Quality vs Quantity
It is a common management practice to try to solve many problems with quantity, with increased volume. This is as true for nonprofit organizations as it is for businesses. If a retail business is short on profits, the proprietor adds items or does advertising to bring in more traffic. If a hospital is having budget shortfalls, resources are shifted to attract more patients. If attendance is down at a community theater, management increases the number of events or plays in hopes of building attendance. If tax revenues are less than expenses in a town or county, the officials seek ways to expand the taxpayer list. Unfortunately, perhaps, this simple, more-is-better approach often does not work. The reason why it doesn't is straightforward: Merely piling more people onto an organization with performance problems typically dilutes the quality of what was being offered in the first place. And quality has become a major deciding factor to customers in our competitive world.
"It is quality rather than quantity that matters," said the Spanish philosopher Seneca in A.D. 65. So the notion has been around awhile. Let's test the validity of the idea. How important is quality to you? Many of us vigorously pursue quality in our food, vehicles, clothing, friendships, and everyday lives. For example, we sometimes purchase brand-name merchandise because we perceive it has superior quality. Enterprises short on quality increasingly encounter trouble attracting and holding customers if there are viable alternatives for the potential customers.
Think of retail stores you have seen come and go. Many of those that have gone disappeared in what I call the retail death spiral. It goes like this. First, a retailer is disappointed with his or her profitability. A decision is made to seek more customers to solve the problem. This is the start of the downward spiral. Given the decision to increase volume, money is spent on SALE signs, advertising, etc. to attract folks to the store. In they come, looking for a deal. Typically, the new recruits prefer the lower-priced goods and sale items, so this is what they buy. Now, the second loop in the spiral, the retailer adds more inventory of the lower-priced items that are selling. Precious money is spent to beef up the supply on hand, often diluting the presence of the higher-quality items traditionally carried in the store. Third, the traffic volume in the store, while higher, levels out. But the people who are now coming spend less per sales transaction than the original customers. Fourth, the retailer sells more units per month but has even less profit than before because the units carry lower margins. Of equal importance, he or she now has a store that has spiraled downward in terms of the quality it projects in the marketplace. It has downgraded itself.
The same thing happens in restaurants. A frustrated owner adds a few lower-priced items to the menu to increase the flow of customers. They come, fill the restaurant to the brim, order the less expensive fareand drive the regulars away. "Too crowded," they complain. At the end of the spiral the restaurateur is working harder and making less.
This more-is-better mentality can be infectious, even in the clean air of the San Juan Islands here at the edge of the continent. How often do we hear pleas for larger ferries, more ferries, increased promotion and expanded events to attract tourists, and so on. This one-size-fits-all solution, i.e., build volume, is dangerous. Our county of islands is distinctive. It is not common. We need to work to keep it singular and avoid the creeping commercial degradation that has overcome other once-special places each of us can recall. To the extent that we degrade the items on our rural-area's menu, we harm our cultural and economic future. Constant vigilance is required. Across our islands our goal should be to have absolutely the highest quality community theater, whale appreciation, July 4th parade, art, County Fair, medical services, animal protection organizations, writing, senior life, land trust operations, marinas, music, eateries, stores, and so on, not to mention schools, road departments, and law enforcement practices. There is no small task.
Why do we sometimes get bamboozled into believing more is better, that quantity will solve anything? Because it is the path of least resistance. Unlike the work of enhancing quality, chasing quantity requires very little thinking or imagination. Promotion is a relatively easy task. Beat the drum, lower the price, wave some banners, and the masses come running. The result? We attract a bunch of one-timers (to our County, theaters, celebrations, restaurants, stores, etc.) who will not come again unless they are artificially re-promoted into doing so.
What is the alternative? It is to aim for steady, repeat customers who come back time and time again of their own accord because they find something here out of the ordinary, something inherently attractive, something of quality they can't find elsewhere. San Juan County has many intrinsic characteristics that appeal to the discerning mind-scenery, weather, whales, undulating roads, small towns, local arts and crafts, friendly people, and potentially peak experiences associated with boating, kayaking, hiking, biking, and fishing. Discerning people are the ones we want. Class, not mass. We live in a special place. Capacity is limited, and no matter what we do, capacity is not going to increase. As Mark Twain put it: "They've stopped making land, but they're still making people." It is in everyone's interest to work together to fill the available slots with people from the quality end of the spectrum.
Elitism? Of course, in the finest sense of this word that implies the best of the best. In our world there are elite military units, mountain peaks, tennis players, artists, and symphony orchestras. This County is an elite natural place, and we are part of the scene. There is absolutely no way we-the San Juan Islands-can be all things to all people. We don't have the resources, including space, to do so. We can strive to be a few things to a few people, however, based on what we have with which to work. This requires selectivity on our part. It's called segmenting the market in business parlance. The unique values of this place, our home, are basically aesthetic. This means they have to do with beauty, good taste, sensibility, naturalness, and a feeling of attachment. In short, with quality of life. I believe that is why most of us are here.
Copyright © 2000, 2003
Steven C. Brandt
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