How would you save Lowe's from the same fate as Kmart, Sears, Radio Shack, Circuit City, HH Gregg?
Post your ideas here, maybe Niblock and freinds will read them and save our jobs. Everything that is posted on Bright Ideas gets shot down as already suggested or previously tried.
Dynamite?
Niblock has a black soul.
Hire back the ASM you let go in January they ran the. Stores the right way or at least in my store.
How do you save a company with no passion for doing the right things anymore?
They listen to all the wrong people on programs that are rolled out.
Training an employee consists of having them take a 5 minute computer quiz.
Store managers are not held accountable. The blame gets pushed down to the hard
working floor associates. They roll out the EOS and then do absolutely nothing with the
horrible results. Management abuses the associates that do work and does nothing to
get rid of the ones who don't. Lowe's wants to take, take and take. They don't care about
it's employees and have shown that more year after year. And people want to save this company?
Management isn't capable of doing the right things. Simple as that.
Completely start over with the LP dept.
Right now, professional thieves are cleaning out our stores.
Trespass these thieves out of the stores, ban backpacks "walking around" the store (leave them up front, like they do in convenience stores), and actually train these people to STOP carts full of product from walking out the door.
Change the inventory process completely.
Right now, the trucks are packed like dumpsters before being delivered to the stores. Product is damaged, and who knows how much product is missing each delivery?
Don't use the "day labor" rejects to help count the stores during inventory, either.
After watching these people in action, I would not trust them to watch grass grow. They would likely find a way to foul that job up.
And dump the "business as usual" mentality that dominates the company. Things need to CHANGE, not stay the same.
That is why companies like Sears, K mart, etc are on the ropes. They did not CHANGE and they got left behind.
Lowes is heading the same way right now.
Hopefully, the stockholders will pull the plug on Niblock and his merry board of directors, and get some new people with new ideas in there.
Just my thoughts.
In no particular order, my ideas.
Dump any and all unnecessary corporate expenses; no more bonuses for "executives" money would be better spent at the store level on employees, no more NASCAR - only a small segment of Lowe's customers give a rats a-- about hundreds of miles of left turns in a car with an engine that sounds like an insect. While those at the store level tighten are belts yet again, corporate acts like they are on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
Hire an outside vendor to develop new software to run the company; yeah Lowe's wasted close to a billion on Sterling the replacement for the current Genesis system. For the wasted money Lowe's could of had a sweet system from IBM, Oracle, and any number of other vendors.
Run each store as it's own separate business. Store manager would be ultimately responsible for the profit or loss of each store. Lowe's would function as a consultant providing HR, LP assistance as well as product to the stores.
Bring back department managers who would run their departments as a business within a business. They would be responsible for ensuring that there are no out of stock situations that cause lost sales.
40 hour work weeks for all full time employees; no 60 to 80 work weeks for management. They have families too.
360 degree evaluations, just as management evaluates employees the employees would evaluate the management. Mean, nasty managers that hide out in their offices would be voted off Lowe's island.
Corporate would support the stores; I thought we were no longer a "Command and Control" company. Didn't Niblock have an epiphany on stage in Las Vegas when he came up with the "Help customers love where they live?"
HR would investigate complaints of employees not doing their job(s). None of this look the other way crap for favorites; too much of that takes place at Lowe's. That's why hard working employees leave, they don't want to work with those that are goofing off.
Increased technology at the store level. Like we need about twice the number of blue iPhones for employees to use as we have currently. A credit kiosk would be nice as well, customers enter their information and go to any cashier for verification. Lot faster than current system.
Digital signage. Instead of the diamonds at each "service desk" these could be replaced by large screen monitors to promote credit promotions and what's on sale.
Lowe's needs to embrace new technology and ideas sooner rather than later.
Eliminate Lowes Racing, sell all of the corporate jets, no stock options . Set employees with incentives such as work life balance with fixed schedules, hire oracle or Salesforce for cloud computing to design a retail sales interface (like they do for many retailers)
Sell the returned damaged items to a company that repackages and resells them, so they aren't a complete loss, remove Nibs and staff that is loyal to him from any job at corporate. Return the company to employee owned and provide profit sharing and better health plans to the staff.
Any manager that has stayed in their office would be transferred to a job loading brick and block for customers. They wouldn't be laid off just given a job to earn their keep.
There is a whole lot more, like actually selling some items that aren't previously opened to customers. Having a selection...
But they can't afford me, I quit.
Get rid of the current board and start with one that is pro employee like they said they were. Only thing holding Lowe's back is money grubbing executives.