Business Lessons from The Simpsons: Ned’s Leftorium
There are lots of business lessons to be learned from watching the Simpsons. With Homer’s Mr. Plow company, Marge’s Pretzel Wagon franchise, Moe’s Tavern, Android’s Dungeon (Comic Book Guy), Mr. Burn’s evil empire, and many more, the long-running show offers some great case studies in the success and failure of small and large businesses. It’s a theme I may return to later, but the first example that came to mind was Ned Flanders’ Leftorium.
In “When Flanders Failed”, Ned quits his job to open The Leftorium, a store that sells tools, gadgets, and other products and apparel especially for left-handed people. He even burns his tie at a BBQ to celebrate his new-found entrepreneurial freedom.
But Ned quickly learns his “if you build it, they will come” strategy won’t work. The store is empty, except for people who’ve heard he’ll validate parking without purchase. He must have spent all his money on the storefront and the inventory because apparently there was none left for advertising.
Enter Homer, who initially wished to see his neighbor fail. But having his wish come true gave him a heavy conscious so he started an impressive word-of-mouth campaign to bring customers to Flanders’ store. By the end of the episode, The Leftorium is packed with Springfield’s left-handed citizens buying Ned’s wares.
I think The Leftorium is a great example of someone seeing a need in a society and filling it. But it also goes to show you that the world can’t beat a path to your door until they know about it. Along those lines, I think Shoes ‘R Us is a pretty useful site, but I still spend the most time and money trying to attract new customers to come and check it out.
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February 26th, 2010 at 5:31 am
[...] the Nevada store example, the California government gets $1 instead of $10. (If the customer is Ned Flanders, they might actually get $11, assuming he reports his out-of-state purchases.) But the fact is [...]