My apologies for going so long without an update. After my last posting the workload seemed to increase exponentially and it's taken until now for all of us to get unburied. I'll try to catch up from where I left off, but may post some things out of order, so if you're interested go back and look for the gaps to be filled in from time to time. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Today we took part in an exercise called Meta-4 in the Experiential Learning Center and it was by far the best and most fun of the three we've completed during the program. The goal (though we didn't know it when we started) was for the whole class to collaborate in what I can best describe as a game in which we had to exchange scarce resources and build trust to be successful. I'd explain the specifics, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone who may have the chance to take part in it in the future. As it turned out, Dawn and I lead the group to a record breaking victory, with a lot of help and cooperation from everyone else. We were able to attain complete success in five rounds which our instructors told us they've never seen before with any of the more than 2000 groups for which they've run the exercise - from undergraduate and MBA students to professionals and executives. After this level of success with the whole class working together in one group we were all walking on clouds for the rest of the day. This probably wasn't the most important thing we'll learn or do while we're here at the USC FIM program, but I'm sure we'll all remember it as one of the high points and one of the things that's helped us become a family. Several of our professors have remarked on how our class has really come together as one group without any fragmenting or cliques and I couldn't agree more. I can't imagine a better group of people to share this experience with.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Day 38
Friday March 14, 2008
Today was our first day off in over a month. We didn't have any classes and although we have a lot of work to do this weekend, it was great to take a morning off and get outside. Some of my friends talked me into going golfing with them on the Westchester course which is just about 15 minutes away. I don't golf, but John and Jimmy gave me some pointers and by the thirteenth hole I was doing OK.
Did I sink this put? Tony McAndrews from Bristol Farms and John Ignacio from Safeway watch and give me pointers (or give me a hard time).
Today was our first day off in over a month. We didn't have any classes and although we have a lot of work to do this weekend, it was great to take a morning off and get outside. Some of my friends talked me into going golfing with them on the Westchester course which is just about 15 minutes away. I don't golf, but John and Jimmy gave me some pointers and by the thirteenth hole I was doing OK.
After golfing I took a quick nap and spent the rest of the day working on projects.
Below Gary Hunt from Food4Less and I are waiting for the rest of the crew.
Did I sink this put? Tony McAndrews from Bristol Farms and John Ignacio from Safeway watch and give me pointers (or give me a hard time).
Week 8
Monday March 10 - Thursday March 13, 2008
This week was mostly about communications. We received "feedforward" from Donna Miles on our Trend Analysis presentations, we worked on written communications and then we all redid the opening of our Trends and presented it in front of the whole class. By the time we got through it everyone was a bit drained.
Right after class on Wednesday, my group for accounting/communications ran down to Commerce to visit Smart & Final's distribution center and see their voice recognition system in action. We had a fabulous tour of their 400,000 sq. ft. warehouse and got a tremendous amount of information that will help us with our next presentation.
Finally, we posted our FIMSIM results through 8 "weeks." My team is now in second place, but we're confident we can get the lead back and finish strong.
This week was mostly about communications. We received "feedforward" from Donna Miles on our Trend Analysis presentations, we worked on written communications and then we all redid the opening of our Trends and presented it in front of the whole class. By the time we got through it everyone was a bit drained.
Right after class on Wednesday, my group for accounting/communications ran down to Commerce to visit Smart & Final's distribution center and see their voice recognition system in action. We had a fabulous tour of their 400,000 sq. ft. warehouse and got a tremendous amount of information that will help us with our next presentation.
Finally, we posted our FIMSIM results through 8 "weeks." My team is now in second place, but we're confident we can get the lead back and finish strong.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Day 33
Friday, March 7, 2008
Today was a long one. We had an extra four hours of Accounting today, with Reuben Davila, talking about the inventory cycle and managerial accounting. I rather enjoyed it, but by the end most of my classmates' eyes were a bit glazed.
After accounting those of us who had gone home over Presidents' Day weekend dashed south to Orange County to meet Tom Arnold for store tours. We started at Trader Joe's, which was nothing new to me, then on to Growers' Direct Produce. Growers' Direct was amazing, just about 6,000 sq. ft. and about 350 SKU's total. The product was the best I've seen down anywhere here and the prices were also the lowest by far - a true category killer.
Next was Mother's Natural Foods which reminded me of a small version of the food coop in Bellingham, except that they had a room to the right as you entered with over 80,000 SKU's (no I didn't add a zero) of vitamins and supplements. I'd guess there was probably well over $1 million of inventory at retail just in there.
After Mother's we went to Hi-Time Wine Cellars and I was blown away. The store was immense and they had more kinds of wine and liquor (and a pretty decent selection of beer) than I knew existed. The cellar was a labyrinth that wound its way beneath the store with thousands and thousands of individual selections ranging from $6 to over $600 per bottle. I can't imagine trying to shop there unless you really knew what you were looking for, but it was truly one of a kind and well worth seeing. These first four stores were all within five blocks of each other.
The tour ended at Bristol Farms in Newport Beach where Tony McAndrews, one of our classmates from Bristol, led us through the store. The store manager is actually Bill Veeder, the other one of our Bristol classmates, so they knew we were coming and treated us very well - grilling up some of their 21 day aged New York steaks for us to sample. Bristol Farms reminded me a lot of Haggen, but is about half the size of one of our stores and focuses a bit more exclusively on the upscale customer. They only build their stores where there's an average household income of over $100,000.
The tour ended just before 3pm and, in order to avoid the traffic back to Marina Del Rey, ten of us decided to go next door to Gulf Stream and have dinner before heading back. We had a good time and probably saved ourselves two and half hours of sitting on the freeway.
Today was a long one. We had an extra four hours of Accounting today, with Reuben Davila, talking about the inventory cycle and managerial accounting. I rather enjoyed it, but by the end most of my classmates' eyes were a bit glazed.
After accounting those of us who had gone home over Presidents' Day weekend dashed south to Orange County to meet Tom Arnold for store tours. We started at Trader Joe's, which was nothing new to me, then on to Growers' Direct Produce. Growers' Direct was amazing, just about 6,000 sq. ft. and about 350 SKU's total. The product was the best I've seen down anywhere here and the prices were also the lowest by far - a true category killer.
Next was Mother's Natural Foods which reminded me of a small version of the food coop in Bellingham, except that they had a room to the right as you entered with over 80,000 SKU's (no I didn't add a zero) of vitamins and supplements. I'd guess there was probably well over $1 million of inventory at retail just in there.
After Mother's we went to Hi-Time Wine Cellars and I was blown away. The store was immense and they had more kinds of wine and liquor (and a pretty decent selection of beer) than I knew existed. The cellar was a labyrinth that wound its way beneath the store with thousands and thousands of individual selections ranging from $6 to over $600 per bottle. I can't imagine trying to shop there unless you really knew what you were looking for, but it was truly one of a kind and well worth seeing. These first four stores were all within five blocks of each other.
The tour ended at Bristol Farms in Newport Beach where Tony McAndrews, one of our classmates from Bristol, led us through the store. The store manager is actually Bill Veeder, the other one of our Bristol classmates, so they knew we were coming and treated us very well - grilling up some of their 21 day aged New York steaks for us to sample. Bristol Farms reminded me a lot of Haggen, but is about half the size of one of our stores and focuses a bit more exclusively on the upscale customer. They only build their stores where there's an average household income of over $100,000.
The tour ended just before 3pm and, in order to avoid the traffic back to Marina Del Rey, ten of us decided to go next door to Gulf Stream and have dinner before heading back. We had a good time and probably saved ourselves two and half hours of sitting on the freeway.
Day 32
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Kevin Davis, President and CEO of Bristol Farms, came and spoke to us in Tom's class today and he was great. One of the most important components of the FIM program is the opportunity to talk with senior executives from our industry and to ask them questions about their experiences and how they've handled different situations.
Kevin was an excellent speaker, very knowledgeable about the industry, and quick on his feet in that he can switch to talking about anything in an instant. What I found most interesting about his story was that he left a large chain (Ralph's) as a Senior VP to take over Bristol Farms, which at that time was a three store chain without any infrastructure. His description of having to put all of the pieces into place in order to grow the company to its current 16 stores was something you'd have a hard time getting anywhere else.
Now that Bristol Farms has been acquired by Supervalu, through Albertson's, it's also enlightening to hear about how a small company can maintain its identity after being purchased by one of the largest food retailers in America. The fact that Kevin can tell Jeff Noddle, CEO of Supervalu, that they need to build a lot more stores in southern California before they can even consider a store in Seattle or New York speaks to the good relationship they have.
Kevin Davis, President and CEO of Bristol Farms, came and spoke to us in Tom's class today and he was great. One of the most important components of the FIM program is the opportunity to talk with senior executives from our industry and to ask them questions about their experiences and how they've handled different situations.
Kevin was an excellent speaker, very knowledgeable about the industry, and quick on his feet in that he can switch to talking about anything in an instant. What I found most interesting about his story was that he left a large chain (Ralph's) as a Senior VP to take over Bristol Farms, which at that time was a three store chain without any infrastructure. His description of having to put all of the pieces into place in order to grow the company to its current 16 stores was something you'd have a hard time getting anywhere else.
Now that Bristol Farms has been acquired by Supervalu, through Albertson's, it's also enlightening to hear about how a small company can maintain its identity after being purchased by one of the largest food retailers in America. The fact that Kevin can tell Jeff Noddle, CEO of Supervalu, that they need to build a lot more stores in southern California before they can even consider a store in Seattle or New York speaks to the good relationship they have.
Day 31
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
After "6 weeks" (6 decisions) with our FIMSIM stores we presented our companies along with results and projections for the future to our "Board of Directors," which in this case was Tom Arnold, the director of the FIM program. The presentation went extremely well, despite the fact that we'd had a few setbacks in the two decisions before the presentation. We're confident we can get things back on track and believe we're still in the top two teams in terms of overall performance. We'll know for sure after "week 8" when we all post our results again. All of the other teams still think we're absolutely killing them.
The Dream Team: John Petersen (Unified), Brooke Fan (Safeway), Tracy Hayes (Albertson's), and me.
One of the most exciting things about our presentation was Brooke Fan. She's very quiet in class and reserved in our meetings. John, Tracy and I are probably the only three in class that really know how smart she is. During our presentation, however, she took the stage and did a fabulous job. Tom Arnold even commented that he was very surprised at how well she presents and asked her why she doesn't speak up in class. He also noted that "these three guys always have something to say." When the shoe fits...
Week 6 Weekend
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The weekend opened at 7 am with an 8 mile walk to Santa Monica and back with seven of my classmates. On the way back we stopped at Fig Tree's cafe for a great breakfast - french toast, omeletes, and someone had lox and bagels.
Back row from left: Tom Terrel (Food4Less Store Manager of the Year), Michelle Schlefstein (Dole), Ron Mitchell (Unified), Me, Juan Hidalgo (Basha's), Stephanie Herr (Associated Foods).
Front from left: Dawn Davies and Christel Ebenson (both from Safeway).
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