How Do Outdoor Leisure Giants In American Towns Achieve Brilliant Results?

Including Lyon Bean CEO Chris Mccormick (Chris McCormick), no one can point out what causes the current upsurge. The outdoor products sold by the company made the descendants of founder Bean very rich. It is estimated that the family's total net assets amounted to $1 billion 800 million, making it the first time that they have landed on Forbes's latest list of us rich families.

　　 1. through depression

Decades of entry, quality competition attracted panic buying.

"We have predicted this year. Sales volume There will be substantial growth, but the actual increase is two times the forecast. " Mccormick, 59, said this year. He is an old employee who has worked for Leon Bean for 32 years. He is the only one who has been the founder of Bean. Mccormick formally joined the company in 1983. He has held many positions in 31 years. In 2001, he took over as the chief executive of Bean, the founder of the company. At present, the chairman of the company is the grandson of founder Bean. Mccormick said he was grateful to the Bean family for entrusting him to the company.

Mccormick wrote in the memorandum that in the past decade or so, the company has gone through the economic recession after the 9. 11 incident, and then managed to go out of the Great Depression of 2008 and 2009 through effective management.

The reason for this surge is that there is no doubt that it is quality. In Forbes's first list of best employers in the United States, Bean ranked fifth, ranking first among clothing and outdoor equipment manufacturers. At the same time, the company's revenue in 2014 reached $1 billion 610 million, and is expected to grow further this year. According to Forbes estimates, the profit margin of the privately-held company is hovering around 10%.

　　 2. grass roots team

Employees are secret weapons and competitive advantages.

So what kind of team does Mccormick have? Obviously, it needs more grassroots, and Mccormick is very satisfied with it. "These employees are really our secret weapons and our competitive edge," he said. "Because they are so excellent and dedicated, I think they are far superior to other retailers' employees."

Rowling Boehm, director of public relations at Bean, said the company is expanding. The composition of employees is very diverse, especially in Maine, which is 95% of the population. Mccormick said that there are more than 40 languages for manufacturing workers. Some workers came from Philippines, Dominica, Somalia and other places, and they were cut and sewn together with native Maine people. Maine native made up most of the company's employees. This is also a relatively aging enterprise with an average age of 48 years.

　　 3. focus Frequent visitor

"Others enter the Internet, they are opening up a physical store."

Dana Connors, President of the Maine chamber of Commerce, said Bean has survived in a particularly difficult retail environment in recent years. "When other people enter the Internet, they are opening up a physical store." He said.

In 2009, online orders officially exceeded telephone and mail order orders. At this time, the company was still a mail order sales company from the core. Many of its familiar customers grew up before the rise of the e-commerce boom, and are still used to making phone calls.

During a lunch break, Ray Cousins, who worked for 28 years at Bean's customer service center of North Porter company, was comforting a call client. The other person seemed unable to pry open the battery cover of the LED headlamp he ordered. He did not want to venture into the cold outside of Minnesota without lighting, because he was old and physically ill. "I understand," Cousins said. "I am an old man too." In recent years, companies have to train their call center staff to use their powerful telephone customer service capabilities to respond to e-mail, respond to queries in social media, and chat in real time.

　　 4. future development

"I like to play offense, and I have to defend in recession."

In the monthly benchmark report of StellaService, an online customer service rating agency, Bean, led by Mccormick, has always topped the list, defeating Patagonia's equivalents. The indicators used in the report include delivery speed, return convenience and communication quality.

"They have no reservations in this respect," said Tai Mcmann, head of marketing at StellaService. "Attention, product knowledge and policy knowledge are consistent in all channels."

Bean will soon need to recruit another batch of retail staff. In March of this year, CEO Mccormick announced a plan to increase the number of entities in Bean's company by three times by 2020. Today, the outdoor leisure giant operates 25 stores in the United States. The goal of the company is to increase the number of stores in the United States to 100 in five years, and to set up additional outlets in major overseas markets such as Japan and China.

Next year, the company will close its telephone customer service center in Bangor. "The number of calls has dropped due to the Internet," Mccormick said. "We now have three phone call centers. We really don't need that much. Now business is transforming from mail order sales to network sales. " In May 19, 2014, Mccormick announced that he plans to retire in March 2016 and retire from the company. Mccormick said in his memorandum that the announcement so early could allow the company to complete the transition smoothly and have more time to look for his successor.

As a privately owned century old enterprise, the company has achieved steady economic growth for four consecutive years because of its proper operation strategy in recent years. As of the 2013 fiscal year of February 23, 2014, the company's sales revenue reached 1 billion 560 million dollars, which was 3 percentage points higher than that of the previous year.

"Now is the time to go out and increase sales and seize market share." Mccormick is confident of the company's future development. "I like to play offense. During the recession, you have to defend... Make sure you live to the day you turn over. " For his future, Mccormick said he was not sure what to do, but he did not plan to retire completely. "There are other markets waiting to be discovered, and others are waiting to get in touch with..."