Lessons From Action Research

• In a big box retail environment, it is revealing how some employees “fly under the radar” without full understanding of their job requirements.
• Management should not assume things. Management should inspect what they expect, trust but verify, and follow up diligently.
• Humans, let alone team members, usually want to collaborate; it is up to leaders to facilitate collaboration.
• Although leaders should be focused on the big picture, building strategy, executing strategy, and should not micro-manage situations, it is critical that managers observe and improve operations at its micro-levels. In inventory, for example, at SKU level, associate-associate level, associate-process level, and/or associate-customer interaction level.
• People, processes, and polices are three critical components of business. When it comes to inventory in a retail environment, it is vital to focus on “controllable factors” within these components and not be “bothered” and/or “distracted” by what store teams cannot control such as weather, logistics, and technology.
• Although inventory is one of the highest expenses in retail and one of the most important factors to retail success, it is amazing how it could go out of control and / or unnoticed while store's teams and leaders are focused on other areas i.e. "flavor of the week"!

Source: A. Ayad (2008). Optimizing inventory and store results in big box retail environment. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 36 (3), 180-191