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    The Great Gordino Newsletter - Issue 279 - Wed 19th Jan 2005
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    Hi There,

    I hope you're week is going ok.

    Hooray!

    My car passed the MOT!
    Blimey, that's a novel experience for me.
    Considering my previously mentioned lack of interest in cars, I
    have always driven cars costing no more than around the £500
    mark, on the basis that if anything goes badly wrong, I can just
    get rid of it!
    There's no point in me spending loads of money on a car when I
    wouldn't even wash it.

    So, that's some good news for me.
    Particularly as my in-car adaptor had arrived for my ipod, and it
    would have been annoying to have the ipod and the in-car
    adaptor but no car.
    I would have had to run up and down the middle of the road
    singing along, and that would just have been silly.

    Mind you, here's a thought, what an excellent opportunity to
    dust off my middle of the road music!
    Then, when the police pull up alongside me and ask what I'm
    doing, I can say 'I'm listening to Shania Twain, what's the
    matter, you deaf or something?'

    Another series has started on TV of the show called 'Trouble At
    The Top', which documents the trials and tribulations of various
    big businesses.

    This one concerned the supermarket Sainsbury's, and the launch
    of their new clothing range.

    Finding themselves languishing (ooh, good word) with a poor 1%
    of the market, they decided to bring the whole operation in
    house, from design onwards, which they hadn't done before.

    With the grand strategic plans in place, with huge purpose built
    warehouses and offices, the launch drew ever nearer.

    I was expecting a huge disaster to strike, but the main problem
    with this program is that after the initial few series, there aren't
    that many disasters left!
    As a result, the only real problems were the niggling little
    practicalities.

    Here's the thing though, it's the little practicalities that count!

    Things like -

    The clothes not registering properly at the tills.
    Point of sale displays not fitting the stands properly.
    Certain lines not being ready for launch, leaving gaps on the
    rails.

    Little things, but so, so important.
    All the planning, advertising, the whole operation, is geared
    towards getting the customer in the shop and getting them to
    buy, so the small points of detail at that puchase area are
    absolutely vital!

    Were the problems all solved before launch?
    Well, no they weren't, although none of them turned out to be
    project killers.

    It probably shows though, why Sainsbury's is lagging so far
    behind Tesco in so many areas - that little attention to detail.

    Ok, that's it for today, and here's the thought - you may have
    long term plans in place, but is your attention to detail in the
    present?

    'Til Friday,
    Health and Happiness,
    Gordon
    email me at gordon@gordonbryan.com - you'll have to copy and paste
    thanks to the idiot online spammers!



    
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