After working at Kohl’s for almost four years now, I have been able to experience several types of managers and observe which ones succeed and which ones find out they cannot handle the management life. At Kohl’s, there is a store manager, a manager for domestics (shoes, home, and seasonal), a manager for apparel, an human resources manager, and a truck/replenishment manager. Under these managers are hourly ones who have the same responsibility and power as the salary managers, but do not do as much of the office work. Along with the managers, there are “leads”. Leads are the ones who make sure each department is organized and set up correctly according to the corporate book and the managers above them. Leads, however, do not technically have a managerial role in the store, they are just in charge of the floor associates and can tell them what needs to be done.

The way that the managers at Kohl’s are tiered works out quite well part of the time. There is usually a salary manager and an hourly manager working at the same time during busy time periods to avoid one person being split up too much. One answers the manager assistance calls, the phone calls, and checks in on the department while the other does a project or office work. Along with making sure one person is not stretched out too much, the tiering helps make sure that the store’s appearance and layout is correct and appealing. A lead works on the majority of the layout with some help from an hourly manager to make the department follow the book and the department managers, plus the store manager, walk around to make sure it looks visually appealing and suggesting tweaks if necessary. This way everyone has their own project to work on when they’re at work and the customers are getting a visually appealing store along with great customer service.

However, the tiering of the managers’ responsibilities makes the floor and cashier associates very low on the totem pole. Sometimes it is unclear who we should go to when we have a question about an item or project. Other times it feels like we are very distant from our store manager because he is 85% of the time in his office doing computer work instead of interacting with us. Also, when he does come to talk to us, it is usually to tell us what we are doing wrong and ask us why we have not made the goals of the day yet even when it is very early in the day. Also, the scheduling of the managers almost always is never one that works. A majority of the time, only one manager is scheduled while they have a project and/or office work while they are supposed to be available to customers at the same time. This usually leaves the customer service interaction to suffer because the manager is stretched too thin to get to everything that needs to be attended to.

To help customer service satisfaction go up, the managers at my store tried telling us what we can and cannot do when we are at the register with customers to avoid calling a manager as much. This caused many problems in the store because of miscommunication. Our loss preventions and the store manager worked together to make a list of things that we can do for a customer without calling a manager or questioning the customer. This includes accepting expired coupons, lowering prices of products, and adjusting their previous purchases. However, they were not clear on the boundaries of these exceptions. Some managers will only allow week old coupons while others accept ones that are several months old. This variation just made us call a manager no matter what because we did not know what was accepted and what would look like a red flag to loss preventions on our associate number.

Do you think the tiering method is only good on paper? Or should there just be better communication?

 

Has Apple’s iPod finally reached the end of it’s product life cycle?

After its release, the iPod forever changed the way we look at mp3 players. Initially hitting the market in 2001, it became the most popular and recognizable portable music device. This can be attributed to it’s success in the introduction phase. The distinctive click wheel and white head phones that gave the iPod its iconic look and popular product design. They spent a lot on advertisement and saw minimal profit. Practically everyone had some kind of iPod growing up, and Apple was constantly renovating and improving it.

In 2001, when it was first introduced, they sold a total of 125,00 units. By 2006, they were up to 88 million iPods sold. This was when iPod really entered the growth stage. The product design began to stabilize and they continued to enhance and upgrade its ability and capacity. This was also when Apple really started to heavily advertise. The white headphones continued to be a stable of the iPod and Apple capitalized on this with advertising. This also allowed them to have customers advertise for them. Anytime you saw someone using white headphones, you knew it was an iPod without even seeing the iPod. The fact that they could have successful advertising without even showing the device was an amazing accomplishment.

Sales peaked in 2008, and at this point they sold over 157 million iPods. This signified the beginning of the maturity stage as sales started to slow down and stabilize. Competitors were established and ultimately realized they had little chance of competing with the iPod. Apple was also able to reduce cost and improve production. By 2010, 275 million iPods were sold. Most customers at this point are repeat buyers and want to upgrade their previous device.

In 2014, almost 13 years and 26 models later, the iPod seems like it has finally reached the end of it’s product life cycle, and is seeing the effects of the decline stage. Profits for the year are down 52% compared to this time last year, and is expected to drop even further.  On top of this Apple has greatly reduced the amount of time and money spent on enhancing and advertising. The newest iPod release was the 5th generation iPod touch, and that was in May of 2013. In 2014 they released colors for the 5th generation, but it has been over a year since the last iPod model was released, and this is the longest gap in the devices history.

Reasons for this are believed to be a result of consumers expecting more from their devices. Instead of buying a iPods, Apple consumers are buying iPhones and iPads instead.

Steve Jobs joked in 2007 when the iPhone was released that the iPhone was “the best iPod we’ve ever made”. I wonder if he realized how correct he was, or that the iPhone would eventually replace the iPod all together. iPhones and iPads offer the same music capabilities of the iPod, but with much more ability, including thousands of mobile apps, accessible internet, and many ways to connect and communicate.

 

Do you think the iPod will rebound or has it completed its life cycle?

What are some reasons the iPod has seen a decline in sales?

How was Apple able to create such a long and successful product life cycle? It has taken over a decade for the iPod to reach the decline stage.

 

Sources:

http://jkaonline.typepad.com/jkaonline/2011/04/apple-case-study-from-the-ipod-to-the-ipad-product-life-cycles-and-growth-potential.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25927366

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/analyst-ipod-touch-final-stage-its-product-life-cycle-3407151/