Category: Business

Retail Company Revenues By Employee

Comparing Revenue Per Employee Across Major Companies

Geek with computer

Yes, I’m a data geek and I crunch company operating results for fun. Check this out…

Wolframalpha is a public data search engine which allows for lots of complex data analysis. The data below is how much revenue each publicly traded company generates when it is divided by the total number of employees it has (per year).

I work in the retail sector, so I first looked at how much revenue each company makes if it were divided by their number of employees. As you can see below, I for instance was able to determine that Kroger is making $36,841.74 more revenue per employee than Safeway. The numbers are correct and publicly available via calculation, but they don’t make sense to me.

Annual Company Revenue/Employee

Retail Companies

Kroger

$244,659.51

Safeway

$207,817.77

Walmart

$198,398.10

Target

$189,692.31

Tech Companies

Google

$1.81 million

Apple

$1.32 million

Source: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Questions for Discussion

I’ve posted similar things in the past and have had some really smart followers of this blog add to the conversation so I hope this post continues that trend.

  • Why would a Safeway employee create more revenue per year than a Walmart employee?
  • Why would a Kroger employee make $36,841.74 more revenue per year than a Safeway employee?
  • Is sales per square foot the real reason the numbers are so unexpected?
  • Is the number of retail stores a major factor?
  • Did these numbers surprise you?
  • Is looking at annual company revenue by employee even important?
  • Then when you think each retail revenue by employee is high, look at Google and Apple!

“You should look at profits by employee. A more telling story.”

Disclosure: I am in no way representing any company in this post or site. I’m surfacing public data and merely asking what we can derive (if anything) from it. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thanks for adding to the conversation.

Join the Conversation

What factors do you think contribute to these differences in revenue per employee? Would profit per employee tell a different story?

When Feedback Creates Competition

The Legendary Meeting Between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari

Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of the iconic luxury sports car brand

I love my lunchtime chats with coworkers, and I know they are anything but typical. We get into some interesting subjects, and I always seem to take away at least one thing every lunch hour. Somehow the topic of Ferrari’s came up a few months ago and after doing some fact checking I found what they told me to not only be true, but also inspirational and amusing.

I wasn’t aware Ferruccio Lamborghini started his career building tractors. He had a passion for sports cars and Mr. Lamborghini wasn’t satisfied with the quality and performance of his Ferrari, so he requested a meeting with Mr. Enzo Ferrari himself.

I love the story of Mr. Ferrari and Mr. Lamborghini meeting because it helps demonstrate why leaders need to listen and respond to the feedback they are provided. If you fail to listen you leave the door wide open for others to stop telling you and to start showing you what they want. In some instances what is requested is in fact a better way of doing things and if those who were trying to give you feedback to help you stop telling you and start showing you, they can become your most fierce rival.

The Legendary Meeting

“The exchange between Ferrari and Lamborghini is often cited as the latter’s inspiration for founding a carmaker in the first place, but it is as much the stuff of legend and myth as it is a factual occurrence. In the 1991 Thoroughbred & Classic Cars interview, Lamborghini said that after the clutch problems endured, “I decided to talk to Enzo Ferrari. I had to wait for him a very long time.

‘Ferrari, your cars are rubbish!’ I complained. Il Commendatore was furious. “Lamborghini, you may be able to drive a tractor but you will never be able to handle a Ferrari Properly.’ This was the point when I finally decided to make a perfect car.”

Later re-tellings of the story center around several basic points: Lamborghini visited Ferrari; proceeded to challenge, demand improvements, or deride Ferrari; and finally was dismissed as a mere tractor manufacturer. Whether the industrialist’s spite was enough of a reason to enter the carmaker business, or if the exchange inspired further business interests or merely served as an anecdote, is unknown. Sackey writes that the economic motives for entering the high-profit-margin sports car business far outweighed Lamborghini’s personal sentiments. In the T&CC interview, Lamborghini notes that “Ferrari never spoke to me again. He was a great man, I admit, but it was so very easy to upset him.”

Source: Wikipedia

Leadership Lessons

Listen to Feedback

Even critical feedback from customers contains valuable insights for improvement.

Avoid Dismissiveness

Dismissing ideas based on a person’s background can lead to missed opportunities.

Adversity Drives Innovation

Sometimes being told “no” or “you can’t” provides the greatest motivation for success.

From Tractors to Supercars

1948

Lamborghini Trattori

Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his tractor manufacturing business, which became highly successful.

1963

Automobili Lamborghini

Following his infamous meeting with Enzo Ferrari, Lamborghini founded his sports car company.

1964

The 350 GT

Lamborghini’s first production car was released, beginning the legendary rivalry with Ferrari.

Long live the Lamborghini…

The 1000th Lamborghini Gallardo, continuing Ferruccio’s legacy of excellence

Your Thoughts?

Have you ever experienced a situation where feedback was dismissed, only to become competition? How do you handle criticism in your leadership role?

Today’s Raging River Of Information

At today’s Dev Learn 10 in San Francisco, I attended a seminar where a woman at the back of the room said “social media is great and all, but I am overwhelmed with the influx of information all around me.”  I liked what another person said which was that just because there is lots of data in the world, it doesn’t mean you have to consume everything available to you.  The 3-4 minute discussion gave me a lot of ideas, so hopefully you beat me to solving the problem because either way we’ll all win.