There are many factors that engender customer loyalty, product quality, location, availability etc. – but I wanted to relate one recent story that I thought relevant. My parents at 90 & 87 are still mobile and take themselves off on a daily basis to a variety of coffee shops and cafes. These establishments come in […]
14
Aug
Aug
As I diligently laboured over a relatively complex ( for me, though I did write a macro ) spreadsheet over the last couple of days I have been reminded how many times during my career I have sat through detailed and comprehensive solution demonstrations only to hear the inevitable “but can I use Excel?” question. […]
28
Jul
Jul
My thoughts this week have drifted towards IT Leadership and the current trend of referring to Bimodal IT (maybe I should get a hobby). I have always believed that IT serves two distinct purposes. ‘Keep the lights on’ provision of a guaranteed service and innovation to yield competitive advantage. I used to call it Business […]
20
Jul
Jul
A quote that caught my eye recently was “Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist”. Apart from the obvious response that “it depends where you shop”, I started to think about why is shopping so often seen as a therapeutic exercise. And when does shopping become a chore? What are the factors that determine whether it […]
13
Jul
Jul
Continuing on the theme of customer service from last week, I’ve been thinking about three key elements of retail: the product, the service and the location. For pure plays read site accessibility and visibility for location. There is no doubting the importance of your product. If the quality of what you are selling is at […]
06
Jul
Jul
A friend of Retail247, we’ll call him Jim, recently told me the story of how, returning from the US, he was fortunate to be upgraded to First Class. Being his first time (no, it wasn’t Virgin Airlines) the flight attendant was particularly helpful and welcoming. Early on she ascertained that our friend did not wish to […]
24
Jun
Jun
Continuing with the theme of applying Real World Thinking examples to the world of technology – it’s time to look at traffic queue theory – or at least a very simple version thereof. Random motorway queues at busy times are often formed by a single vehicle slowing down. Vehicles then arrive at the back of […]
18
Jun
Jun
I hadn’t really planned to quote Mike Tyson in the context of agile development. I’m not sure if I ever thought I’d quote him at all, however, when I heard this a few days ago it struck a chord. “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”. In an increasingly volatile and […]
14
Jun
Jun
Historically, shopping can loosely be described as impulsive. Decide you want something, go out and buy it, immediate gratification. In the dark days before on-line shopping, we were used to getting things the same day and at our convenience. Today, consumer expectation has taken a subtle shift. Although purchasing fundamentally remains a mix of the considered […]
07
Jun
Jun
I was impressed by the launch of the Apple watch recently. Of course they have done it with all the style and panache we have come to expect from their excellent brand and you can hardly fail to notice the high fashion influence of ex Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. With Siri an integral part of the […]