Joint Application Development (JAD) Session
Role Sheet for the Chief Retail Officer
Private Information (known only to you)
NOTE: You may share part or all of this information with others during the course of this lab activity, or not; your choice!
You are proud of the network of retail stores you have built over many years with the company. You selected many of the locations and hired and trained the store managers personally. You are frustrated that growth has slowed recently, and are a bit worried that you might be "losing your touch."
Your store managers have been complaining for some time that the merchandise the company provides for sale has not kept up with the latest trends in jewelry design. You persuaded the CEO to replace the CMO because of that, and you hoped that the new CMO would concentrate on updating the company's product lines and improving advertising for the retail stores; so you were a bit taken aback when the new CMO started pushing an e-commerce project instead.
You feel somewhat threatened that the new e-commerce project may threaten retail store sales, if customers choose to buy online rather than go to the stores. You feel the time and money the company is about to spend on e-commerce might be better spent by strengthening the product line, doing more advertising, and expanding the store network.
Your main goal, if the e-commerce project does succeed, is to make sure that your stores' sales are not harmed, and that your sales representatives and store managers do not lose commissions because of online sales. You also want to find out if there are any ways that the e-commerce project might actually help boost store sales.