FUNDAMENTALS

Are You Cautious Or a Risk Taker?

by Mike Marquis, CFI

Marquis is currently an assistant vice president of loss prevention with the TJX Companies. His more than twenty-four years of LP experience includes senior leadership positions with Limited Brands and Urban Outfitters. Marquis invites your comments at mike_marquis@tjx.com. The opinions and commentary expressed by Marquis do not necessarily represent the TJX Companies or any of its divisions.

Tell me about how you view yourself. Cautious and safe? Risk taker and entrepreneur?

I think if you are going to lead an LP effort, you have to be more of the entrepreneurial type. Don’t get me wrong, you aren’t doomed if you think you are “cautious and safe.” I just think in order to move an agenda along, you have to be willing to take a bit of a risk.

So, since I’m typing and you are reading, we move forward with the entrepreneurial concept, which happens to lead me to a quote I read recently (funny how that happened…funny ironic, not funny ha-ha).

“Entrepreneurs are like juvenile delinquents who say, ‘This sucks. I’ll do it my own way.’” This thought is from Yvon Chouinard, founder and CEO of Patagonia, an outdoor gear and clothing business he founded in 1974.

Today Patagonia products are 100 percent recyclable and primarily made from recycled product. Their corporate promise is, “None of our stuff ever ends up in a landfill.” They are the small company leading the “green initiatives” in apparel.

But back to Chouinard’s quote. Obviously that frame of mind worked really well for him…but maybe not so much for the rest of us. Let me set the stage.

You are a new leader, sitting in a meeting for your area with three other peers and “the Boss.” Let’s call them George, Judy, Elroy, Jane, and the Boss. The discussion leads to the proper use of Spacely’s Space Sprockets and how they reduce shrink. You know Cogswell’s Cosmic Cogs are far better. How would you approach the issue? (Here is where you pause and come up with what you would do. You know I am a patient correspondent and will wait.)

Ready? Ok, let’s see how your approach works with the other three.

George and Judy spent eighteen months researching Spacely’s Space Sprockets. They have developed the manual and training materials, plus spent six weeks on the road managing the implementation…weeks they will never get back. They have had to face three different financial reviews on the ROI.

This program is their baby, yet you just said, “This sucks. I’ll do it my own way.” Hopefully, you took that part of the hint earlier and just said you had a better idea. Right? Actually that didn’t help either. Now they’re upset you’ve called them dumb.

Elroy could care less whether sprockets or cogs are better. In his opinion either will work. There are more important things to focus on. He is, however, very concerned that the new person has just upstaged him in the group. His desire to advance has just been challenged. He ain’t happy.

Jane now has multiple concerns. Her A team has made a bad recommendation, spent poorly, and wasted time. Her rising star isn’t, and the new person has no political acumen and disrupted the family atmosphere she has worked so hard to maintain.

How could this have gone so bad so quickly? You were just trying to “do the right thing.”

As you progress up the corporate ladder, you should realize something. It becomes more important as to how you share your knowledge over what knowledge you have. At some point in your career, how you handle information becomes more important than the information itself.

Spending time practicing how you will interact can be just as important as researching what you will be discussing. Try it. Let me know how it works out.

As you progress up the corporate ladder, you should realize something. It becomes more important as to how you share your knowledge over what knowledge you have. At some point in your career, how you handle information becomes more important than the information itself.