As a young consultant at Coopers, I had the privilege of being included as the technology person on a number of engagements with other specialties. One such was the Victoria’s Secret engagement, where I was able to work with the firm’s top retail experts. I am going to make a point here, about knowing your customer, but not without telling the story.
Our customers in the Detroit office were mostly from the manufacturing practice, and the guys teased me about shipping out to the Victoria’s Secret facility. “Wear a hardhat,” one wag said, “in case a box of panties falls on you.” We did, in fact, keep hardhats in the office.
I did not know a corset from a camisole, so I resolved to study the catalog until I knew the names of all the items.
The retail people were different. My tech counterpart arrived from Chicago with just a rollaboard, same as me. He was chafed because he had had to wait for Charles, the retail expert, with his train of checked baggage. Bemberg lining, doctor’s sleeves, Aston-Martin cufflinks. They were a different species.
My side of the engagement was to evaluate the client’s competence in software management, capacity utilization, contingency planning, staffing, budgeting, and so forth – routine work for me.
I also ran the day-to-day activities of collecting data and conducting interviews. Victoria’s middle managers were, unbelievably, all attractive women. I would have to tell my guys to stop hyperventilating. “Yes, she’s hot. She’s also a VP. We’re interviewing her tomorrow.”
The men who worked there seemed inured to Victoria’s charms. The head of store ops banged through the statistics from memory. He knew which item, color, and style sold best in each market.
“The black satin tap,” he said, on this topic, “that one.” He pointed, without looking up, at a promotional poster. I confronted a life-size photo of a dark-haired woman modelling this item, to good effect. I did not know, initially, a corset from a camisole, and so I resolved to study the catalog – no, not the illustrated one – until I knew the names of all the items.
The firm’s seniormost retail expert, Marge Meek, took me under her wing. She was a retail god. Like, personal friends with Marhsall Field, or something. Marge took me to visit some stores, which turns out to be pretty important in retail.
“Okay Mark, who is the Victoria’s Secret customer?” Well, to start with, she is young, fit, well-educated, and upwardly mobile. I rattled off what I had read in the annual report.
“Now look around. Is that who you see here?” I am a tech guy. It would never have occurred to me to visit a store and study the customers. Marge offered her own characterization, which was a little less flattering, but undeniably accurate.
Back at the job site, we reprised our field trip for the team. Our engagement partner had his own opinion. “Women that date Mexicans,” was Dean’s pronouncement. He was not well-liked by the retail people.
