AutoZone stock
This happens to be one of my favorite organizations to talk about. How boring oil and windshield wipers. Or so we say. When William Rhodes took over this organization over 10 years ago it was quite different. His way of thinking is quite rare. Who is surrounds himself with is not easy to accomplish.
American sociobiologist Ed Wilson once stated: “The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and God-like technology.”
An organization like AutoZone must live in the confines of the medieval institutions of finance and stock performance. They function within the confines of technology although I would say working on the lower end of the spectrum. So what makes this company great? It’s the Paleolithic emotions. They’ve managed to manage how people think within the organization. Everything else more or less can be built by 1000 other companies. AutoZone manages to get ahead.
How they hire is quite different.
In the last 10 years, their mindset capacity has steadily increased overtime for all mindset types. Each different team is growing in capacity proportional to the results. Recently, leadership hiring has not been as consistent. The stock has appreciated almost $250 in less than a year but unless they change hiring tactics and increase thinking capacity, they will be doing more financial tricks than true business performance in my opinion.
What should they do different:
1 How people think analysis: People have subconscious purpose and drive. Within teams and individuals within your organization, measuring changes over time and connect it with financial outcomes. This deep understanding guides your efforts towards fostering a healthy organizational culture and more important capacity.
Financial Data Integration: you have to connect Financial data analysis with hiring. Identifying key economic indicators that our causal to the thinking capacity of different people in different roles. This is where you also get creative. You have had an amazing run so how do you maintain it? You have to be innovative. Set realistic yet ambitious goals aligned with your organization’s capabilities. Capabilities in this situation is not financial analysis of the past.
Sales Optimization: Watch for how you promote.
Continuous Monitoring and Prediction: Connect thinking capacity to promotion, retention and of course hiring
Prescriptive Guidance: The final phase involves providing actionable recommendations to achieve goals.