Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

AL SCHELL Courier-Post - Employees make final preparations at the Mount Laurel location before last Sunday's debut, when about 800 people were waiting for the 70th Wegmans store to open.

a

How would like the opening of one of your stores to be close to the equivalent of opening a new Disneyland? If you live in the northeast U.S., you have that experience every time a new Wegmans comes to town.

How would you like to be a company that receives between 4,000 and 5,000 letters and e-mails a year from almost every state in the nation asking you to come and do business there? That is what Wegmans got last year alone.

For the most part Wegmans turns them all down. Why? They have a certain corporate standard and quality that they are not willing to move off of. To grow faster than they are would compromise their mission so much that they would cease to be what they are.

"They are renowned throughout the industry as one of the most leading innovators in the retail business today," said Robert Higgins, director of the Center of Food Marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. "They've set a standard of excellence that challenges conventional operators."

"They make shopping a true experience rather than the way most consumers feel in feedback to us: that it's a drudgery," he said. "If you look at marketing today, word-of-mouth is becoming almost the most powerful method of getting your message out to customers — and once you've been in a Wegmans store, I've never known anyone to walk out of one saying they didn't like the experience."

One of the reasons for Wegmans greatness is that they have a complete grasp of what they stand for and the strategy they will take to get there.

They absolutely refuse to grow any faster than their training will allow. For example, none of this is a financial issue as they have more than enough money to explode in growth numerically; yet they choose to grow at three stores a year at the present time.

It is in the area of training that they especially excel, as they back up their claim for extraordinary customer service. Neil Stern, partner of Chicago research firm McMillan/Doolittle says "Literally, they can't train people fast enough. Even if they have access to capital, from a human resources standpoint, they can't grow any faster."

"We're not afraid of growth,'' says Colleen Wegman, the 34-year-old president and great-grandniece of the founders. "The reason we have grown slowly is that we want to make sure our people are fully prepared and trained to deliver on our model of incredible service.

"We have the resources to build the stores. If there comes a time when we are faced with the opportunity to open four stores in one year, we wouldn't be opposed to doing that."

They have put off opening stores before busy holiday seasons as could have taken advantage of the holiday rush. Instead they did it their way, the right way, by extending the employee training a focus on customer service. They live what they preach.

Neil Stern adds that it is a "fabulous strategy" for a privately held company such as Wegmans."

"It doesn't work well for a public company, but it's fine for a private company where you only have to report to yourself."

I think that his comment is one of the reasons why so many public companies suffer from pressures that they don't necessarily have to embrace.

Warren Buffett's Bershire Hathaway has been run the same way as they won't allow any type of pressure to force them to make quick, foolish decisions, and they look for the type of investor that will go along with that plan. That's one of the main reasons that Buffett doesn't split the stock; to keep the speculators out.

I would take these lessons from this great company and apply them toward your business: Grow at a pace that proper employee training and customer focus dictates. Money alone cannot make up for that strategy of growth.