A flourishing business depends to a great extent on effective people management skills. These skills can be improved and studied. It can be a plus to have a innate affinity for dealing with people, but you can do some things to make this process easy.
Continue Reading January 5th, 2010
The current economy demands that profit can most easily be increased by cutting expenses, not a growth of income. performance management software, while often pushed to backburner, provides a significant asset for corps hoping to do this
Continue Reading September 2nd, 2009
Effective people management is crucial in attaining the best in your business success. People management can be developed and studied. It can be an advantage to have a intuitive affinity for people, but there are a lot of things you can do that will simplify the process.
Continue Reading July 7th, 2009
Your retail store is open and you are finally in business. But some questions have been left unanswered. Like how do you reach your customers? What neighborhoods do you distribute pamphlets to? What doors do you knock on? And you certainly should find out how to harness your current customer base to pull in new customers.
Print a map mural and cover your wall with it. Not one of those oversized flattened globes with a picture of a panther in South America and a whale in the ocean. Your map mural must be relevant to your business district.
Or your campaign district. Most campaigners understand the power of a map mural to a successful campaign (I know; I’ve been through my share of them!), but few business people realize how their strategy could be so much easier to achieve with the help of a wall map. I talked to Kent Hargesheimer of Geo Printer.
Here are five reasons he cites that your business could use a wall map:
5 Reasons to Love Wall Maps!
1. You have people delivering pizzas or crown jewels, political flyers or newspapers? Let your staff instantly find where they are going. Wall maps are ideal for deciding where to go before leaving the store or depot.
2. Wall maps help you plan. You can plot where the competition is, where your customers are…in fact, you can do entire SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis based on geography. If you plot demographic data, you can easily see where your best target customers are located.
3. Wall maps can help you define delivery or sales territories to maximize revenues. Use erasable markers to redefine territories as need…such as when you add new customers to the map.
4. Map Murals can actually draw traffic in off the street. If your map shows the surrounding neighborhood, people will drop in to your store to find out where other stores and services are located. Here’s a tip - let customers post a small colored sticker on the map to “mark their spot”…As a bonus, you’ll get an excellent visualization of where your customers are located.
5. Local map murals are a great addition to the office decor. They make your employees feel a little more connected to the community and can also instill a sense of who the customer is and why they are there (to serve the customer, right?)
Before you print a map mural, the map will have to be designed. There are many great options available at online software stores.
A map on the wall motivates staff and keeps them organized. It connects you to your customers. Posting a map mural says,” We are in business and ready to conquer.” Just don’t try putting up a map of the world…at least, not to start with.
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David Leonhardt is a freelance writer, in this case writing for GIS 4 Less software store, GEO Printer custom wall map printing and Catosphere Demographics. |
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June 3rd, 2008
Defining Logistics
On the glossary page of AboutRetail.net, logistics is defined as “the planning and execution of product distribution”. When you purchase milk, bread or just about anything these days from your local store, the journey from producer to store will have been thoroughly planned and executed, unless, of course, your store happened to have a cow and a bread mill in the back yard.
Logistics is a word that has morphed from one definition to another, depending on the era and depending on the application. It can be applied to calculations (its original meaning) as well as to military planning. In fact, it has been used in a wide variety of settings. The word logistics has such a wide sweep, it is danger of having no meaning at all. In recent years it has been adopted by what used to be known as the distribution industry.
Distribution is a simple matter of throwing some goods into a truck, ship or aeroplane at point A and throwing them out point B……oh, plus the little matter of getting from A to B. Logistics is a word that encompasses distribution, but also takes into account the fact that the vehicle needs to be ready for service, the driver (or captain) must also be available and with enough hours on his shift, the goods to be collected are ready, the journey has been planned, including en route stops, the recipient is ready to receive the goods…and
there are many more parts of the logistics jigsaw. The word logistics fits the bill very well. All those definitions it has collected over the years are perfectly appropriate to the multitude of tasks that are performed and the multi-task attributes of its performers (some say “logisticians”) that all come under the banner of logistics.
The Need to Move Goods Backwards
Industrialized economies have honed their logistics skills to the point where vast quantities of goods can be efficiently moved from many locations to many more locations, via many stop-off points, all tracked and counted. Like a well-oiled machine. A well oiled machine with no reverse gear, that is. The greasy spanner in the works of this machine is the need to move things from B to A. Many logistics set ups are great at forward movements but are lousy at reverse movements, or reverse logistics as it is commonly known. It could be argued that the more sophisticated the forward logistics is, the more clumsy is the reverse logistics.
There are many reasons for this. One chief reason is that paperless systems have been built into forward logistics where products are scanned as they pass a threshold. Trouble is, some systems are not programmed to accept products scanned in reverse. As reverse transactions have historically been rare (the odd returned consignment, perhaps), old fashioned pen and paper has been used to record them. Another reason is that once a vehicle has unloaded, it may not return to its base. Sending a box back is not a simple matter of running the system in reverse. In a simple one-to-one distribution system, this would be entirely possible. The vehicle departs A, arrives at B, unloads and loads the return box for the return journey to A. Increasingly, this simple transaction is not appropriate in modern day logistics. In a one-to-many system the vehicle may end up at the wrong end of the country (or world). In another common scenario the vehicle may go on to collect another load and need to leave the last port of call empty.
Why there is a Growth in Reverse Logistics
Most organisations can handle a gentle trickle of paperwork and can fit a few returned boxes on a passing vehicle, so what is the problem? Well, the problem is that traffic in goods travelling backwards through the supply chain is no longer confined to a few unwanted returns. The following list represents the new pressures to send goods backwards:
- Goods destined for recycling
- Reusable packaging
- Goods being disposed of
I’ll take these areas in turn:
Goods Being Recycled:
There is global pressure
on us all to improve on our efforts to recycle goods. This pressure is uneven, with a burden placed on business (and local authorities) that is out of proportion to the burden placed on individuals. Whether this is right or wrong it is, in most countries nowadays, this is the reality that must be faced. More and more vehicles are taking goods back in order for those goods to be fully or partially recycled. This increase is likely to accelerate globally over the next few years.
Reusable Packaging:
Environmental needs have also resulted in a requirement to reuse
packaging much more than we have done in the past. Old fashioned fibreboard boxes that get dumped after one journey are no longer acceptable in an increasing amount of companies. This is not just an environmental imperative, with the legal and moral pressures to comply, it is also an economical necessity: very often reusing packaging saves money.
Disposal
In some countries there are new laws - or will soon be - that compel companies to take back certain goods when customers wishes to dispose of them. These may be electrical items or products containing hazardous, or potentially hazardous, material.
Using Third Parties as a Stop-Gap
All in all, the reverse logistics channels will become busier and old ways of doing things will need to be revised. For now, some large companies with slick but complex forward logistics systems are ducking the issue altogether and employing third parties to deal with returns. This way they can continue as if
nothing has changed, not having to worry about filling return journeys with these items. Using third parties is OK as a short term gap filler. It allows a breathing space and isolates the add on costs of reverse logistics. By doing things this way, companies can then set about integrating reverse logistics with
their current forward logistics having learned lessons through their third party partners. Third parties are good at dealing with goods that need specialist handling and in particular goods that require a controlled and specially licensed disposal regime, but, in the long term it makes more economical sense
to take a holistic approach to the movement of goods, regardless in what direction they are travelling. The reason is that the same vehicles and the same personnel are perfectly capable of moving goods both ways. It’s just the systems that need to be updated. If this is not done, then you will end up with logistics where the tail is wagging the dog. Logistics is built around movement of goods. The goods should not be moved according to the dictates of the system. This is not logical; and you can’t have illogical logistics, can you?
Just take goods that are to be disposed. Most goods that are destined for disposal, will contain parts that have a value, either to sell or to be reused as components in new products. If a company supplied these goods in the first place, surely it would make economic sense to recover components from disposal
items rather than see them sold off cheaply. This is where the use of third parties to handle disposal returns might eventually be seen as an unnecessary overhead. If the goods originated in a factory and that factory needs the recovered parts again, why is there a need for a third party to collect returns from the customer, strip out the parts and then send these parts back to the factory. Surely the production environment in a factory is the perfect place to do the whole job. Those that make the goods will be the best judge of what parts can and cannot be reused.
Reverse logistics is a growing aspect of nearly every supply chain. Those that are embracing this fact and are building reverse flows into their systems will be the winners.
Vernon Stent is the author of “Waste Watchers” (now revised as an e-book) and an authority on Global
Transit Packaging and Reverse
Logistics.
May 20th, 2008
“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” André Gide, French writer who won the 1947 Nobel Prize for literature
An entrepreneur decided it was time to give his daughter, a recent business-school graduate, a lesson “in the real world.” “In business, ethics are very important,” he began. “Say, for instance, that a client comes in and settles his hundred-dollar account in cash. After he leaves, you notice a second hundred-dollar bill stuck to the first one. Immediately you are presented with an ethical dilemma…” The entrepreneur paused, “should you tell your partner?”
Hypocrisy is “the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.” The word has its roots in part from a Greek word meaning “to play a part, pretend.” I have come to believe that there are two types of hypocrisy: 1. Deceiving or being untrue to others; and 2. Deceiving or being untrue to myself. The first type of hypocrisy is detestable. It’s an intentional attempt to fool someone else. The second type is sad. It is an unintentional lack of self-awareness.
In Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance, Lady Hunstanton says to Mrs. Allonby, “how clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say.” Some people seem to feel that leadership is about image and appearances. They try to look and act the part. They work hard at faking their sincerity. They’re about as authentic as “natural vinyl.” Everyone’s “phony detectors” are getting ever better at spotting this leadership acting. We can quickly see the difference between leadership doing and being. We know when someone is “doing their leadership thing” or really being a leader. One reason that Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoon strip and books have been so popular is because they expose and ridicule leadership fakery (the big danger is that they also turn people into crusty cynics who automatically assume insincere and faked leadership in most people they see. If we look hard enough for evidence to support our biases, we’ll generally find it).
A major contributor to the self-hypocrisy that leads me to fool myself is my own ego. If I suffer from “I-strain,” I can’t see myself very well. If I have a full head of esteem, I can’t separate doing leadership from being a leader. If I get on my high horse that doesn’t raise me higher (and it’s almost impossible to dismount gracefully). If I have money, prestige, or position I may believe I am a successful leader. I can head down Lover’s Lane holding my own hand. I can forget that praise, like perfume, should be sniffed and not swallowed. The irony is that when we are most full of ourselves is when we are least aware of how full of ourselves we are.
It’s too easy to get confused by the images and appearances of leadership. Too often we see leadership as doing and having. At that level, we can easily become leadership hypocrites. True leadership is being and becoming. Authentic leadership is from the inside out. When we are true to ourselves and actively blaze our own leadership pathway, it’s impossible to be a leadership hypocrite despite how others might see us.
Excerpted from Jim’s fourth bestseller, Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. View the book’s unique format and content, Introduction and Chapter One, and feedback showing why nearly 100,000 copies are now in print at http://www.growingthedistance.com. Jim’s new companion book to Growing the Distance is The Leader’s Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. Jim Clemmer is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles.
April 8th, 2008
Many of us spend long hours at our desk. To assist make the most of every day we need to focus on creating an environment condusive to work. By establishing a good desk environment you are guaranteed to improve your efficiency and achieve more in your day.
The paperless desk. Remove all paperwork from your desk: establish files for your projects; reference folders for information you need to access regularly; a reading file for articles, reports, journals and FYI documents; and a daily-file for administrative, miscellaneous and day-specific tasks, and keep these on shelves or in drawers.
The only thing on your desk at any point in time should be information relating to the task or project you are currently working on. Before you move on to the next task or project, file your paperwork and ensure you only have items relating to the new task on your desk.
Out of sight, out of mind. Remove your in-tray from your desk or get rid of it all together if you can! Keep it out of sight so the contents don’t distract you and so that people don’t drop new items into it without you noticing.
Having an overflowing in-tray in front of you can make you feel guilty and tempt you to get distracted from the task at hand. Educate your colleagues to leave documents for you on your desk, where you will see and either action or file them as they arrive, rather than having them get lost in your in-tray.
Avoid double-handling. Many people believe you should only handle paper once. This may not always be practical however if you get into the habit of making ‘action notes’ on each piece of paper your time will be well spent. Either write directly onto the paper or use a post it note to remind yourself of what action needs to be taken on that paper. This way you will avoid handling the paper multiple times.
Stationery drawer. Keep stationary in cupboards or drawers rather than on your desk. Get rid of all the clutter and keep your desk clear for essential items relating to the current piece of work you are doing.
Set up a comfort zone. Take the time to set up your PC, monitor, phone, chair and other vital tools properly. Make sure they are within easy reach and positioned for comfortable use.
Inspire yourself. Surround yourself with positive images. Keep a photo or phrase that motivates you in view to remind you of, and motivate you toward continually striving for your goals: it could be a holiday destination you want to visit, a photo of your family or a quote that inspires you.
Shut down. Take ten minutes to clear your desk at the end of every day: wash your coffee cup, empty your water bottle, put away pens and note pads, file documents and lock away confidential information. Leave each day with a clear desk and start each new day afresh.
Neen is a Global Productivity Expert: by looking at how they spend their time and energy - and where they focus their attention - Neen helps people to rocket-charge their productivity and performance. A dynamic speaker, author and corporate trainer, Neen demonstrates how boosting your productivity can help you achieve amazing things. With her unique voice, sense of fun and uncommon common-sense, Neen delivers a powerful lesson in productivity. Find out more at http://www.neenjames.com/
April 4th, 2008
Sometimes setting goals alone is not the only problem that you must face. Sometimes, choosing the right goals to begin with is harder.
Basically, you can choose to work any goal that you feel is necessary for your health, stability and happiness.
Goal setting is nothing more than a formal process for personal planning. By setting goals on a routine basis you decide what you want to achieve, and then move in a step-by-step manner towards the achievement of these goals.
The process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life. By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you know what you have to concentrate on to do it. You also know what nothing more than a distraction is.
Goal setting is a standard technique used by professional athletes, successful business people and high achievers in all fields. It gives you long term vision and provides you with short term motivation.
It helps to focus your attention and knowledge which helps you to organize your resources. By setting sharp and clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless effort.
By setting goals, you will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your and ability to meet the goals that you have set. The process of achieving goals and seeing this achievement gives you confidence that you will be able to achieve higher and more difficult goals later on.
Goals are set on a number of different levels. In the first place, you decide what you want to do with your life and what large scale goals you want to achieve.
Second, you break these down into the smaller aims that you must hit so that you reach your overall lifetime goals.
Finally, once you have your plan, you start working towards achieving it.
Christos Varsamis is the creator and publisher of the http://www.settinglifegoals.com
April 2nd, 2008
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