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A trading partner like Van Dijk Flora lives an eventful life. We’re eager to share these experiences with you. The weblog on this site gives our view on the latest developments in the floriculture sector and the retail channel. This view can also be important for you!

Stay true to your strategy

When Louis van Gaal started his job as the coach of Bayern Munich in the summer of 2009, the club had a player called Luca Toni. For the non-football fans among you: Toni was one of the top strikers in Europe at the time. In the 2005/2006 season he was awarded the Golden Shoe for the leading European goalscorer. Take it from me: it means you’re good! But the first thing that Van Gaal did was to leave Luca Toni on the bench. The reason: the Italian star striker didn’t fit into the long-term strategy that Van Gaal had in mind.

Of course the new coach was inundated with criticism. In the short term it would have been much easier to just give Toni his usual place up front. But Van Gaal stuck to his guns and we all know how last season ended for Bayern Munich: with the German league title, the German Cup and a place in the final of the Champions League. When it comes to long-term strategy, many businesses can learn a lot from Van Gaal. Oh, how appealing it can be to allow the interests of the present to prevail over the vision for the future.

For example if turnover is under pressure and a new customer comes along, who in fact doesn’t entirely match your company’s profile. It’s very appealing in the short term to say ‘yes’ to that customer: more turnover. But ultimately as a business you’ll never be able to give that customer optimum service. And it might even be at the expense of the service you provide to other customers. Then short-term gain turns into long-term loss. It takes courage to stick to your strategy, but in the long run it’s better. At Van Dijk Flora we can speak from experience.

A couple of years ago we made choices. Sometimes rigorous choices. In a few cases we stopped working with a customer or chose not to do business with a new customer. The result is that we’ve doubled our turnover within the space of four years – with fewer customers than before. How? By doing the right things for the right customers. And there’s more to come, because our objectives for next year are also ambitious. We’re confident about achieving those objectives, with personnel who share that belief: celebrating the success gives them even more motivation.

Lesson 1 for businesses during times like these is therefore: keep believing in your strategy and go for it one hundred percent. This means that a business must know very well what its strong points are. But that business must know even better what activities it’s best to leave to someone else. Then it’s quite possible that you’ll get some puzzled looks. But remember: what really matters is who takes the trophies at the end of the season.

December 2010

Marcel van der Hoeven
Managing Director Van Dijk Flora