Читать книгу Judgment Calls - Thomas H. Davenport - Страница 25

Burrill had faced similar situations before during difficult housing markets, so he knew what to do. Whenever a house doesn't sell, he calls on the wisdom of the crowd. The crowd, in this case, is anyone who might have an informed opinion on the issue, including:

 His wife and the family members who work for the company, including his brother, his two daughters, and his son-in-law

 The other twelve or so employees of WGB Homes

 Subcontractors who have worked on the house and on others in the development

 Customers who purchased other houses in the neighborhood

Burrill asks everyone who's seen the house to furnish opinions about how to improve it. “Everyone is a designer or an architect at heart,” he says, “so why not learn from them?” Most are happy to volunteer a perspective. At times Burrill has even undertaken larger-scale surveys of customers; his firm recently surveyed about four hundred customers, for example, about issues around the sales process and their perceptions about WGB's model homes.

Burrill had always been interested in other people's ideas about his houses, but as his business has grown, and as his own family members have become more involved in it, he has realized that the insights and opinions of everyone involved in building and selling the houses are extremely valuable. “I try to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am,” he notes modestly, “and I get as many opinions as I can. But then I have to make the decision.”