Do I really love my job?

Besides those fortunate that have managed trough a career path or just following an idea they strongly believe in, there are a large number of individuals who work for companies and are managed or merely report to others. The question is, if you like what you do and your role is what best fit your expertise and background, do you really enjoy what you do if you’re managed by boss and not by a leader?

Please share your experience!

TheRetailRoom© 

Are stores managed by performing leaders all the times?

A large variety of stores within the retail panorama, independently from the brand or the organization seem managed by employees in the managerial position, which are underperforming.

Why is that? How do we know?

There is a huge variety of stores in both outlet centers, shopping malls or even on the high street where let’s admit it customer service is awful.

Now if the store team is not having the right approach with consumer there could be a massive variety of causes, however being wrongly managed, motivated and rewarded by their line managers can be one it.

We have spoken a lot about team motivation before, and a large variety of tools and approach are available to improve that. That said could be questionable that unsuccessful managers are running retail units.

The question is why senior leaders are not aware of it

One of the answers could be that the business unit is performing from a revenue standpoint hence the satisfaction or the morale of the team doesn’t count.

You will question, “if the shop is not managed in a successful way, how the numbers can be green?” well a simple explanation of that is in the fact that the shop represent a well established brand, is in a prominent location, the company is operating a well targeted price policy for the local market and so forth.

The profitability of these units will not present a problem until there are some external circumstances that will highlight the problem; the one that an underperforming manager manages the shop.

In fact whilst is working on a short period, the store is probably hitting the quarterly revenue target, it will probably present a problem in the long run. So the question is, why senior leader are not looking at the impact of those missed opportunity in the mid-long term?

 

Share your thoughts and experience

Retail Stores : without a mid-long term vision are leaders missing opportunities to grow the business?

Retail Stores : without a mid-long term vision are leaders missing opportunities to grow the business?

 

Given fro granted that performance in general and the achievement of targets such revenues and KPI within a retail store environment are the basis of store management evaluation, seems on the other end mostly from a consumer point of view that in certain stores the management is inadequate.

 

The performance of the store is mostly related to the business turnover, but not only. In fact a store can perform regardless of the management being capable or not as we know business can thrive from outside and uncontrollable causes, few examples could be:

 

  • The store is a famous brand retail location
  • The promotions the store is operating are fit for the local market
  • The product mix is adequate to the local consumer demand
  • The store is in a prominent location
  • There are no competitors within reach
  • The location has huge traffic

 

Looking at this topic are senior leaders looking at this business scenario and evaluating it in terms of missed opportunities?

Few examples of missed opportunities we could mention:

 

  • Store team development and professional growth, is talent used at its full potential?
  • Consumer retention, is the capture rate of consumer in line with the market and comparable stores and competitors?
  • Is the store only controlling costs without investing to sustain the business growth?
  • Is the brand image safeguarded in the mid-long term?

 

In fact it is a common mistake to merely look at the business performance and potentials on monthly and quarterly basis, which in such fast paced environment like retail stores is safe, but once again could mid-long term analysis and evaluation of the above key factors grow the business exponentially?

 

Please share your thoughts on this