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

  1. 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
  2. Use data driven way to manage single SKUs. Repeatedly test your hypotheses
  3. 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).

 

 

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Thanks for reading The Low Down (TLD), the blog by the team at Momentum Works. Got a different perspective or have a burning opinion to share? Let us know at [email protected].