Lesson 2: What Grocery Shopping and Careers Have In Common

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to send
you Lesson #2: What Grocery Shopping and Careers
have in Common. The time has finally come. Thank
you to many, many of our loyal readers for bringing this
omission to my attention. Also, thank you to those of
you that sent us your lessons learned in 2005. The
"best of" will be on it's way!

Lesson #2:
There are a lot of choices in the grocery store. Funny
story - there I was, standing in front of the yogurt
section, beside another customer. I said; "There
are a lot of choices here." He replied; "Yes, and
they still don't have what you want.".

There must have been 100+ choices of yogurts, and I
still had not gotten to the egg section. It sure makes
your head spin. To help reduce the anxiety of choice,
Loblaws created a new brand - President's Choice.
Every week, the president of Loblaws travels the globe
on my personal behalf, to find and create products just
for me (and 30 million other potential customers). By
the look of my cupboards, he seems to be doing a
great job!

There are a lot more choices than money or time. This
is the President's Choice principle. Think about the
name - whose choice is it? Who will determine what
you need? Loblaws recognized several years ago that
the range of options would continue to increase. They
needed to create a brand that would stand out (unlike
the hundreds of brands produced by P & G - who
remembers which are which?). Loblaws hit a home run
with President's Choice.

The new big problem in life is simplification - I want less
choice, not more. If someone can produce products
that I can depend on, that helps to simplify my life. So
it is in careers. One of the key issues that I constantly
deal with is the choices. Most of my clients struggle
with the overwhelming choices that are in front of
them. Do you know how many types of executive
MBA's there are?

CareerJoy's role is much like President's Choice. We
can help you identify what's on the shelf. We can
narrow down your choices, reducing the noise and
friction within your career decisions, to help you make
the best available selection. Choose wisely.