Contentment is the enemy

Visit Sarasota County president Virginia Haley spent a recent lunch hour telling area hotel sales and marketing executives about how good the county has been doing in tourism.

But beyond metrics, Haley left the crowd with some important food for thought based on a well-known business concept: Never be satisfied with good enough. Complacency, says Haley, is one of the biggest threats to continued growth in getting more people to visit and spend more money when they get here. Sounds like good advice for any executive.

“We've been very successful,” says Haley. “But we can't only be happy with what we have been doing. We have to stay ahead of the competition.”

Haley brought out some laughs when she showed the 2014 Super Bowl commercial from Radio Shack, a play on how Radio Shack famously lost its way. A clerk in the store hangs up a phone and tells a colleague the 1980s called, and it wants its store back. A stream of characters from 1980s pop culture then takes apart the store.

Haley warns that could be Sarasota County in tourism if people don't guard against it. Or any other business. “By the time you realize you've been slipping,” says Haley, “it's too late.”

On those tourism figures, Haley reports Sarasota County's total visitor count rose 5.2% the 2014 fiscal year, to 929,000 people. That beats the growth in Florida, which posted a 2.3% increase in visitors.