The Future of Retail and Predictive Analytics Role in Getting You There

What if when you went into your favorite apparel store at the mall you could:

• earn rewards for showing up
• see where your size of everything is on each rack as you approach it
• earn rewards for trying on clothes
• hear your favorite genre of music while trying on clothes
• step in front of the mirror and immediately get pictures of all sides of you
• take the opportunity to post the pictures to Facebook for immediate feedback
• provide the opportunity for your friends to earn rewards for providing feedback immediately
• customize the apparel like the stitching on your pockets to make it unique
• take whatever you wanted or ship to wherever without paying for anything
• automatically pay your bill at the end of the month which has progressive discounting based on your shopping habits and rewards status

Before such an experience could ever take place, retailers need to inspire customers to partake in their shopping experience. This is where predictive analytics can help retailers get customers in their stores.

Predictive Analytics is commonly known as a variety of statistical techniques for analyzing historical data to predict future events or behaviors such as future shopping needs based on a customers historical behaviors crossed with millions of others'.

First, you need to gather big data to massage it into customer relevant small data. There is a plethora of data to consume if you can get access to their social networks. An easy way is to allow customers to login to your systems with social network credentials or sync their existing accounts with social network accounts and while doing so ask for visibility into their behaviors. This paves the path for your collection of all sorts of data.

Next, you need to crunch the data specific to a customer and historical behaviors relevant to them and develop predictive models for potential future behaviors and their probability. For example:

• Notice that similarly segmented customers that bought item X often did behavior A and the potential it has to lead to the purchase of item Y or Z. Then, open a dialogue with the customer saying we noticed behavior A and thought you might be interested in items Y & Z. Then give them the chance to respond or not. Either way if you capture every interaction, you'll have more data to work with next time.
• Identify your most valuable and trusted customers that have potentially untapped buying potential based on their spending habits, their diligence in paying their credit card bill and their credit score. Then offer those few customers an elite invite only status in your rewards program that with it comes a no hassle shopping experience that eliminates the line at the register or the need to pay in the store at all and, as an added bonus, a personal shopping assistant able to see their past purchases and available only to them.

Predictive Analytics has great potential, but unfortunately today it is mostly focused on pushing products and often products that a customer already bought. The right product at the right time is very important. However, customer-focused predictive analytic models that distill actionable services to provide to specific customers will empower retailers to strengthen their brand and their relationships with customers. With a customer service focused approach retailers must reorient employees total focus on products to also focus on the associated services they provide and predictive analytics empowers those employees with each customers' potential behaviors and associated services that increase their probability.

Today; I expect you to know me, what I'm looking for and how to help me get it.

Tomorrow; I expect you to know before I do, how to get me there and how to instill my confidence in you.

However, if you are bold, leapfrog it all and instill my reliance on you.

Organizational Decision Making

Recently, I interviewed an international CFO and one thing he mentioned really caught me off guard. I was so dumb founded that I drifted off into "what if" land for a few seconds wondering what it would be like.

We were talking about who had decision making authority within adjacent organizations and how it was drastically different based on region. He said in some countries one man makes the decision and it is final whereas in others decisions are made by committee. This is, of course, analogous to the extremes of a pendulum, which naturally makes us think there is a good middle ground that we should seek for better decision making.

So, follow me into what if land. What if we threw out the middle ground.  Let's say the middle ground is like the middle of the screen in Frogger where you either get run over by a car, knocked out by a log or eaten by a gator. It's one side or the other to survive this little trek.

Everyone knows two heads are better than one and when people come together to make a decision they often consider more of the angles and implications of a decision simply because there is more brainpower in the room to pursue more trains of thought. Often great ideas come from groups of people brainstorming in think tanks.

The inverse is potentially just as effective, if poised appropriately. A single mind has the potential to make the decision exponentially faster than a committee since they need not deal with forms of communication that are reciprocally slower. When time is of the essence and the level of risk is acceptable a single person may be the best solution for delegation of authority.

I encourage you to consider delegating the power and authority you've acquired to those most suitable to make the decisions at the right time to expedite your organization and ultimately to leap frog your competitors. If you don't, they may.

My Son, Wyatt

This is my son Wyatt.

In so few words "my son", there is immense meaning that is unfathomable to those that are not a parent. And for those that were fortunate enough to have helplessly begged for their child's life, there is even greater meaning. It can only be explained with tears of joy.

How To Become a Dysfunctional Team... or Not

Back in 2008 Tom Edison put this Project Team Performance Curve on paper as an expansion to Tuckman's Forming, Storming, Norming, Perfoming model. Edison describes five additional stages that characterize a tipping point, a trans-formative opportunity and the dysfunctional road some teams take to extinction.

Informing
At the pinnacle of a team's success Edison suggests a team is at its informing stage where they should be sharing their experiences, both successes and failures, with the larger organization.  This helps to keep a free flow of ideas, experiences and potentially prompting brainstorming's piggybacking.

Conforming
Next the team moves into a mental state rampant with Group Think, fewer fresh perspectives and innovative ideas. This is what is referred to colloquially as the doldrums or what I like to call the mental state of boredom where you are so busy doing nothing you want to slam your face into the keyboard just to change things up for a few seconds.

Transforming
This is where team transformation happens if dysfunction is identified soon enough. The team's leadership needs to inject a fresh perspective and its associated new innovation into the team.  They can do so on their own by leveraging external resources such as another team in its informing stage or perhaps an outside facilitator like the trusted experts at Thought Ensemble. Come on, you had to see that coming.

I'll leave it to Edison to talk about the other dysfunctional stages and melding of face and keyboard, but needless to say it's bad and you don't want to go down that road. However, the task left to you is figuring out where your team is in Tuckman and Edison's team development life cycle. I challenge you to be honest with yourself and your colleagues and get the help you may need to transform your team before it's too late.

References:
Edison T. The Team Development Life Cycle: A New Look. In: Defense AT&L.

Wondering Where You Stand Financially

The following is a sample view into someone's full portfolio.  Call me if your interested to know how you can get the same level of visibility.