Written by Condon Associates on 29 March 2010

Recently the Australian Financial Review or AFR as it is commonly known ran a very interesting story about a publican who decided to purchase a pub on his own rather than in a consortium, which is commonly the case.

Upon taking ownership of the pub, the new owner made the changes he felt necessary to make it a success. The formula was simple – bring operations back to basics.

In doing this, not surprisingly, profits improved both radically and rapidly.

Over the past few years we have gone through a period of time where the underlying message has been value add and then bill accordingly.

It certainly seemed that everything was getting bigger and theoretically better, however it also cost a lot more. Remember the rapid growth of Starbucks across Australia? It felt like there was a mega-coffee store on every corner until they realised that bigger wasn’t working for them, and their operations in Australia were drastically pared back.

At the end of the day there are fundamentals that people want but they simply can’t find, so in the end they buy the only thing that is available to them.

Alas there was also the belief that if you wanted to combat such activities you had to take them on at their own game.

However this isn’t best practice and it isn’t meeting your customer head on. The evidence shows that you need to look at what people really want. Once you’ve worked this out, deliver it affordably, and you and your bottom line may be very surprised.

There are definitely advantages in being different.