Proactive vs. Reactive Business – And the Chaos of Missing Price Data

Being proactive in business means anticipating what’s coming — adjusting prices, stock, and strategy before problems arise. Reactive means waiting for something to break… and then scrambling to fix it.

Take pricing, for example.

A proactive business has clean, up-to-date price data at its fingertips. Need to adjust for a currency shift or a promo? Click. Done.

A reactive business? Well — imagine this:

You get an urgent call from sales. “The customer needs the new net price now — and it needs to be competitive!” So you start digging…

• Price lists from six different suppliers… all formatted differently.

• Old Excel files named Final-Final-V3-Newest.xls.

• Emails with subject lines like “RE: RE: Re: Updated pricing maybe???”

• And of course, someone’s on holiday — the one person who “knows how we usually do this.”

Now imagine repeating that chaos… for every product line.

That’s the price of being reactive — wasted time, lost margin, and unhappy customers. Proactive pricing means clarity, speed, and control — and way less coffee-fueled midnight spreadsheet battles.