The Gallery Owner’s Dilemma

Credit for this month’s topic goes to my friend and colleague, Steve Buhaly, who recently reminded me of the gallery owner’s dilemma.

Imagine you wanted to open an art gallery.

You scout out some good commercial venues for the gallery, choose a place and sign a lease. Knowing the type and amount of wall space available at the gallery, you travel through art auctions to buy just the right kind and amount of artwork that would fill the gallery and is likely to be attractive to the kind of clientele you intend to attract to your gallery. Artwork all hung up, you open the doors to the gallery and customers begin to pour in.

Some of your art pieces sell very quickly, creating holes in the walls. You go to the auction and buy more artwork to fill in the holes. Though most of your selections seem to be popular with your clientele there are occasional mistakes that don’t seem to sell. Nevertheless other pieces sell and you keep filling in the holes. After a couple of years, what do you have on your walls? Your walls are full of artwork that nobody wants!

Obviously, a smart gallery owner knows that stagnant artwork has to be discounted and moved, failing which the gallery will become unattractive.

Now imagine you started a department in your business or your company.

You hired a group of people that you thought could do the job and let them go at it. Some of them do well. They get promoted. Some do well and move on to other jobs in other departments or companies. As people move on you hire new people to fill in the vacancies. After a couple of years who do you have in your department? All the people that nobody else wants?

What are you doing about the gallery owner’s dilemma? Are you finding ways to “discount and move out” the non-performers? Next month we will address some provocative ways of doing just that.

Food for Thought is our way of sharing interesting concepts on corporate leadership and management with others who might find it useful. The thoughts offered are intended to be controversial and thought provoking. They are intended to help our readers intentionally realize their potential, what we call Potentionality.