Comment: The Olympics are a time to be positive

1 Comment

People love to moan, about the Olympics or retail, but the right attitude is key.

There was an inevitability about the negative reporting of the Olympics last week. As anyone who has managed a large-scale project knows all too well, periodic setbacks are only to be expected.

In an eight-year, multi-billion pound project, if a letdown by just one contractor is the worst that happens, then that is quite a good result. Reading the newspapers, though, you could be persuaded that the Olympic project has become a disaster.

It’s not just the media, either. For the past month I have heard an increasing chorus of Londoners complaining about one or another aspect of the Olympic arrangements, often expressing dread for “what it’s going to be like when the Games actually start”. I have talked to only one person who said what an exciting thing it is.

That’s the point here – you can see the Games as a waste of money, a disruption, a failure, and so on, or you can see it as a once-in-a-lifetime event, bringing the world to London, sealing its reputation as perhaps the leading city on the planet right now, creating business opportunity and offering a first-class sporting event that is well managed and staged.

There are parallels with the retail world. Many are observing the closure of high street shops, the bankruptcies, bosses under pressure and premature Sale promotions with perverse glee.

I am weary of being told how retailing is ‘out of favour’, ‘in decline’, that there’s ‘nothing much happening’ or ‘no opportunities’. A bit like the Olympics, at the moment the pessimists are hogging the microphone.

In my experience, the retail sector is always a mixed bag. In good times there are retailers that do badly, and in tough times there are many that do well. Failures happen, because ours is an unforgiving environment but, equally, new retailers arise and this is part of the process by which we stay in touch with the changing tastes of our customers.

HobbyCraft is an example of the good things that are happening in retail despite the tough times. This week we published our annual figures, which show a very positive picture.

We have had our fair share of adversity like the rest of the market, but the team has responded by upping the pace of change, trying more things, listening more intently to customers, and never giving up.

Most importantly, everyone in Hobbycraft remembers that it is a fantastic business, with great customers who get huge fulfilment from what they do with our products.

That enthusiasm filters out to customers and helps them forget about the recession too. In many ways, it reminds me of Majestic Wine, another consistent winner, where the positivity and pride of the team is fundamental to its success.

Many of you will have heard of the Fish! training programme. It tells you that ‘choosing your attitude’ is a key to success with customers. If we only bemoan the miserable state of the market, what attitude are we choosing? Let’s be proud of a great industry and let that positivity win us more sales.