How many of you, at least on occasion, shy away from intimidating things? Admit it. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there. It’s simply human nature to prioritize things that come easy to us. To do otherwise, to push yourself outside your comfort zone, takes determination, focus, often with a goal in mind, and perhaps even some serious grit. Cathy Huyghe (CEO at Enolytics) wrote a truthful, transparent piece about how wine and data both fall into this “intimidation camp”. They’re scary to many because they’re unknowns. They’re going to take time and effort to get to a general baseline understanding, and only then can you really mature in your comprehension to where it starts bringing you value and joy. As a winemaker turned technologist, I am already an outlier. The importance of data-driven winery operations was always painfully obvious to me. In the early years of InnoVint, I was perplexed by how many modern wineries were resistant to even have a conversation with me about technology. “Why would someone leave winemaking to start a software company?” I was an anomaly. They were shocked by the career decision. The sentiment was that wine producers “don’t speak data.” Why would they need to? Today, those that are winning in wine absolutely do, and honestly, it’s an easier language to learn than ever before. During the last 10 years running InnoVint I’ve seen progress, albeit not as much as I’d like to see for the sake of our industry. There's so much good wine these days, so how do you stand out and continue to grow? You need to put data to work for you - to drive business efficiencies, to target and woo consumers in ways that have shown repeatable success, to accurately understand your financial health, and so much more. Don’t shy away. Lean in. Cathy agrees by saying “I am concerned what will happen if we as an industry continue to procrastinate around applying the most up-to-date technologies to our business challenges.” You simply can’t afford to be left behind. Put forth the time and effort to get over the first big learning hump. I promise the view from the top is quite nice, and you’ll really enjoy the pick up of pace cruising down the other side passing others by. https://lnkd.in/g_6rS8rS
Pedro Noyola
7mo
Just because we choose to stick our head in the sand, doesn’t mean the sun went dark for everyone else. They’ll keep moving and pass us by. Other bev alc categories (and especially non-alc) are applying data and moving at the speed of the market. Wineries need to deal with harvest and the timeline that implies, but there are a lot of other experiments that can be run to learn more than just once per year.
Cathy Huyghe
7mo
So well said, Ashley! Get over the first big learning hump, and pick up speed on the other side, passing right by the slow-adopters. I love it. Will you be joining us on June 14 in Boston for the HDSR event? I hope so! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hdsr-vine-to-mind-tickets-869481150527
Donna Hutchings
7mo
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
VP| Insurance and Insurtech Specialist | Sales | Marketing | Customer Success Leader | SaaS Pro | Podcast Guest | Positivity Guru
7moIt is so easy to shy away from intimidating things, it is either flight or fight and so many flight, but when we do big scary things that is when we grow and often find strengths we never knew we had. I too am the anomaly, and I would never question why you would leave the wine business to start a tech company. Why... because you knew firsthand the need in the industry! I am perhaps a bit biased as someone who has worked in the tech space for over a decade. I have seen firsthand the time and cost savings the right SasS product can provide to organizations, and wineries are no different. At the end of the day they are in business to make a profit and need the right systems and tech-stack in place to make it happen.