07 Nov Are Your Chickens Committed?

There is a fable that many people in business and in sport have heard many times about the chicken and the pig.

A chicken and a pig go for a walk. The chicken says “Hey Pig, let’s open a restaurant”. “What would we call it?” asks the Pig. The chicken thinks about it and says “How about ‘Ham and Eggs’?”. The Pig replies “Nah, I would be committed and you would only be involved”.

The analogy of the story is that some people make the ultimate commitment by investing themselves 100% while others are only partially invested “putting in time”. What is interesting about this story in today’s business environment is the confusion between the chicken and the pig. When you hear stories of businesses closing or corporations filing for bankruptcy, often the employees who in the past were implied as the chickens, work like pigs. Many have vested interests in the success of the companies and have worked many hours over many years. Senior Management in these companies, with much less to risk and often less investment in both time and personal risk, suddenly function more like chickens.

In the Canadian Target operations, many times during the set-up process the people in mid-level management and lower raised the red flag and told upper management that they simply were not prepared, however Senior Management pushed through resulting in the disastrous rapid exit from Canada that followed. The chickens were functioning like pigs, and the pigs were functioning like chickens.

Sears can be seen in a similar light. The opportunity existed several years ago for Executive management to make decisions to invest capital to increase web presence, upgrade IT and change the trends within their brand, not unlike many other retail operations. Sears however decided to maintain status quo and when sales became tough, the attempt to salvage a bottom line came at the expense of wages, followed by selling off house brands and credit portfolio’s.

Extended hours of operation and reduced wages have become the norm in struggling retail operations. An attempt to do more with less has resulted in the further crumbling of the brick and mortar business. It is a vision that one day sales and service teams will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps in 20 years, but some companies forge ahead in their preparations as if it were to happen tomorrow.

Fortunately, there are still the business owners and entrepreneurs who believe in a service based formula. Where experienced staff are found in most departments and lineups at tills are short, quick and pleasant.

Canadian Tire, who manages multi-faceted departments requiring technical training is a good example of this. They changed their format in a timely manner and maintain long term employees who require technical training. Home Hardware is another favorite. Many local Home Hardware stores can be found with an abundance of educated, long term staff who seem to enjoy their work environment. Many maintain retail hours reasonably dictated by when their customers are shopping most frequently. They are not fighting for scraps at 9:30 pm on a weeknight in December.

In the world of an entrepreneur you begin as a pig because you have skin in the game and you are committed to one thing… the success of your business. Generally, most entrepreneurs put much of what they own at risk and it all becomes potential sacrifice. I believe that the entrepreneurial spirit that lives in the owners of operations in many Canadian retail stores develop an inclusiveness that allows the employee to have a vested interest as part of an operation that builds a reputation of trust and gives the customer the experience of shopping in a family-like environment.

Retaining your experts, strengthening an individual’s knowledge, developing people and treating employees like family; that’s the formula for maintaining a loyal customer base. Imagine a business where even the chickens commit to making the ultimate sacrifice, just like a pig. Invest in your people at all levels, and they will invest in your business at all levels. Remember, the reason people aren’t coming into your store like they used to may not be because of the new chickens, it’s quite possibly, because of the old pigs.

Written by Paul Hobbs