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Pundit’s Mailbag

Jim Prevor's Perishable Pundit, August 14, 2006

I’ve been digging through the mail all weekend — e-mail, snail mail and voice mail. There is lots of stuff in here. Many are well-wishers sending their best for the new launch. It was a lot of work launching the site, and it is a lot of work trying to do a good job every day, so each kind word means a lot. Thank you.

We also got a sizeable number of really specific critiques. Most involve suggestions of improvements of the actual functionality of the site, some to the organization of the content. I’m flabbergasted at how much time people spent to help us, and I appreciate every minute. Please know that we have teams of thousands (all right, maybe more like three people) working on version 2.0 of the Pundit. We will be unveiling it soon with as many upgrades as possible. So, please, keep those suggestions coming.

Many people also asked what the rules are for attribution of comments. You’ve probably noticed that at the bottom of each article, there is a “What’s your view” button. I hope everyone will send their feedback. There are plenty of people in this business who can contribute a lot. Some of the topics I write about because they are fun or interesting, but most of what is written here raises serious and substantial issues for the trade. Our goal at the Pundit is to help advance the industry, and by contributing your views, you add to the collective wisdom of the trade. So please send in your thoughts.

It is always nice to have comments attributed to the people who make them. It adds context and credibility. So, unless someone requests otherwise, I’ll attribute the comments to the person who made them. But sometimes discretion is required, so I’m happy to withhold your name and company if you prefer. Just mention it in your e-mail.

We’ll be featuring feedback frequently, but we have a very active and attentive readership, so it will sometimes take a few days before I post your comments. And if a lot of people say the same thing, I may just select one to represent the line of thinking.

Appreciate your help and, please, keep those cards and letters (and e-mails) coming.

Welcome
To
Jim Prevor's
Perishable Pundit

“We failed to anticipate Pearl Harbor not for want of the relevant materials but because of a plethora of irrelevant ones.”
-- Roberta Wohlstetter
Pearl Harbor: Warning
and Decision

Roberta Wohlsetter won the Bancroft Prize, the highest honor a historian can win, for her exhaustive study of the run up to Pearl Harbor. Her conclusion, highlighted above, was that there was so much “noise” — so much irrelevant, incorrect or misleading information — that the important information was ignored or misinterpreted.

This dilemma is known to historians as “The Roberta Wohlsetter Problem,” and it applies to business decisions just as well as military intelligence. Our job here at PerishablePundit.com is to ease the problem for executives by mining the information superhighway to select what is truly important to know and to provide insight as to its meaning and significance.

PerishablePundit.com is dedicated to three propositions:

• First, that perishables are, and for the foreseeable future will be, the crucial arena for differentiating competition in the food marketing business.

• Second, that looking at the business solely through the prism of long established departments specializing in different perishable areas such as produce, deli, meat, dairy, bakery, seafood and floral no longer is sufficient.

• Third, that executives, confronted with understanding the significance of perishables to their operations and directing the success of these operations, are presented with an over-abundance of information, and the challenge is to determine what information is important and what is its meaning and significance.

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