Manage by Wandering Around Aimfully

Kevin Peters described how, after taking over as Office Depot president for North America, he learned a great deal by walking outside and through 70 Office Depot stores in about 15 states. The way in which he meandered could be coined “management by wandering around,” a phrase credited to another Mr. Peters, that one being Tom Peters, author of the classic In Search of Excellence. But since I’m thinking about Mr. Kevin Peters now, I’ll put mention of Mr. Tom Peters aside.
     Mr. Kevin Peters began by pulling into the store parking lot to watch customers walking into and out of the store. He was struck by the number who walked out carrying no merchandise. He’d then go into the store to watch customer traffic flow, listen to interactions among customers and employees, and decide how to turn his observations into plans for action.
     The wandering around was not aimless, but instead with targeted aim: He was gathering data to use to improve the store operations.
     Considering the thinking patterns of retail store owners/operators, store employees, and shoppers, here are tips on making MBWA meaningful:

• Relax yourself before starting. Open up your mind. You’re gathering information. Only afterwards will you analyze it. Understand before you critique. Go one better on Mr. Peters by separating the decision making steps.
• Relax your staff. Mr. Peters used a “secret shopper” approach, not telling the employees he’d be coming by. That would be impractical for most owner/operators of small to midsize businesses, unless they happened to have bought up astoundingly good disguises at a Halloween closeout sale. An alternative is to let your staff know how you regularly walk around to learn. Then at a separate time, give feedback on what you saw and heard and what you plan to do with the information. Incorporate your employees in the self-improvement.
• When starting MBWA, go to areas you’re unaccustomed to visiting. Stay relaxed enough to break old habits. If you restrict yourself to your usual comfort zones, you’ll miss out on seeing all your store’s strengths and shortfalls.

     A warning: Be ready for “wandering around aimfully” to become “wandering around painfully.” Mr. Peters tells of coming across a store employee leaning up against a façade outside the Office Depot store, smoking a cigarette while shoppers were walking out of the store carrying nothing.
     It turned out that employee was the store manager. Not a promising sign for the future of Office Depot.

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