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Collaboration in the Retail Industry: A Q&A with Chris Petersen

Interview with Francesca Nicasio 

The key to winning in today’s retail environment is to serve your customers in the best way possible. This means giving them the products they need at a good price, and then fulfilling their orders in the speediest and most cost-effective way possible.

It’s a tall order, and the fact of the matter is, you can’t do it alone. To truly wow today’s modern shoppers, you need to collaborate, and leverage the resources of other parties so you can focus on what you do best as a retailer.

But, how exactly can you establish these strategic partnerships?

That’s what we’ll discuss in today’s post. We caught up with Chris Petersen, founder at Integrated Marketing Solutions and had a chat about how retailers can achieve success through collaborations.

Have a look at what he has to say.

Employee Engagement: Why You Need It & How To Increase It

Among the world’s leading brands, a top-down commitment to building and maintaining a customer-centric culture is priority one. But equally important is keeping an ear to the ground.

When was the last time you asked your employees for feedback?

Do you know how they feel about their jobs, the company as a whole, its policies and procedures, and its leadership?

Many retailers don’t realize how important this is. How cost effective it is. How helpful it is in getting a complete picture of the customer experience. And how much it matters to your associates on the front lines—the people you trust to represent your brand and to make your customers feel welcome, appreciated, and well served.

3 Innovation lessons from the Hippo Water Roller story

To understand what innovation means, walk a mile in their shoes

By Chris H. Petersen

The term innovation is tossed around a lot these days. Innovation is often defined as breakthrough improvement in technology or processes. The ability to track customer traffic through the LED lights in stores would be considered a recent tech innovation in retail location analysis. An equally valid definition of innovation is "the introduction of something new". The idea of a "water roller" is not "new". But, the introduction of the Hippo Water Roller is an innovation that is changing the lives of women fetching water in Africa. We can all learn value lessons of applying something in a new way to solve practical problems.

Why this is important: Innovation does not require inventing something entirely new. Too often, our cultural blinders prevent us from seeing how the introduction of something simple can create huge value in changing people's lives.

In order to survive & thrive … don’t breathe your own exhaust

Biggest threat to today's retailers lies within the walls of the ivory tower

Image Credit: MrWildlife

The biggest challenge and competitive threat to retailers' today lies within. Traditional retailers have rich legacy of improving how to sell products through stores. These successes have the effect of creating habits or patterns, which become "accepted standards". The danger is that today's consumers are challenging many of these standards by their new patterns of how they shop anytime and everywhere. If managers "breathe their own exhaust" they tend to miss important trends and fail to ask the right questions. To thrive even in the near term requires both the courage and discipline of asking the tough questions, rather than repeating the "party line". Those retailers breathing their own exhaust are expiring at an increasing rate.

Why this is important: It is very easy to fall into the trap of over estimating how good you are today. Tomorrow's success requires management to ask the tough questions of what is NOT being done to meet consumer's changing expectations.

Reverse mentoring enables execs to tap millennial minds

How companies can use digital natives to build tomorrow's strategy

Image Credit: Ambro

The tradition of "seniority" still holds true in most companies. Most members of the C-Suite are "mature". Unless the company is a startup, it would be extremely rare to find a C-Suiter or board member that is a millennial. Yet, the biggest wave coming in terms of employees and purchase power is the millennial generation. Millennials are the first generation of "digital natives". So, how can company leaders and boards innovate and prepare strategies for this unique demographic? Some companies are experimenting with "reverse mentoring" of pairing a millennial with a C-Suite leader or board member.

Why this is important: The old saying that "you are what you were when" applies to Boomers and Gen Xers in the C-Suite today. In order to innovate beyond their traditional paradigms, leaders need a fresh perspective from the digital natives.

The Black Dot – An eye opening story for business and our life

We are only limited by our vision of what we "see"

The stated purpose of this blog is to explore both business topics and the journey called life. We do a pretty good job of covering the business of retail and consumer trends. We often miss the balance of covering topics related to the "business of life". This week, we have a metaphor that applies to both business and life. Sometimes, it is the simplest of stories that causes us to stop and take stock of the world around us. Take a brief moment to test your own vision to discover what you "see".

Why this is important: In business, and life, we all get caught up in details and lose perspective. Sometimes, it takes a simple story to make us ponder what is important, and open our eyes to potential we miss around us.

Top 10 Lessons and Reasons for the Season

A wonderful time of the year to pause, reflect and soak it all in

I started writing about the year-end in retail and quickly decided that the last thing people need this week is another blog on retail! In much of the world, many are racing to close the week in order to celebrate Christmas and the other holidays of the season. While there are many cultures and holiday traditions, it seems that the last two weeks of year are one time when much of the world takes some time to hit the pause button, celebrate and share quality time with family and friends. So in that spirit, I wanted to share my Top 10 from a great list that has been shared with me for this holiday season.

Why this is important: In today's world, it seems that things are speeding up every year. It is easy to get caught up in the hectic hustle, and focus on what is wrong or what we missed. Don't miss the reasons for the season! Hit pause and reflect on what you do have … and count your blessings, they are more than you will ever know.

Is it time to kill the college major?

3 ways to survive your college major and advance your career

Image Credit: FrameAngel; Freedigitalphotos.net

Most colleges and universities have started classes again across North America. One of the biggest challenges for college freshmen and their parents is choosing a "major". A major not only lays out a curriculum of classes, it often becomes a declaration of a career choice. Many of us working still don't know what we want to be when we grow up! And, all too often, we find that the major we chose at 18 years old didn't fit the reality of the workplace. Many academics are now challenging whether a college major is outdated in the age of the internet. Is it time we killed the traditional college major? Would you send your kids to a university that asked them to define what problems they want to solve instead of declaring a major?

Why this is important: Higher education represents a huge individual investment. Both graduates and employers are questioning how to best prepare the talent needed for a rapidly changing economy requiring skills not covered by traditional "majors". What you are doing with your own learning significantly impacts your career.

What are you looking for … the cure or the story?

Defining what good is depends upon the situation and context

Seth Godin is one of the most prolific writers and users of social media on this planet. He also writes very catchy headlines, like this one that caught my eye: "The cure or the story?" Turns out that Godin was able to describe the situational context of consumer experience in a post of just 76 words! "The plumber sells us a cure, politicians try to sell us narratives." Retailers would do well to recognize that on a given day, consumers are sometimes looking for a plumber, other times looking for a consultant, and sometimes just looking.

Why this matters: Marketers and retailers have spent a lot of time trying to segment different types of consumers who buy products. Few seem to recognize the power and potential of personalizing service based upon what consumers are solving for in the context of their personal situation.

Generals and CEOs are ditching PowerPoint at meetings

If all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a "nail"

Every once in a while you need to step back and take a look at your "normal process". Since I do a lot of workshops, my norm is about 5,000 PowerPoint slides a year. So, it was a bit of a shock to read a NPR article to find that top leaders are ditching PowerPoint in order to achieve new levels of interaction and problem solving. Has PowerPoint become a barrier in business? If so, what are the alternatives? How can you and I become more effective?

Why this is important: Many companies spend inordinate amounts of times preparing PowerPoint decks for business reviews. Yet, if the goal is interactive problem solving, PowerPoint is the barrier that needs to be banned from meetings.