"It depends..."

My two favorite words in the English Language are "it depends". When I was a consultant, I learned the power of this phrase, how it could render any difficult question much more accessible. "So, how quickly will we see results?", someone would ask. "It depends", I would say, "on this factor, or that one, or these outlying issues nobody can forsee".

It almost always works. It accomplishes two things: 1) it allows you to stall for time as you formulate your response; and 2) it acknowledges the reality that there are no "simple" answers to any issue.

And so it is with our business these days. Talk to any two suppliers, or reps, or customers, and you'll get differing positions on the market. "It depends". I was speaking the other day with a supplier in a different product category and that person said their business was down in 2011 compared to 2010. I shared that my business was up--materially up.

Am I a genius, and the other supplier an idiot (don't even think about reversing the order of those two)? No--"it depends". My product may be "hot" right now, or it may have been a long time since our key clients have promoted us, or any of a thousand other reasons (or any combination of them).

Our resellers are telling us how great their business is. But it may "depend" on how you define "great". I know for sure that many resellers' topline is up--but is that because of their genius, or because they're selling gazillions of iPads at zero margin? Who knows? Who cares? It's all about how things are going in your building that counts.

So when people talk about the market being "good", or "bad", remember--"it depends". Always...


Pete