This article first appeared on January 10th, 2011.
The other day I met Bernie Brookes, the chief executive of Myer.
As well as running one of the biggest and best-known retailers in the country, Bernie gets to spend a few hours every few months with some of the most beautiful people in the country, such as super model Jennifer Hawkins.
His business holds fashion shows, sponsors the Melbourne Cup carnival and generally likes to get involved in all things glamorous. Not surprisingly, fashion gets paid a lot of attention in his business.
But Brookes has gone out of his way to try to get his organisation to see his IT and supply chain divisions as being just as “sexy” as fashion.
As he points out, it’s supply chain management and IT that are helping drive down costs and increase profitability in his business, so these guys need to be seen as heroes.
To this end, he makes sure that meetings are held in warehouses and in IT workspaces and that the organisation gets to see how and where these divisions operate.
It’s a simple idea, but also a great way of showing your team that every part of the business is important.
Get it done – today!
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
