Success....or Status Quo
By Francis Clark
VP Business Development
Profitect
I find a lot of people in
leadership positions maintaining the Status Quo in their
positions rather than innovating and fear as in Dan
Faketty’s excellent presentation at NRF-LP that they will
either ‘Innovate or Evaporate’. Rather than pushing the
‘envelope’ it appears that they are squirreled away inside
the envelope with an extra-strength roll of duct tape and
are busily taping and double taping the seams to prevent any
accidental light from coming in.
Sam Edge commented on innovation a couple of months ago that
you need to explore what is happening if you’re going to
stay current and relevant but it appears for many that the
exact opposite is happening. Digging a hole and pulling the
dirt in on top of you.
It is tough in today’s Retail Industry regardless of the
leadership role you have. Change is a daily occurrence and
if you’re not leading or participating in the change events
then you must like the exhaust fumes. It has been said there
are 3 kinds of people:
| 1. Those that make change
happen |
| 2. Those that see change
happening |
| 3. Those that say ‘what
happened’ |
To which I add a 4th type of person:
Innovation and change leadership comes with some pain and
exposure but also comes with rewards. What ‘change’ are you
making happen in your company, your department?
Here’s an exercise that you can do: encourage your
team...and you...to develop a minimum of 2 plans to double
the quantifiable delivery that your area of the business
makes to the total business ‘next year’ without adding any
staff. To do this exercise, first, you have to be able to
quantify what you are delivering today. Can you do that?
Another thought is the consider what your CEO might say if
asked ‘what does your Asset Protection/Loss Prevention
Department deliver to the company’s total annual success?’
Do you know how that question will be answered?
With change happening every day in the Retail Industry what
are you doing to ‘change’ your effectiveness for your
company? Many of you are mired in technology and policy that
hasn’t changed for 10 years or more. When you see new
technology or hear of new innovations are the first 3 things
out of your mouth ‘reasons why it won’t work for your
company’? Have you changed your phone multiple times over
the same 10 years...but not how you get your job done? Or
the tools that your team uses?
Might there be something wrong with that?
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