THe Art of Taking Stock

For years, my wife has been talking about making changes in our house: new kitchen, new bathroom, new flooring, new front door. New! New! New! The last couple of months the talk has changed to making improvements on the house. We need improvements to the kitchen, the bathroom, a more heat efficient front door. Suddenly, I am all ears. I’m figuring the changes are the same but for some reason I’m buying into the message she is sending. Then it dawned on me that she was talking about value instead of growth. There are two kinds of Stocks – Growth and Value. I went and took a look at the history of which stocks did better during the last decades:
Since 1982, the growth stocks have beaten value stocks during:
1982
1985
1987
1989-91
1995-99
2007
A year ago, I could sell anything that talked about growth. “Better faster” was the way to position a new product. Today, it is all about value. It doesn’t matter the cost of the service as long as the value is substantial. Value is everyplace – on the news, at the water cooler (if you still have one, because using tap water is a better value), and at the home.

The Melting Pot Restaurant down the street from me had a huge Valentine’s weekend. Not because they were the cheapest restaurant around, but because they delivered a great value for those seeking a romantic dinner.

Last year, was the year to talk about new and different summer camps for our children, this year it is about the value they receive from the camps.

Every Executive I talk to has no budget. Every executive I talked to last year had no budget. I don’t think any executive will ever have a budget. This year, we believe them. We have been so in tune with the doom and gloom, that we believe the hype about no budgets. In fact, they believe they have no budgets. BUT THEY DO. They just need to make sure that when they pitch the new service internally that they CYA. In a value marketplace, they need to hear about value.