ProfitTime Perspective From A Time-Free Norwegian Island

I caught a segment on National Public Radio the other day that discussed how residents of Sommarøy, Norway, want their island to become a “time-free zone.”

The effort, which includes a petition signed by 300-plus residents and consideration by a member of the Norwegian Parliament, owes to the fact that the way the rest of the world measures time—in terms of hours of day and night—doesn’t really matter on the island.

You see, from mid-May until the end of July, the sun never sets on Sommarøy. Conversely, between November and January, the sun never rises.

To be sure, the islanders still find and make time to eat, sleep and live their lives.

But, to them, the clock is the problem. In fact, the segment notes that the rails on a bridge leading to the island are wrapped with watches to signal the idea that, on the “summer island,” one should leave traditional forms of measuring time behind.

The story brings to mind a central tenet of Provision ProfitTime—that the concept of using days in inventory, or calendar time, as a primary means of measuring a used vehicle’s profit potential or investment value is inherently flawed.

With ProfitTime, dealers can readily see that just because a vehicle is “fresh” doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll deliver a meaningful return on investment. Similarly, dealers also see that some vehicles, even if they’ve been in inventory  30, 45, 60 days or even longer, still offer a significant return on investment opportunity.

ProfitTime provides these mission-critical insights because it goes beyond using calendar-based days or time in inventory to measure each vehicle’s investment value. As I’ve noted here previously, ProfitTime shifts a dealer’s focus from the days they hold a vehicle to the profit potential each vehicle holds.

In this way, Sommarøy residents and ProfitTime dealers share common ground: The value of using time as a measure of life in northern Norway, and the profit potential in used vehicles, has limits.