What would change a row of stalls that all sell the same thing.

Last time: councils and ministries decide which spots are on offer, and a trader can only pick from those. So if a row of stalls selling the same thing is not what you want, telling the traders to be different is the wrong place to start. Our reading: the trader who tries something new carries the whole risk, and customers may not follow, so staying in the row is the safer bet.

Councils and ministries could change what traders can see, which spots they can get and how long they can stay. None of the three changes asks a trader to take that risk.

The first is what traders can see. Ampang Jaya's council evaluates sites for MyKiosk, the government's roadside kiosk programme, on how densely populated the area is, how much traffic passes and how easy the place is to reach. Our suggestion: if the council shared what it looks at, a newcomer could judge a site without waiting for a neighbour to test it.

The second is which spots they can get. From 2025, DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall) handles Ramadan bazaar licence applications itself, to keep stall rents reasonable. Our suggestion: it could also spread lots across kinds of food, so a newcomer with a different dish has a place.

The third is how long they can stay. The Star reported that in Hang Tuah Jaya traders are issued one-year licences, while a standard hawker licence covers three months. Our reading: a licence long enough to survive a slow month lets a trader try something different.

Go back to the nasi lemak stall at the bottom of the LRT stairs, and the second stall that opened beside it weeks later. The second trader read the first stall's results and picked the best spot on offer. He joined a row that, up to a point, brings in more customers than he would alone. What he did not have was the traffic and population figures the council uses, a choice beyond the spots on offer, or a licence long enough to try something different. Councils and ministries hold all three.

If you ever call a row of stalls ikut-ikutan (copying without thinking), ask what the second trader could see when he chose. He could see how the first stall was selling, and little else.

Ask the same at work. A team keeps its own spreadsheet because the shared one lags behind. A customer stays with the old supplier because switching means a week of disrupted orders, and nobody has shown them it works. Find what each is a sensible response to, then fix that: show the figures, and let people try the change on one small job first.