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Welcome to the Productivity Podcast . Sue

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and I are going to spend 10 minutes

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or so just talking through what we've

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learned in 2023 . Turbulent

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year for many . Lots of expected

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events , lots of unexpected events . So

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you're going to kick us off , sue , with number

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one in terms of what we've learned in 2023

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.

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I think there's been an ongoing growth of self

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checkouts , with a notable exception of booths

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that kind of made a lot of press about taking

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them out .

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But still left them in their Biggie's two shops , but

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left them in the Biggie's two shops . Get below

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the headline , because I got sucked in by the headline

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and then read the article and said , yeah , but in your Biggie's two

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shops you're actually leaving them in .

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And I think that really tells the story of where

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it's at . So we've seen sort of

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the big grosses putting more and more of them

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in and it's increasingly

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being used in smaller stores and I think there's

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been different models really of

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how they're used and customers are getting

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more used to them . So I think we've been

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seeing kind of some tweaking and some

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fine tuning as people have realised the best

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way to operate them from

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a colleague point of view and also

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that it works best for customers as well

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. And obviously we've had the self scan bit as

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well come in . So I think

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it's been interesting that it's carried on

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developing , even though it feels like it's

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technology that's been around a long time now .

1:28

Yeah , I agree . Number

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two there needs to be no particular hierarchical

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order , just the way that they've been documented

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.

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There's been an increase in the number of people

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looking at and then going on

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to install electronic shop edge labels . So

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I think there's as ever with technologies

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around longer prices change . There's

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probably a wider understanding of the

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cost benefit case , although

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for a lot of retailers the price of

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the actual label technology

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is still prohibitively expensive . So

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I think it's something we'll see kind

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of continuing to grow . But

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I think nobody's I don't think

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anybody's quite got the right way

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to do it . That kind of gives you everything

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so the best price projection you could have from

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it . You know , fully optimising all the

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technology , using the picking

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opportunities . You know the light up that the shelves

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can do . So I think there's quite a lot

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and it feels like we're still very much in the early

2:24

learning stages . But I think it

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was . It's going to carry on growing and become

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a hot topic .

2:31

Yeah , I agree , capital

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cost is clearly king and it's a big

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expenditure , but the benefits are

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certainly there to be had . The technologies have

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just come in cheaper and then the applications

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becoming wider . So for those that have

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done it , it's been great to see . For those that are thinking about

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doing it , it will be interesting to see how

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that progresses this year .

2:51

And the thing is anybody that tries it . Once store managers

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have got it , they'll kind of it's the last thing they'd want

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to give up as well . So store teams absolutely

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love it when they get in . It does save

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a lot of work . The flip

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side of that is how much it costs to save that work

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, isn't it ?

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Absolutely . Number three I've got on my list is

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AI automation

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. So clearly in 2023

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was the rise of chat , gpt

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, bard , all the other online

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portals that you can get to do whatever you

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want , pretty much for you . We've seen that being

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kind of integrated into cars

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. That's starting to be produced and other

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things . Not sure we've

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seen a really good

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, thorough implementation

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of anything in retail

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or hospitality . I

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know it's there . I've seen lots of examples . You know

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AI order taking it drive-thrus

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, but not really implemented

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in scale . So I

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think 2023 was

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the year of the idea . Hopefully 2024

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was the year of the practical implementation

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and seeing some of that come through as people

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drive to

3:57

combat cost challenges . I think it's

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one of the obvious areas to explore .

4:02

Yeah , and where there's been use

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of AI , it hasn't been the

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generative AI , it's

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been more around how do you get

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useful insights and things

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out of big data sets ? So I'm thinking you

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know the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's

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and Boots that have got loyalty

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schemes that have been running multiple years

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with millions of customers . You

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know they've been very good at getting commercial

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benefit from that

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data and obviously how we use AI

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is part of that . You know it's big

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programs running in the background digging

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through it all , but I don't think

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we've seen the use

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of the generative certainly commercial

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yet .

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Now number five

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, I'd say and again these are no particular

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orders shrink so clearly

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. Last year economic

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challenges across the world

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led to increased shrink , which

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has probably been combated

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by the fact that people are managing costs , so

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there's less people and prices

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are going up , so things cost more . So a

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bit of a perfect storm . We've seen lots of

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pictures on LinkedIn

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and around social of things being locked

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up behind perspective screens , cameras being

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put in place , exit gates

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have become commonplace

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now , even receipt checking in

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some places , although it

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kind of didn't dawn on me yesterday

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, but every time I go shopping now there's

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a security guard at the door and I walk out , yeah

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, I press the button on the till saying I don't want to

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receipt . So I don't really know how those

5:38

two interact if the alarm goes off , because

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we have to then go back and look at some journal

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or E-POS record to see what

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I did or didn't buy . So that feels

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a bit disconnected . But

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yeah , be interesting . Don't know any facts

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or figures whether that's reduced

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shrink , but kind of prohibited sales

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, whether it's made a

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difference , because certainly again

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, the pain of trying to buy something that's locked

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up when organisations have less

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people on the floor becomes

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more apparent in this kind of climate .

6:13

Yeah , be interesting as well the rise of kind

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of more body cams being rolled

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out for safety reasons as well . So

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again , that goes with the fact where you've got fewer

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people I mean particularly convenience retail

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where you're trading late

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hours and you know not many people

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across a large space , you know anything

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that helps protect people in those circumstances

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is a bonus , isn't it ?

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Absolutely Next on the

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list is price . So

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it's a bit briefly shrink , but clearly price

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is rising , and price from a

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consumer point of view , but

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also from an operating point of view

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. So not necessarily in 2023

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, but clearly it's going to impact this year in 2024

6:53

. National living wage I think

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a bit of a shock for lots of people that we did

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the pound and two and

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then pulled in anybody that was between

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21 and 23 . So lower the threshold

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For those that pay above it

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great , it kind of narrows the gap . So if

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you're going to maintain

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that differential , it's going to still cost

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you . For those that are on it , I think it really

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knocked some people's short

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term plans and created a hole in

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their budgets for this year , which again

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will be interesting to see how that plays out , when everybody

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was striving for efficiencies

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and costs anyway . But

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also may impact years two and three

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, as we have a potential change of government which

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may mean that we go a bit quicker towards 15

7:35

pounds and if

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you've had to pull stuff forward into 2024

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, how does that leave you 2025

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and 2026 plans ? So operating

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costs clearly a challenge , but again

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on the consumer side , we've seen other

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prices significantly

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increase and with no , probably

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other than notably pectoral sign of

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it coming back down .

7:58

Yeah , I

8:00

think , pricing workload in stores

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. I'd be interested to see if there's been a higher

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number of price changes going through , because

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my perception is the retailers are having to

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be cleverer about which prices they put

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up and which prices they don't down with

8:13

put down , and you always see as many headlines

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about prices being held down or

8:18

reduced down to match somebody else as you

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do as a regarding inflation

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, you know , for the food in particular

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. So I just wonder how much more

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price changes store teams are having

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to complete just

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to keep that , you know , the margin

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protected and keeping up with what

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everybody else is doing . There just seems a lot more

8:37

fluidity around price .

8:39

Which clearly , if you have electronic shelfage labels

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, he's not a problem at all because it's

8:44

pushing a couple of buttons and templates . I

8:47

think the final two

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stock . So we

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saw huge , huge ways of

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stock holding allocations in kind

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of pandemic , and post

8:58

2023 we've

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seen that decline somewhat

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and then as we head into 2024 we've got

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people sailing a long way around Africa

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and things . So I would expect

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that pushes price and even potentially

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more stock it . And

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the one we'll finish on before we share kind of the plans

9:16

for the podcast for this year 2024

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is structure . So we've talked about it

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quite a lot on the podcast this year in terms

9:24

of well , last year even in terms

9:27

of role studies , how we used them , the Insighted

9:29

Games , benchmarking and maybe

9:32

driven by cost pressure , maybe driven by different

9:34

ways of operating , you know , more self-checkouts

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, electronic shelfage labels . Some of the stuff we talked about

9:39

there is that perpetual

9:42

review of staffing , leadership

9:44

structures and we've probably

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seen the demise of supervisory

9:49

stroke , team leader level to some degree

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, maybe even deputies , assistants

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. It'll be interesting again as we

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go through this year what the next incarnation

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of those types of hierarchies

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look like .

10:02

And I think it's interesting . I don't think it's purely a

10:04

commercial thing that people

10:07

look into costs . I think that can be part

10:09

of it in some instances , but the reality

10:11

is it can be really difficult to get enough good people

10:14

. So when you're looking at your leadership roles , you

10:16

have to make sure that you're deploying them in

10:18

the right way . That supports delivery

10:20

of whatever is that your business wants

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to deliver , and you can't afford

10:25

to have too many because you just can't get enough good

10:27

people to fulfill those roles and stay in

10:29

them . So you know there's lots of drivers

10:31

, for that being the way

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it is .

10:34

Yeah , and it's really encouraging that people

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are starting to make those decisions using fat-based

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data rather than kind of emotional

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data , because sometimes the facts support

10:44

what you think sometimes is a completely different

10:46

narrative narrative in there , as we talked

10:49

through previous pods . So

10:51

, plans for podcast 2024

10:54

we've got some excited

10:56

mini series planned . We've got some amazing

10:59

guest planning on a monthly

11:01

basis . Sue and I'll start to take you through

11:03

chapters of the book

11:06

. Every second counts . I'm sure you've seen it all

11:08

over the LinkedIn pages

11:11

that we publish and it's on the website . So

11:13

we'll kind of work through those 10 chapters

11:15

in the coming months . Hopefully

11:18

that helps you with some

11:20

business challenges . You've got some ways

11:23

of thinking , stimulate some thoughts

11:25

or really , ahead of the productivity

11:28

forum in September 2024

11:31

in Birmingham , lots

11:33

and lots of people registered . Places are really

11:35

filling up . So again , if you've

11:38

not registered and you want to come along , get onto the website

11:40

, get your place secured , because

11:43

the line-ups looking good not announcing

11:45

any speakers as yet , but the line-ups looking

11:47

good for 2024 .

11:50

Seems funny to be talking about September when we're

11:52

in the middle of a bit of a cold spell . It seems

11:54

hard to think ahead to the summer , doesn't it ? And

11:57

beyond .

11:58

Yeah , we'll get there . Anyway , thanks

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for listening and we'll see you on the next episode

12:02

.

12:03

Bye .