Innovation with Lowe's

1. Innovation Behind the Scene Starring LOWES Evita Spencer EDUC 6105 August 14, 2011 Week 6: Application Dr. Celeste Fenton

3. Founders: Lucius S. Lowe, Jim Lowe, Carl Buchan

4. The Mooresville, North Carolina-based chain has grown from a tiny hardware store into the world’s second largest home improvement retailer.

5. In 1961, the company went public and in 1979, the company started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

6. By 1962, its operations had grown to 21 stores.

7. In the early 1990s, Lowe’s adopted a big-box format to compete with Home Depot.

8. Since then, the company has grown nationwide and today, its stores offer around 40,000 products in stock and even more products are available through their Special Order Service.

9. In 2007, Lowe’s opened its first stores in Canada.

10. It also open its first stores in Mexico by 2009.

11. Lowe’s is ranked 48 in the 2008 Fortune 500 Largest Corporations in America and also made $46.9 billion revenue in 2006.Lowes, 2008

13. Department Manager

14. Lawn and Garden

15. Seasonal

16. Appliances/Cabinets

17. Home Décor

18. Electrical

19. Plumbing

20. Millwork

21. Lumber

22. Front End

23. HR

24. Head Cashier

25. Cashier

26. Receiving

27. Cash Office

29. Break down of the Culture A couple weeks ago the head cashier for that particular day called off. So the cashier had to wait a little longer for money exchanges or overrides from the managers. So I was responsible for contacting the managers to inform them of each situation and make sure the situation was taken care of in a timely manner because of course if it wasn’t, then I would have to handle it at the customer service desk, which could lead to our company losing a customer, money or confidence from community.

30. Facing the Culture Issue I was able to assess the situation and acknowledge the culture of the organization while keeping the company’s vision a priority. Some of my weakness as far as being a leader or becoming a leader in the future is planning. I am able to plan how to handle a situation, but I lack the skills to change that plan if something else comes up. I believe that I can improve this weakness by always having a backup plan just in case the original plan does not work out. I like the company that I work for, but you are not properly train for your position. Their training consists of you watching videos on the computer and taking test about the video. Once you complete that you are place in that position and you learn as you go. I believe this has caused a great deal of turnovers for this company because people are not confident in the position that they are in so they eventually quit. The way I approach the situation is after learning about how they train is I got a small notebook in my pocket and any problems I run into and I have ask for help. I write down the steps that I am given to fix the situation so I can know what do in the future if I run into the same problem. This has also helped me because sometimes there is not anyone around to ask questions or ask the same question again. So I am able to recap on how to handle the situation in a timely manner, which leaves the customer satisfied and happy. I also can pass this information on to new employees and maybe this can possibly lower the turnover rate.

31. Researching the Change of the Organization Lowes Goal focuses on the customers. There are many factors that make up customer service, especially behind the scenes. The people behind to scenes must be well-trained, dependable and excited to help the organization see their vision. “These good employees are the ones that can be promoted, don't create problems at work, and seem to know how to do their job. The managers only needs to give them direction on occasion and the workers seem to consistently show up to work on time” (ArticleClick.com, 2011).

32. Continue Researching the Change of the Organization This company is lacking good employees. They are not dependable, lack self-determination, unappreciative, cheerfulness and discipline. This affects the business as a whole. When a person does not show up it puts more responsibilities on the other employees and that causes the employees not to give the customer’s the attention that they deserve. Recently the company let two managers go and move a exist manager to another store. A lot of the employees did not like this change and does not believe that this new manager is as good. I was not under the old manager, but I believe that new manager came from a store that had the same problems that this current store has. One change that he has made is hire around fifteen to twenty new front end employees; these employees consist of head cashiers, cashiers, and customer service and return desk employees. He saw that there were not a lot of dependable employees, so to prevent the lack of customer service by making sure there were extra employees on staff.

33. “Organizational change can be defined as developing systematic approaches to improve the way an organization conducts its mission. Although we sometimes don't want to admit it, there are always better ways of doing our job. Think of change as an opportunity for improvement” (Maxwell, 2002). Innovation

34. Employees having issues with Innovation Some of the resistance within my organization is older employees does not like that new employees are in higher position. They criticize the work and constantly challenge their authority. These individuals were once in the position that they criticize, but step down for different reasons.

35. The Effect of the Innovation Some of the resistance within my organization is older employees does not like that new employees are in higher position. They criticize the work and constantly challenge their authority. These individuals were once in the position that they criticize, but step down for different reasons. The new people can adapt to the change because they have not been in the position as long as some of the employees have been a part of the organization.

36. Innovation Process “Convincing the organization’s members and relevant outsiders that things are better for having undergone change” (Beach, 2006) is very important. It is very important to communicate. The leaders/manager must be willing to listen to the employees/followers opinion on the change. This will keep the negativity about the change from spreading. With communication you must also keep all organization materials update as you are going through the change so there will not be any confusion internally and externally.

37. Resisting Change “Resist change if they are not approach with reexamining the vision and mission statement that were written at the beginning” (Beach, 2006). I believe that any time there is change you have to plan for the positive and negative impact it may have on the people of the organization, the organization itself and the community surrounding the organization. This is why you should explain the change to the employees of the organization and the community that surrounds organization.

38. The big change within the organization is the technology update. This has cause a lot of issue with the computer processing a lot of things and updating lots of things. As the organization goes through this change we have a lot of attendance issues with employees and other policies being broken by some of the managers.

39. The strategies that the leader of the organization that I am apart of use is having a positive outlook even through the unexpected changes of losing three manager. He keeps you on your toes and challenges you. Since he head manager is short three managers now, he and the other manager takes on those responsibilities too. The manager that is there now does not just set at the desk, but is very active in the organization. If there is a department that needs assistance; they are willing to help instead of sending someone else to help. I believe that these characteristics will rub off on the employees and will encourage the employees to step up to the plate.

40. Once the Change is….. Once technology is updated and they work out the kinks, I believe that this change will benefit everyone has a whole. It will help with inventory issues, order issues, and over customer service. The existing employees were informed and are being train and the new employees went through the training process when they started. Information has been communicated, but not a lot of the documents have been updated. Completed

41. The leader needs to seriously focus on these four steps for the change to be successful... “Effective communication is important for the management to communicate the reason for the change, and the positive impact the change will have on the organization (and the people). 2. Team building helps with the developing a cohesive team builds confidence in the team members, and they are willing to accept change as they work towards a common goal. 3. Time to adapt give the members of the organization time to adjust to the changes you are recommending. 4. Show resolve be committed to implementing new ideas. This will help foster creative thinking from the members within the organization” (Maxwell, 2002).

42. Work Cited ArticleClick.com. (2011, January 12). Article Click. Retrieved July 22, 2011, from Article Click: http://www.articleclick.com/Article/The-Definition-of-a-Good-Employee/966130 Beach, L. R. (2006). Leadership and the Art of Change. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication. Bligh, D. M. (Director). (2010). Resistance to Change [Motion Picture]. Chinn, D. (2011, June 30). Employee Adaptation to Organizational Structure Changw. Retrieved August 30, 2011, from eHow: http://www.ehow.com/info_8670036_employee-adaptation-organizational-structure-change.html Lowes. (2008, May 10). Lowes. Retrieved August 13, 2011, from Lowes: http://media.lowes.com/history/ Lowe's. (2009, June 10). Lowe's. Retrieved August 13, 2011, from Lowe's: http://www.thehistoryofcorporate.com/companies-by-industry/traderetail/lowe%E2%80%99s-home-improvement-warehouse/ Lowe's. (2010, December 12). Lowe's Home Improvement. Retrieved July 10, 2011, from Lowe's Home Improvement: http://media.lowes.com/company+overview/

43. Maxwell, J. C. (2002, November 11). National Headquarter Civil Air Patrol. Retrieved August 6, 2011, from National Headquarter Civil Air Patrol: http://members.gocivilairpatrol.com/Prof_Dev_Modules/cap_admin/cap_homepage.htm Money-Zine.com. (2004-2011). Career, finace and Investing: Money-zine.com. Retrieved January 14, 2011, from Money_zine.com: http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Leadership-Skill/Transformational-Leadership/ Reiter-Palmon, R. H. (2006, August 11). Innovation. Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. , p. 20. Steneker, E. (2003-2009, May 12). Making a Point of Good Customer Service: Customer Service Point. Retrieved June 12, 2011, from Customer Service.com: http://www.customerservicepoint.com/customer-service-definition.html# Warrilow, S. (2009, July 3rd). Transformation Leadership Theory: The 4 keys Components in Leading Change & Managing Change. Retrieved December 12, 2010, from Ezine Articles: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Warrilow Wiley&Son. (2009). Organizational Change and Development. In M. M. Hitt, Organizationa Behavior: A Strategic Approach (pp. 498-502). Colellan. Continue Work Cited

44. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. --James Baldwin