Is scarcity a good strategy?

Your plane had just crashed, and you appeared to be safe. After the initial shock went away, you realize something. You are on an isolated island and there is nothing else on the horizon. “Apparently, I will be stuck here for a while” you thought to yourself.
Then you look around and you realize, there is someone else on that island. And this person had a shop. What a strange situation isn’t it.
You are starving and today might be not such a bad day anymore, since you have 20 golden coins in your pocket. You went to the merchant and ask to buy one of the amazing tuna sandwiches he is selling. You will give all your precious golden coins for it.
The merchant looked at your offer, and shrug shoulders. After that explained to you that this sandwich costs around 10 rear rocks from the other side of the island.
You looked confused. Since everywhere in the known civilization, 20 golden coins are a lot of money, but apparently here, no one care about that.
You were still hungry and the seller price was non-negotiable. You throw away the heavy golden coins and start walking towards those rear rocks. For a while you needed to get used to this new currency, to survive on this island.

This short story reveals that scarcity is a good thing only when the people agree that it is a good thing. Having the last copy of a business magazine might not increase your bank account when you try to sell it.

Having the last copy of the first edition of a collectible will!

It is all about the perspective and the opportunity. First try to convince as many people as possible how this last or rear thing is worth the money before continue with selling it and that is how you will create a value in the scarcity.

Aleks Vladimriov is a Senior Software Developer, recognized Project Manager and Soft-skilled trainer and a coach.

Aleks Vladimirov

Solution Engineering Manager at Thales | Senior IT Professional | Startup Mentor and Product Manager

Bio

Aleks is experienced Product Manager with an engineer background and over 10 years of experience as a software developer. He works with different governments and is responsible for negotiation features and requirements, understanding the customers’ needs and supporting the senior management with regular reports and analysis. He held various positions starting as a software developer, moving to a team leader and software architect.

He strives in waterfall and agile environment alike. He is certified Scrum Master and Prince2 Practitioner and he knows how to design business processes and help teams optimize their work.
During his tenure, he had to wear many hats, prioritizing business requirements, delegating work and mentoring team members, creating mockups with Balsamiq, providing MS Project plan to the senior management.

He had worked in many international teams, located in the same city or distributed in different countries and continents. He had been a team leader of cross functional international team of 8 people.

In his current position, he is very much client focused. He has excellent presentation skills.
He delivers training sessions on presentation skills and leadership and he had helped hundred of people to improve their presentation skills.

He is also interested in creating more positive changes in the workplace by using entrepreneurship skills.
He had won startup competition where his team had validated and develop a business idea from scratch.

In his free time, he writes in his blog about effective product development.