I realized yesterday my bosses at work are slightly varied versions of Scott and Jill Marsh. Before I get into that, let me back it up a little bit and set the stage.
I've basically been number crunching all summer in hopes to eventually build a model enabling MoMA to easily expand their retail stores. For example, if they decide to build a 3,000 square foot store in Italy, essentially my retail space analysis model would tell them the SKU assortment, expected traffic, conversion rate, profitability etc. So one of my tasks is to calculate the selling square footage for each product category. Ex: kitchen housewares and tabletop account for 18% of the space and 23% of the sales.
Now before I continue it is important to note that I have two bosses. William, the business development manager (aka Scott), and Ruth, the lady William reports to/director of business development (or Jill depending on how you wish to view the situation). William is a very pragmatic and detailed oriented person, he likes to think things through logically and take his time. Ruth, however, is an extremely charismatic and lively Jewish-mother-type. When it comes down to it, she is only concerned with the "big picture." (as she says in her very assertive New York accent)
Yesterday I met with Ruth to discuss my progress. Instead of analyzing 8 different floor plans, calculating square footage by department, averaging those numbers, and then adding up all the categories to figure out a final square footage percentage, she decides we are taking a different route in solving our space allocation problem.
She grabs a tape measure from her desk and says, c'mon Haley we are going to the design store. According to Ruth, there are basically three fixtures: small, medium, and large. She busts out the tape measure, disregarding nearby shoppers, and begins half measuring half eyeballing the fixtures. "Alright. We will call this one 8, this one 4, and since this one looks like it's in the middle, we'll call that 6." We spent about 15 more minutes in the store eye balling and tape measuring until she was satisfied. "See, told you this was easy. Analyzing 8 floor plans? Please! We don't have time for that!"
It was at this point when I realized that if Jillian were the director of Business Development at MoMA she would have tackled this situation in exactly the same fashion. And Scotter (or William in my case) would let out a disappointed sigh at the utter inaccuracy of what just occurred.
In the end it was an extremely satisfying day.
Miss you Mother and Father...can't wait to show you around the city!
Hi Halster,
ReplyDeleteOh, so true. You have pegged both The Scotter and The Jillian. The Jillian is especially interesting to watch up here at the lake. She has decided to up the anty for The Scotter by becoming very physically fit via swimming across the channel in a fun-to-watch morning ritual. But I am proud of her. All she would really have to do is help me landscape at the Budsters on a daily basis or walk the dog with me! HA. Sounds like Ruth is a keeper. You are one lucky IU grad, for sure. Keep up the postings.
Aunt Mar