I just finished this very interesting book called “変わる力 セブン-イレブン的思考法” (Power to Change – 7-Eleven Way of Thinking) by Toshifumi Suzuki, former CEO and President of 7-Eleven.
The book definitely contains a lot of good insights about not only retail, but also business in general. I have jotted down some key takeaways – note that I read the Chinese translation of the book, so some of the wording might not be exact – but you get the meaning.
Consistently doing the right thing
- CEO’s main focus should be on the goods sold in the store – especially the quality of the high selling items (such as rice balls and fried rice). Good quality is always better than cheap price
- Use data driven way to manage single SKUs. Repeatedly test your hypotheses
- Number of stores (or in internet companies: Monthly Active Users and GMW) is not the key. The most important is to keep improving your Product Market Fit (for example in 7-Eleven: oden, rice balls, ATM, printer/scanner).
