The News
Media industry is going through its toughest time in decades (maybe in its
history) as declining readership, declining advertising revenue, and cost-
cutting takes its toll. Do readers really care?
Readers
know the difficulties the industry is experiencing, but they constantly
complain about lower standards of journalism, avoid attempts by publishers to
set up income generating alternatives, and switch allegiances at the drop of a
hat. Free digital news feeds are booming.
The same
applies to retailing. Our customers don't want to know that we are battling
with declining sales, finding it hard to compete with online sellers, paying
more rent, and having to work longer hours. There are other problems for
traders. We can no longer predict what is going to sell well with any surety
and that makes stock ordering very difficult. We are being asked to become
digitally aware and embrace a whole new technology and, for many of us,
technology is not our strong point. Do customers really care?
The
answer of course is that customers don't really care, and that is not a
criticism of them, it is just a reality of change. Customers are now more
empowered than ever. They demand and expect price transparency, convenience and
choice. They want to access goods and services online and in shops, and they
expect retailers to work harder for their business.
Many of
these customer demands require significant change from retailers. It is particularly difficult for traders who have grown up in a different trading environment. We
often talk about QVM being a special and unique place to shop. QVM is special
and unique but, we will need to meet the new retail service
standards demanded by customers if we are to prosper.
"If
you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less” -Eric Shinseki