A
Anonymous
From cow calf weekly
Abandoning The Zero Sum Mentality The industry needs to abandon the zero sum mentality. With this mentality, the market is assumed to be set in stone. The only way to gain market share is at the expense of another.
The result has been a mass rush towards an undifferentiated, one-size-fits-all commodity system that does an extremely poor job of meeting consumer demands. The industry is doing a much better job of developing branded products and exploiting certain market niches.
We have begun to sell more and more cattle on a value-based pricing structure that is beginning to send more appropriate market signals. In addition, we have even begun to compete with new cuts, new products and more convenience oriented offerings.
However, the case can be made that these changes are still largely cosmetic and these industry initiatives have largely been aimed at taking market share either away from other beef products or even more widely, from pork and poultry.
Without a doubt, there is competition within the industry; we compete every day with other beef producing nations and with the other protein sources, but this attitude is a reflection of zero sum thinking.
The real opportunity is in winning back those people who have stopped consuming meat or in getting those who eat very little beef to become big beef eaters.
There is nothing wrong with trying to sell a hamburger to somebody who is purchasing a chicken breast sandwich, but what would be the result if we focused on increasing the pleasure that someone experiences by consuming beef?
The inevitable conclusion of a zero sum mentality is that to improve your lot, you must take it from another, which leads to a resentment of any who are more successful.
This can lead to the emotionalizing of issues where it becomes more about us against them, then it does about the realities of the marketplace. The result is that the focus is taken away from the key drivers of profitability (providing a more consumer desired product more efficiently) and more towards achieving victory (not a win-win scenario).
If the size of the pie is set, the only way to get a bigger piece is to give someone else a smaller slice. Perhaps if we would spend less time fighting among ourselves, we would concentrate on increasing the size of the pie, so everyone could enjoy a bigger slice. -- Troy Marshall
Abandoning The Zero Sum Mentality The industry needs to abandon the zero sum mentality. With this mentality, the market is assumed to be set in stone. The only way to gain market share is at the expense of another.
The result has been a mass rush towards an undifferentiated, one-size-fits-all commodity system that does an extremely poor job of meeting consumer demands. The industry is doing a much better job of developing branded products and exploiting certain market niches.
We have begun to sell more and more cattle on a value-based pricing structure that is beginning to send more appropriate market signals. In addition, we have even begun to compete with new cuts, new products and more convenience oriented offerings.
However, the case can be made that these changes are still largely cosmetic and these industry initiatives have largely been aimed at taking market share either away from other beef products or even more widely, from pork and poultry.
Without a doubt, there is competition within the industry; we compete every day with other beef producing nations and with the other protein sources, but this attitude is a reflection of zero sum thinking.
The real opportunity is in winning back those people who have stopped consuming meat or in getting those who eat very little beef to become big beef eaters.
There is nothing wrong with trying to sell a hamburger to somebody who is purchasing a chicken breast sandwich, but what would be the result if we focused on increasing the pleasure that someone experiences by consuming beef?
The inevitable conclusion of a zero sum mentality is that to improve your lot, you must take it from another, which leads to a resentment of any who are more successful.
This can lead to the emotionalizing of issues where it becomes more about us against them, then it does about the realities of the marketplace. The result is that the focus is taken away from the key drivers of profitability (providing a more consumer desired product more efficiently) and more towards achieving victory (not a win-win scenario).
If the size of the pie is set, the only way to get a bigger piece is to give someone else a smaller slice. Perhaps if we would spend less time fighting among ourselves, we would concentrate on increasing the size of the pie, so everyone could enjoy a bigger slice. -- Troy Marshall
