Comments

Important Notice from ‘the Management’:

‘If morale doesn't improve around here the sackings will continue'

What we need more than ever in ‘bad times’ is honesty from our leaders – will we get it?

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 2, 2008 6:14 PM

My comment from the airline post on 7/1 touches on this perspective. It's so easy to cut staff, to charge for each bag, to charge consumers based on weight, and to make you pay for half of a soft-drink.

Cut, cut, cut is the easy way...at least for those that have no skills or perspective to take on the bigger challenge of innovating to supercharge the value proposition.

Cutting the low-hanging fruit will get you a quick result, but often leads to a loss of customers down the road.

There are a lot of cowards out there, and a lot of people that cant' see the systemic implications of their actions (...it makes their brain hurt, just like eating a snow cone too fast).

...on second though, isn't that exactly the behavior many organizations tend to reward?

Screw it...give me a snow cone.

Posted by Manoj Pawar at July 3, 2008 12:25 AM

The company I work for here in the UK cut staff earlier in the year and is now paying the price for it as stores don't have enough staff to cover holiday periods or to cover the implementation of major events such as promotions and the July sales.

Little consultation has taken place with store managers as to how the company can improve its sales. My store gets a fair amount of fashion product in, yet it has been stated on a number of occasions that I have an older customer base. In some cases, I'm taking stock off other stores that isn't available through our warehousing system.

Time and time again our company is buying in products which aren't selling (even though the same products and colours haven't sold in previous years) or put the price up on a product that does start selling. This usually has the net result of killing our sales for said product.

Little wonder then that the turnover of staff at store manager level has been quite high over the last year or so. I'm still working on my exit strategy, largely because the comments that I and other managers are making to help the company improve matters don't appear to be getting passed on at the moment.

It's a difficult time at the moment if you're in retail (as Marks and Spencer's admitted yesterday), but until the higher ups start listening to those on the shop floor, it's only going to get worse.

Do I use guerilla tactics to get sales? Yes. Do I break the 'rules'? Yes. And will I continue to do so? Yes. My store's less than 5% down on last year's sales whilst others are more than 30% down...

I also have a happy staff, because they do see the boss getting his hands dirty on the shop floor (and getting the brush and dustpan out and the Hoover too...).

Posted by Keith Rickaby at July 3, 2008 5:10 AM

‘.... but until the higher ups start listening to those on the shop floor, it's only going to get worse.

...I also have a happy staff, because they do see the boss getting his hands dirty on the shop floor (and getting the brush and dustpan out and the Hoover too...)’

You are a real leader Keith!! - Brilliant!

If your 'higher ups' had done what you do maybe your company would not have its current problems. It’s a complete no brainer – love and respect your front liners and get your hands dirty – what can be more simple?

I say ‘walking the talk’ means getting your hands dirty. You never lose the responsibility of making sure the job gets done. Your credibility as a manager is linked to how dirty you are prepared to see your hands get.

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 3, 2008 5:30 AM

Thanks Trevor

Did have one big smiling face on Tuesday morning during our twice weekly conference call. Our Area Manager issued a 'Beat the boss' challenge last week.

Basically we had to put an increase on sales last Saturday and we also had to beat what he did during a spell managing a shop for the day. Result? He was down on the day and only one store in the whole area was up on last year. Mine...

Funnily enough he was quite affable when he walked through my shop door at 5pm on Tuesday night...

Posted by Keith Rickaby at July 3, 2008 11:44 AM

Keith,,,good for you sir. It is terrific to hear another person who verifies and validates the approach to leadership that some of us have long practiced and seen first hand the get great results you can achieve. Trevor's take on credibility is absolutely on point...it's the greatest capital a leader can have and it sound's as if you have a great deal banked with your team.

Posted by Dave Wheeler at July 4, 2008 9:39 PM

I think the reason why so many companies choose to bludgeon their business to death whenever the economists go “boo” is because to actually run the business you have to get right down into the details, while most mangers are far too lazy to bother with this. The talking heads yammer on about meaningless generalities because that is all they can do, and far too many senior mangers try to take those generalities and apply them directly to their business. GDP down? Then it must be time to mindlessly trim a few employees.

I have a lot of sympathy for the retail complaints posted above. I live in Edmonton, Canada (where we are definitely NOT having a recession) and I firmly believe that every chain store in the city that could double its ROI by telling the central managers to bugger off and by paying close attention to what is happening on their floors.
At the floor-level there are endless examples of things that could be improved:

Example 1), at the Zeller’s across the street from me there is an air-mattress that has been sitting on the shelf for three years. The problem is that the mattress was accidentally given a price-code that forbids the product from being sold. There is not one person at that store, including the manager, who has the authority to override the price-code and allow the mattress to be sold.

Example 2), 90% of the Edmonton population dress in dark or solid colors. Last year, the Gods of marketing decided that everything was going to be bright neon lollipop colors. I actually dragged a clerk at a West Edmonton mall clothing store out into the hallway and asked him to look at the 3000-5000 people walking buy, not one of whom was dressed like a damn lollipop. And yet, that was what they were selling.

Example 3) Because of all the oil-rig workers there is an extremely high percentage of the population that buys “extra-large” shirts. Because of this, you can do into any department store in town and find a “hole” in their inventory in this size, Huge piles of small, medium, large and extra-extra large clothing is on sale everywhere, while everything decent in xtra-large flys off in hours. Again the situation has been like this for the past 3-5 years with absolutely no sign of the stores adjusting their inventories.

I could go on like this for days, and I don’t even work in retail. My point is this. Managing based on the general condition of the economy is retarded. During downturns, you should be doing the exact same things you are doing during upturns, Ie: empowering your people to drive operational excellence into your front-line operations. By staying focused on excellence, you will grow your company year after year recession or not.

Posted by John G at July 5, 2008 11:15 AM

'I firmly believe that every chain store in the city that could double its ROI by telling the central managers to bugger off and by paying close attention to what is happening on their floors.'

Amen John G - brilliant!

I love your 3 examples - all so simple. Give the power to people at the front line - they don’t need meddling 'managers' …. They just need permission - they know the answers. I reckon we could get rid of 80% of existing ‘managers’ who add no value whatsoever to the customer experience and that may be an under-estimate.

Thanks John G, Keith and Dave .... Looks like at least 4 of us are singing from the most sensible hymn sheet in town.

Posted by Trevor Gay at July 5, 2008 2:33 PM

Sounds like great company to be in...John G...focusing on excellence through the frontline is a prescription for survival anytime...good or bad alike!

Posted by Dave Wheeler at July 5, 2008 4:25 PM

There is absolutely not other way but get the going more determined regardless of what. It is necessary to collectively create –each in its battlefield—better pre-conditions for the economy (which is reinventing itself).

Nonetheless, without MORALE and MORALITY (I am not a moralist), any other effort will be truncated. Good possibilities are there though.

Posted by Andres Agostini (Andy) at July 8, 2008 9:05 AM