The power of assumptions

We all know that assumptions play a major role in our life and our
business. We may not say it but our decisions are greatly influenced by
the assumptions that are held deeply. Once the assumptions are deep, we
may not even know that they are assumptions any more. They become reality for us.

Let me explain with an example. A few of us decided to take our
families on a short trip this weekend. I had to book four hotel rooms
and decided to check out prices at a few travel sites – one of them
being Last Minute Travel.
Interestingly, while the design is great, once you picked the hotel the
pick list for number of rooms had only three choices – 1, 2 or 3 and I
wanted to book 4 rooms. The point is someone out there held an assumption that typically one person may not book more than 3 rooms at a time.
It’s an assumption and I am not saying the assumption is right or wrong
but they made all the design decisions for the business based on this
assumption.

Assumptions have more power than we may ASSUME. Every business is
started based on certain assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions are
wrong and sometimes these are right. Smart businesses adapt and change
and re-invent themselves. If that does not happen, they go down. One
example – remember so many online pet food stores that were founded and
funded based on the assumption that people will order pet food online.

Once in a while, it’s good to check the assumptions that we hold deeply about our life and our business.