"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking" ~ George Patton
The figurative dust is settling from what has been just an incredible awards season for Azul y Oro -- 13 awards for the olive oil and three awards for the wine. One should be pleased with results such as those. We are. We are also grateful for the bountiful harvest, our crews, the mill, and our family and friends who not only helped on harvest day, but help by being our biggest fans and spreading the word about our product.
We have been asked by numerous other producers how we accomplished this. An awards season such as we have had also causes introspection and a look at the eight-page goal list that was compiled in January. What was learned from that review?
First, that half of those goals have been accomplished, so what then? Stop and enjoy the summer? No, we added more goals. We looked at what did and didn't work and assessed how we can do things better. Aren't we satisfied with this year's results? Yes and no. We strive for excellence in everything, so there is still much work to be done.
We are big believers in participating in professional and community organizations. We volunteer to help, True, it takes time that could otherwise be spent elsewhere, but it also helps us because we meet people, we network, and we listen. We listen to what our competitors are saying and what our potential customers are saying. We listen.
One of the biggest questions other producers ask us is how we're going to sell all that oil. That is generally followed up by, "In bulk, right?" To which we respond, "No, retail." Usually followed by a laugh. We are getting used to being thought of as naive, the laughs, and being told we are just too small do that. Instead of being insulted, we work harder. We know there are 200 other producers in the area, all needing to sell their oil to the same market. We know that.
What surprises us is how many of these same producers have planted hundreds to thousands of trees with no long-term plan in place. How can one have a large quantity of product with a short shelf life, with more coming yearly, with no plan in place? And what happens when you do finally create a market and have the off year, as it appears most olive producers do?
Our planning needed to involve listening. Listening to the customer caused us to realize what type of oil the customer really enjoys enough to purchase and how they use the product. Our planning needed to involve creativity -- creating products that work well together and that customers also want to buy and use and be excited to present as gifts. Our planning needed to involve vision -- a vision to see opportunity in product and in market creation. Our planning needed to include strategy -- a strategy to get through those alternate-producing years. Our planning needed to include dogged persistence and dedication to excellence.
That vision also needed to include the realization that we must distinguish ourselves. We need to be the Screaming Eagle of the olive oil business. Doing the same thing as everyone else will not sell that product. Thinking like everyone else would mean we are not thinking.
In that spirit, even while diligently working to finish bottling all of this oil, manage this year's crops, and produce our other products, in the next two weeks, we will be releasing our highly anticipated smoked olive oil.
What distinguishes our smoked olive oil from others' smoked olive oil? We do not add liquid smoke (or anything) to our smoked olive oil. This is our most labor-intensive product -- and consequently will cost a bit more -- and since it is so labor intensive, only limited amounts will be produced, but gauging from pre-orders we have received, it is a product our customers eagerly await.
We will also be releasing one additional new product in the next few months and preparing a wonderful array of holiday selections to make your holiday shopping an enjoyable, efficient experience.
We are continuing to think differently because we are thinking.
Watch us Grow!
Cheers!
We have been asked by numerous other producers how we accomplished this. An awards season such as we have had also causes introspection and a look at the eight-page goal list that was compiled in January. What was learned from that review?
First, that half of those goals have been accomplished, so what then? Stop and enjoy the summer? No, we added more goals. We looked at what did and didn't work and assessed how we can do things better. Aren't we satisfied with this year's results? Yes and no. We strive for excellence in everything, so there is still much work to be done.
We are big believers in participating in professional and community organizations. We volunteer to help, True, it takes time that could otherwise be spent elsewhere, but it also helps us because we meet people, we network, and we listen. We listen to what our competitors are saying and what our potential customers are saying. We listen.
One of the biggest questions other producers ask us is how we're going to sell all that oil. That is generally followed up by, "In bulk, right?" To which we respond, "No, retail." Usually followed by a laugh. We are getting used to being thought of as naive, the laughs, and being told we are just too small do that. Instead of being insulted, we work harder. We know there are 200 other producers in the area, all needing to sell their oil to the same market. We know that.
What surprises us is how many of these same producers have planted hundreds to thousands of trees with no long-term plan in place. How can one have a large quantity of product with a short shelf life, with more coming yearly, with no plan in place? And what happens when you do finally create a market and have the off year, as it appears most olive producers do?
Our planning needed to involve listening. Listening to the customer caused us to realize what type of oil the customer really enjoys enough to purchase and how they use the product. Our planning needed to involve creativity -- creating products that work well together and that customers also want to buy and use and be excited to present as gifts. Our planning needed to involve vision -- a vision to see opportunity in product and in market creation. Our planning needed to include strategy -- a strategy to get through those alternate-producing years. Our planning needed to include dogged persistence and dedication to excellence.
That vision also needed to include the realization that we must distinguish ourselves. We need to be the Screaming Eagle of the olive oil business. Doing the same thing as everyone else will not sell that product. Thinking like everyone else would mean we are not thinking.
In that spirit, even while diligently working to finish bottling all of this oil, manage this year's crops, and produce our other products, in the next two weeks, we will be releasing our highly anticipated smoked olive oil.
What distinguishes our smoked olive oil from others' smoked olive oil? We do not add liquid smoke (or anything) to our smoked olive oil. This is our most labor-intensive product -- and consequently will cost a bit more -- and since it is so labor intensive, only limited amounts will be produced, but gauging from pre-orders we have received, it is a product our customers eagerly await.
We will also be releasing one additional new product in the next few months and preparing a wonderful array of holiday selections to make your holiday shopping an enjoyable, efficient experience.
We are continuing to think differently because we are thinking.
Watch us Grow!
Cheers!
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