Next to our hotel is a C&A, remember them? Rob's been in dreamland kitting out his wardrobe. Sorry Martel if you're reading this I may have spoiled your Christmas present too. So I googled C&A to find out why they suddenly vanished from the UK high street...
They are owned by a Dutch family (so no shareholders) who were notoriously secret in the way they ran their business. Not even senior management were aware of their financial reports until 1998, 3 years before they pulled out of the UK market. And outside their corridors of power no one was aware how the company was performing, especially shop staff. So after 75 years in the UK they finally gave up, losing £250m in their final year.
Something thing that's been rammed down our throat this week is not working in silos. And not just within a web department, but throughout Sales & Marketing too. If we're not talking to each other then just like C&A things can go pear-shaped. Now I know this is nothing new, and to be honest I think we are pretty at communicating across the business, but it's all I could think of that linked in with the C&A story.
I saw a exert from a usability study earlier. This is where you video record Joe Public trying to fulfil a task on a new website design, to see if it works as well as you anticipate. Well in this instance the site wasn't doing well at all and Joe was having real trouble finding his way around. So much so that the quote I liked from Joe was:
'Man, I just can't get this thing to work. This site is so poor. P.O.O.R. It's POO! R.'.
I'd seriously have to consider my career if someone called my site 'poo'.
They are owned by a Dutch family (so no shareholders) who were notoriously secret in the way they ran their business. Not even senior management were aware of their financial reports until 1998, 3 years before they pulled out of the UK market. And outside their corridors of power no one was aware how the company was performing, especially shop staff. So after 75 years in the UK they finally gave up, losing £250m in their final year.
Something thing that's been rammed down our throat this week is not working in silos. And not just within a web department, but throughout Sales & Marketing too. If we're not talking to each other then just like C&A things can go pear-shaped. Now I know this is nothing new, and to be honest I think we are pretty at communicating across the business, but it's all I could think of that linked in with the C&A story.
I saw a exert from a usability study earlier. This is where you video record Joe Public trying to fulfil a task on a new website design, to see if it works as well as you anticipate. Well in this instance the site wasn't doing well at all and Joe was having real trouble finding his way around. So much so that the quote I liked from Joe was:
'Man, I just can't get this thing to work. This site is so poor. P.O.O.R. It's POO! R.'.
I'd seriously have to consider my career if someone called my site 'poo'.
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