BKBG Blog

Many BKBG Shareholders are family businesses, and the exit strategy for a number of those firms is to pass on their showrooms to their children or other relatives. But what happens if a child or niece can't cut the mustard? What do you do? Thanksgiving won't be much fun if you believe that you have to terminate one of your children. 

At the 2019 BKBG Conference, keynoter Avish Parashar suggested that a shift from saying "yes, but" to saying, "yes, and" has the potential to enhance productivity, perpetuate positivity and unleash brilliance.  Authors Roberto Verganti (Overcrowded. Designing Meaningful Products in a World Awash With Ideas) and Don Norman (The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design) disagree. They claim that creativity is enhanced not by deferring criticism but through criticism.

The reasoning for not using "yes, and" only is that truly exceptional ideas almost always have flaws because they explore new terrain. Norman and Verganti argue that without critical feedback, you can't understand the potential shortcomings and pitfalls of an original idea or concept, and this results in missed opportunities to delve into the idea more deeply. They state, "It's moving forward without progress."

Two iconic retail brands declared bankruptcy last week, and the reported plummeting of Barneys and Dean and DeLuca point to the ongoing paradigm shift in luxury retail. In a recent article in The New York Times, Ginia Bellafante notes that, "during the 1970s and 1980s, the sophisticated shopping experience was not branded in efficiency or self-denial or schemes devised in investment banks. Dean & DeLuca was itself a work of art. This was also true of Barneys, another institution born of the ethos that shopping was an act of self-actualization. Now both institutions find themselves in a financial free-fall." 

BKBG 2018 Conference workshop leader Bob Phibbs (The Retail Doctor) published an interesting take for the successful future of brick and mortar retailers.  Manufacturers, especially those who sell premium and luxury products, are beginning to find out that selling their wares on Amazon, direct to the public or through another ecommerce channel has not been a savior. Direct to consumer supply chains require manufacturers to incur costs that historically have been relegated to brick and mortar retailers that include marketing, customer service, shipping, handling and returns.  Suddenly, going direct and having new overhead costs have made many manufacturers reconsider the direct to consumer strategy.

We've never been more digitally connected, yet loneliness is at record levels. It's not just in the home where people are lonely, people are also lonely in the workplace. More than 40% of respondents to a 2018 Global Culture survey conducted by O.C. Turner report they don't have a close friend at work. Most people do not believe that their colleagues know "the real me." The study found that 62% of respondents take the time to get to know colleagues personally, and only 53% believe that their peers take the time to get to know them personally.

If the GM Board of Directors unanimously approved a decision on the first vote, the company's legendary Chairman, Alfred Sloan, would never accept the decision. Sloan believed that a board comprised of intelligent, monumentally successful captains of industry could never instantly agree on anything. He required opposing views, believing better quality decisions result from honest disagreement

How many times have you been in a negotiation when the first offer is patently absurd? You know the offer is unreasonable and so does the party you are negotiating with. The goal is to reach common ground, find a middle that will make both parties happy. But reaching a compromise based on an initial offer that is ridiculous is never really fair, reports Black Swan Group in a recent blog post.

Big data seems to be all the rage. And how can you use big data to help your business? By ignoring it, at least initially, writes statistician Cassie Kozyrkov in a recent HBR blog. She advises that a key to more effective decision making is to frame the context of the decision before looking at the data. Doing so helps to avoid confirmation bias and the Ikea effect. Confirmation bias influences decision making by using data to justify what you want to believe or “to selectively confirm the choice you have already made in your heart.” The Ikea effect is overvaluing something because you have put a lot of effort into it. It’s the difference between good work and hard work. If you have invested time, resources and intellectual capital in a new venture, new line new strategy development, etc. you tend to fall in love with the effort and the potential for a successful outcome. Because of your investment, your judgment becomes clouded, and that generally results in bad decision making.