I'm all for trimming the fat at corporate. However, usually they cut the people with the highest salaries, and usually they are the ones who have been with the company the longest. When you do this you are also eliminating part of the institutional memory of the company. These are people who have learned already what works and what doesn't work in different systems. If a relatively new person at a company is attempting to do something, someone who has been at the company a while can recognise that it was tired before and did not work for a particular reason or reasons. Another new approach could be thought of, or an already established one could be reused.
When I first started at Target more than 10 years ago, I was impressed with how well all the systems worked. They weren't perfect or flawless, but something being wrong was rare.
Now, after every layoff at corporate, we seem to have more problems from screwed up POGS to the various systems being down.
We all know how through and comprehensive training is at the store level, do you think, in general, it is any better at corporate?
We at the store level have to deal with what comes down from corporate so it helps us to have the most experienced people in place in Minnesota (or the DCs, or field offices, or anywhere up the chain).
