One of my oldest friends has worked for a company for the last 26 years. She was complaining to me the other day about a scenario that took place in her office. Although it is not exactly a retail story, there are some universal management elements we can all learn from.

There are 4 characters in this scenario. The first is my friend of 40 years who is an Administrative Assistant to the Sales Manager. Her name is Rachael. Understand, she has worked in the department for 20+ years so she knows what to do and has seen many changes and managers over the years.

Then there is her boss, the Sales Manager, who has had this job for the last 5 years but she has also worked in the department for almost 15 years. We will call her Bobbie.

The other two characters in this little scenario are the new Vice President, named Lester, and his Administrative Assistant. The ...Read More

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This past week a 78-year old woman died. She was an immigrant from Brussels who never graduated from high school but built a business that today is a household name. Her name was Liz Claiborne. The first reaction is, oh, she was the fashion designer. But she was so much more than that title implies. She was a visionary, a trend setter, a radical, a rebel and a malcontent.

Yes, we are all familiar with the designer part and the fashion brand that bears her name. You might even be aware that Liz Claiborne Inc. was the first company run by a woman that made it to the Fortune 500 list. You might even be aware of the fact that her company became the gold standard for the working woman around the world. You may also be aware that her company owned some of the hottest fashion brands beyond the Liz Claiborne label, such as Kate Spade, Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman, DKNY jeans, and ...Read More

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“He has all the luck.” What a lucky guy.” or “As luck would have it.” These are just some of the expressions that we hear all of the time. In retailing, it’s terms like “She was lucky to get that location” or “They are always in the right place at the right time” or “She was lucky buying that line when she did–it got hot.” Then we hear the classic response, “You make your own luck.” What does that mean? How much of our own luck can we actually make? Some people say that playing poker is a game of luck but why is the same group of players always winning the tournaments?

The one comment I hear almost every time I go out to speak is, “Boy, are you lucky! You get to travel all over the world, meet interesting people, and get paid to do it.”  So I guess I am lucky.&...Read More

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