From the Dark Side of Productivity
I’m with a firm that spends much of its time helping clients improve productivity and reduce costs. We are ever mindful of the negative side—the “dark side”—of productivity projects. What is the dark side? It’s what happens if we don’t take the human factor into account. As someone with 30 years of experience in industrial [...]
The “News” Is Good – But At What Cost?
Early reports from Black Friday and the remainder of the post-Thanksgiving weekend seemed positive enough: “The holiday shopping season got off to a better-than-expected start” said The Wall Street Journal; “Consumers swarmed the nation’s stores over the weekend… giving retailers a little Christmas cheer” said the Washington Post. But beneath that cheery exterior are some [...]
The Car That Changed America
I opened the Wall Street Journal the other day and was surprised to learn that October 1st marked 100 years since Ford’s Model T went on sale. The article by Paul Ingrassia was called, appropriately, “This Car Changed America” and it certainly did. But the ways it changed America are much more far-reaching than just [...]
Is It Time For Free Shipping?
As I started to write this, the House of Representatives had failed to pass the Bailout Bill, adding one more giant dent in consumer confidence.
Luxury retailers have finally starting feeling the pain that other retailers have been experiencing. Neiman Marcus posted a $35.7 million loss for the quarter ending August 2, and warned that the [...]
Everything but Champagn Online Couture Goes Haute With Virtual Trunk Shows
Trunk shows cover a lot of territory these days, thanks to the Internet. A variety of artists and artisans, resellers, and even retailers, have been hosting online, or virtual, trunk shows for the last few years. At one end of the spectrum, this kind of show can represent a sort of Tupperware party held in [...]
Middle East as Outsourcing Hot Spot
We’ll just go out on a limb and guess that the Middle East is not the first part of the world that comes to readers’ minds as an up-and-coming hot spot for outsourcing. Middle East these days is likely to make U.S. readers think first of war in Iraq or Afghanistan or fighting in Israel [...]
Brooks Brothers Goes Mod
So there I was reading the Wall Street Journal (July 17, 2007, B1) and I turned the page to a headline and picture which really set me back: “Brooks Brothers Tries A Hip Line: Will It Suit?†Are they joking? What is that white-taped seam doing on—a morning coat?
If Brooks Brothers’ founders [...]
Multichannel Shoppers Can Save Money
It’s not necessarily news, but if you shop online there are definitely some tips you can use to help you save money. We’ve been telling people for a while that there are ways to maximize savings by shopping cross-channel. The July 16 edition of NBC’s Today Show addressed this topic with a segment on advantages—and [...]
Data Vanishes Into Thin Air
It’s beginning to sound like a James Bond movie: “. . . hackers pointed a telescope-shaped antenna toward the store and used a laptop computer to decode data streaming through the air between hand-held price-checking devices, cash registers and the store’s computers.†This TJX security breach story just won’t go away—now The Wall Street Journal [...]
Bad News for Santa
Just how bad were holiday retail sales? It seems to depend on who you ask, or what set of figures you want to use, or when you want to ask. The National Retail Federation stuck throughout the holiday to its forecast of a 5% increase in holiday retail sales, and is waiting to reconcile that [...]
