Ordinary Observation

It’s September 28, 1928, in a West London lab. A young physician, Alex, was doing some basic research that had been assigned to him regarding antibacterial agents. He’d been doing the same thing for several days when one day he noticed something odd.

What caught his eye and attention that fateful day was that mold had killed some bacteria in one of his plates. Usually samples like this are discarded, but Alex instead, kept this sample and began to wonder. If this mold could kill this type of bacteria, could it be used to kill destructive bacteria in the human body?

Alexander Fleming would spend the next 14 years working out the kinks and details before “penicillin” was officially used to treat infections. It was an invention that would revolutionize medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic.

Dr. Fleming was able to develop this innovation through the simple power of ordinary observation. Sherlock Holmes famously said once to Watson: “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.” According to psychologist and writer Maria Konnikov… “To observe, you must learn to separate situation from interpretation, yourself from what you are seeing.”

Here’s another example of the power of observation. Fast forward to 1955, a relatively unknown and small furniture store in Almhult, Sweden. One day, the founder and owner noticed something odd. An employee had purchased a table to take home to the family. Rather than struggling to try to cram the assembled table into his car, this employee took the legs off and carefully placed them in a box, which, in turn, would fit nicely in his car for delivery home.

As it turned out, the owner of the store, Ingvard Kamprad, would observe this unpacking phenomenon regularly. Carefully he observed what his employees were doing and why it was so effective. And, if this concept was better for his employees, it would stand to reason that it would also be better for his customers - and the bottom line.

Soon after, Kamprad would work tirelessly to perfect the idea of selling dis-assembled furniture - changing the customer journey for furniture acquisition forever and making IKEA synonymous with this brand promise and a worldwide household name. All because of the power of ordinary observation.

A final story about observation and its impact on supply chain planning.

Ken Moser was one of Canada’s top retailers – leading and managing one of Canadian Tire’s best stores in northern Ontario. About 25 years ago, he was visited by a chap who would eventually build the world’s first and, to date, best Flowcasting solution.

This person followed Ken around the store, asking questions and observing how the store operated and how Ken thought – particularly about how to manage the inventory of tens of thousands of items. Rumor has it that when Ken got to a section of the store, he proclaimed something like…” these items are like a set-it-and-forget-it. I have no idea when they’ll sell, and neither do you. All I know is that, like clockwork, they’ll only sell one a month. For others, it’s like one every quarter.”

Our Flowcasting architect was fascinated with this observation and spent time watching/observing customers perusing this section of the store. And like the two examples above, deep observation and reflection would eventually morph into an approach to forecasting and planning slow selling items that is, to date, the best proven solution in retail. All from the awesome power of ordinary observation.

Yogi Berra, the great Yankee catcher and sometimes philosopher, hit the nail on the proverbial head regarding the importance of ordinary observation when he proclaimed…

You can observe a lot, just by watching.

Turns out, you can.