Highway to Success...!

Its been a week since I wrote about the Gas Prices & the sky-rocketing gasoline prices continue to pinch more & more people across the globe (see the video embedded below). My current association with Retail Sector is helping me understand the role of petroleum products' pricing/taxation in the industry and believe me some wonderful companies try really hard everyday to make life of end consumers (me and you) comfortable. Here are few interesting things (I spotted that) few companies in petroleum business do:

• Reverse Thinking (From a Customer's Viewpoint -I know thats what they teach you in school). But these folks actually visit gas station and compute the avg time a consumer takes to fill in a tank & they try improvising the same. It helps to serve customers in a quicker 'n' better way.
• Instant Reporting of Business Metrics - In any business data forms the basis of analyzing how one is doing versus say last month or current month last year (YTD Comparison). But then hey, few folks also go a step further to predict the consumer spending & buying patterns in specific geographies based on a heuristic analysis (remember Correlation/Regression chapters from the High School Math book - its almost the same). This whole number prediction process becomes way too interesting when you increase data collection frequency (say collecting all gas stations sales data in ur area per hour), add plenty of variables (competition pricing, weather, breakdowns on roads etc) & ofcourse the omnipresent pressure from the mgmt to present the daya in a simple yet elegant fashion. (Will write more on this sometime - Yes, you guessed it right - I am working on a similar project right now ;))
• Delving Deeper - The marriage of oil companies' expertise in drilling and the current state of art technology has resulted in tapping the seemingly unreachable deep-water oil reserves. This requires volumes of innovation, collaboration & persistence but then few guys are trying their best out there in deep sea just for you and me.
• Evolve- Contrary to one's expectations - the oil companies seem to adapt to the changing market forces very quickly. And yes they are always on the lookout for any new ideas you might have.

Anyways, I just recalled a nice thought that I read sometime back "Words are words...Promises are promises..Action Matters!" So let me head back to my work right away. Meanwhile, here are some ideas & tips that will charge you up in case you feel scared amidst the shaking US economy. Thanks for sharing the same Pam.