Falling between the tables

I have been travelling and it was a great experience to observe new things and ruminate, so that I can share with all of you. I visited some of the stores during this short trip of mine and was reminded of an interesting anecdote, when I saw a few stores trying to morph into something else.

Long, long ago, in an earlier assignment I was witness to a very curious discussion. The HR head and the top honcho of an FMCG company were discussing and the comment was: "We lost a good sales person and created a bad manager". Upon enquiring it was explained that a top rated sales person was promoted to motivate him. It ended up with disastrous consequences. Being a poor leader he was unable to manage the team and what used to be a great contribution from him as a sales person was also lost to the organisation.

A lot of the stories I hear from the emerging retail sector resonate with this thought because -

When someone sees a success, it is quite natural to try and replicate it. Hoping to even better it. Very early on someone told me that "There is no success formula; Every Successful person has a formula". Retail validates this concept. Duplication is not a recipe; Differentiation is!!! How is your store different and more importantly is that difference in alignment with all other elements of the retail strategy. For example: A discount store opens in an upper middle class locality and customers patronise the store. Just because a boutique opens next door, if this store tries to morph into one, the existing customers might actually be confused and those who chose to go to the boutique store would anyways not bother.

I am leaving a few thoughts on the table for your comments and feedback. Would expand and expound on this and the training bit over the weekend.

P.S. - I realised that the Blog is like a store. Shall expand on this thought also, later!!!