Message In A Bottle: Dear eBay, From the Great Minds of Circuit City Leadership
Hey, I just listened to the eBay earnings call today. Not too good, and I am sure Randy Smythe is doing a little “happy dance”. He was pegged by readers on AuctionBytes blog to be the new CEO of the company, LOL
But I made this video earlier today to post later on, but after hearing the call today…I figured it is good to go right now.
So, PLEASE re-tweet this one if you think it is worthy?!? I know that the folks at eBay must begin to listen up, or the writings of Circuit City, a company 3x as old as eBay could be repeated on eBay.
I dunno about you, but there is something to be said about ALL sellers, not just the biggest ones. You need ALL of us or none of us will be around too much longer. I am sure THOSE GUYS at Circuit City never thought laying off 8% of their sales force would lead to the demise of their business. Maybe it did not, but I say IT DID and I am sure eBay would not think losing “small sellers” would impact their bottom line either but IT DID!
You all can cover a MULTITUDE of errors under the umbrella of a bad economy, but this Circuit City blunder was from May 2007! So even if you make bad decisions earlier in time, the repercussions will be felt at some point. And during a down economy, that reverberation can be 10,000x worse. Circuit City, after 60 years in business, could not recover from bad decisions when the money started to dry up in a bad economy.
Dear Mr. Donahoe, please hear my video…
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Par for the course and foolish I think. My little sister works for a publishing company and she rose through the ranks pretty fast–how, same way, they canned those ahead of her over the past couple of years and by elevating someone younger like her to better positions probably saved 50% or more in that slot. I’ve warned her, you might not want to climb too high with that particular company, not without some kind of parachute.
Sure, a little shake-up once in awhile may be good, sometimes the long-time employees sit on their laurels a bit and many may deserve to go. But that experience and that inside knowledge of your company is valuable–it’s what you were paying them the big bucks for in the first place! By removing this experience, not only are you getting less experience in return, you’re creating a transitional period that leaves your entire company/department/whatever weak.
Beyond that, you’re going to find yourself savaged and ridiculed immediately online by a fleet of unhappy ex-employees and empathetic well-wishers, especially in the case as something so careless and heavy-handed as what Circuit City did here. Very bad PR, no?
(And I love how they blame the economy as a whole for their problems and if I recall from my viewing last night take on none of the blame themselves!)
I think the Circuit City’s, the eBay’s etc. need to step back for a moment and reconsider: it was good idea to pay these people before, what’s changed? And then possibly look in another direction for a fix.
Thanks,Cliff
Par for the course and foolish I think. My little sister works for a publishing company and she rose through the ranks pretty fast–how, same way, they canned those ahead of her over the past couple of years and by elevating someone younger like her to better positions probably saved 50% or more in that slot. I’ve warned her, you might not want to climb too high with that particular company, not without some kind of parachute.
Sure, a little shake-up once in awhile may be good, sometimes the long-time employees sit on their laurels a bit and many may deserve to go. But that experience and that inside knowledge of your company is valuable–it’s what you were paying them the big bucks for in the first place! By removing this experience, not only are you getting less experience in return, you’re creating a transitional period that leaves your entire company/department/whatever weak.
Beyond that, you’re going to find yourself savaged and ridiculed immediately online by a fleet of unhappy ex-employees and empathetic well-wishers, especially in the case as something so careless and heavy-handed as what Circuit City did here. Very bad PR, no?
(And I love how they blame the economy as a whole for their problems and if I recall from my viewing last night take on none of the blame themselves!)
I think the Circuit City’s, the eBay’s etc. need to step back for a moment and reconsider: it was good idea to pay these people before, what’s changed? And then possibly look in another direction for a fix.
Thanks,Cliff
Good Video John. Sellers everywhere are thinking about this loud and clear.Message !
Good Video John. Sellers everywhere are thinking about this loud and clear.Message !
Removing commission based sales and putting “burger flippers” (as you say) does have an impact on sales and customer service. But you must also know that pricing pressure is an ongoing process due to Asia and competitors. Best Buy even with their success run on extremely thin margins. One bad move and any business could easily go away operating on margins like that.
Removing commission based sales and putting “burger flippers” (as you say) does have an impact on sales and customer service. But you must also know that pricing pressure is an ongoing process due to Asia and competitors. Best Buy even with their success run on extremely thin margins. One bad move and any business could easily go away operating on margins like that.