Anyone who is familiar with Macintosh Computers has probably heard of Guy Kawasaki. He has written a ton on the subject of technology as well as business, and is one of Apple's biggest fans! What I've found interesting was his recent blog "The Art of Projections in a Dotcom 2.0 World".
While the blog posting deals specifically with dotcoms, the business logic I believe works beyond the virtual world. I consider myself an unconventional businessman, especially in the Christian retailing world. Guy's blog, especially in dealing with 12 month forecasting instead of 60 month, is groundbreaking. The CBA Industry is in turmoil, yet it feels like people are not wanting to move or change because the forecast they did 4 years ago is still strong...the mere idea that we should reforcast every 3 months is unheard of... I recently asked someone in the industry how they were able to accurately compute Cost of Goods Sold since oftentimes our CGS differs from day to day. This person's response was: "We don't do it accurately. We've found that the stores that try to spend too much money caring about details that don't matter." What kind of utopian/dreamworld society do we live in where CGS doesn't matter? What's next, money growing on trees?
The CBA industry may be small, especially when compared to the "Big Box" stores we compete with. It's my forecast that unless our industry starts thinking beyond the survival mode they have suffered through in recent years and figure out how to adapt to the current world, we will lose what little relevance we have now.
I understand the need for Pastors in the industry, and I'm glad they are there. We need the spiritual leadership. However, if we don't get more grounded, business people in our industry, we have no hope of relevancy.
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