August 31, 2020
Good morning! Here comes the meteor! Discarded face masks are becoming an increasingly significant category of litter; disgusting. Used cigarettes are still #1, but c’mon people, we can do better than trying to overtake the current leader.
- The neighbors got a new puppy.
- What is it about a puppy that seduces an otherwise sensible and logical person to think it might be nice to get a puppy?
- Maybe I should stick to grandchildren, which is a nice segue for announcing the arrival of Dorothy Elizabeth a few days ago in Chicago, IL.
- Over the weekend our son got married, our middle child, 30-years old.
- Have you participated in any COVID weddings? This was our first, though we sadly missed about six others since last March.
- This one was outdoors in the middle of nowhere, no people for miles, we did the catering ourselves, and time will tell whether we were foolish or not.
- One of my readers asked for a summary of the speech I gave; thank you, I’m flattered… maybe next week.
Forty or more years ago I occasionally hung out with a guy I’ll call Albert.
Albert was fun, somewhat insightful, perceptive, predictable, a bit irascible (aren’t we all!?), often funny, and somewhat accepting and complacent about life.
You might say he had surrendered early in life and was forever awaiting the outcome.
The times we were together often involved camping or something outdoors.
When it came time to prepare and eat supper he would always say, “Well, I suppose we might as well get it over with.”
He found meal time something to be endured and the prospect of it rather daunting, whereas I looked forward to it.
It was funny when he said it, very predictable, but I always wondered what it would have been like to take a look inside his brain and his affect.
You know the punch line, for some it’s a metaphor for life itself: “Well, I suppose we might as well get it over with.”
If you live to be 100 you will not encounter a force greater than the status quo — unless maybe gravity.
How Can Leaders Avoid Pitfalls and Lead Authentically?
“How can leaders avoid these pitfalls (of arrogance and hubris) and behave authentically?
First, they need to acknowledge their desires for external validation and then balance them with their internal compass… I know that I am susceptible to getting caught up in seeking good ratings in the Harvard classroom and praise for television appearances. I try to offset these temptations by practicing mindfulness, having two support groups, and getting honest feedback…
Because there are no precise measures of successful leadership, many leaders judge themselves by external metrics… in reality, these are very superficial standards. Better measures would include the capacity to inspire people to perform at their peak, set standards of excellence, maintain strong values, demonstrate the highest ethics, act decisively in a crisis, and touch people’s hearts at crucial times.” (George)
(Looking to improve your leadership skills? Try leadership coaching to enhance your ability to lead authentically.)
Working Days Are Longer, Inboxes Volumes Higher
(From The Economist) — “As millions of employees have relocated to living rooms and kitchen tables, workers’ daily routines have changed. Surely, the lack of a commute at least means workers have more time to themselves? Nope.
On average, people have clocked up an extra 48.5 minutes of working time a day — more than the average commuting time in the U.S. or Europe. Blame it on e-mails. E-mails have risen by eight percent (8%).”
Perhaps no big surprise, but genuine praise for Target Corporation, from INC. magazine:
“Target can’t compete with Walmart or Amazon, at least not on overall scale. It’s simply not large enough. Walmart has a much larger brick-and-mortar footprint. Amazon is obviously a bigger player online. Both generate far more revenue. What Target has, however, is a loyal following that any company would envy.
That’s largely the result of the way the company has build a brand as a place people like to shop. I don’t know anyone that says, “Oh, let’s go to Walmart!” Amazon, on the other hand, has focused on trying to eliminate the friction associated with online shopping by making two-day and, in some cases, one-day shipping the default expectation through its Prime membership. Still, no one gets excited about Amazon. My wife, on the other hand, would consider a trip to Target a perfectly acceptable date night.
What Target has managed to do is take that same level of customer loyalty and translate it to a world where people haven’t been spending nearly as much time in stores. It’s not a new strategy, but in some ways, it’s remarkably simple. Here’s the entire strategy summarized in seven words: “Be the most convenient place to shop.” In many cases, at least to its customers, Target was already the “coolest” place to shop. Now it wants to be the most convenient. Largely, that has meant introducing options like same-day delivery (which is faster than two-day shipping, by the way), order pickup, and even drive-up pickup. Usage of those services is up over 270 percent compared to last year. Target has been able to do this by leveraging the thing that made customers love it in the first place: its stores.
The company had spent billions building out new locations, often smaller footprint stores in urban locations, so that it can be closer to customers. That’s an advantage Amazon can’t match–you can’t order online and simply pick up your order an hour later, or have it delivered the same day. At least not outside of a few very limited areas. That strategy is paying off in a very big way. Target’s online sales surged 195% compared to a year ago.
Obviously online shopping became a much bigger thing since March, but those numbers beat the competition by far. That’s largely because, unlike Walmart and Amazon, Target has leveraged its network of 1,900 stores to meet the demand of customers. Target says 90 percent of its online sales were fulfilled by its stores, as opposed to distribution centers, which require longer shipping times.
By the way, the important lesson is this: It’s not that Target is uniquely benefiting from the pandemic. Target is benefiting from being focused on the right things at the right time. Its long-term strategy, devised long before it ever occurred to anyone that we’d all be spending months at home, is paying off big time now that we are. You could argue that Target is just lucky, but a good part of success is often when preparation meets opportunity. You can’t possibly predict when a pandemic is going to spread around the globe and change the way your customers shop. What you can do is be intentional about how to leverage your best assets regardless of the situation. Target didn’t acquire Shipt, or add order pickup because there was a pandemic. It did that because it saw the value to its customers of being the most convenient place for them to shop. It understood what was important to its customers and built its business around that. It just so happens that it’s more important than ever.”
Will someone please explain the correlation of the stock market with the current facts about the economy?
Be well — be servant-minded — stay safe — be buoyant!
