Three Averages

Baseball is one activity that’s consumed by averages.  There are batting averages, earned run averages, slugging percentages, on-base percentages, runs with runners in scoring position (an average), stolen base percentages and many more.  Most professional baseball players are average.  Yet even a Major League Baseball position player (not a pitcher or designated hitter), possessing just a so-so batting average of .260, made more than $3,000,000 in salary in 2008.  Most actors are average.  Most actors don’t make nearly that much money. 

Think of the Bell Curve where the large hump in the middle represents average.  Most of any category that has variation is average.  Incomes, scores, performance, prices, sizes and so on.  Students of math are wary of average, for they know that average is a tricky term.  That’s because there are three types of averages:  mean, median, and mode.  When we talk about average, we usually intend the mathematical mean average.  Mean average is the sum of all the parts divided by the number of parts.  Like this:

1+2+2+3+4+7+9 = 28 divided by 7 = 4

Four is the mean average of these seven numbers.  However the median average separates the lower half of all the numbers from the upper half.  In this example that number is 3 because three of the numbers, 1, 2 and 2, are lower than 3 and three numbers, 4, 7 and 9, are higher than 3.   The mode is the average that includes the number that appears most frequently.  In the series above that number is 2. 

When it comes to those characteristics that cannot be measured, the concept of an average is simply speculation.  However when characteristics or behaviors can be measured or counted, then the three averages, mean, median and mode, have meaning.

From Threes, Chapter 2, “Threes in Math”

The Big Three in Business

Being perceived as one of the top three in a market, regardless of industry, industry sector or market size, is critically important.  These market leaders are or can be referred to as The Big Three. 

Big Three U.S. automakers: Ford, GM, Chrysler

Big Three U.S. broadcast television networks:

NBC, ABC, CBS

Big Three national economies: U.S., Japan, China,

Big Three denim jeans makers: Levi Strauss, Lee,

Wrangler

Big Three light bulb manufacturers: Philips, Osram,

GE Lighting

Big Three U.S. breakfast cereal makers: Post,

Kellogg’s, General Mills

Big Three U.S. retailers: Walmart, Kmart, Target  

Big Three global retailers: Walmart, Asda, Carrefour   

Big Three food retailers in the U.S.: Walmart, Kroger,

Costco

Big Three food retailers in Canada: Loblaws, Metro,

Sobeys

Big Three food retailers in Slovenia: Mercator, Spar,

Tus

Big Three U.S. food services companies:

Compass Group, Aramark, Sodexo 

Big Three chocolate manufacturers: Hershey’s, Nestle,

Cadbury’s

Big Three U.S. ice cream manufacturers: Breyers,

Edy’s/Dreyer’s, Blue Bell

Big Three U.S. fast food hamburger restaurants:

McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King

Big Three U.S. office products retailers: Staples, Office

Depot, Office Max 

Big Three e-book sellers: Amazon, Apple,

Barnes & Noble

Big Three U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon, AT&T,

Sprint Nextel

Big Three management consulting firms: BCG,

Bain & Company, McKinsey

Big Three credit rating agencies: Standard & Poor's,

Moody's, Fitch  

Big Three U.S. colleges: Harvard, Yale, Princeton 

Name #4 in any category above.  Some are hard to imagine.  A business manager or owner knows his or her business must be perceived as one of the three biggest or best or cheapest.  The categories depend on market segmentation, and market segmentation depends on different perceptions of the company, organization, product or service.  “History shows that the first brand into the brain, on the average, gets twice the long-term market share of the No. 2 brand and twice again as much as the No. 3 brand.  And the relationships are not easily changed.  The leader brand in category after category outsells the number two brand by a wide margin….Many marketing experts overlook the enormous advantages of being first.” 

The Big Three category in the list above that has my attention is the Big Three e-book sellers.  Does Barnes & Noble drop off?  Who replaces it?

from Threes, Chapter 8, “Threes in Business and Technology”

Wisdom in Threes

Many individuals have shared their wisdom in sayings or observations that contain the now-familiar pattern of three memorable elements. Some of that wisdom is ageless. “Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong,” supposedly from a farmer. Or this from Christopher Morley, “There are three ingredients to the good life: learning, earning and yearning.”

Threes have been engaged by the brightest among us. Bill Gates, who is the co-founder of Microsoft, is known to use threes in his analyses. During one interview he said, “Most people know that I like threes. Here they are:

• Vision
• Being at the right place at the right time
• Taking massive immediate action”    

New and ancient philosophers have presented many of their best ideas in threes. Benjamin Franklin said, “There are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.” And this: “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.” Buddha said, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Contemporary author and philosopher the late Stephen Covey said, “There are three constants in life...change, choice and principles.”  

from Threes, Chapter 1, “The Wonder of Threes”  

Three New Technologies

Futurist and Stanford Univ. professor Paul Saffo believes we are in an age similar to the period of development of many of great monotheistic religions between 800 BC and 200 BC. This was a time, he says, “shaped by innovations in government, transport and communications. Population growth created new challenges demanding political innovations. New sailing technology transformed the seas from barriers to highways for ideas that traveled with trade goods to new lands. The consequent intellectual ferment yielded new world views, new uncertainties—and new religions.

“Three technologies have brought us to the edge of another axial shift today.  Air travel has given entire populations unprecedented mobility. The intermodal container has delivered a cornucopia of products to every corner of the globe. And cyberspace has become a promiscuous, meme-spreading hotbed of ideas,” he said.

from Threes, Chapter 8, “Threes in Business and Technology”