It's really nice to enter the Eintracht Stadium and suddenly see international soccer being played there....
It's really nice to enter the Eintracht Stadium and suddenly see international soccer being played there. The mood was great, the spectators were relaxed, and there were noticeably fewer fouls - although the players were definitely on their game. A pity that Germany is out of the running.
DIESEL Jeans is offering new software as part of their "Be Stupid At Work" campaign: Excellbook. This makes Facebook look like an Excel spreadsheet....
DIESEL Jeans is offering new software as part of their "Be Stupid At Work" campaign: Excellbook. This makes Facebook look like an Excel spreadsheet. This is good if you prefer surfing in Facebook during a boring conference. On the other hand, it is also good for Excel junkies - it is simply a nice representation. :) For those who like it...Be Stupid At Work free for Mac and PC.
One thing that truly irritates me are trainees who are on sick leave during several weeks, but are fit enough to go and get drunk on some town festival every evening....
One thing that truly irritates me are trainees who are on sick leave during several weeks, but are fit enough to go and get drunk on some town festival every evening. What tops this off - and that's about as stupid as one can be - is to also post pictures of this on Facebook. Doing this is just a slap in the face for the doctor who gave you the doctor's note, lack of wit and a kick up your training supervisor's Rs, and for the father, who spoke up for his "lovely little girl". Pure disregard.
I am glad that such an attitude is actually noticed at the IHK (CCI). And the claim, "I've got another apprenticeship place anyway, because I'm young and pretty," might soon become wishful thinking, as the IHK has to sign every apprenticeship contract as well. In such a case, it might be ok to be a little chauvinistic and to think, "Please, find yourself a husband and stay away from the job market." On the other hand, it is difficult not to feel sympathy for the possible husband.
One could believe that there are numerous willing trainees for the upcoming school year: there's no conscription any longer and, as school has been shortened by one...
One could believe that there are numerous willing trainees for the upcoming school year: there's no conscription any longer and, as school has been shortened by one year, there are twice as many school leavers wanting to begin university studies. However, there aren't enough university places. Now, those who don't get a place might want to start an apprenticeship in the trading sector first. And all the graduates from Realschule (secondary education not qualifying for university) who are crowded out should be eager to get the remaining apprenticeship offers. Especially at Jarltech, where more than 90% of the trainees are offered an employment afterwards - some of them made an impressive career within the company.
Unfortunately, the chamber of commerce still forecasts that many places will stay vacant. Therefore, Jarltech will be pushing the communication: starting next week, we will advertise our apprenticeship places over the radio. We also need to make our offer more attractive. Although our trainees sometimes stay abroad at our various country offices for short periods of time, we plan to introduce this in our trainee programme. We will also organise English courses, because the average level of school leavers isn't nearly sufficient. Just raising the salaries for those who have high marks is not allowed, unfortunately ...
When sales shrink, you can always argue "But we gained significant market share"....
When sales shrink, you can always argue "But we gained significant market share". That implies that one quarter was bad, but that for the competition it was even worse. And no one can prove it, because most competitors are not listed on the stock exchange.
One of our American competitors recently said this sentence during an analyst's conference... without first checking to see that we had grown approximately 30% in the same quarter. They should have known that; it would have only taken an inquiry to the manufacturers. But, we do not take pleasure in another's misfortune, so we will not pass our figures on to the analysts. Let the guys and gals in the US feel safe for now. At least until it is so obvious that it should be admitted... :)
Just now a direct competitor of ours called me, because he wishes to buy something from us......
Just now a direct competitor of ours called me, because he wishes to buy something from us... that which we have on stock, and that which the manufacturer can only deliver in eight weeks again. My spontaneous answer was: "No". The reasoning behind this was that the same competitor let us down on a similar question not too long ago, and not so much because of strategic thinking.
Several have tried to keep only the top sellers on stock, and to help themselves to the rest from our warehouse. Ok, on the one hand I have enough of the product there. But it could also be the case that the supposed important regular customer (for which my competitor is trying his best to find the goods with us) makes a purchase, thinks Jarltech is really good, and we woo away a good dealer. Or, he cannot find us, the world will come to an end tomorrow, and we will have to sit on our stock forever. Throw into the mix that you undoubtedly meet each other now and again at manufacturers' events, and the colleague ends up spilling his wine on my shoes.
An alternative would have been a sale at "recommended retail price": Jarltech would have earned a great deal on it, and the competition would have paid on top of it. But, tell me, what is the good of gloating versus strategy?
Today, Jarltech experienced the Stone Age: our lines were dead. All of them were dead; the multiplexer, the burglar and fire alarm systems....
Today, Jarltech experienced the Stone Age: our lines were dead. All of them were dead; the multiplexer, the burglar and fire alarm systems. Arcor (a German telecommunications provider) had a 'major breakdown'. But the Internet was working - and one can almost say: as long as the internet works, we can do without the telephone.
How good that we invested into a second installation from Alcatel, which is connected with the Telekom and independent from Arcor, and which switches automatically in case of failures. No, they don't share the 'last mile', the landlines lead to different directions from our premises. However, the automatic switch didn't work and trying manually was a disaster: no communication; even the Telekom wasn't broadcasting anymore.
We found out why: they share the local distribution frame, and that was ... broken. I thank our employees, who immediately posted their mobile phone numbers online, so that customers and suppliers could call us.
Anyway, we will need to find a better emergency solution now. Having two companies that back up each other, but use the same distribution frame is just nonsense.
When I tell customers or suppliers that we use our own enterprice software, they look at me with big eyes....
When I tell customers or suppliers that we use our own enterprice software, they look at me with big eyes. In a group of 110 employees, they were expecting SAP or Navision. No, we do not have either one, and with a very good reason too. Ever since I started 20 years ago, I always wrote my own assets software, at the beginning under dBase II. (I just realized, that Word's spell checker does not know the word "dBase" anymore.) :) Now we have a team of three programmers, who work on our "Webfaktura". Not only does the manpower cost money, but the software must be certified every year by a special public accountant. Despite this, I believe that this software is a real unique feature, which differentiates us from the competition.
If the boss of Jarltech comes up with the idea to write a blog, and in two languages (the English texts are added by our translator), and electively with a Twitter function and Spam filter for the answers, then it will be up and running on the same day. Or a change-over from DPD to UPS, a warehouse layout system, a conference room availability plan, or, or, or. Our Webfaktura, in addition to working in German and English, also works in Chinese.
But even more important than the speed is the new roll of the distributor between the manufacturer and the re-seller. Both want to know things from the other, and to communicate with the other, but the software packages do not understand each other. Enter us, the interface between the two. Truthfully, when a customer decides to make future purchases with us, I simply cannot allow a programming order to be buried for weeks - I want my sales now.
Or try to become a distributor for HP - the interlocking of the computer system is a real Herculean feat. But I am sure that we will master it faster than if we had to first explain to an external company how it works. The same applies for customer requests. A customer had the brilliant idea of scanning his letterhead for us, so that we could print packing slip receipts for third-party goods on his letterhead. Great idea, and just like that, we are doing this for all of our customers, with packing slip receipts in all the important languages.
In order to evalute our software financially, we sent the current requirements specifications to a manufacturer for standard assets software. We asked them to compose their modules in this fashion and to amend it, so that it works for us worldwide. Result: Roughly 700,000 euros, including a few months of migration phase. Of course, this sum has also been invested into the software, but we can set the priorities for its enhancements every day. Our employees have a tool for offering suggestions for improvement, which will then be implemented. There are still hundreds of them, some of which go into great detail. But: it makes the sales and execution faster, plus simpler for the customers.
My IT professor buddy told me once that practically mid-sized businesses stopped individualizing large software packages. Instead, the sales process is simply adapted to standard software, which is often less expensive. Ok, but I think that our company differentiates itself from other companies through its methods of operation, and I do not want to lose that. When all is said and done, and all the companies have adapted to the three large software packages, then they will finally be working alike. . .
Here is a link to the Computerwoche (»Computer Week«) archive, about the introduction of barcodes and NCR POS systems at Tengelmann (German supermarket chain)....
Here is a link to the Computerwoche (»Computer Week«) archive, about the introduction of barcodes and NCR POS systems at Tengelmann (German supermarket chain). Really funny, especially the prices (only in german, though):