Zeynep Ton

Author, Speaker & Adjunct Associate Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Research
  • Media
    • Press
    • Videos
    • Media Kit
  • Contact

Archives for April 2011

My Last Class at HBS

April 28, 2011 by Zeynep Ton 6 Comments

When I first started teaching at HBS I found the last class of the semester to be the most difficult.  While many of my colleagues shared their life lessons or communicated big, important messages, I felt I didn’t have much to offer my students. So I used the last class to wrap-up the important concepts we had learned throughout the semester. 

But after my first two years, I started wanting to do more.  So, as I did before almost every class, I knocked on the door of my great colleague Kent Bowen and asked for his advice.  And as he always did, Kent started asking questions. Why did I want to do something different? What did I want to communicate?  Why?  And at the end of our meeting, Kent gave me a case about the life of Jai Jaikumar.

After reading the case, I knew exactly why Kent shared it with me.  The case described how Jai was saved by a shepherd woman after a tragic accident while climbing the Himalayas.  And it provided an opportunity to communicate something I truly believe in: luck plays a big role in our success and success brings an obligation to serve others.  Since 2008, I have been teaching this case on my last class.  And thanks to Kent, the last class has become one of my favorite classes.

I just taught the Jai Jaikumar case in my supply chain elective course. But this was not just the last class of the semester but also my last class at HBS.  This summer, I am joining the Sloan School of Management at MIT.  I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with world-class researchers in my field, teach Sloan students, and have time to write my book.

But I will miss the HBS classroom.  Teaching at HBS was an incredibly rewarding experience for me.  During the first years, my objective was simply surviving in the classroom.  I can’t tell you how many bad dreams I had in which I did not know the material or I was not able to control the 90 bright students.  I had nightmares about chaos in the classroom with students dancing, yelling, and walking in and out. Surviving in the classroom was a lot more difficult than I had predicted. Luckily, I had a great set of students and colleagues like Jan Hammond and Roy Shapiro who helped me get better everyday.

I still have nightmares, especially in the beginning of the semester, about teaching.  But my objective is no longer surviving in the classroom.  Rather, it is sharing with my students my research, and most recently, my point of view on business and life.  As I started connecting my teaching with my research, I began seeing my students as collaborators with my research.  They challenged my ideas, offered alternate explanations, and asked great questions that forced me to think deeper about issues I was studying.  I am grateful for all that they taught me.

As I started sharing my point of view with students, I began having big hopes.  I hope that my students will be more likely to start or join companies with strong values and priorities and make operating decisions that are good not just for profits, but also for employees and customers.  I hope that my students will be less likely to give into the temptation (or pressure) to make short-term decisions at the expense of their employees and keep focusing on the long-term.  I hope that my students will define their success not just by how much money they make, but how they made the world a better place by their presence.

It was an absolute privilege to take part in the development of leaders who will make a positive difference in the world.  Thank you HBS for the opportunity!  And thank you my students this term who made my last class one I will never forget.  

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: teaching

Using Clutter to Improve Sales: The Wrong Choice

April 10, 2011 by Zeynep Ton 4 Comments

New York Times had a recent piece about how retailers like Dollar General, JC Penney, Old Navy and Wal-Mart are increasing clutter to improve sales.  So to get their customers to buy more, these retailers are adding more inventory and more variety to their stores, according to the article.  I think this is a really bad way to increase sales.

Yes, these companies will see a short-term increase in their same store sales.  You give customers more choices, stuff the store with inventory, and they will buy more.  And yes, Wall Street will probably love this.  The increase in same store sales growth will make the analysts think that these retailers are actually doing something right.  But of course, the analysts will miss that since this sales increase comes solely from more inventory or variety increase, it cannot be sustained.  This is just a one-time increase in sales.  You cannot keep on adding more and more inventory to the store.

More importantly, this is a bad long-term decision. It does not benefit employees because their operating environment has now been made more complicated.  It will not benefit store operations because employees will be less productive and make more errors when their stores are cluttered.    It surely does not benefit the environment because this will increase waste from obsolete inventory. And it probably doesn’t even benefit the customer.  Store clutter leads to customer confusion.  Some customers even responded on the New York Times article’s comment section saying they regretted buying stuff they didn’t need.

Here is an idea. How about offering fewer but better products and investing in employees so they are knowledgeable about these products and they can educate their customers about the value they are receiving?   This is exactly what retailers like Trader Joe’s, Mercadona of Spain, and Costco are doing.   And you want to know how they compare to their competitors in terms of sales?  Not too bad! Trader Joe’s sales per square foot is more than double the supermarket average.  Mercadona’s is more than 50% higher than that of their largest competitor, Carrefour.  Costco’s is more than 30% higher than that of Sam’s Club. 

Today, I also learned about another retailer that has the same strategy: Patagonia.  I met the Director of Advanced Research and Development at Patagonia at a panel I was moderating at HBS Retail and Luxury Goods Conference.   When someone asked a question about how Patagonia responded to the economic crisis, he mentioned that they did so by cutting their product variety in half.  In half!  It took them 18 months to do so, but their customers loved it, their employees loved it, and their performance showed it.  Of course, one reason Patagonia was able to do this was because they had invested in their store employees so that their employees could intelligently talk to the customers about the products they carry.   

The panelist also mentioned that Patagonia’s salespeople are taught to encourage customers to only buy things that they need—not waste resources on stuff they don’t need.  Why would they do this?  Because this is aligned with their mission: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.  Kudos to Patagonia!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: inventory, low wage/supply chain labor, product variety, retail

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS

Follow on Facebook

Topics

  • Case for Good Jobs
  • Good Jobs Strategy

Subscribe to the Mailing List

Join Zeynep's mailing list for occasional updates.

* indicates required

More from the Blog

  • Questions Investors Should Be Asking Low-Wage Employers February 7, 2017
  • The U.S. Needs a ‘Good Jobs’ Revolution in Retail September 6, 2015
  • Scoring Retailers on The Good Jobs Strategy September 6, 2015
  • Process tips for case method teaching May 31, 2015
  • Why CEOs Should Follow the Market Basket Protests July 25, 2014

Follow on Twitter

Tweets by @zeynepton

© Copyright 2025 Zeynep Ton. All Rights Reserved · Website by Moxie Design Studios