Management

In an entertaining keynote speech that kicked off the National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Orlando, Fla. last week, Shep Hyken, author, professional speaker and consultant to companies on building loyal relationships with their customers and employees, listed 10 "Moments of Magic" that'll help businesses win customers for life.

The Labor Department reported that 36,000 jobs were lost in February, in addition to the 8.4 million that have vanished since the Great Recession began. The unemployment rate still sits at 9.7 percent. But not every big company has been hunkering down and waiting for the economy to recover--some are expanding right now to gain market share while their weaker competitors flounder. Looking at data from publicly traded companies, Forbes created a top 10 list of publicly traded companies that added the most workers organically in 2009. It includes blue chips like Amazon.com, Comcast and Lowe's. The group is a window into where the recovery will take place.

If your company or unit is growing quickly, you might have five people in a small group who are playing three or four roles each. As you grow, you might have more people playing these roles. You could have 20 people, each of them finding new roles all the time. Each role demands resources needed to support the role.

In part 2 of this multipart series on the steps businesses must take to become networked organizations, which details how organizational structures and processes can make managing the demand of a product or service a process-based, predictable and repeatable science, we look at four tips to consider when tackling the optimization of your value networks.

Organizational design emphasizes structure. But today’s organizational analysts believe relationships between people inside and outside an enterprise create economic value by sharing knowledge and generating new knowledge. Value networks are a new form of organizational thinking based on human interdependence.

Most multichannel sellers have a small group of extremely loyal customers who buy year in, year out, or come back annually making substantial purchases. These are your biggest fans, and you'd be surprised to realize how much more they spend than your other customers, and thus how important they are to you.

There's nothing today's customer dislikes more than falling into the gap between a company's online and offline operations. Feeling stranded, abandoned and disrespected, even previously loyal customers start looking elsewhere when channel conflict gets in the way of their needs. Customers want a coherent, seamless and positive experience — not your conflict.

The housing market and employment levels are among the biggest factors economists monitor to get a fix on the state of the economy. Overall retail sales is the other major bellwether, particularly as we head into the fall and holiday seasons. At this point, it's tough to get overly optimistic about an economic recovery for 2009. But amidst the negatives, there are some positive signs on the horizon worth tracking and reacting to.

PATIENT: "Doc, my small company needs to grow — even this year. But I don't want to branch out recklessly and try to be all things to all people. How can I grow my company, remain relevant, but not lose focus of our unique brand?" CATALOG DOCTOR: "It's possible for a small company to grow, even in today's economy. Look at expanding into new programs while improving existing programs as well. Here are prescriptions for both."

The nature of the internet business model allows more centralized inventory control and more efficient order and fulfillment management than a retail store network. And of course with centralized fulfillment, online merchants don’t incur the cost of distributing inventory around the country, or even throughout a region. In addition, they can extend or cancel promotions depending upon demand and inventory levels.