Newsletter Articles
North American Retail’s First Store Operations Council Meeting
The subject of the store and its future has been top-of-mind for just about everyone involved in any aspect of retail. In a world where a shopper can research, find, and buy products at any hour of the day or night with a couple of clicks on a phone, tablet or full-sized computer, how does [...]
How Retail Winners Make Stores More Relevant
This week I’m privileged to be among the speakers at the Global Retailing Conference, hosted by the University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing. I’m in seriously good company, and I can tell you from past experience, the event is well worth attending. The overarching theme of this year’s conference is “Innovating Customer [...]
The ‘P’ Ron Johnson Forgot
Disclaimer. Like Ellen DeGeneres, I also worked for a JCPenney in my youth. I spent about a year in the Visual Merchandising department of the Thousand Oaks Penney’s store, supplying promotional signs to my store as well as the Ventura store and one other that I no longer remember — either Santa Barbara or Oxnard. I [...]
The Consumerization of IT and the Future of UI
When it comes to enterprise IT solutions, I tend to put Kronos in the “rock” category, as in “like a rock.” As one Kronosite once told me, they don’t necessarily do things the fastest, and they don’t often push the envelope when it comes to fancy, cutting-edge technology innovations, but once they do decide to [...]
Workforce Optimization and Unintended Consequences
Last week I came across some research by Joan Williams, the Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, along with her colleague Penelope Huang. A long title to get to the topic: workforce management, particularly of low-wage, hourly employees (i.e., retail [...]
Workforce Management Reboots Clienteling at RedPrairie
When one software company buys another, it is very rare to find a combination that doesn’t result in some overlap or some pieces that come with the deal that just don’t fit right into the vision of the combined footprint. At RedPrairie’s user conference last week, it became clear that they pretty much know what [...]