Leadership is pretty self explanatory and a very important role. Either you are the leader or the leaded. Obviously the leader role is necessary for a business to run and be successful. There are many different leadership styles. You can have a great advisor to lead, or a real jerk that could destroy a company.
Part of a leaders role is to motivate the employees. A business would suffer if you had employees with no drive or morale. Why would they want to go to work if they hate it? It is proven that a good attitude and good working environment will promote motivated employees.
How do you motivate employees? Well, there are many different ways but I think the most desired is money. That is not a common motivational tools these days so if you get that you are one of the lucky few. It could be in the form of a bonus for meeting specific goals. Even a gift card would motivate most employees. It makes them feel like their hard work is being acknowledge.
Other ways to motivate employees may be through a speech or rally. My wife and I were walking through WalMart a few weeks ago. We were walking by the jewelry department and noticed about 25 employees standing around in a circle. A manager was standing in the middle giving a loud motivational speech. The employees would cheer back and clap their hands in rhythm. We thought it was a little strange but interesting. I googled it when I got home and found out it is called the "Morning Cheer" or as Sam Walton originally called it the "Walmart Cheer". I really don't know how well it works but they seemed to be into it.
I do think it is detrimental for a company to explore all types of ways to motivate their employees. Employee moral and positive attitudes are key to a successful business.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Standardized Position Descriptions
Position Description, is also known as a job description, has its good and bad. The good parts of it are for the manager or your boss. The bad can be more your problem as an employee.
Management can use this to let the employee know what his/her duties are, guidelines for hiring new employees, training, and evaluating employees. All of these good if you are the manager. What if your not? How may a Standardized Position Description effect you?
The problem that I have seen with a S.P.D. (Standardized Position Description) is that it is not fair to the employee. It can be used against you if they want to fire you. Management can say that you where not working under your scope of your duty. Another problem that I have with this is that you can have the same job title, which gives you the same job description, and not have the same work load. Let me give you an example. One employee could be working in a factory assembling 5 cars a day and another employee can be working in a different factory ,with he same job description, having to put out 100 cars a day. How is this fair. Its not. Employees need to be careful and think about it if they have a S.P.D.
Management can use this to let the employee know what his/her duties are, guidelines for hiring new employees, training, and evaluating employees. All of these good if you are the manager. What if your not? How may a Standardized Position Description effect you?
The problem that I have seen with a S.P.D. (Standardized Position Description) is that it is not fair to the employee. It can be used against you if they want to fire you. Management can say that you where not working under your scope of your duty. Another problem that I have with this is that you can have the same job title, which gives you the same job description, and not have the same work load. Let me give you an example. One employee could be working in a factory assembling 5 cars a day and another employee can be working in a different factory ,with he same job description, having to put out 100 cars a day. How is this fair. Its not. Employees need to be careful and think about it if they have a S.P.D.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Price discrimination
That's right I said discrimination. I always wondered if there was such a thing as price discrimination. Could a retailer sell something for different prices in different areas. Think about it Could Walmart sell something in Southlake for more and then sell that same item in small low income town for less? I would think not. Although this is possible it is not likely to see this in most retail stores.
It is called First degree price discrimination and it happens all the time. This is when the price of something changes with the willingness of what someone will pay. Take eBay or craigs list. You put something out there to sell and whoever is willing to pay the most gets it. Should we try this in our local retail stores? Can you imagine haggling over a box of Cheerios! This would maximize retailers profits. Charge customers what they are willing to pay. This is when you would want to be somewhere in the North Texas area like Southlake, Keller, or Colleyville.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Pricing Strategies
There are many strategies in pricing. One that comes to mind is during the holidays. They call it Black Friday. Do you know why it is called Black Friday? It is the only day that retailers hope to make enough profit to be in the black, not in the red. Some years are better then others.
My wife with many of other people think that this is the best day ever. It is interesting that so many people know about this one of a kind shopping day. The retailers bombards us with adds and commercials leading up to the special day. They are using one of the advantages of pricing strategies by exciting the consumer with sale prices.
Retailers pricing strategies are clear for this one day sale. They put out adds that may have a lap top in it for a incredibly low price. People will line up outside and around the corner of a store hours before they even open. All this to get that laptop. Hope they read the small print that states " 2 per store." Retailers know that this will get them in and even know they might not get the laptop that was on sale, they will probably settle for something else. We are always looking for seemingly good deals.
My wife with many of other people think that this is the best day ever. It is interesting that so many people know about this one of a kind shopping day. The retailers bombards us with adds and commercials leading up to the special day. They are using one of the advantages of pricing strategies by exciting the consumer with sale prices.
Retailers pricing strategies are clear for this one day sale. They put out adds that may have a lap top in it for a incredibly low price. People will line up outside and around the corner of a store hours before they even open. All this to get that laptop. Hope they read the small print that states " 2 per store." Retailers know that this will get them in and even know they might not get the laptop that was on sale, they will probably settle for something else. We are always looking for seemingly good deals.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Merchandise Allocation
I think back to when we lived in base housing on what was known as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base almost 10 years ago. It is a much different area today than when it was known as Carswell Air force Base. Carswell was built in 1942 and with it a community started to develop. With World War II the base became a major part of history.
After World War II the necessity of the base become less and less. Then in 1993 it was slated to close by 1994. The area around the base became very aged along with the people. Most residence were retirees. This are definitely fit in the “rustbelt Retirees” segment to merchants. Most of the town has small café to sit ands visit and small local stores to shop. Nothing to high end there.
Fortunately the decision was modified in 1994 and the base was converted into what we know as NASJRB. With it came young service men, woman and families. Most of the base housing was sold and moved making way for developers to come in and revitalize the area. It is now a booming retail circus around the base. The area has graduated into the “Laptops and Lattes” segment for merchants. With this change the merchants had to change what was in stores. It was no longer just retires shopping here.
I think now there is a nice mix of retailers. There are merchants here to accommodate everyone.
After World War II the necessity of the base become less and less. Then in 1993 it was slated to close by 1994. The area around the base became very aged along with the people. Most residence were retirees. This are definitely fit in the “rustbelt Retirees” segment to merchants. Most of the town has small café to sit ands visit and small local stores to shop. Nothing to high end there.
Fortunately the decision was modified in 1994 and the base was converted into what we know as NASJRB. With it came young service men, woman and families. Most of the base housing was sold and moved making way for developers to come in and revitalize the area. It is now a booming retail circus around the base. The area has graduated into the “Laptops and Lattes” segment for merchants. With this change the merchants had to change what was in stores. It was no longer just retires shopping here.
I think now there is a nice mix of retailers. There are merchants here to accommodate everyone.
Frequent Shopper Perks
My wife is a Kroger shopper. She shops the sales but you have to have that Kroger Plus card to benefit from those deals. They make it worth keeping up with that card as annoying as it is. If she spends over $100 she gets $.10 off per gallon of gas at the Kroger pump. That was a huge incentive when gas was almost $4.00 a gallon a few months ago.
But, my wife’s biggest struggle is keeping up with the card. She is always changing purses and coordinating wallets and sometimes that card does not make it into the current purse. This situation can quickly become a dilemma when it is time to shop.
As I read on in chapter 11 about frequent shopper programs it started in about technological advancements. The different ways retailers can get your identity and information without having to ask for it. The one most interesting to me was the fingerprint scanning. With a touch of your finger the retailer can do everything from accrue your frequent buyer points to debit your bank account. Never again would you have to worry about where that card went.
But, with any technological advancement come pros and cons. The pros are that you would not have a card to have to keep up with, no password to memorize and a fingerprint is harder to steal than a card.
Now on to the cons of fingerprint scanning. If you loose a card or forget a password you can get another and start over with a new one. If your fingerprint is stolen…and it can be done..you are stuck with it the rest of your life. An extreme and gruesome reality would be people getting their fingers cut off for their print.
The fingerprint scanning technology is not big in the U.S. yet. But it is a huge success in Germany. Over ¼ billion people now use fingerprint scanning in Germany. You can bet it is just a matter of time before that technology is widely used here.
But, my wife’s biggest struggle is keeping up with the card. She is always changing purses and coordinating wallets and sometimes that card does not make it into the current purse. This situation can quickly become a dilemma when it is time to shop.
As I read on in chapter 11 about frequent shopper programs it started in about technological advancements. The different ways retailers can get your identity and information without having to ask for it. The one most interesting to me was the fingerprint scanning. With a touch of your finger the retailer can do everything from accrue your frequent buyer points to debit your bank account. Never again would you have to worry about where that card went.
But, with any technological advancement come pros and cons. The pros are that you would not have a card to have to keep up with, no password to memorize and a fingerprint is harder to steal than a card.
Now on to the cons of fingerprint scanning. If you loose a card or forget a password you can get another and start over with a new one. If your fingerprint is stolen…and it can be done..you are stuck with it the rest of your life. An extreme and gruesome reality would be people getting their fingers cut off for their print.
The fingerprint scanning technology is not big in the U.S. yet. But it is a huge success in Germany. Over ¼ billion people now use fingerprint scanning in Germany. You can bet it is just a matter of time before that technology is widely used here.
Location, Location, Location
It is not too surprising the location is a huge consideration for retailers. It can defiantly make or break a business.
Our town started out as a nice quiet “farming” community. Inevitably through time it has evolved to much more. With that growth came the usual anchors such as Wal-Mart, Albertsons and a dozen nail salons. All of which flourish and thrive along with the population.
Our town soon caught the eye of a new company with a new concept called Fresh Lane. This company was started by a mom with young kids. A drive through grocery store was the idea. On a much smaller scale of course but it had all the staples you would need and you never had to leave your car. Great concept right?
It was for me especially when I would get he call while coming home from work. The milk and bread call. I didn’t want to have to park, walk, shop and wait in line forever. The drive through grocery store was an ideal solution.
They had no competition in the area so it should be a win win situation for Fresh Lane. The unfortunate part was that the store was located on the busiest and most congested corner of the main business street. It was hard to get into and with drivers not so polite these days it was even harder to get out of.
Needless to say this store deteriorated in less than a year. The customer service and selection was top notch. They definitely had the traffic flow but too much to cause a problem. This store had horrible site characteristics and no business can prosper without a good location.
Our town started out as a nice quiet “farming” community. Inevitably through time it has evolved to much more. With that growth came the usual anchors such as Wal-Mart, Albertsons and a dozen nail salons. All of which flourish and thrive along with the population.
Our town soon caught the eye of a new company with a new concept called Fresh Lane. This company was started by a mom with young kids. A drive through grocery store was the idea. On a much smaller scale of course but it had all the staples you would need and you never had to leave your car. Great concept right?
It was for me especially when I would get he call while coming home from work. The milk and bread call. I didn’t want to have to park, walk, shop and wait in line forever. The drive through grocery store was an ideal solution.
They had no competition in the area so it should be a win win situation for Fresh Lane. The unfortunate part was that the store was located on the busiest and most congested corner of the main business street. It was hard to get into and with drivers not so polite these days it was even harder to get out of.
Needless to say this store deteriorated in less than a year. The customer service and selection was top notch. They definitely had the traffic flow but too much to cause a problem. This store had horrible site characteristics and no business can prosper without a good location.
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