Align Your Resources to Achieve the Results You Seek - Four Key Items to Consider

We all want to get more done with less. That is essentially what every retailer has tried to do for the last several decades. I am not sure it has worked. Squeezing expense out is important, but have we gone too far? Is now the opportunity to reset that approach and ensure we are doing more with the right amount needed? Some of the services being offered right now are simply more involved than the largely self-serve model we have been used to in most big box, mass retail.

Buy online pick up in-store or curbside delivery are different models than what stores had previously. Both of those services are essentially personal shopping services and require more from store associates than when customers come into the store and shop. As those services become a higher percentage of the overall business, labor budgets need to be adjusted accordingly.

The business is changing; are your resources and planning changing with it?

Do more with the right amount

Match the needs of the business to the available tools and fund appropriately. Not everything can be done with less resources than before. Evaluate where your business is growing and what is required to nurture it to maximize its full potential. Trying to cut corners, or shave off costs early in the process only stifles the ability to fully realize what it could be in the long run. That can be a challenging balancing act, especially in a time of uncertainty. But these big bets are what will ultimately define the survivors in a changing landscape.

Return on investment

Invest what you can where it will have the biggest payback now. Use that growth to reinvest in the next highest priority. How do you define your return on investment? What is that payback period? Ensure you are not so focused on the immediate term that you miss the opportunities that can pay off bigger in a longer period of time. This is critical to support what I said above. You have to give the areas that have great opportunity the resources needed to achieve the potential your innovative ideas have. Perhaps other areas of the business can be reduced to allow for more time and money to be invested in areas that have a longer runway for success.

Agile Action Plans

Evaluate your action steps regularly. Working in short bursts can be helpful to stay ahead of changing and emerging trends. This will prevent you from being too far down any path if something changes. Being agile, having the ability to pivot, and becoming a nimble company are all over-used cliches that CEOs are all mentioning right now. However, these are important elements that a successful business will need. Don’t let the expressions wear down the fact that actions that have to be in place for those to actually be true. Companies will need to be flexible. They will need to shift rapidly into new directions. And it will be important for associates and leaders both to expect change to continue to happen.

As seasons pass and your business moves into a traditionally higher traffic, higher sales time of year, are you in a position that you can act on whatever external factors may occur? There are a lot of unknowns as schools begin to open again and a new flu season looms. Will local governments begin to shut down again to contain outbreaks? You will need plans to address those situations if or when they arise.

Build in forecast flexibility

Just as with your action planning, have regular reviews of your financial forecasting. Is it adjusting with the business? Is it keeping up with the action changes you are making? Continually evaluate the changing trends to update your forecasts to remain relevant to the environment as well as to ensure you are measuring the right things compared to your established priorities and timelines.

Change is inevitable right now. Decision making is critically important. There is no time to waste, just as this is not the time to wait. Wisely investing in the right amounts will make a difference for your future. That pace, which will be the subject of our next article in this series is only quickening. Resources are precious and finite right now – so we need to ensure that we align them to give us the best results to take advantage of the short-term opportunities we have in front of us, yet still align to long-term strategic initiatives.

How are you evaluating and managing your resources appropriately and ensuring they are aligned with the outcomes you are looking for?

I also recently discussed this topic and some of the ideas from this series of articles with Graeme Grant , CEO of Blueday, on their webinar Measuring Store Performance in Turbulent Times: Defining Your Key Metrics for 2020 and Beyond.

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