We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)
My family has a history of heart problems.
Although my blood pressure and cholesterol are both fine, I’m 47 years old, carrying 15-20 extra pounds and I don’t get enough exercise, which compounds that risk.
Family History + Being Middle Aged + Being Overweight + Not Enough Cardio = Increased Risk of Heart Problems
It’s hardly a mystery. Everybody knows this. I agree.
I can do nothing about my family history or my age, but I’ve been about the same weight for the last several years and have not meaningfully or sustainably increased the amount of daily exercise I get on a daily basis.
Ask any smoker if they are aware of all of the various health risks from smoking. They too will agree that smoking is bad. But they still do it.
Clearly, there isn’t a binary choice (i.e. agree or disagree), rather different ‘levels’ of agreement:
- I agree with what you’re saying.
- I agree that something needs to change.
- I agree to change my behaviour.
In business in general (and supply chain in particular), significant improvement in results can only be achieved with process-driven changes to people’s behaviour.
We can all agree that the quality of a retailer’s customer service is directly tied to the accuracy of their store-item level inventory records – especially in an omnichannel world where a customer can demand product from a website and expect to pick it up in their neighbourhood store a couple hours later. It’s not a stretch to further agree that processes, procedures and measurement systems need to be in place to improve and maintain store level on hand accuracy.
And yet many retailers (40% of grocery stores according to a recent study) don’t even use a system on hand balance and those that do are not attacking their accuracy problems.
We can all agree that retail supply chains should be consumer driven to be efficient and profitable. And yet most retailers are using the same ‘old school’ processes for promotions, new product introductions and seasonal sales – ‘buy a ton, push it out to the stores and pray that it sells’.
While ‘agreement in principle’ is certainly necessary, it is clearly far from sufficient. So what is the secret ingredient?
I’ve seen it many times throughout my career in retail. I visit one store and the aisles are uncluttered, the shelves are faced out beautifully and the back room is organized and tidy. Then I visit another store with the same retailer and it looks like it was recently hit by a cyclone – even though both stores have the same systems, processes and training manuals.
The difference is that you have to care.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the store manager with the messy store has no passion. I’m just saying that he doesn’t have passion for retailing.
It’s the same reason I’m a supply chain consultant and not a fitness instructor (at least for now). I agree in principle that I need to exercise and lose weight, but I care deeply about order, organization and process discipline in the retail supply chain.
So where does this passion come from and how can it be cultivated and spread throughout an organization?
God, I really wish I knew. I believe that everyone is born with passion, but not everybody is in a job they’re passionate about.
That said, I know that passion can be infectious enough that a very small group of uber-passionate people can change organizations – not necessarily by making everyone as passionate as they are, but by generating just enough force to overcome the organizational inertia.
And once the boulder starts rolling down the hillside, we can all agree that it’s very difficult to stop.