Eco 365 Week 2 Store Management Analysis

In what ways does Trader Joe's demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling?

For Trader Joe’s, they are able to demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process by establishing a plan to serve quality products with natural ingredients, inspiring flavors, and buying direct from the producer whenever possible,. They also organize their stores to limit its stock, carrying about 1,500 to 2,000 products compared to retail mega-markets with 25,000 to 45,000 products. Through leading, Trader Joe’s support their future leaders by hiring managers only from within the company. Future leaders enroll in training programs called, Trader Joe’s University that foster in them the loyalty necessary to run stores according to both company and customer expectations. Lastly, Trader Joe demonstrated the responsibility in controlling by placing standards to sell natural based ingredient products, as well as striving to offer the highest quality type foods.

Store layout, merchandise display and categorization is superb to facilitate easy tracing / location. Individual store managers have liberty to adjust merchandising mix to suit local taste and placing replenishment orders. Purchasing through central office to get maximum margins, low expense

Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.

There are nine specific ways to foster empowerment. Ken Hoffman didn’t follow these rules and thus failed to produce a sense of competence choice, impact value and security. The first rule that Ken Hoffman violated was articulating a clear vision and goals.

Rana Chowdury is the current the manager of I.T store systems and store support for a company that has 4 different brands. The 4 brands are Hot Topic, which specializes in music and pop culture inspired fashion including body jewelry, accessories, and music T-shirts. Torrid is all about the fashion for Plus-Size style and trendy clothes for women. Box Lunch has apparel, gifts, gadgets, & more that also helps provide a meal to a person in need with every purchase and finally Lovesick is young, trendy, affordable fashion & accessories for curvy girl’s sizes 10-26.

It also makes customers aware that the stores have the same products wherever they go. (http://corp.7-eleven.com) This is one of the good parts; every store one goes to has the same interior and exterior, and promotions. They set the register by the store entrance so they can welcome their customers that promote great customer service. 7-Eleven has always founds ways to satisfy customer needs, because the one thing that is unique about the company is it is one of the best at customer service. When a customer enters the store, they expect a fast, friendly service. In to meet customer’s expectations the employees who work at the store or corporation; 7-Eleven introduced CDC, which means Combined distribution Centers to help manage the flow of products, that are in the store. (http://corp.7-eleven.com) They have also started using DSD, which is Door Store Delivery. (http://corp.7-eleven.com)This helps distributing the delivery of the products to the store. DSD gives better information on deliveries and a better control on supply chain. Another system that is useful is POS, which stands for Point of Profit Sales. (http://corp.7-eleven.com) The franchisees and the field consultant use theses to have a better understanding on which products need improvement and the product cycle. It also helps them with the order process of the product

37 Appendix Q: Benchmarks.................................................................................... 39 ... Appendix R: Human Resource Plan..................................................................... 40 ..... Appendix S: Store Layout.................................................................................... 44 ... Appendix T:

The organization operates under a theory that maintains that "true excellence can be best achieved by focusing on areas of established strength and enhancing them, rather than concentrating only on repairing areas of weakness."3 The company offers job opportunities in every division; the retail stores, distribution centers, and corporate offices. Possible career opportunities in the retail stores include assets protection management, which works to implement programs designed to maximize safety, effectiveness, and efficiency; store leadership, which includes those who work to create a "fast-paced, energetic environment that delivers a consistent experience for both team members and guests"; and human resources, which works to support the mission of staffing, development, retention, and brand management. Corporate career opportunities include strategy; which works to consider guests' comments and suggestions and propose business strategies that will improve the business, and supply chain and logistics; which works to provide what the customer wants, when they want it, and at the lowest possible cost.1 The Target website has an entire section devoted to careers, and even a special section where college students and recent graduates can learn about what the organization has to offer in terms of employment.

Scheduling- A great supermarket will have flawless scheduling of their employees and of deliveries. They will always have fresh products and the right people

In what ways does Trader Joe’s demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process- planning, organizing, leading and controlling? They have created their own University for future leaders. By controlling who they promote, only within the company, and planning room for advancement from the day you become an employee shows the value they take in their staff. For example, imagine you start as a cashier and it’s your first day on the job. It can bring great comfort knowing that your manager started in exactly the same role. Not only provides management with the ability to relate to their employees but also the employees to look to the manager’s leadership and mentoring for success.

Having said this, it has been formalizing that structure to be more lean, efficient, and competitive. As mentioned previously, the retail market has experienced significant changes that require expensive capital investment to remain relevant or the company could be faced with going out of business as so many traditional brick-and-mortar organizations. One key element that has been implemented is the cross departmental training to ensure that innovative ideas can be discovered, developed, and implemented as quickly as possible. By having an effective collaboration across the organization, once divergent groups of team members are able to work together to achieve remarkable system enhancements which in turn reduce operating

Macy's Inc. is one of the nation's largest and well known department store chains. Started over 150 years ago, Macy's has continually generated excellent returns for its shareholders and employees. Currently, in the midst of a global recession, Macy's has generated huge profits with same store sales increasing 5.3% year to date. In 2012 same store sales increased 4.6% in the month of February alone (Macy's Inc., 2012). In fact, throughout the duration of 2012, Macy's is projecting even larger profits for its underlying business operations. Even though Macy's has experienced success with both its assortments and brand, its competitors haven't faired so well. Sears, due in part to part to a lackluster holiday season, has been forced to close nearly 120 locations to generate excess liquidity in an effort to shore up its balance sheet (Isidore, 2011).Other competitors who cater specifically to the middle class consumer have also lost significant amounts of market share as consumers trade down due to the economy. This performance is primarily due to the core functions and operations of the business. Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Macy's excels at these forms of management, which has allowed the company to perform at a higher level relative to its peers in the industry.

Harrods is a business of outrageous size. There are 4 000 employees and 3 500 agency and concession employees. The Human Resources Management needs to organize this vast amount of employees. To help orienting everyone Harrods created five brand values. The first brand value is innovation, finding out new methods, ideas, products and so on. The second value is British, which is very logic for a store that has been in London for 160 years. The third one is Luxury; Harrods sells a lot of fashion and luxury products. Anything ranging from the newest perfumes and latest clothing can be found there. There is even a project costing millions to make the street in front of the store larger because of all the big luxury cars that try to park in front of it. Their fourth value is service; employees help the clients in their purchases. The fifth one is sensation, trying to spread interest and excitement to attract tourists from all over the world.

According to David A. Garvin and Lynne C. Levesque authors of the HBR article The Multiunit Enterprise, these large corporations need a hierarchy of field managers that will effectively lead all stores. To manage large enterprises there needs to be a certain order, this is where the different management hierarchies come in. Every single step up the ladder has a larger responsibility and more control over benchmarks and setting goals. However, you can never forget that it’s a team effort. It’s about strengthening relationships to be able to work together and communicate effectively.