A colleague of mine recently shared with me the story of “The 5 monkeys”. Some of you may already know this story, but please bare with me for a moment while I share with you the version of this story I heard. Some years ago, scientists placed 5 of our nearest evolutionary relatives in a glass cage.
Every year I am lucky enough to travel the world and – like a voyeuristic sponge – soak up new knowledge from the best (and worst) the wonderful world of retail has to offer. Of particular interest over the many years of retail gluttony I have indulged in is the study of department stores because they affect the competitive context for so many categories.
Interesting media skirmish. The head of the Australian Retailers Association and one of Australia’s most successful retail entrepreneurs clash over the state of retail. In the blue corner, self-made billionaire Gerry Harvey and in the red corner Russel Zimmermann – defender of the average retailer.
Nothing excites me more than seeing queues outside shops. The buzz. The noise. The energy. The tell tale signs that a retailer is doing it right and that shoppers love it. Forget media propaganda, if you travel around the world you’ll see it everywhere. Retailers doing incredibly well and happy smiling shoppers expressing the joy of the shopping experience and gladly parting with their money.
We’ve all read the case studies. We’ve all been taught the principles. When you are managing a business you need to foster the loyalty of your staff and suppliers. We spend money on staff climate studies to help us gauge how well we are doing at fostering loyalty amongst our staff and more money on the initiatives to generate loyalty.
While shopper’s willingness to spend is only limited by what they perceive they have to spend, dollars spent at retail continue to grow in Australia to all time highs. Interest rate increases are beginning to affect the cumulative debt levels they can continue to service, but shoppers are still out there spending nonetheless and still in increasing dollar amounts.
Our political system has changed a great deal since the ill-feted Athenian system of ‘democracy’ that lasted less than two generations before it was corrupted. And the change has been downhill all the way. Today’s political system resembles the dogmatic beliefs and polarized actions of opposing football fanatics more than it does a system working for the balanced advancement of the majority of society and the over-exploited term of ‘the national interest’.
We live in times that conspire to create the belief in people that they should follow their dreams no matter how unrealistic, no matter how self-centered, no matter the consequences. Without following your dreams and waking each day filled with the passion of doing what you love – so the self-help gurus promote – nobody’s life can possibly be fulfilled. And one of the most common and passionately held dreams is the one of being your own boss.
I love the start of the Truman Show – the movie in which Jim Carey greets each day in a colourful seaside town. With a spring in his step and a smile on his face, he skips through day after day floating on a cloud of happiness and joy, greeted by a procession of smiling faces and uplifting interaction. No – I have not recently been prescribed high doses of Prozac. Rather the mono-syllabic media diet I am continually force fed made me pause to think about its effects on us and our motivation.
The retail industry in this country is blessed with some of the best retail buyers and buying practices in the world. Combining data analysis with sourcing and negotiating skills, these experienced professionals manage their categories with ultimate precision and definitive numbers to eek continual productivity gains from all the inputs within their obvious control.