Management

The U.S. economy registered slower growth and higher prices in the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department. Gross domestic product rose at an annual pace of 3.1 percent, the slowest quarter in two years, and down from 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004, the feds announced in April. Moreover, looking ahead, the news does not appear to get much brighter. For example, the National Retail Federation anticipates slowing retail sales this year, increasing only 4.8 percent, down from 7 percent growth in 2004. Many economists blame rising energy costs for the slowing economic growth. What’s a merchant to do?

The name Brylane traditionally has been synonymous with deliberate sales growth and budget-priced, conservative clothing primarily for middle-aged, large-sized women. But when the Paris-based Redcats, the home-shopping division of French company PPR, bought the multititle cataloger in 1998, it set out to apply a broader, more aggressive — call it “worldlier” — merchandising and marketing formula to Brylane. Fast forward seven years, and although the sales growth has yet to take off, notable transformations in the merchandising and marketing approach, corporate structure and company culture all have kicked in. Two of the New York-based company’s top executives — Chairman/CEO Eric Faintreny

Want tips on improving your contact center’s employee application and recognition programs? At the National Conference on Operations and Fulfillment, held in Grapevine, Texas, last week, several contact center experts offered their advice during the session”60 Ideas in 60 Minutes: Contact Center/Customer Service.” Here are three of their tips: ¥ Be sure you have a motivational fit: “When interviewing contact center applicants, tell them what the job actually will be like,” said Penny Reynolds, founding partner of The Call Center School, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that offers contact center education. “Make sure they understand they won’t be getting a corner office, they’ll be tied to

For the good of your customers and company, staff members in merchandising, marketing and creative must learn to work synergistically. In my years working with direct marketing clients, I’ve worn all three of these hats. I’ve also directed collaborative efforts from a strategic management position. So I know these three catalog tasks can be done in a collaborative manner — and I know the outcome often is customer delight. Here’s how you, as a catalog senior manager, can encourage such efforts. 1. First, get everyone in the same room. Doors, walls, cubicles and continual e-mails can unintentionally create silos among your employees. Face-to-face

We’re all guilty of occasionally hearing only what we want to hear. Sometimes we don’t want to face facts. Rather, we want to think what we want to think. We tend to do what’s comfortable and put off dealing with the issues at hand. In this article, I’ve identified 10 things you, a catalog company president, probably don’t want to hear. (Or if you report to a president, tear out this article and put it on his or her desk.) Listen to these cold, hard facts. 1. Your company won’t grow if you don’t prospect more. Invest in new buyers. You’re not always

If these last few years have taught us anything, it’s that you can’t be too prepared. From terrorist attacks to hurricanes and tsunamis, the unexpected could be just around the corner. Ready.gov, the Web site for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, offers the following tips on how to make sure your business is prepared to deal with and recover from emergencies beyond your control. 1. Figure out which staff, materials and equipment are required to keep your business operating. Have you reviewed and updated your business process flow chart recently? 2. Make sure you know which suppliers, shippers and other resources you need

The U.S. gross domestic product clocked a 4.4 percent gain in 2004, its strongest showing since 1999 when the economy gained 4.5 percent, according to the Commerce Department. And economists called the 3.1 percent gain in the fourth quarter “respectable.” Good news, right? Well, sort of. Our third-annual ranking of the Top 200 catalogers (as measured by housefile-growth rates) shows there still is some softness in the market. Of the 1,067 catalogs whose housefile numbers we checked, only 406, or 38 percent, recorded any growth at all. (For those readers who are new to cataloging, housefiles are customer lists.) That overall economic

In the past several years, the catalog industry has become an attractive target for financial investors. These private equity firms and institutional investors differ significantly from strategic investors looking to build their own businesses. When a cataloger like School Specialty buys 45 companies in the span of 10 years, its purpose is to build its own market share. Likewise, when Deluxe Corp. purchased New England Business Service last year. But it may be another scenario when an outside financial investor is the buyer. Such an investor may be in it only for the short-haul, to make money on the investment in three to

We’ve all done dumb things that I’m sure seemed smart at the time we were doing them. I look back to my 33-year career as a cataloger and can think of things I did that were really silly. It’s all part of the learning experience. This month, I’m taking a slightly different approach from my normal columns. At the suggestion of my friend and client Shep Moyle, president and CEO of Stumps catalogs, I’ve devised a list of nine catalog management mistakes to avoid. 1. Don’t hire experts, even when needed. Or hire/fire the wrong person. I’ve seen this happen:

Each business or personal goal you set should have specific qualities that offer you the best chance to accomplish them, according to Herbert Harris, author of “The Twelve Universal Laws of Success,” (LifeSkill Institute, Wilmington, N.C.). 1. The goal should be written down, committed to and even shared with others who will support and believe in your efforts, Harris writes. 2. Make sure the goal is realistic and attainable.”One of the easiest ways to set yourself up for failure is to select improper goals,” he continues. 3. The goal should be flexible and reflect change. 4. Make it concrete and measurable. “When the desired outcome is unclear, the