Living in two worlds

 

MORPHEUS:  You take the blue pill... the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.  You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

After decades in banking, I thought I'd seen everything. But last week, with a jolt to my system, I was unfortunately proven wrong. This would turn out to be one of the worst weeks in my life. I kept thinking I must be dreaming this!

I'm used to working within my banking matrix with some level of control. If I needed to help a client with something, normally I could find a way. In this circumstance, that wasn't the case. I should have taken the blue pill to wake up in bed, in control, and believing what I believed. But I took the red pill and didn't like the reality that I awoke to find.

I was inward for that one fateful Friday when the bank was taken over. All I knew was I'd lost a substantial amount of money in the bank's stock, and the FDIC had given me a 45-day contract to work for them. That will make anyone nervous. 

But the next day I grasped the truth, that this altered state of reality had impacted an ecosystem of relationships that is extended and complex - the most important of whom are our clients. This solution wouldn't be about me finding my next job. I needed to solve problems for everyone else, and my situation would sort itself out by helping others. The next day, I was blogging and engaging to open lines of dialogue.

Silicon Valley Bank: What comes next?

Processing

For those who've read this blog before, you may notice the headline slide has changed from SVB on Wine, to Rob McMillan on Wine. I know I don't need to explain that change. 

This is a horrible message for me to have to write. I was asked to stay silent the past few days by SVB but now that the die is cast, I thought I should sit down and share what I know.

To start, my employer formerly known as Silicon Valley Bank, no longer exists. I'm still processing the whole thing as are most people associated with the bank. 

On Friday morning, clients, employees, bank suppliers and shareholders all awoke to the same news: SVB has been taken over by the FDIC. For everyone involved, there is a range of emotions to process; fear, anxiety, anger and so much more. I'm personally cycling through all of the same emotions.

The 2023 SVB Annual State of the Industry Report will be released January 18th

 Register here for the videocast, replay, presentation deck, and copy of this year's report.

Within the 2022 SVB State of the Wine Industry Survey run last October, we asked how 2022 went and got the following response. (See headline slide) 

Forty-percent of respondents said that the year was one of their better years or their best year ever. Fully sixty-five percent said it was a good year, and those results are very close to those from 2019 when we asked the same question. 

Industry Sentiment Index Turns Decisively Negative

 

We've created a Sentiment Index and have run with the idea in our State of the Industry Report for the last 6 years, gaining some interesting insights along the way. The headline slide is an early read of how the industry participants feel presently, as well as an indicator of the relative impact of pain points and success factors. 

Where Is the DTC business headed?

 

The answer to the blog title is the point of the Annual SVB Direct to Consumer Videocast, which is taking place this coming Wednesday, June 15th. 

You can sign up to receive the SVB DtC Report, receive a link to the live presentation, and a post-conference link to the videocast replay ----> [HERE.] 

Internet Sales are dramatically higher, but how do we know?

 

Selling Wine in a Pandemic

What an insane past few years! But doesn't it feel wonderful to be moving into spring and at the same time into the endemic phase of this crisis? With fewer mask mandates now, maybe we'll be able to smell the spring flowers! But before we linger too long on the warmer days ahead, we still have some work to do. So let me take you back to the start of this crisis in 2020 when the COVID case numbers began picking up. 

At that point in time, I wrote a piece called Selling Wine in a Pandemic which is one the most-read pieces I've posted. I wrote it on March 15th, 2020 - a date that is etched in my mind and probably yours if you live in California. 

If you don't recall, that was the date Governor Newsom first issued the shelter-in-place orders and closed tasting rooms, restaurants and bars. I finished writing that blog on March 15th in the morning, but by late afternoon, I had to go back and update it when news of the lock-downs came out. 

There is good news to talk about!

 

 

Last week I had a call from a friend in the wine business asking for a meeting to discuss the Annual SVB State of the Wine Industry Report. I had no real idea what he was going to say.

When we met, he told me he appreciated what I presented in the report but didn't like the stories he'd read in the news. He thought some were overly critical and missed the positive things happening in the wine business. He asked me if I should be more positive during interviews to cast a better light on the business.

From his perspective, the industry is doing really well. That's because he sees the industry from the vantage point of a business that is hitting the cover off the ball. And to his view, a very large part of the premium wine business reported 2021 was one of, if not their best year ever!