(Time to read this Blog is about 3 1/2 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “We often spend much of our day doing tasks that we enjoy, or find easy, so we have no time left over to do the important but more difficult leadership and management work that we’re actually paid to do.

   We retreat to the familiar and fun stuff.  It’s just human nature….but it’s a big mistake that needs fixing.”   
   …Donald Cooper.
    

2. Quick Biz Tip:  
   A simple and effective way to differentiate your business:    
    
   Every industry and every market is over-served and under-differentiated.  We all need to become the clear and compelling ‘wise choice’ for our target customers.  I’ve said this a thousand times…but it’s your most important reality…and your biggest challenge. 
    
   It’s sad to say but, perhaps, the best way to differentiate yourself is by always doing the right thing.  No games…no tricks…no lies.  No marking up to mark down, no ‘fake’ Sales, no bait and switch or deceptive sales practices, no sleazy short-cuts, no false advertising and, certainly, no outright lies.
    
   Just do the good, hard, honest work to become the clear and compelling ‘wise choice’ for your target customers.  Be a ‘straight shooter. Combine that with always being joyful.  Whatever you sell, people come to for that, plus ‘joy’.  Then communicate your clear and honest value in everything you do.
    
   If you’re really gutsy, you could coach your target customers on the deceptive practices in your industry and how to avoid those by doing business with you.
    
   What might ‘no games, no tricks, no lies’ look like in your business and how could it dramatically differentiate you?
    
3. Southwest Airlines drops key market differentiator. After 54 years, Southwest Airlines just announced that it’s ending its ‘free checked bag’ policy for most of its fare types.  This is the policy that clearly differentiated them from their competitors…and made them famous.
    
   Just last September, Southwest issued a statement that any change in its baggage policy would “drive down demand and far outweigh any revenue gains created by imposing and collecting bag fees.”
    
   It makes no sense to drop a value proposition that clearly differentiates you from your competitors.
    
4. Fun facts about water use.  
   1. New York City estimates that it loses 155 million gallons a day from leaks in aging pipes. The average water loss in North America towns and cities is 20-30% due to aging pipes and infrastructure. 
   2. The data centre that powers ChatGPT consumes 7 billion gallons of water a year to cool their computers.
   3. University of California researchers estimate that by 2027, AI facilities will consume as much as 1.7 trillion gallons of water a year, globally, for cooling. We hear lots about how much electricity AI facilities use…but not much about the amount of water. 
       
5. A shameless plug! If your company, Industry Association or local Chamber of Commerce has a Business Conference this year that will benefit from my world-class, bottom-line management and marketing insights and ‘straight talk’ delivery style, perhaps we should chat.  I’m booked up till the end of June, but have some availability in the 2^nd half of the year.
    
   I’ve delivered about 3,000 Conference Sessions in over 40 industries around the world…and I’m starting to get the hang of it.  I do the homework to customize, and I stay for the entire event because some of the most important value is always delivered off-stage in quiet and confidential conversations.  I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.

Now, to this week’s important topic:

The Hudson’s Bay Department stores are closing after 355 years …what’s the lesson here for your business?   

The Hudson’s Bay Company has been around since 1670.  They’re Canada’s oldest company. They started off cheating the Indians (First Nations) in the fur trade and, back in my manufacturing days at Cooper Canada, they were the sleaziest of the Canadian Department Stores to do business with. 

Then, several years ago, when I was a retailer, The Hudson’s Bay Company and their President were both charged with false advertising by the Canadian Government for fur coat ads in which the President personally lied to us about the ‘regular’ price of the coats.  When CTV sent a crew  to ‘The Bay’s’ Head Office to cover the story, their camera man was assaulted by ‘Security’.  Fun stuff!    

I predicted 3 years ago that they’d be bankrupt and gone by 2025…and here we are.  It looks like all 96 of their stores across Canada will soon close.  Twice over the last few years they had to sell off over $300 million in real estate assets to pay operating expenses, including drastically past-due invoices from suppliers.  When you have to sell assets to pay operating expenses, the handwriting is on the wall.  This past summer, they couldn’t afford to fix broken escalators or air conditioning.  More handwriting on the wall.

A few years ago it brought back the long-dead and irrelevant Zellers discount Brand.  Another desperate move, doomed to failure.  ‘The Bay’ also owns 3 high-end Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 ‘discount’ Saks OFF 5TH stores in Canada, which will also close.  When I walked through the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Toronto’s Sherway Gardens Mall last week there were zero customers, almost no staff and many empty display cases.  It was a ghost town. They had cut their store hours to 12 noon to 6 pm to save wages.  The rest of the Mall is open from 10 am to 9 pm.   It has been a commercial disaster since it opened several years ago. 

Simply put, The Hudson’s Bay Company stopped being relevant.  They stopped being the clear and compelling ‘wise choice’ for their target customers.  They’ve been irrelevant for years.  We all noticed it…but they didn’t.  

So, here’s the million-dollar questions for you and your business:   What are you doing to keep relevant and compelling for your target customers?  What needs rethinking and reinventing in your business?   What products, services or market positioning need fixing or replacing?  What systems and processes need fixing to deliver extraordinary customer experiences and world-class operating efficiency? How must your ethics and values change to do the right thing?  What mindsets, mediocrity, attitudes or arrogance need to change?  It says in scripture that ‘Pride goeth before a fall.’  But I think pride goeth before brushing your teeth and combing your hair before you leave the house.  It’s ‘arrogance’ that goeth before a fall.

An even tougher question is, is your business, your market or your industry simply not a financially and emotionally healthy place to be anymore?  Has it been made irrelevant and unprofitable by new and better business models that you refer to as ‘unfair competition’?  There are ‘seasons and cycles’.  That’s life!  There’s a time to start a business, a time to grow a business and a time to move on?  What ‘time’ is it in your industry or market?  Mediocrity is no longer an option.

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.