Sheep…mere sheep!

Corporate America is killing innovation…by setting up simple rules…

I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day who is the local manager of a well known retail store. She is a very smart, articulate and driven individual. She is definitely an asset to, not only the local store, but the retail chain as a whole. Her and I got talking about some new marketing tactics that would be incredibly beneficial to her market and the company. Now with anything new, there tends to be a barrier or two. But, after further discussion, she came to see the value and how it would be useful to her.

Later in the week, I contacted her again to see how we could implement some of these tactics into her marketing mix. Unfortunately, she had an additional rebuttal that really shows how large corporations miss out on significant opportunities because of little trust, foresight or courage. Her corporate office has a strict policy about the employees in the field following their strategy to the letter. I understand why these policies are in place since there needs to be a consistent message across various geographical locations and target markets. However, many opportunities can be uncovered if management out in the field is empowered to make decisions that can increase sales, market penetration or brand equity. In fact, these changes can be small trials to see if the initiative can roll out to the rest of the stores.

I wonder why corporations don’t want these kinds of things to happen…are they scared, lazy or just power hungry? Seems like silly excuses for potentially positive changes to your organization.