Mind-shifting words: We’re too logical. Everything is focused on data. More data, please. Data. Data. Data. Sometimes, we must ignore the data. Sometimes, we must trust in the power of magic.
Strategy Shift: The Case For Magic
There was a hotel in a prestigious downtown area of New York.
It was a posh hotel with marble floors, marble staircases, and marble counters. It was an expensive hotel. Major movie stars and big business people stayed there.
There was a doorman. A man dressed in a nice red coat with an officer’s hat. He greeted the guests, hailed the cabs, and held the doors open.
One day, the hotel management got consultants from a big consulting firm to help them become more efficient. The consultants crunched the numbers, looked at the data and made a logical decision. There was no need to have the doorman. He was an inefficient part of the business and created an expense. He was not needed, they argued.
The hotel management was impressed. They fired the doorman and reaped the monetary results.
But soon, the hotel started to see a drop in profits. The major movie stars stopped booking rooms at the hotel. The big business people went to another hotel down the street. To attract customers, the hotel started dropping its prices.
And on and on it went.
Not long after, the steps of the hotel were occupied by the homeless and vagrants, and the once expensive hotel became just another in the series of discount chain hotels in the area.
The hotel management listened to the data. What they forgot was to watch the magic.
The doorman at the hotel created magic. He kept the vagrants away from the hotel and shored up the image of the hotel as an exclusive, luxury lodging. He knew the guests by first name, making them feel welcome and liked.
The hotel management didn’t understand that. They didn’t understand that humans value magic more than cold, hard efficiency.
In your business, do you prefer efficiency over magic? Maybe it’s time to rethink it.
Terry
Book Club
Get the book about this kind of magic by Rory Sutherland: Alchemy
P.S. I will be participating in an online Revenue, Relationships and Results summit on Dec 4.
Book Club book link goes via my Amazon affiliate account.