Initiating and Managing Change
KEY POINTS FOR THIS ISSUE OF RETAIL JEWELRY INSIGHTS™
“Going Out of Business” or the acronym G.O.B. sums up many owners’ latent fears of losing their business in the face of declining sales and adverse economic conditions; much like those facing the jewelry industry today. Despite glimmers of improvement over the last 24 months, jewelry sales remain unpredictable.
While anecdotal, storeowners as well as jewelry manufacturers and wholesalers say privately, business is not good, with an underlying “gut feeling” things could get worse before they get better. However, as bad as things may seem for some businesses, others are prospering. Indeed, specialty jewelers in total will likely sell between $29 and $30 billion in fine jewelry and watches in 2011, suggesting a new term G.Y.B., “Growing Your Business”, at least for those jewelry storeowners and decision-makers that learn to manage change and turn today’s problems into sales opportunities. This issue of RJI discusses some of the don’ts and do’s of change management.
Common Mistakes in Explaining Problems
Unlike decades earlier, today, the problems encountered by retail jewelry businesses, in particular small ones, are more complex, surprising, and ambiguous. This means turning problems into opportunities is all the more difficult to accomplish. Nevertheless, problems can be one of the best sources of innovation and creativity. In short, problems are disguised opportunities.
Albert Einstein once said, “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler”. However, that is exactly what some decision-makers do; make things too simple when analyzing business problems. For example, the most over-simplified explanation for the cause of problem is “people”. This approach casts everything in terms of individual blunders. Problems result from bad attitudes, stupidity, or incompetence. It is an easy way to explain anything that goes wrong. When margins were below plan, the hunt was on for someone to blame said one manager, “I want the person responsible held accountable”...
