Message to Arthur Shlujjburger (Arthur Sulzberger of The New York Times) (Polar Bears and Penguins)
Month: October 2010
Nordstrom Company Culture
For many years, new employees were given a copy of the famous Nordstrom’s Employee Handbook – a single 5-by-8-inch (130 × 200 mm) gray card containing 75 words:
|
However, new hire orientations now provide the card above along with a full handbook of other more specific rules and legal regulations, as the way Nordstrom operates has changed. During this time, Nordstrom had the highest sales per square foot performance in the retail industry – by almost double.
>> Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrom#Employee_handbook
More on Nordstrom’s Culture:
-
Nordstrom’s culture encourages entrepreneurial, motivated men and women to make the extra effort to give customer service that is unequaled in American retailing. “Not service like it used to be, but service that never was.”
- “A place where service is an act of faith.”
- Nordstrom’s executives aren’t snobs; it’s just that they are uncomfortable with blowing their own horns.
- Their system is embarrassingly simple, “we out-service, not outsmart, the competition”.
- The truth is, “We can’t afford to boast. If we did, we might start to believe our own stories”.
- “Our success is simply a matter of service, selection, fair pricing, hard work, and plain luck!”
- ‘It was never that we were so great, it was just that everyone else was so bad.’ We know that at this moment, someone somewhere is getting bad service at Nordstrom
- When you stop worrying about the money and concentrate on serving the customer, the money will follow. (People who succeed in sales understand this paradox.)
- Nordstrom’s standard of performance is “Sales per hour”.
- Nordstrom’s salespeople are empowered to make decisions and Nordstrom management is willing to live with these decisions – it’s like dealing with a one-person shop. Empowered employees are energized. “Giving away responsibility and authority is the ultimate expression of leadership.”
- “The customer is always right” is not a cliché at Nordstrom.
- Decision by consensus is how the Nordstrom brothers run their business. Disagreements are worked out behind closed doors and a united front is always presented to the public.
- When the company expands to other regions, it dispatches an advanced force of veteran “Nordies” who carry the culture with them and imports it to new employees.
- Nordstrom never acquires other chains, because it is too difficult for those employees to break old habits.
- Nordstrom’s employees are instructed to always make a decision that favors the customer before the company. They are never criticized for doing too much for a customer; they are criticized for doing too little.
- “If I take care of the customer, the dollars will follow”
- Nordstrom believes that too many rules, regulations, paperwork, and strict channels of communication erode employee incentive.
- Nordstrom is informally organized as an “inverted pyramid” with the top positions occupied by customers and salespeople. Every tier of the pyramid supports the sales staff.
- The unconditional money-back guarantee is designed for the 98% of customers who are honest.
- Employees have access to sales figures from all departments and stores in the chain, so they can compare their performances.
- Outstanding sales performances are rewarded with prizes and praise, as are good ideas and suggestions.
- Part of good customer service is (Store Design) creating “a memorable experience”:· Store presentation must be understood immediately· Nordstrom states that it only takes 15 seconds to impress their customers. That’s why Nordstrom has more seating, better lighting, larger fitting rooms, wider aisles, and a more residential feeling.
- Nordstrom feels that the best training courses come from parents. Previous retail experience or a college degree has never been a prerequisite for succeeding at Nordstrom.
- Nordstrom “hires the smile and trains the skill.”
- Because Nordstrom doesn’t have many rules, employees don’t have to worry whether they are breaking any.
- Nordstrom would rather hire nice people and teach them to sell, then hire salespeople and teach them to be nice.
- At Nordstrom, the priority is on Selling, and the key to successful selling is providing outstanding customer service.
- If you treat customers like royalty and let them know that you will take care of them, they will usually come back to you.
- When customers enter a department, salespeople always make sure they are acknowledged. They are relaxed and unhurried in order to help the customer feel the same way.
- At its best, Nordstrom never forgets that it doesn’t have all the answers. They know that the customers have all the information that they need and that salespeople are the most valuable people in the company!
- The underlying Nordstrom culture and philosophy is not difficult to pass on to the next generation because it’s simple: “give great customer Service.”
Sears Zombie Promotion
The Social Network
I’m late in writing this review but Christina and I went to see The Social Network and I would give it a 7 out of 10. Since I’m a geek the subject matter of the movie pertained to my interests and even then I think if you are a geek you may be offended by how geeks are portrayed in the movie. If you don’t consider yourself a geek, you don’t like social networking, or if you are a woman, there is an even better chance you will not like the movie. All geeks aren’t out to screw everyone over as the movie depicts and I’ll leave it up to you to say how you feel woman were portrayed. I may spoil it for you if you haven’t already seen the movie so you may want to avoid reading any further until you get a chance to watch it. I’m obsessed with researching things I learn to make sure they are as accurate as possible so after watching the movie I wanted to do some Googling to find out more on how accurate the movie is to what really happened and who the main characters are from the movie.
Erica Albright
The movie but it starts out showing Mark Zuckerberg creating a website rating the attractiveness of female Harvard students after his girlfriend Erica Albright breaks up with him. It wasn’t tough to find Erica who posted the picture above on her website to show her viewers what she really looks like. She writes that she had her friend “Dave” help her create the site below.
As far as Erica’s response as to how accurate the movie is from her perspective she says:
“10/2/10 – I went and saw the movie last night. Kind of crazy that someone is actually playing me in a movie! The movie definitely brought back some great memories….it made me miss my college years that’s for sure! (I feel soooo old) lol (: — I guess you could say the movie is “based on a true story” but there are many scenarios that were soooo made up by Hollywood! As far as the two scenes I’m in, the first one is fairly accurate, we did “break-up” over dinner, I do remember him ripping on my school (that wasn’t the first time)…but the second scene of me at dinner with my friends blowing Mark off never happened. (also he NEVER friended me on Facebook) lol! (: ”
Sean Parker
Not that he is the best role model in the world but Sean Parker is someone I have read about for years with my favorite article being the October 2010 Vanity fair article titled “With a Little Help From His Friends”. In the article Parker is described as a “Web oracle; more than a few acquaintances and colleagues use the word “genius” to describe him. He understands not only computers and Web networks but also how people want to incorporate them into their lives. As a result, he’s been stunningly successful. That said, he has a libertine side. Parker has a knack for missing deadlines and appointments, for disappearing for weeks on end, for avoiding the press. (His decision to cooperate with a Vanity Fair profile is unprecedented and rather out of character.) He was pushed out of Facebook after an arrest for cocaine possession in 2005. (No charges were filed.) Even among his many supporters, he has a reputation for being an erratic party animal.”
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
Cameron and Tyler are identical twins of Harvard’s rowing team who meet Mark and want his help creating the Harvard Connection. Soon after Mark starts to finish his “TheFacebook.com” site which after released the Winklevoss’s sue over claiming Mark stole the idea after hearing about what they were working on. I can’t say I fully understand how the Winklevoss’s have a case because unless the idea was patented isn’t Mark able to create whatever he wants? Below is an interview from The Today Show with Matt Lauer (I can’t stand them):
Eduardo Saverin
Of all the “real world” characters of the movie, Eduwardo was the most difficult to find much on when researching them online. Savern also gets the award for the worst way to be portrayed in a movie award because he comes across looking like a nice guy who finishes last but ironically he seems to be the only one with some ethics in the movie so to me he should be the one we all appreciate. He once had 30% ownership in “thefacebook” which was reduced to .03% once Peter Theil (PayPal co-founder) and Sean Parker took control of the start-ups finances.
Mark Zuckerberg
It seems the reason Mark creates thefacebook.com is to meet woman after his breakup. Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend, Priscilla Chan (shown above) “was one of his pals at Harvard, where he studied back in 2004. Moreover, Chan is amongst the initial supporters who were with Mark when he came up with the concept of Facebook. Chan even packed up and moved to Silicon Valley with Zuckerberg after the launch of Facebook. Priscilla Chan is a third year medical student at the University of California San Francisco with dreams of becoming a pediatrician. The New Yorker profile mentions their eventual plan to marry, though nothing concrete is revealed in the article.” As for Mark’s thoughts on how accurate the movie is, he was recently asked in the interview below:
Interesting facts about the movie:
- Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind which is why Facebook is blue. OK, that isn’t about the movie but it is interesting.
- Natalie Portman, a Harvard student during the time of Facebook’s creation, gave writer Aaron Sorkin some insider information about how things really happened on campus. Sorkin thanked her by referencing her in a scene.
- The first scene, in which Zuckerberg’s girlfriend (played by Rooney Mara) breaks up with him, took 99 takes to finish.
Big Fish, Small Bowl, Will Travel
I generally don’t watch a lot of movies but particularly liked this excerpt from the Tim Burton movie Big Fish:
EDWARD: My muscles couldn’t keep up with my bones, and my bones couldn’t keep up with my body’s ambition. So I spent the better part of three years confined to my bed, with the World Book Encyclopedia being my only means of exploration. I had made it all the way to the “G’s,” hoping to find an answer to my gigantificationism, when I uncovered an article about the common goldfish.
YOUNG EDWARD: “Kept in a small bowl, the goldfish will remain small. With more space, the fish can grow double, triple, or quadruple its size.”
EDWARD: It occurred to me then, that perhaps the reason for my growth was that I was intended for larger things. After all, a giant man can’t have an ordinary-sized life.
In life we all need to room to grow. If your bowl is too small for your life or ambitions, find a different bowl and grow to be happy!
Running Like A Girl 2010
Christina and I finished the 2010 SF Nike Woman’s Half Marathon with an overall time of 3:31:24 which is 28 minutes faster than last year. If you look at the pace and the rank it isn’t stellar but I wouldn’t exactly call myself an athlete either. I woke up at 4am to get over to Christina’s so it was a very early start to our day. Got some coffee and cash and we made it to the race just in time for it to start. We started in the orange group this year even though we had yellow wrist bands which means we run 14 minute miles (the slowest class). The nice thing about doing that is you are with faster people at the start. I got a little agitated because clearly the people who thought they were fast weren’t and were walking way too much to be in the orange class. Regardless it was another fun year and we saw lots of people we knew from work.
The first half of the race we had perfect weather and the second half it started raining which was fine until the race ended and we had to stop moving. The bus line was about a mile long which meant we waited in the cold rain and wind for about an hour wearing shorts and a soaked sweatshirt so I was chilled to the bone and shivering despite my best attempts to think about lying in the sun on a white sand beach. Went and picked up a pizza after the race and watched a nice movie with hot chocolate to finish off the day. My muscles are actually doing pretty good this year but my knees are what hurt the most. Go team Safeway!
Free Your Inner Orangutan
I’m going to give you a scenario and by doing, so I’m hoping to prove a point. Let’s say everyone in the world has to go to prison even though they haven’t committed a crime. Let’s also say there are only three prisons which are an Apple prison, a Windows prison, and a Linux prison, and you get to choose which one you are going to spend the rest of your life in.
The Apple Prison
You are told and many believe the Apple prison is great, fantastic, wonderful, insanely awesome, remarkable, cool, and many other adjectives in the presentation you see from its warden Steve Jobs. The marketing campaigns for the prison are artistic and sexy with lots of marketing dollars behind them. Because everything is so sexy and perfect it costs lots of money to get into it. The prison itself is beautiful, and much of it is made of brushed metal. All the doors and cabinets don’t have knobs because its leader hates buttons and knobs. At this prison you are served fancy foods and everyone and everything is beautiful. It is ruled by one man who says you do things one way – his way because he is the best and nobody can be better than him (although the guy is a freaking rock star). The televisions can only display half the television programs because its warden doesn’t want to use a certain technology called Flash. The inmates for some reason love being dictated to and controlled because everything in the prison “just works” so they never try and leave.
The Windows Prison
The Windows prison is nice but not as beautiful as the Apple prison, but it costs less to get in. The warden of this prison, Steve Ballmer, likes to yell a lot but all in all, seems like a guy you would have liked to have hung out with in college. The inmates of the prison are very compatible with one another, and much of their time is spent developing their own rules. The rules work great as long as you don’t mind following rules created within your own prison, although you hear the other prisons have some better amenities, but you don’t care because your rules have support. Lots of people in this prison seem to still have AOL email accounts, and many worked for very large companies prior to arriving at the prison. The prison sometimes has really large earthquakes which crashes everything. Because of the earthquakes, you have to constantly keep rebuilding the entire prison all over again, which they call the blue earthquake of death. The latest builds of the prison take less time to rebuild and crash less often. The prison is fun because it allows you to play lots of video games.
The Linux Prison
The Linux prison barely has anyone occupying it, but everyone has keys to the front gates and every room to do whatever they wanted (heck, they could leave). Everything in the prison is completely free. Sometimes the inmates of the prison don’t have something they need, but they have the tools necessary to build it themselves. Everyone occupying the prison can’t understand why anyone would ever leave, and the inmates are in complete control of themselves, which can sometimes be a bad thing because there aren’t many laws or much support if an outbreak/riot occurs. If you get hurt and need to repair yourself, there aren’t a lot of people to help you, but you can get lots of help online. Although the Linux prison sometimes lacks control it does try to make rules for all prisons, but because most people are satisfied with their own prisons they don’t care much about the more open rules from this prison. Earthquakes occur, but the prison hasn’t crashed in years, so there isn’t much thought given to ever worrying about rebuilding. Everyone in the prison is a genius because everyone who runs Linux is a genius, and that is just how it works. I was doing good until that last point, wasn’t I?
Why Not Free Your Inner Monkey (or Orangutan)?
My guess is because some don’t like to troubleshoot and fix things. Some just want their world to “just work” and I think there is something to be said for that, but I can’t understand why you would sacrifice your freedom because of it. Others like compatibility and the familiarity with their existing operating system because they use it at work or because it is compatible with so many things. Gaming on a PC is fun too, so I get that as well. Are there some gaping holes and things I haven’t included in my arguments? Yeah absolutely, it is a complex subject, and I’m trying to simplify it, not to mention make it semi entertaining (and attempt to start a conversation). The most interesting thing about it? You might be a person who sits in a prison and does nothing and says nothing all day. Whatever prison you’re in, say something, do something, and be something! People (and orangutans/animals) were meant to live free, so why are so many of us living in prisons and happy about it? Live free and live open, and never forget sharing is caring. Oh, and Mr. Orangutan here says open-source rules and you like orangutans, right?
Lucky Number 13
Please take a hard look at this picture on the left and tell me what is missing. Because I gave the answer away in the title of this post it shouldn’t take you long to realize there is no 13th floor at this hotel. Well if you think about it there is a thirteen floor but they just didn’t label it as 13. As a society are we insane for believing a number is bad luck? Do you believe 13 is bad luck for you? Maybe I should knock on wood for saying this but the number thirteen has never mattered much to me but found it interesting the hotel was so superstitious it skipped the number entirely.
Napa 2010
Christina and I went to Napa for a date day about a month ago and I never got around to posting the pictures. While we were there we went to the Culinary Institute for lunch and then we stopped off at Dean and Deluca’s. The Culinary Institute was fun because it isn’t something you do every day and it is fun to watch the students cooking in the open kitchens. Dean and Deluca’s was also fun because I’m a grocery geek and they take gourmet foods to a whole new level. The only thing I could practically afford there was a soda so I decided to get the Cock and Bull which is probably the most manly soda money can buy. It has a very strong ginger taste to it and I was barely man enough to drink it all. 😉 After Dean and Deluca’s we went to Mondavi and walked toured the winery grounds because when you are in Napa you just have to go to Mondavi right?
Temporarily Thinking Like A Savant?
“If we are to believe the latest conclusions of Tony Wright (speaking above in a National Geographic documentary) the left brain hemisphere has not simply dominated a more passive right; rather, over time, it has changed our neurochemistry and neural structures to support its own ascent. In his new book, Left in the Dark, Wright argues that “humanity is suffering from species-wide brain damage” and this damage is the “root cause of our obvious insanity.” – Via BoingBoing.com
