistle on time. The jewelry store owner replied, “That’s interesting, because I set that clock by your lunch whistle I hear at 12 noon.” The two men looked at each other and laughed.

Following the Lead of Others
How many times have you, as a business owner, manager, or employee done a similar thing? What I am talking about is where you copied one of the practices of a competitor just because they were doing it. You didn’t know if it was working or not, but you thought because they used it, that it must be the right thing for you to do too.

Think for Yourself
Just because someone else is doing something, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. It might be right for them, but it may or may not be for you. What is important to remember here is that you need to think for yourself. You need to decide what ideas are the best ones for you or your company to implement? One of the best ways to do this is to try the idea out for thirty days and re-evaluate the results. At that point, you can see for yourself if it works for you.

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Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He helps companies and organization become more profitable by increasing their value and lowering their costs through the professional development of their managers and employees.