Twenty-five years ago, it was pay at the pump, ATM Machines, and we were just starting to buy online.   Fast forward to present day and we can not go into a grocery store, Home Depot, or any big-box store without seeing at least 5 aisles dedicated to self-check-out, and we can get everything even our groceries to our banking done online.   It seems the trend has moved from salesperson dependency to self-sufficiency.   The reality of course, exists on a balance sheet.   We have balanced the cost of shrinkage with the cost of payroll.   We are placing a bet that less people will steal from us than the cost we pay our employees.   Before you say hurray for all man and womankind, think about what we have sacrificed: Service, Jobs, and Time.

What does Service mean to us today?  Are we willing to allow ourselves to be pampered with service or do we even remember what being pampered feels like.   Have we just reached that point in consumerism where we suspect anyone that tries to sell us anything? What do we want to touch and feel before we buy? Do we think of modern retail as our internet-showroom?

If we are paying attention to Generation-X, who although once was dismissed, is now coming into its own in terms of buying power.   Contrary to Baby-Boomers and their quest to populate the world with fast-food chains, and microwave ovens, Gen-X is demanding in a different way.   We see perhaps for the first time the effect of an economy going global.   Gen-X wants to slow it down, not speed it up.

Starting with the cigar trend of the nineties, the advent of artisanal consumerism was reborn.   Enter: Starbucks and the coffee bar, Subway and Chipotle with fresh ingredients, wine bars and craft brewed beer.   Slow-Food movements coupled with slogans insisting on “sourced locally,” can only be seen as a reaction to the notion of fast-food yesteryear and that availability is not more important than quality.

With Gen-X we have learned what is mundane and what is to be savored.   Chefs are now our celebrities.  European ideals have been embraced, and we are forever changed as a society.

What does this say about us? The mundane, and the things that we deem only essential we can manage with modern technology.   The reality is though we need to remember how to savor life, pamper ourselves, and live in the moment.   This is the goal of the modern salesperson.

…Thoughts and Reactions?

5-Whys Video

Are we emerging from an economic time where we can get back to a strategy driven budget, instead of a budget driven strategy?

This is a sensitive topic to be sure, let’s face it we have all paid for the courses and spent our time, energy, and money getting certified and we don’t want it all to be for naught.  So let’s hear the argument against it, these concerns are not new to any of us, but we do not like to talk about them.

Six-Sigma is the natural enemy of Innovation- The argument here is that in an effort to secure the balance sheet, we have squeezed money from our processes, and continuously minimized looking for the next low cost country, and shorter lead times and this is at the expense of big ideas and R&D.   ROI’s are now viewed using the goggles of pinching pennies instead of the focusing on new markets.

Six-Sigma causes retention problems within an organization- The big thinkers left the company due to the above problem.   The remaining workforce has been squeezed from downsizing and is now wearing too many hats.  Since the focus is on failure rates or poor performers; the best individuals in the organization are no longer nurtured.

Six-Sigma takes time away from Customers and Sales People- Perhaps the largest complaint brought to light by the removal of Bob Nardelli at Home Depot and James McNerney’s legacy at 3M, is the unfortunate byproduct of a field force awash with the task of measuring, there is less time for the customer and the sale.

…and now for the positive:

Six-Sigma has had a profound impact on the corporate world and has in fact become a way to ensure profitability and examine metrics that had not been previously explored.   It has become a staple process for the majority of the largest companies in the US, and is widely seen as a bedrock philosophy for examining a company’s resources.

It is true that if waste is cost without benefit, it should be eliminated.

-I.D. Kendall

What are your thoughts?