Specialty Retail Blog

Please join us in welcoming a new affiliate to the Management One Team! David Wechsler has chosen to become an affiliate of Management One in helping independent businesses to prosper. David is from Longmont Colorado, which is near Denver. David came to us from a meeting with Kerry at business development meeting in Denver.  David grew up in retail as his family had a several children’s stores. He had a varied career working in everything from Wall Street and Madison Avenue (Booze Allen & McKenzie)  to Main street as an entrepreneur working on special effects.  His experience covers marketing, finance, negotiations, turnarounds and managing companies on a project basis.  He says his passion is helping people and fixing problems. We assured him he is in the right place!

David is anxious to learn and looks for new and constant challenge. We all look forward to providing him with that challenge.

David’s contact information is below.

Cheers

Evan and Marc

27 affiliates of Management One spent Thursday through Sunday last week in Tucson, Arizona attending the annual meeting of all Management One affiliated consultants.  Many exciting ideas and processes for retailers sales growth, improved profits, etc were put forth, created, or shared- much of which will be passed on to our many retail clients.

During the meeting many affiliates were honored and recognized for their accomplishments.  The most notable achievement was  received inducted by James Hallman as he was inducted into the Founders Club for Management One. The Founders serve as an Advisory Board to the Management One directors as they endeavor to continuously improve and provide the very best state of the art management tools and resources for all affiliated consultants to bring to the aid of clients. James said, ‘I am proud to be associated with this network of affiliates throughout the country and in Europe, and serving in the Founders Club will allow me the opportunity to both receive and provide more insight and direction for the future.” We welcome the many contributions that James will offer and congratulate him on this lifetime achievement.

James also received the first Client Retention Award for having retained the highest % of clients over the past year, which just happened to be, as you are well aware, one of the toughest years in history for retailers. James kept more total clients than any other affiliate in the group during the year.  The meeting and the focus for this coming year will be on client retention and service.  The competition for this first retention award was stiff as John Adams and Ken Rodriguez challenged in second and third place.

In addition, the first sales contest was held and the winners were Dan Jablons and David Leib of Retail Smart Guys  and also Alan Roseman and John Adams who teamed together for the contest.  Cash awards accompanied the sales contest winners.

Dennis Levine, another member of the Founders was recognized for his 20 years of dedicated affiliation to Management One. Dennis was the first affiliate to join Management One and he has been a steady contributor through the years.  Dennis and John Adams are both serving as mentors for new affiliates in a new program to bring affiliates to the team with the training and support needed to assure each client will get the best information and guidance possible.

Overall, the mood and tone of the meeting was much lighter and much more upbeat than this time last year reflecting the rebound our clients have made. The best performing stores are beating their numbers from 2008 and, while no one’s crystal ball is perfect, our feeling is that economically the bottom has been hit, and now we can stabilize and grow forward. Where during most of 2009 we were focused on defensive measures, now is the time to go on the offense. There are fewer competitors but the  competition out there in every market will be more intense and effective. There is  large pool of qualified and experienced labor to draw from, and customers are much more confident and more willing to spend more often for what they want. We are poised for a great year!

Management One Meeting was a huge success as 27 affiliates stormed Tucson, Arizona for exciting and productive interaction

The M1 2010 meeting attendees did a great job of bringing emotion, information, innovation and passion to the planning and action plans for the next year!

James Hallman (Atlanta, GA) had a couple of clients who were winners of the Alabama Retailer of the Year awards. The Fitting Touch won Gold for its category and Shaia’s won Platinum for its volume level. Congratulations to the winning owners and to James!

We are excited that Jonathan Schwartz has decided to become an affiliate of
Management One! Jonathan is strategically located in New York City amidst
the a dense pack of retail opportunities.  He brings varied and valuable
experience in all aspects of retail.  Jonathan has held many positions
including CIO for Century 21 Department Stores, Director of Merchandise
Planning for Bugle Boy Industries and director of merchandise planning for
the Izod Division of Phillips Van Heusen Corporation.  He was involved with
store planning while at the Limited and director of store operations in his
family’s department store retail in northwestern New Jersey. He has worked
in his own consulting business as well as consulting for Price Waterhouse
and has been in charge of retail group for Arthur, a major POS/Planning
system.  Jonathan has an MBA from George Washington University and a BS in
business from Boston U.  We are anxious to bring Jonathan into the M1 family
as he brings a wealth of talent and opens a world of opportunity for the
team. Jonathon will be mentored by Dennis Levine on technical issues and by
Dan Jablons in sales and marketing as part of RSG.

Affiliate Cathy Wagner (Chicago), president of Retail Mavens, has been invited, along with other industry experts, to present a seminar at the upcoming ASD/AMD Las Vegas retail show March 2. Cathy will speak on “The 3 Secrets to Increasing Retail Sales and Profits in the next 30 Days”.

Alan Roseman (San Diego), president of Strategic Results, is leading the Surf Expo Merchandising Course, along with Marc and Evan, at ASR in San Diego on February 2. The daylong agenda will include training in planning, finances and other issues critical to retailers. This is the same format that was presented for the Board Retailers Association by Neal Esserman (Jacksonville, FL), president of Retail Consulting & Planning, and M1 last year.

Congratulations to James Hallman and his client Sole, named Best Shoe Boutique in Atlanta!

M1 Shines

In this month’s “Merchant Prophet”, Norton Ditto’s success is discussed: “(Dick Hite) knew that the key to turning around Norton Ditto’s fortunes would be based on implementing an effective Open to Buy plan to increase their profitability. One of the most important relationships he developed was with Management One^®, one of today’s best retail management consulting groups, to develop a rapid ROI (Return on Investment) strategy to maximize the two largest assets of Norton Ditto: their people and inventory. Mr. Hite stresses that the key to effective planning is a disciplined commitment to “following the plan.”

Affiliate Alan Roseman (Los Angeles, CA) was asked to be a guest writer for Transworld Business, a trade magazine for the surf, skate and snow industry. His article “How to: Create a Merchandise Plan” was included in the May issue.

Also one of Alan’s clients was a shining star this past month as Clever on Main received a glowing review by LA Shopping Reviews.

The November issue of Los Angeles Magazine lists Alan Roseman’s client, ZJ Boarding House, as the best athletic shoe shop for skateboarding shoes in Los Angeles. Congratulations Alan, on providing exceptional offerings to clientele!