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Turnaround Time

Okay, it’s been ten years since you got your degree from UNT. You’ve done well.  An internship at Nostrum’s landed you a job and then up the ladder to regional buyer for men’s fashions.  Target beckoned and you got the job as regional manager for its western division.  Now a major retailer is in trouble and looking for a savvy retail team to turn them around.  Do you leave the comfort of TGT and give it a go? How often does a chance like this present it self?  Sure you’re doing well with TGT, the retirement plan and all, but if your team can turn the other company around the stock options will likely take you from comfortable directly to  the High Roller Enclave of Business.

So, how would you do it?  Hmm, how about improving DESIGN!  Check out the article on page B6 of the 2/13/07 WSJ. Penney has doubled the number of designers to 100 last year in an effort to be more nimbleand  is churning out clothing that follows fashion trends.  Now say retailing experts and image consultants, Penney is perceived as a more fashionable brand, able to compete with such places as Federated Dept Stores or TGT.

Fast_company_design_diva Once again DESIGN trumps supply chain micro management.  I firmly believe that DESIGN should be a new component of a re focused MBA program. Check out these articles for inspiration in Fast Company

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4 responses to “Turnaround Time”

  1. Kimi Pope Avatar
    Kimi Pope

    Design has definately been an important key to success of businesses. Wal-Mart was in the headlines for their low sales revenue and writers attributed it to the lack of sales in their clothing department. Target, their competitor, started bringing in fresh young designers to design a clothing line to be featured at Target. Target then repeats this process with a new designer every 3-4 months. Customers are attracted to being able to get hip, trendy clothes at a low affordable cost. And its not the same old stuff day after day. The clothing line is changed frequently. Wal-mart is said they are going to be following suit after their dismal revenues last year. J C Penny has made a smart decision to increase designers, and I can think of some other department stores who should follow in their footsteps!

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Kimi
    My sentiments exactly. In fact if you log on to the TGT page, you will see a list of over ten designers whose work is featured in their stores. By clinging to Hey Lower Prices, WMT has not been able to convince anyone that it offers anything stylish. Indeed, even K Mart had turned to Martha Stewart who is still on their masthead.
    One of the most famous ads ever, skewering the Old Soviet Union featured a woman in a sack dress with an announcer saying beach, dinner, on the town, etc. but the woman would be in the same dowdy sack dress, beach wear consisted of carrying a beach ball. This was literally one of the things Gorby sought to change in his country-image, next thing you knew Stoli was flowing at the Soviet Embassay and the Ruskies were wearing Ital designer suits and bingo, that was the hot party ticket in town.
    Rolex, Omega, Chanel, Pininfarina, Sony, iPod, all successes with enduring design.
    DLE

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  3. Jason Raper Avatar
    Jason Raper

    I have noticed a trend in the clothing industry that reflects what both of you are saying. It is funny that we are now seeing companies like Target get on the ball with the rest of the retailers out there. They seem to be copying patterns in their clothing to mimic the top sellers, just at a lower price. A few years back they brought in Mossimo as a product line, which had been a big score with the younger crowd and continues to be so.
    Walmart may want to look in this direction and try to take the low price effect to a different direction. People want to spend less on the clothes that they buy but they also don’t want to be embarred when they wear them. If Walmart can find designers that can do this for them….kinda like Old Navy has done, I think that their sales will improve. I hate to use the Gap line as an example because they are not doing very well right now. But the last I read, Old Navy was really their life line. But like you said Dr. E…when I comes to many products, design means everything. Especially in apparel and cars.

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  4. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    The ladies in my classes have confirmed other problems that WMT has with ‘moving’ their clothing line. At TGT the dressing rooms are in a corner of the store, sequestered behind a wall. In WMT they are literally in the middle of the store. As one tries on clothes you can hear all the other shoppers literally walking around you. Eeek, one gets that ‘undressed’ feeling in a crowd. Here is yet another example of a design failure now that I think aobut it. Upscale clothing stores, for either sex have long made trying on the clothes a fun not embarassing experience. And of course personal attention is a hallmark of an upscale store-read Stanley Marcu ‘Minding the Store’ his recollection of running Nieman Marcus for example.

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