Albert C Plant

We asked Albert Plant, author of The Retail Game, to give us some advice on how to run a successful business. Here's what he had to say:

I attended a strategic planning session in Boston in 1976. I remember only the first three of a number of “strategic truths.” Since then, I have adopted a total of ten good rules that I refer to as “The Rules of the Game.” Looking back over thirty-six years of retailing, I am satisfied that the rules of the game don’t change. Here they are:

1. Being in the right business at the right time is 80 per cent of the reasons for its success. The other 20 per cent is good management and dumb luck.
2. The law of the strongest is the best. It’s not bigness that wins; it’s the market dominance of an idea, a product line or a needed service.
3. All strategies eventually fail. It’s not the bright idea that lasts, it’s the constant adaptation and reinvention of the idea that survives. This is the ultimate catalyst for innovation.
4. If you’re not keeping score, you’re only practising. It’s not the top line that counts—it’s all the lines. Measure everything that drives success, and then improve on the numbers.
5. It’s not the “what”; it’s the “who.” It’s not markets, technology, competition or products; it’s one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.
6. Loyalty is caught, not bought. It’s not cards, points or miles; the deepest loyalty just forgives and comes back. Loyalty drives consumer equity and enterprise value.
7. “Consumers are statistics; customers are people” (Stanley Marcus). It’s not statistical research that matters, it’s listening to consumers and customers that counts.
8. Location, location, location. It’s not about the store site, it’s what you do to get people to come to you, whether you are selling from a store, a website, or a brochure or catalogue.
9. The customer is always right. It’s not a detail of the shopping experience: customer respect is central to success.
10. If the customer is wrong, return to Rule no. 9.