The two most important words in business.

Every little thing matters in business. And to get to the core of the matter, let me take you to the Big Apple…

Back in the 1990s, New York was enduring a crime epidemic. The police were doing the obvious thing: prioritising serious misdemeanours such as murder, rape and robbery.

Then along came social scientists James Wilson and George Kelling, who instead persuaded the police to go after subway turnstile jumpers. They argued serious crime was just the final result of a whole chain of events which could be traced back to the most seemingly trivial disorder.

Eradicate the seemingly trivial, and you’ll reduce serious crime.

This theory became known as the ‘Broken Windows Theory’ because Wilson and Kelling used broken windows as a metaphor. If a derelict building has a broken window which isn’t fixed, they reasoned, vandals will be encouraged to break more. Pretty soon, step by step, the entire building will be systematically trashed.

NPYD Commissioner William Bratton decided to put the theory to the test. In the early ‘90s, squads of plainclothes officers were assigned to catch turnstile jumpers. And, as more jumpers were prosecuted, subway crimes of all kinds decreased dramatically.

He then cracked down on things such as public drinking, graffiti and unsolicited windshield washing – and the results were astonishing. In 1990, more than 2,200 people were murdered in New York, and more than 93,000 New Yorkers were robbed. By 1996, the homicide rate had been halved and felonies were down almost 40%.

By 2007, the number of murders had been slashed by 78% and robberies dropped by 77% to record lows. Broken Window Theory, it seems, was a smash hit. And it has been studied widely ever since.

Take Martijn de Lange of Radboud University. He turned his hand to sweet–smelling air sprays. (No, he didn’t suffer from personal hygiene issues.) He sprayed alternate carriages on a train with a lemon scent and left the remaining carriages untouched.? After 18 return trips, the scented carriages contained over 50% less litter than the unscented ones. London Midland Trains (late as usual) followed their example and found exactly the same results.

So when it comes to business, the lesson is crystal clear – details matter. Because it’s the little things that add up to big things. For instance, the iconic Bettys Café in my home town of Harrogate is the most expensive cafe in town. But it’s also the one with the longest queues outside. Obviously, the food is outstanding. But it’s their superb service that sets them apart. Not a scrap of litter, dirty shoes nor dirty finger nails to be seen here. Everything is sheer perfection, making every visitor feel their trip is a special occasion. And the proof, as they say, is in the Yorkshire pudding.

So if you’re thinking about how to improve your business, take a breather from those Big Ideas. Focus instead on how you deal with the little stuff. Make sure all the clocks work and tell the correct time. And go fix that cracked window. Because here are the two most important words in business:

EVERYTHING MATTERS.