Saw the click bait heading from news.com.au about Gerry Harvey and automatically wanted to despise the old geezer more but read the article and he might have very slightly gone up in my estimation of him.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/gerry-harvey…
More like king of the kiddie pool.
He got in when times were good. Consumers are no longer fish in a barrel. What has he done to adapt?
Apart from flailing his arms and screaming at professionals.
Apparently HN profits have gone up, which is more than what could be said for DJs or Myer.
The only major retailers I see actually not planning to fail is JB, Officeworks, Bunnings and a few others.
DJs and Myers have the head stuck in the ass of the 90s.
Gerry uses the black magic to gain profits, while no one gives a crap & treat customers as they are just window shopping.
Yeh, sure.
He is the same "smart cookie" who said that internet shopping phenomenon was a flash in the pan craze that would not last!
Wasn’t it bill gates who dismissed the internet?
Everyone can make a mistake
Sure, he made an error. You must be perfect cloudy?
good on him.
diversity for the sake of diversity is silly (as is the belief that "diversity is a strength")
I agree, having said that I'd go with 'bordering on downright dangerous!'
The problems is that both sides of the argument is wrong.
Diversity is definitely a strength, and it is definitely a handicap. A well-balanced combination of the two probably the most optimal for countries like USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are nations with systems that champion liberty and cooperation, and that are multicultural. Unlike say China, India, (and to a lower extent) Brasil and Russia, which are less diverse and have different systems in place.
I'd say it's an overall negative as western countries simply can't afford to pay so much welfare. The system will simply break unless something radical is done.
@Zedsdeadbabyzedsdead: It depends a lot on other factors.
You may be better-off in a Feudal system, than a more advanced Communistic system, and much worse off in a Capitalist system. If the first nation is much wealthier than the second, and if the second is wealthier than the third one.
And a nation can be wealthy if it:
- offers other nations some sort of goods/natural resources,
-offers other nations some sort of services/technology,
-or it can use force/negotiations to generate capital through trade.
Where diversity plays a role is much smaller than these systems and these three categories. When I say diversity, I'm generally talking about "diversity of culture", and not a going into equal opportunity/outcome. But there still needs to be a combining factor, a social glue, for all these people and that's foremost language, then laws/system, and lastly an ideology/nationalism/religion.
@Kangal: Considering communism has caused the death of over 100 million people I'd take capitalism anyday of the week.
How is diversity a strength?
What sort of diversity are we talking about?
If you mean diversity of talent, thought, opinion or ideas that are crucial to the objective, yes it can be. If we mean diversity of sex, race, religion, or whatever category, in a quest for diversity, which has nothing to do with obtaining the objective, then I cannot see how it is a strength, it would be a weakness/liability.
@mick123: Sorry, I meant "diversity of culture".
So this could be religion, politics, skin colour, gender, age, sexuality etc etc. The reason is that you can't actually dissect the "opinion" from the "person", they are intertwined. A highly muslim person does not become an atheist overnight. An old person doesn't obtain a new-age thinking overnight. A woman cannot think like a man etc etc.
And for businesses, they all have their challenges and they are unique. Diversity is a strength, without a doubt. You can find new ways to solve old problems, and these trickle-down from management. And if you want to bring improvements and changes to your community, these need to be done properly, and not just someone throwing money at problems like a band-aid.
For that reason, successful Black Americans have made a drastic improvements to their community during/after their success… however, these communities have far larger issues like Single-Parents, a culture that demonises education and higher-reaching, etc etc. So I should preface this with, that diversity of opinion, should be used as a toolset to further whatever objective you are striving for, and depending on its time-frame.
Short-term ideas don't work for long-term objectives, and vice-versa.
As a pattern, I have generally seen Diversity enter workfields, and those individuals with merit, have provided Diversity of Opinions, which actually made companies less competitive but more successful for long-term.
The only liability you have is when you disrupt a well-balanced business/management, with people that do not share the same objectives, and especially, when you replace competent people with people that are diverse (eg Black) but actually don't have a divergent experience or diverse background to come up with different ideas. There is an element of genetics, I won't deny, but I don't think it plays any major role… not as much as a person's culture. Even with something robust like IQ, there are greater variance within a group of people, than between individual groups of people, and this comes back to (you guessed it) other factors like culture, education, nutrition, and freedoms. I hope this hasn't been too meta and not confused you too much, the gist is "it's complicated" and anyone who tells you they have a monopoly on the truth is lying.
I'm not completely on-board with what appears to be a few irrelevant statements (isn't he seeking increased capital of $173m to prepare for a recession?, and thus the 'news' item).
His business is not in the same category of retail as Myer and David Jones. It could be said that the board members of Myer and DJs are lacking in certain knowledge or skills, but the diversity of the boards is not relevant.
And then this:
"…look at what’s happened to department stores in some other countries that are trading quite well…" (in a swipe at Myer and DJs)
I did a quick search and found this listing:
https://www.ibtimes.com/2019-store-closures-complete-list-re…
US-focused, but Walmart, Macy's, Sears, Kmart, JC Penney, H&M, all get a mention.
In the UK, House of Fraser, Bennetts, Brays and Debenhams come to mind.
I've seen a fair bit of diversity for the sake of diversity in retail leadership. Someone high up in my old job said this 'if I have a female and a male apply for a job, both equally qualified, who do I choose?' Crowd goes silent. 'I choose the woman, because we need diversity and different thinking' (the business had recently set a target for m/f with KPIs!)
I raised my hand and challenged this, I disagreed that you'd ever have 2 people exactly the same and you'd pick the person more suited to the job.
Yep, targets for the sake of ticking a box are not going to solve the issue of non-diversity.
Get the best people in, but similarly don't exclude some of the best people because of their sex, religion, cultural background, etc. And while they are at it, how about developing some of those people to be future leaders.
"solve the issue of non-diversity."
There was no issue in the first place, unless one lives in the land of the make believe.
I don't like him personally (GST on overseas stuff, increasing cost of living purely out of jealousy) but his company performance records especially in the past few years vs other retailers must be commended.
Credit where it's due.
generally paying close to RRP with 5 year interest free credit from Latitude Finance -
Have there been any negative stories about Gerry Harvey on news.com.au?
Didn't JB-HiFi also turn a bigger profit at the same time?
UTS is literally lowering entrance marks for WOMEN for their engineering courses (by 10 POINTS!) to help women get into the course.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/29/unive…
And they have the gall to say:
“We’re not taking in underperforming students or doing tokenism here,”
Hahahahahahaha.
If I was a female then I would be damn insulted by this move as it implies I need a 10 point leg-up because that is how far intellectually inferior to males I am.
I wonder if they are planning on lowering the required marks for males in female dominated industries as like teaching and nursing as well.
Myer and DJ have a problem of being an old fashioned upmarket department store in 2019. We'd all like to shop there because the stuff is nice but no one wants to pay the rent on all that floorspace. Rich people shopping there out of habit isn't much of a business model anymore.
Love him or loath him he's still a smart cookie.