A Problem Shared is a Problem Doubled

11 June 1998

June 1998. Retailing is a commitment to uncertainty. A long-term business plan is rarely straightforward. Anticipated events can be avoided, difficulties can reflect specific situations, but often the cause of problems is failure to empathise with the purpose of change. In general, problems arise when an expectation is out of sync with reality. Problems increase costs, reduce efficiency, generate stress, demoralise people, damage health, deter shoppers, and can lead to failure. Therefore, problems of any kind should not be regarded as normal.

In my philosophy, reflecting the inner relationship that we have with ourselves, we form relationships to help each other at some level. Some people may think that help is only given in exchange for something, but help that reflects integrity is unconditional – ie., free of emotional charge. Anything and anyone to whom you and your business are exposed will be helpful in some way. Often unsolicited, in unexpected guises, help arise literally and in double messages. The challenge is to understand and respond to all signals as you go. The way to transform problems into opportunities is to be emotionally detached and evaluate every angle – including the possibility that there may not be one. For example, what is the situation saying? Not why, but how is someone being helpful?.

People do business with people. Personality influences your choice of advisers. If, like Gordon Brown of Wilkinson Hardware Stores, you should sometimes think my comments offensive, then I apologise most sincerely. I have no desire to hurt anyone’s feelings. I forget that the retail ego can be fragile. As I delegate untoward remarks, made about me, to aspects of myself that require self improvement, I forget too that others may not be as understanding. Social diplomacy has never been my strong point and, being good at spotting problems, often years before they arise, blunt criticism is the only way that I know to illustrate a telling sign.

I may be too ambitious for the sceptical, but all I want to do is help retailers avoid problems. I love reducing shop property costs and minimising liabilities, but am also a healer. Whilst that gift could be regarded as a separate vocation, the benefit of integration is that integrity, derived from deep understanding, shows in my attitude towards your instructions. In negotiation, it is often possible to overcome objections, or undermine resistance, by using subtle techniques. I understand shops, my track record isexcellent, predictions are reliable and I am full of useful ideas. My talent for transforming relationship problems into commercial opportunities will help improve performance. If you are not yet a client then I should like to receive your property instructions but if you have advisers, then I should be pleased to write articles for in-house journals, or talk to managers and staff at training sessions. In short, the benefit of my services is direct access to an unusual diversity of skills which will contribute far more than most towards the profitability of your business.

To combat flat demand, and rising costs, retailers face a major challenge. As I feel able to help, I am devoting most of this 50th newsletter to business development. I look forward to helping you in some way.

Writing on the Wall

In June 1989, I said that the emergence of the ‘Green’ consumer marked the onset of a major shift in attitude that would have repercussions for all aspects of future retailing. In attitude, ignoring sub-personalities, each person is said to be three different people. (1) – The person whom they think others think them to be. (2) – The person who they think they are. (3) – The true ‘self’. Since behaving as others expect is no longer sacrosanct, one-third demand is fading. In the normal course of social transformation, money saved by discarding (1) would be spent on (2). However, whereas retailers may not be in a hurry to change, customers are. Thus, unbeknown to many retailers, an avalanche of people is going straight to (3) – i.e., being themselves.

In essence, change about connecting to truth. Through being ourselves and alone, and not someone else and lonely, we are more likely to achieve aspirations. The short-term goal is independence, but the ambition is interdependency – i.e. contributing our uniqueness towards a common purpose in conjunction with others having complementary gifts. Like attracts like. To appeal to and retain customers on a permanent basis the challenge is to function true to form. Truth is one’s path, or direction. Form is manifestation of one’s potential. Potential is the feeling that only you, and your business, can do something. Thought controls intention & action, feelings govern timing and direction. Intuition prevents us from going wrong. In self and business development, we evolve through experience and, subconsciously, store experiences by reference to similar first experiences. As knowing what to do is not always obvious, we form relationships to help each other. Other ‘see’ situations differently. In relationship, flexible attitudes are vital. Progress reflects self-confidence in use of guidelines. Therefore, to reap rewards and enjoy peace of mind requires honest communication at all times.

Teams and groups fail when people are uncomfortable with power. To understand the purpose of change requires a balance perspective. A relationship is a basis for development. In an honest relationship, needs adjust like feet on weighing scales. If uneven, then the balance is upset, and the result wrong. When a relationship fails, dishonesty has caused misunderstanding. Mistakes can lead us astray. After 3 days, to ease pressure of disorientation, we detach ourselves from reality. In a prejudicial state, we rely on the logic of past experience and lose touch with our feelings. To help maintain our direction, a problem arises. Decipher the signal. Change. Easier said than done? When self-confidence is damaged by upbringing or society, immunity to indoctrination sufferers. Thus, through force of circumstances, most people abandon their dreams and rely for fulfilment on those who do not. In the firing line of that reality, two issues are aggravating the bottom line:

1 – Quality people are intolerant of outmoded attitudes in supervisors and employers. Despite male domination of the parameters, retail reality is a woman’s world. The manageress of a client’s shop said that if only more men would agree, then so much more could be achieved. Her problem was how to get the message across to an area manager whose resistance to stock distribution is frustrating sales target. When I suggested that she should contact a director, she said that company policy forbids it. She has given up and customers go elsewhere.

2 – Unaddressed tendencies that sabotage profitability. Resisting change creates headaches. In 1997, in my talk to the West Midlands branch of the Institute of Personnel & Development, I said that customer- centred marketing was the cause of stress in companies. In the 80-strong audience, a few people understood that self expression is not reserved for customers. Policies that oblige staff to bottle up feelings, or act like zombies, fuel resentment and shrinkage. At senior level, amongst people responsible for spending money, complacency and defiance is rife. Indifference is aggravated by advisers about your money. Some retailers may have a job to keep up but, in reality, customers know where they are going to be oneself, ideally, achieve one’s purpose in life our benchmarks to which people naturally expire demand is for problem free, long lasting, user friendly products and service services – provided by reliable retailers. Bargains attract but indiscriminate spending is out. People want to feel good about everything. Mass market techniques are un enticing. Respect for each customer is profitable. As retailers reduce suppliers so, for cost time effectiveness, customers use fewer retailers and towns. Loyalty? Free of charge to all who understand.

The Cost of Prejudice
Mass marketers prefer conformity – conflict between fear and love is susceptible to persuasion – but the trend is a self identity. In transition, self-confidence fluctuates and customers can be reactionary. As personalities integrate, shifting psychological blogs may release emotional pain, so attitudes are unpredictable. Browsing increases. Demand is driven by impulse. For cash-flow, retailers promote addiction to stimuli – e.g., chocolate, alcohol, mobile phones, coffee shops, health, fitness. etc. To capitalise, ideas spread like wildfire but not every idea will benefit your business. Pursuit of profit at the expense of love damages relationships. For example example supermarket who looks good, but that’loyalty cards denote an experience without depth.

In the quest for revenue, enthusiasm is infectious. Euphoria is fabulous for landlords, but bad for retailers. The ‘Diana effect’ warns retailers of the danger of spontaneous feelings. When costs are geared to projections based on surges in confidence, ignoring reality is expensive. On the balance sheet, property costs are commitments to blank-cheques. When retailers get carried away and form the wrong impression of reality, the knock-on effect is destabilisation. Cracks are showing. From Retail Week (8 May 1998), based on a report by Ernst & Young, 88 companies – 17% of all quoted retailers – issued profit warnings in the first quarter of the year.

Flat demand is caused by addiction to competition. Blips can be seasonal, but a slow-down generally advocates urgent improvement in corporate self development. The typical male approach to relationship is to play power-games and be economical with truth. Fear of being found out causes an emotional dysfunction. When drive is geared to positive initiatives, its energy simultaneously feeds negative tendencies, generating friction in relationship and sabotaging objectives. In a woman’s world, while a shop ‘physique’ can make the mouth water, demand is for honest communication. To understand the benefit in help requires empathy. A successful relationship is based on unconditional interdependency – i.e. contribution and co-operation towards its purpose. Demand returns when retailers offer excellent value throughout the relationship. Authentic formats, happy atmosphere, socially competent staff, quality products, plus modern professional attitudes in relationship, create an irresistible experience.

It is reported that the retail market is undergoing a process of consolidation, polarising rental growth to an extent not experienced before. According to Hillier Parker, the shopper is concentrating spending in fewer locations and rental growth is not expected to ripple out indiscriminately from the main centres as in the 1980s. HP suggests that ensuing rental growth should be welcomed by retailers, because falling rents are assumed to be a proxy for deteriorating locations. Whilst I disagree that all retailers should want to pay more rent, just because some are falling over themselves to imagine that they can’t or won’t go wrong, the lethal combination of rising costs and flat demand suggest that the shopper is concentrating on fewer retailers.

Social transformation – i.e. everyone being themselves – will take another 10-25 years to complete. In the meantime, retailers could follow customers. For cost-effectiveness, it is best to go straight to the heart of the issue, rather than change one step at a time. Although easier to copy the originate, the prospect of failure and managerial boredom is greater among retailers who compete with each other. Modelling a business strategy on others and relying on someone else for direction will cloud intuition and generate problems. You can offer ‘3 for the price of 2’ but it should be 3 for the price of 1 – then stop stocking the extra 2. In the long-term when people are rid of whatever terms them off, and technology and home-delivery handle routine, net demand will not sustain all the manufacturers, suppliers, products, retailers, shops, or shopping centres, that exist today.

Over technology, competition, and double standards, the enlightened retailer has an invincible advantage. Depth of feeling in relationship and a useful purpose. At a truthful level of understanding, the formula is retail ‘self’ in partnership with customers, sharing the experience of ‘gifts’ in transactions, via the sale of products and exchange of help. In practice, the challenge is to concentrate on becoming a destination retailer – so that, regardless of competitors or competitive influences, people will only ever want to buy from you.

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