eCommerce and

I came a cross an article in The Wholesaler about time management and thought that I would share some thoughts on a few of the points that Peter Schor listed in his article. First, here’s a link to the online version: The Wholesaler, page 32. Most of his points are pretty obvious, but some of them really stuck out to me.

The Never-ending Inbox

In the article he states “E-mailing — Block off times to process your e-mail. Twice per day should be sufficient. Avoid the temptation to check e-mail frequently.” In an eCommerce company I know the first thing I thought about this suggestion was “Pft, yeah right…twice a day my eye.” My email is ALWAYS open. Heck, I dedicate a screen to my email..., but I do see the value in this idea, especially if it is “fused” together with this suggestion: “Quickly process the paperwork that hits your in-box.” This works perfectly for me.  Schor recommends using “R.A.F.T” to help you file through you inbox in a timely fashion wherever it may be.  “R.A.F.T” is an acronym the author uses to file and process paperwork. R=Refer to another person.  A=Take Action. F=File it. T=Trash it. My “hybrid” suggestion, for eCommercers in a predominantly paperless environment is to quickly process emails that hit your inbox, and restrain yourself from checking your personal email to no more than twice a day.

Breaking Bad Habits

Another Point he makes, “Identify bad habits" — Make a list of bad habits that are stealing your time, and sabotaging and blocking your success. Then work on them one at a time to systematically eliminate them from your life. Remember, the way to eliminate a bad habit is to replace it with a better one.” My bad habit and worst enemy: Procrastination. It’s followed me all though college and still sometimes effects my daily work, though not on the same level as it affected my schoolwork. I’m sure there are other bad habits that I have, but I’m also 99% sure they stem from my ability to procrastinate like no other. Some ways that I have tried to overcome my procrastination in the past is to make a list of things that must get done in that given day, which Schor mentions earlier in his article.  It really does help to see everything that has to get done and it gives you a goal to work toward. I will also be using “RAFT” to further combat the never ending battle with my nemesis.

Just say No

And my personal favorite: “Say No” — We say “yes” to others because we want to please others. But when eventually we can’t continue, we let them down and feel guilty. Both parties suffer. Recognize that a genuine desire to please often prevents us from saying “no.” FINALLY! Someone said it.  I know that there are not enough fingers and toes in the world, ok that might be drastic… but there are definitely not enough in Gordian Project to count how many times I have said “yes” when I’m screaming “no”.  I don’t have a good solution on how to say no without the other person being upset, but I do have a reasonable recommendation (provided the person you are dealing with is "reasonable"). If you are confronted with this situation and a co-worker is asking you to do something that is in line with the company’s goals, add it to your list of priorities where it makes the most sense. If the request is out of line with the company’s goals, tell them no and explain your reasons.

Don’t forget: We will never get caught up, but understanding that alone can help reduce your stress and increase your productivity. It’s a weird thought, I know, but there is always tomorrow, and we all know that if it doesn’t get done today it will be there tomorrow. So why stress?

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The advent of the personal computer has given us incalculable advances in potential and the internet has opened wide the floodgates of productivity. It seems that anything is made easier when the young and ambitious prepend old-world issues with an “E” (or the Apple Corporation re-invents it and uses the prefix “I.”) Unfortunately, unlike commerce, tunes, movies or phones, there hasn’t been a tech-whiz out of Silicon Valley able to redesign focus. 

Industries are crawling their way out of a centuries-old reliance on paper and humans are struggling to find ways to adapt. Automation has done much to improve the quality and quantity of human life and the Internet has literally provided millions of pages of information at our fingertips. But in these advances, the potential for distraction has increased proportionally with the potential for success. For many of us, social media, instant-messaging, Wikipedia and the latest RSS feeds wage their war of distraction through two 22-inch cinema display monitors. All of this done through a personal computer loaded with nearly every available efficiency-promoting piece of high-technology.

The war must be fought and won, but contrary to every available piece of e-advice, the answer is not in higher-tech but in lower.

To increase my own productivity, I’ve adopted an old-world response to new-world issues. Each morning, I write down (physically- pen & paper style) my agenda. Simply, I create a to-do list, and each day, I “do” this list. Simple? Exactly. I make sure to include all necessary emails, calls and correspondence that need addressing throughout the day. Everything is written in my own handwriting using “working-titles” for each issue. I make sure to describe the necessary issue concisely - but clearly. There is little worse than attempting to translate your own 6:30am sleep-scribbles.

Email reminders (Google Apps lead the pack) and pre-set deadline notifications are helpful, but for me, it seems that the answer to convolution is not systematically adding more convolution, but systematically dismantling it. For me, it is more helpful to rid myself of distraction than it is to download another program to organize it.

While meticulously handwriting all of your impending obligations can get tiresome, there is little substitute for the satisfaction of physically drawing a hard-won strike through your daily tasks. And, while my archaic answer can be effective, it is not absolute; results depend largely on discipline and circumstances. Evidence: this blog has been on my “List” as of two days ago. The strike-through feels excellent.

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

As I looked at our warehouse, I felt overwhelmed at the number of items we have in stock, and began to wonder how long these products have just been sitting here.  This made me contemplate, “Does it really matter that we have so much stock? We’re going to sell it one day, and if an order is placed, then at least we know we have it in stock and ready to ship.”  The question that I should be asking is: “Does it really matter that we have so much inventory obsolescence?” The answer to that issue is yes.  There are large costs that are incurred by carrying inventory that will become or has already become obsolete.

Inventory obsolescence happens when inventory is no longer salable; this tends to happen when we have too much inventory on hand, when products are out of season, or when demand is decreasing.

Warehouse and Supply Chain Managers need to be aware of the costs associated with inventory obsolescence so that they can properly manage their departments and budget accordingly.  I’ve put together a basic list of costs associated with stocking unsalable inventory.

Below are some of the costs that are associated with stocking inventory that is no longer salable:

Labor Costs- Labor spent on obsolete inventory is wasted labor. Employees have to spend time stocking products, picking, relocating, and taking inventory. The more inventory on hand, the more time is spent on performing these activities, thus the higher the costs.

Equipment Expenses- When inventory begins to grow, the need for racks, shelves, pallets, and maybe even a larger warehouse also grows. Not only are these costs fairly high, but these tools can also become damaged and worn.  When this happens these tools will need to be replaced. Equipment expenses are ongoing operating costs. 

Opportunity Costs- This affects us more than the others. When obsolete items are stored, the opportunity to stock more of the products that are in a higher demand is out of the question. Not only are customers not provided with the newest trends or “in” products, but the sales that could be acquired are essentially lost.

There are other types of costs that should be taken into consideration. Charles Atkinson’s article on When to Get Rid of Stock explains that when a company realizes that it is not profitable to keep such inventory, their best choice is to get rid of the stock they do have. Whatever the outcome maybe, the key is to develop some type of inventory obsolescence program that will save the company money in the long run.

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If you look at the history of work we can see that the way wages were calculated has changed quite a bit. Before the invention of the assembly-line production people’s pay was determined by the amount of work done. After the great restructuring, pay was measured by the amount of time or hours it took to get work done. As of recent there has been talk about whether the End of Time-Based Management is near. Before we determine whether work environment will be going back to its roots, we need to understand what ROWE (Results-only Work Environment) is.

ROWE was developed by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, Best Buy HR Managers. ROWE is a management view which believes that trusting employees to manage their time will increase productivity in the workplace. Departments that have been using ROWE have reported increased amount of productivity, Best Buy alone had a 35 percent increase. Recently, Gap Outlet migrated 137 Corporate Headquarters employees to Results-Only Work Environment and their success has been amazing; according to Cali and Jody’s blog “voluntary turnover rate dropped by 50 percent and employee engagement rose by 13 percent”.

How it works:
“In a Results-Only Work Environment, people can do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done.” This isn’t just time flexibility, according to Cali and Jody a true ROWE has unlimited paid vacation time, no set schedules, no mandatory weekly meetings, and no judgments from co-workers or bosses about how employees spend their days. Trust is one of the key elements of ROWE, managers must trust employees to get their work done so that their performance and pay can be evaluated based on what they accomplished, not how many hours they spent looking “busy” at work.

Why it works:
ROWE forces all employees and managers to be clear about their job descriptions and expectations. Teams learn how to work together more effectively while motivating and retaining employees. Though ROWE can also expose underperformance, the end result provides a company with stronger teams that can make the company grow.

Who it works for:
ROWE would work for anyone whose work revolves around projects or tasks. However, in order for ROWE to be effective, there needs to be a strong goal-oriented manager that can provide employees with a clear understanding of what is expected of them. ROWE is a bit complicated when it comes to hourly employees or those whose jobs do not entail completion of projects; but the shifting from thinking about work in terms of time to thinking about work based on performance can still be effective.

Moving a department to ROWE is a drastic change that companies might not be willing to make. However, though the complete program might not be a feasible option, adopting new habits that can refocus your team on results instead of time-based, can be of a great benefit as well. Whether you decide to make the big change or not, I suggest that you first read Cali and Jody’s list of 10 ways to get ROWE working for your team.

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• With the $100 million in funds that Twitter is reported to be receiving in venture capital funds the company’s valuation has nearly quadrupled this year to an astonishing $1 billion.


• The Harvard Business Review has put together five rules that have decoded what it truly means to identify leadership.  Their research concluded that 60-70% of effective leaders share these common traits:

-Rule 1: Shape the future.

-Rule 2: Make things happen.

-Rule 3: Engage today's talent.

-Rule 4: Build the next generation.

-Rule 5: Invest in yourself.

• Interested in what’s going on with one of the most exclusive online shopping clubs?  Shop.org interviewed Susan Lyne, CEO of the Gilt Groupe, who reveals their 104 job openings, plans for the future and more.


• Getting Retweeted is scientific.


• Can your search share help your customers?


• Since this article came out Lisa Barone has had to defend her position, on Seth Godin’s Brands in Public release.  The crappy thing is I think most people agree with her it’s just no one has ever said anything bad about Seth Godin before.  Someone had to call him out on this and her points are all valid.  Yet when you are Seth you are going to have a faithful following regardless of what you do or how you do it.  If people didn’t call others out just because of previous reputations than where would we be giving former President Jimmy Carter the time of day?  Asking Milli Vanilli for singing lessons?

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

Our Supply Chain Management department has been not only growing in size, but also in responsibilities. Our team has literally tripled in size over the last year, but along with that we have more projects and actual deadlines. As scary as that might sound our team is in the process of not only knowing what team work is all about but truly understanding it. I am, like many of you might be, the kind of person that agrees with the statement “If you want something done right, do it yourself”, but there is a point in which one person can’t do all things and delegation is about handing over authority, projects, tasks, etc. This is a scary concept for many because a person can’t know 100% of what will occur once responsibilities are handed over.

Delegating has been one of the hardest things for me to learn and a recurrent process.  There is continual room for improvement in the effectiveness of how, where and who you delegate to.  If there’s anything that I have learned thus far about delegation is that it’s a two-way process. If the individual assigning responsibilities are competent in delegating to the department but the employees receiving the tasks don’t understand what the process should be or what is being asked of them, then the process will break. The same goes if the situation is reversed.  These four suggestions will help you begin to develop your delegation skills and avoid potential errors in the future:
 
Choose the Right Person
Consider what that person can bring to the task and how the task will impact that person. One of the rewards of delegating is that you allow that person to grow in the experience and perhaps even in the company. In other words, your reason for considering a person should be more than “I like this person a lot – they laugh at my jokes all the time”.

Explain the Task
Always provide the “what” the “when” and if possible the “how”. Assuming that the person will know exactly what to do and what you expect is an unfair expectation. Please note that picking up your dry cleaning, making coffee, and getting you lunch, are not appropriate tasks to be delegating.

Provide Support
It is important to be available for any questions or concerns that the person may have. The fact is that people learn with experience; there will be times when a person might complete a task perfectly with little to no guidance, but the truth of that matter is that everyone needs a little direction and support. Check in with them often and do not discourage questions – the more questions they ask the better they will understand the project.

Give Feedback
Constructive feedback is the most valuable way to improve performance. Note exactly what it was that the person did that blew you away. Once you tell them what they did well, then you can also give them advice on what they can improve upon.

Businessballs.com has an easy to use SMART planner template which can help you dive right in to designating projects to your team. Once you feel like your expertise in delegating has advanced you can remove tasks on your own “To Do List”; giving you the opportunity to focus on larger projects that can more effectively impact the company. I leave you with this quote by Robert Half “Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too”.

Little Giant has been hard at work engineering pumps that their most loyal customers have been waiting for. PlumberSurplus.com is your destination for the new Little Giant TSW Sump Pump System and their NXTGen Condensate Pumps.

I recently moved into a new role at the Gordian Project, and as I was trying to wrap my mind around my new responsibilities I had a rather candid conversation with my manager about how as a team leader I should be making decisions on a higher level, and that those decisions should be based on “the big picture” for the company.  I realized, that in my previous position I didn’t really allow myself to think critically or pursue ideas that could help the company as a whole because I felt like there were too many other daily tasks that I had to accomplish.  I had a job to do, a task to complete, and that was my role.  I was finally able to take the blinders off and see the bigger picture for the first time.  But how do we lose sight of the big picture in the first place? Is it really because of the position we hold or is it a habit we get ourselves into?

We all have our own opinions on the questions above, but I think it would be helpful (for me at least) to make some of the solutions visible so we don’t “put the blinders” back on.

1. Keep a list of your high-level ideas.  Keeping a list of your ideas can help in a number of different ways.  It can help with organization and focus, especially if you are directly working on one of those ideas, because we all know interruptions are going to take place at some point.  It can be a self-esteem booster when the idea well seems to be dry; and it can be a great tool to show what you’ve accomplished and what can still be done.  It may also be useful to organize your list by short term and long term ideas.  This way you are able to see what can be accomplished quickly in order to jump start improvements and capitalize on any low hanging fruit.
   
   
2. Ask yourself “How will this affect the company?” Ahh... those that don’t enjoy their jobs are thinking of Office Space right now; I happen to have a different opinion but can enjoy the humor none the less. By asking this key question you should be able to determine if the idea is something that will be helpful or something that could be put on the back burner.  When asking yourself how the idea will help the company it will open the door to a number of other questions, including but not restricted to: How it will affect the bottom line? How it will affect a process currently in practice?  How it will burden or improve other departments?  How it supports or hinders current or upcoming projects or paths? These questions can help determine if you put your idea on the short term or long term list or toss it out all together.
   
   
3. Keep thinking forward.   Continue to research and think about new and inventive ways to help your company improve.  Thinking forward will keep you stay fresh and relevant in an ever-changing business climate.
   
   

These tips can be used regardless of the position you hold in your company.  The bottom line is that we all have an effect on what happens at our workplace.  Sometimes we feel useless and unable to help, but this is simply not true.  It’s really easy to go to work and do what you have to do, but wouldn’t the work experience mean more if we remembered that we can make a difference in how our company performs?  I hope the blinders come off earlier for others, we spend a lot of time in the workplace, we may as well gain visibility and make it worthwhile.

Kohler is arguably one of the most innovative brands in the home improvement industry. The new Karbon faucet has completely transformed the kitchen and more specifically revolutionized the kitchen faucet. Meanwhile Kohler seems to effortlessly create bathroom fixtures that are not only sleek but save water, like the Escale toilet.

I recently took a trip to the Philippines where I had the opportunity to help out at an orphanage as well as working on some philanthropic construction projects. Although the work I was doing was hard and repetitive, I had a great time and was able to maintain my energy and enthusiasm throughout the trip. Once I returned, I started thinking about the causes and effects of that experience, and how they could be applied to a business environment.

Most people want to do something worthwhile with their lives. Few people are content to simply work for a paycheck they spend on themselves. Many people choose to donate their money or volunteer their time to a cause they support, and even those who don't, often feel they should. Doing good makes us feel good, and helps us stay enthusiastic and focused. In the same way people spend their personal resources, they also react to their jobs. People want to do a job that's personally fulfilling, a job that accomplishes something worthwhile. Of course, not all of us can work at a philanthropic organization. However, we can still be doing something meaningful even if that's simply making the world a better place by leaving our customers satisfied. In college, I was the leader of a team of people who did, essentially, janitorial work. This was not a glorious job. However, I emphasized to my team that our job was to perform an essential service with superior quality, and the policies and goals I set reflected that. Because of that, my team maintained consistently high morale and an excellent service record.

Another phenomenon both experiences taught me was the benefit that doing good gives to team interaction. People that work together on a project they believe in tend to have higher camaraderie and work together more efficiently. This probably has several causes: they are inevitably like-minded people drawn to the same cause, and they receive positive reinforcement as they see each other playing out the individual benefits I mentioned above. People who are enthusiastic and enjoy what they do tend to like and work well with others who do the same, additionally gratification in assignments will drive focused attention to the project, all of which increase efficiencies.

All of this is fairly straightforward: it's no secret that we want our team members to care about what they do. But it is one thing to want something and quite another to have it. How do we instill this atmosphere in our business? The first and most important step is to have a business worth believing in. That means your goal has to be to provide superior goods or services that actually help people, not simply to make money. Secondly, you must clearly show your team members how your business does that. Third, they need to know their place in the system and how they contribute. Finally, they need to have active participation in improving the process. When team members believe that their active participation has a real positive effect in the world, they'll naturally gain that enthusiasm that helps them do the best job they can.

For the best prices, on the largest selection of faucets, from your favorite brands like Kohler, Danze, and American Standard shop PlumberSurplus.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Amazon has been in the news quite a bit lately, whether it’s the Kindle, the Zappos acquisition or the creation of their outdoors specialty section. Some topics get more press than others but I find the tactics Amazon is using to bolster their eCommerce presence very interesting (as if they needed too) and doing so at the category level. It's yet to be seen how Amazon will leverage or integrate Zappos even though they state it will remain a separate business but they now own Zappos, Endless and the shoes category on Amazon.com (that’s a lot of shoes). In the outdoors space they recently announced their new specialty outdoors section which is offering gear from a selection of top tier merchants. We have seen this before with toys and other categories of products as well. While Amazon is the largest eCommerce website, they now seem to be conquering through category and acquisition, creating destinations where they now attempt to rule with the best selection, price and customer service.

What I also believe is important to note is that many large eCommerce websites also have an Amazon store.  This gives Amazon two inherent advantages, the first being that they know what you are selling, at least on Amazon, and second of those SKU’s they have access to which ones are top sellers.  This data also applies to other etailers within the same verticals.  Along with SKU data collected from marketplace merchants Amazon also gains insight on what those businesses do in sales, growth, and customer service which they monitor rigorously.

Now whether Amazon uses this data or not, or to what extent they are using this data may yet to be seen but it means that they could start stocking the best SKU's, therefore circumventing merchants through exclusive manufacturer deals. They also have an idea of which businesses might be better partners or possible targets for acquisition.  Targets based on their account performance. I sure can't think of a better place I would rather be than in Amazon's shoes right now (excuse the pun).

Since it seems that eCommerce websites may be good targets for acquisition right now, I think the bigger questions might be “What is Amazon's master plan? How do they plan to dominate eCommerce and what are they or others looking for in an eCommerce acquisition? What businesses might fit that mold?”

The possibilities are endless with a bathroom remodel. Discover your classic side with a clawfoot tub, experiment with fresh bathroom vanities and coordinate it all with matching faucets. Shop PlumberSurplus.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all of your bathroom needs.

Social networking has afforded post-modern escapism for millions. From novice to savvy and catering to dozens of demographics, there is a site geared towards connecting all of us with all of us.

Though MySpace didn’t exactly pioneer social networking, it’s largely responsible for its ubiquity. The site allowed users to easily upload pictures, biographies and customize their "space" in such a way that their space was, well, uniquely their space. A user could conceivably surf to another user's MySpace page and view the content the user wanted the viewer to see. Social Darwinism was one of the only worries; if a user was naive (dumb) enough to upload scandalous pictures of themselves, they suffered justly for their blunder. With Facebook came another level of social Venn-diagramming. The site functioned largely the same way, save much of the aesthetic customization options. But, now, users could upload and "tag" other users, rendering the "tagged" image visible for anyone in the tagged user’s network. 

Example: John gets a little heavy-handed with the party punch one Saturday evening. His mischievous friend, Mary, snaps a picture of him mid-cartwheel and, in a fit of hilarity, uploads the picture and tags John. Now, John's drunken Olympics are visible for everyone in his network, despite his acknowledgement or permission.

Invasive or intuitive?

Just yesterday, I realized that Facebook also “conveniently” scans your email contacts and "suggests" potential friends based upon their findings. This means that, for those of us who've ever used our personal emails for work-related content, we might find our boss, employee or co-worker as a suggested friend on the right-hand side of the most popular social networking site. Of course, there should be nothing to worry about, right? Right.

There's dozens of articles written about the inherent dangers of reckless networking. Curious parents, hiring managers and college admissions counselors have found a useful research tool in social media. Thanks to the excellent organic search results returned by the engines for the most popular networking sites’, oftentimes “Googling” a person’s name is enough to return dozens of links to their online profiles.

The latest social media site to gain solid traction is Twitter, a "micro-blogging" service that allows users to punch in a 140 character message and immediately send it to all of his/her "Followers." Ironically, the medium was originally designed for work. Now, what was once a way for project managers to simultaneously communicate with dozens of colleagues is now fodder for pedestrian updating. From celebrities to CEO's, pastors to pundits, Barack Obama to Joe the Plumber, almost everyone's got a Twitter account and uses it liberally. For those of us contributing to Twitter’s meteoric rise to banality, we should be conscious of our content.

The problem is, like any other social media, a user’s persona is created through updated content. The danger with Twitter is that it allows for silent commiseration. Voicing complaints is normal, perhaps even necessary, but it's another story when users can see that (during work hours) on June 11, 2008, you "Hated your boss sooo much!" 

The bottom line is that social networking can be fun or even profitable when approached with caution and purpose. Taking a macroscopic look at what a certain Twitter or Facebook update might cost is the key to keeping the necessary division between work and play.

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