I’m a firm believer that you can gain knowledge from pretty much anywhere as long as you keep your mind open. This morning I was playing spider solitaire on my tablet, as I do many mornings in an effort to wake my brain up and get it into problem solving mode. I don’t know if it really works, or if I’m just finding an excuse to play games in bed before starting my day, but I do it most days. Now that we’re all pretty much stuck home during this pandemic, I’m playing even more.
Today, I thought about my tactics towards the game and discovered that you can apply several of them to start-ups and business success in general.
If you don’t know what Spider Solitaire is: it’s a game that is included on most PCs and you can download it as an app for your phone or tablet. The object of the game is to build cards of descending suit sequence from King to Ace. I play the 2 suit version.
1. Sometimes the obvious choice will not lead you to victory
When you play 2 suit spider solitaire you’re trying to build the cards into sequences of hearts and spades. While the obvious choice is to put the 4 of spades(4S) on the 5 of spades (5S), as this is building the sequence you need, it occasionally makes more sense to put the 4S on the 5 of hearts (5H) because that will free up some cards that may be important underneath.
How does this apply to Business?
Sometimes the obvious thing to do isn’t the right thing. When you run multiple stores marking down an item can seem the thing to do. A product that isn’t selling needs to exit your store. However, when you have multiple stores, the right thing to do may be transferring the product. Store A doesn’t sell the item, but Store B sells a lot. By transferring the product, you save on reorders.
This also applies to people. I remember a manager saying that we shouldn’t promote a certain employee because she had trouble with the Point of Sale system. She had the absolute best customer service, was respected by her peers, and received the most reviews of any of our associates online. We promoted her and she turned around a failing store. We had people who had been there longer, knew the computer system, and had decent sales. The obvious choice in too many companies is to promote based on seniority, however, we knew she was the best person to run the store. The disconnect between what we were looking for and the manager we spoke to was we had different metrics we found important.
2. Pay attention to the important metrics
I’ve been playing for quite a while and what I’m looking to improve in solitaire are 2 key stats: time & minimum moves. Another stat that shows up after you finish a game is your win percentage. That one isn’t as important to me. I’m looking to complete the game on average under 6 minutes and in under 140 moves. To me, success is when I set a new record on those two metrics. I also try to hit records in both these categories, but that is rarer, as records are always hard to break. So averages are what I’m trying to improve.
How does this apply to Business?
Everyone talks about analytics, but you need to know which analytics to pay attention to. In the previous example the metrics we thought were important were excellent customer service and sales, not ability to use computer. For your website are pageviews more important to you than time spent on page? Is it better to have more Likes or more Engagement? If you’re in retail perhaps it’s the difference between transactions per associate or average ticket. Everyone has heard of Key Performance Indicators, what are yours and are you measuring them? After we upgraded our Point of Sale we were able to see that certain sales associates were successfully selling add-ons. For most stores there are always add-ons that you can sell, like batteries for a toy. We called certain tickets the Triple-Crown, because the sales associate successfully added-on 3 items that enhance the purchase. The more tickets we see like this, the higher our sales will be. After identifying your KPIs there may be ways to incentivize your sales people.
3. Know when to quit
As mentioned in the last example, I’m looking to have better average completion times and better average number of moves, so does it make sense for me to complete the game at 200 moves? I’ll do it because I want to win, as I’m also really competitive that way, but it doesn’t help my numbers. So sometimes I’ll quit a game because a solution would increase my average number of moves, or I’ve already been playing for 8 minutes. This hurts the statistic of “win percentage”, but that is not a metric I care about, so it doesn’t bother me.
How does this apply to Business?
I remember reading about a company that went through with a venture even though if it had stopped, right in the middle of production, it would have saved millions of dollars. The problem was they thought, “we’ve already spent so much money, might as well see it through”. That’s a problem, many people encounter. Think of those houses called money pits. Sometimes it’s better to quit than continue. It’s about knowing what metrics mean success for you. For me in solitaire it’s time and moves, that’s all. So if I’m not going to make my time, or my moves, quitting is the logical choice. If your projection of ROI is dependent on how much you spend, there should be a “point of no return (on investment)” where you say, I will do better by abandoning the project than by continuing.
And, it isn’t just about money, it can also be time (which is money, I guess). There have been projects that I believed would have made the company more efficient or even made us money. However, the time or effort I would have expended would have been too great, making it not cost effective in terms of my labor costs. Or, perhaps it would require hiring somebody and their rate would again essentially nullify the gains, or put those gains too far into the future. Either way, I made a mental calculation and determined where my cut off point was.
The key to this final point is to take an honest assessment of the project. Are you continuing because you don’t want to be seen as a failure, or is there actually a chance for success? Honestly answering that question could mean the difference between profit and loss.
So those are the three things I learned by playing solitaire every morning. Though, if I’m being honest, I probably apply my business mentality to my game strategy. A different sort of game theory, if you will.
Hope everyone is staying safe out there. I know these are tough times with this pandemic going on. Austin is on a stay at home rule till April 13th, when hopefully some things will return to normal. I am currently in the Rio Grande Valley, where a few counties have done the same. When we come out the other end it will be imperative that we all follow best business practices, and innovate to survive this crisis. Feel free to contact me when this is done, I’ll be operating at reduced prices because I genuinely want to help you come out the other side stronger. Let’s work together!
Joe Robles 