Giant chain stores with tremendous purchasing power are creating new business realities for smaller companies and Mom and Pop stores by selling products below cost. This forces some of their competitors who cannot compete to go out of business, while others have to change their business model completely to survive. Many of these companies that use creative thinking and change their business models are able to stand up against these Giants and beat them at their own game.
One of my consulting clients, a Distributor who has been in business since the turn of the Century had to face the new business reality of tough competition from a giant chain store who opened new stores in his “back yard.” Realizing they needed to change the business model to meet today’s business challenges, management decided they needed to mainstream their operations, lower operating costs, and implement a “just in time inventory” system at all of their branches in order to stay competitive.
Not having “real time” information between the branches and the headquarters was the first obstacle management had to overcome in order to achieve their goal of “just in time inventory.” The first challenge the Distributor faced was finding the right software house that would not only provide the right software solution, but would also be a partner that would help meet the company’s current and future expansion plans. The second challenge was converting the branches’ data to the headquarters host computer.
Meeting the “just in time inventory” challenge at all branches and providing better customer service:
Changing from departmental computer systems to a centralized computer system was the first step to achieving the “just in time inventory” goal at all branches. Having “real time inventory” status at all locations enabled headquarters to achieve rapid response to low-level inventory, and helped avoid over stocking. The Branches, having the ability to view other branches inventory in “real time mode,” were able to ship products directly from other locations when needed. Achieving the “just in time inventory” goal helped the distributor lower operating costs, sell at competitive prices, and provide better customer service.
The next step after mainstreaming operations was to implement Web Commerce strategy that would allow the distributor to show the product catalog, track buying trends, and update the headquarters computer with the new Web orders in “real time mode.” Starting a new nightshift gave the Distributor’s clients, many of whom were contactors, the ability to stop at the branch early in the morning on the way to the jobsite, pick up their Web orders from the night before, while their car engines were running, and drive away within minutes.
Beating the Giant by becoming a “one stop shopping center” with competitive pricing:
Although, mainstreaming their operations and enabling an e-commerce strategy improved the distributor’s dwindling business, they were still treading water. The giant chain store in the distributor’s “backdoor” began to sell some of the same accessories my client sold, but below their cost. By selling the accessories below the Distributor’s cost, the giant chain store hoping their clients would buy other, more profitable products the Distributor also sold while visiting their stores.
Facing the giant chain store’s challenge, the Distributor’s management team decided to match the giant chain stores prices for the accessories they were selling, provide their customers with better service, and retain their loyalty. Beating Giant Chain Stores “at its own game,” turned the Distributor into “One Stop Shopping Center” where their clients could purchase everything they needed at very competitive prices and get even better customer service.
Final Thoughts On Beating The Competition
Giant chain stores that are creating part of today’s challenging business environment can only be beaten with creative thinking. Implementing new ideas helped the Distributor not only meet the “Giant’s challenge,” but came in ahead of the game by increasing their number of Nationwide Branches by 35% using “just in time inventory” and matching their competitor’s lower price on accessories.
Dan Kaplan
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/business-competition-how-to-beat-your-competition-at-their-own-game-120803.html
An accurate description of American Politics?Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
I couldn’t wait
I headed straight for the Capitol Mall
My heart began to pound
Yahoo! It really exists
The American International Pictures logo
I looked up at that Capitol Building
Couldn’t help but wonder why
I felt like saying "Hello, old friend"
Walked up the hill to touch it
Then I unzipped my pants
And pissed on it when nobody was looking
Like a great eternal Klansman
With his two flashing red eyes
Turn around he’s always watching
The Washington monument pricks the sky
With flags like pubic hair ringed ’round the bottom
The symbols of our heritage
Lit up proudly in the night
Somehow fits to see the homeless people
Passed out on the lawn
So this is where it happens
The power games and bribes
All lobbying for a piece of ass
Of the stars and stripes of corruption
Makes me feel so ashamed
To be an American
When we’re too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Viet Nam
Whilke fiddling while Rome burns at home
The Boss says, "You’re laid off. Blame the Japanese"
"America’s back," alright
At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation
No wonder others hate us
And the Hitlers we handpick
To bleed their people dry
For our evil empire
The drug we’re fed
To make us like it
Is God and country with a band
People we know who should know better
Howl, "America riles. Let’s go to war!"
Business scams are what’s worth dying for
Are the Soviets our worst enemy?
We’re destroying ourselves instead
Who cares about our civil rights
As long as I get paid?
The blind Me-Generation
Doesn’t care if life’s a lie
so easily used, so proud to enforce
The stars and stripes of corruption
Let’s bring it all down!
Tell me who’s the real patriots
The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
Or the people with the guts to work
For some real change
Rednecks and bombs don’t make us strong
We loot the world, yet we can’t even feed ourselves
Our real test of strength is caring
Not the toys of war we sell the world
Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
Old glory for a blanket
As you suck on your thumbs
Real freedom scares you
‘Cos it means responsibility
So you chicken out and threaten me
Saying, "Love it or leave it"
I’ll get beat up if I criticize it
You say you’ll fight to the death
To save your worthless flag
If you want a banana republic that bad
Why don’t you go move to one
But what can just one of us do?
Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?
We don’t destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out
We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It’s easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam
And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs
I’m thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I’m on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We’ve got to rise above the need for cops and laws
Let kids learn communication
Instead of schools pushing competition
How about more art and theater instead of sports?
People will always do drugs
Let’s legalize them
Crime drops when the mob can’t price them
Budget’s in the red?
Let’s tax religion
No one will do it for us
We’ll just have to fix ourselves
Honesty ain’t all that hard
Just put Rambo back inside your pants
Causing trouble for the system is much more fun
Thank you for the toilet paper
But your flag is meaningless to me
Look around, we’re all people
Who needs countries anyway?
Our land, I love it too
I think I love it more than you
I care enough to fight
The stars and stripes of corruption
Let’s bring it all down!
If we don’t try
If we just lie
If we can’t find
A way to do it better than this
Who will?
This song was written in 1986. Unfortunately, I feel it is still an accurate summary of American politics. Do you agree with me? Or do you disagree, and if so why?
The song is called ‘Stars and Stripes of Corruption’ and is by a band called the Dead Kennedys. It’s on the album Frankenchrist. They are an American band, by the way.
dead kennedys are a good bandReferences :
http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2008/8/21/how-to-prevent-progress-the-american-method.html
I think that’s pretty accurate.References :
Good song or story some believe others do not.References :
It certainly covers all bases.
Simply put though, I feel American politics is
One side collects money for the wealthy, the other for the poor.References :
I preferred Too Drunk to Fuck myself. It was less pretentious.References :
I can’t disagree with much of what they’ve said.References :