In 1995 I wrote a Market Watch column called “Getting in Deep Trouble.” For those of you who might have accidentally misplaced your copies it talked, as the snowboard industry was starting its (first) consolidation, about what led companies to face survival issues and how they could save themselves. I started with the following: “All businesses in trouble share two characteristics: denial and perseverance in the face of inescapable change. It’s easy More…
Archive for July, 2009
The New Management Environment- A Few Ideas
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment A Tool for Our Times
Friday, July 17th, 2009Since last fall, as our new economic reality has evolved, I’ve had a few things to say about what to do. They’ve included building your balance sheet, controlling your inventory and other expenses, focusing on the gross profit line, looking at gross margin dollars as well as percentages, and making good use of your management accounting system, which I consider a strategic tool in this environment. All very sage and business More…
Here’s a Chart Worth Seeing
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009After my post on SIMA’s 2008 retail study yesterday, I got curious about the percentage changes quarter over quarter it implied. The Media Highlights gave me total core sales for the year and the percentage of sales in each quarter. SIMA gave me the same information for 2006. The rest of the calculations are mine and I used them to create the table below. The numbers don’t exactly add because of rounding, but that More…
Blowback From the 4th Quarter; The SIMA Study and Snowboard Retailers
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009I received The 2008 SIMA Retail Distribution Study (highlights only) about the same time I got yet another phone call from another snowboard focused, core retailer that had been around a long time and was in trouble. I hate those calls because these are shops that I would like to see do well. My little accidental, informal, snowboard shop survey can’t hold a candle to SIMA’s study. But I thought there was More…
