Do you like imitating the best? I like it too. I do not know if they are the best, but optician chains can teach us a lot.
I like comparing a shop belonging to a chain with the cold meat stalls in a large hypermarket.
In most cases in the market, there is an ex-owner whose behaviour harks back to the past: he invites clients to taste a piece of ham or a bit of cheese. What he is doing is copying the ways and values of the little shops in the past in order to make people feel more at home.
Paradoxically, little shops no longer do this. They disdain to.
A small opticians near a big chain offers the same as, if not more than, the big chain. But while the latter advertises at the door what it is offering, the small shop owner says it quietly if he deems it necessary, or stays silent.
This illustrates the Italian fable of the Cod and the Hen. The Cod, like the independent optician, lays a thousand eggs in perfect solitude under a stone in the river. The Hen lays one, but shouts to everyone about it.
So which do you want to be? If you do not like the squawking of the Hen, then try to be like the Cod, and in so doing, be useful to your company and to yourself.
IT
