Health Information Technology

The article about Men’s Wearhouse is an interesting read since it talks about the industry that has been in a decline over the year. It is unusual to see business growth in an industry that is in a decline. The success of Men’s Wearhouse is largely attributed to the corporate culture created by the founder George Zimmer. While in 1960’s there were number of stores that specialized in men’s clothing, there were none that have taken the road Men’s Wearhouse did. Zimmer founded the company in 1973 and opened the first store in Houston, Texas. Zimmer was an educated professional who had some experience in a retailing business as his father owned a raincoat manufacturing business. He claimed that growing up during the Vietnam War affected his life and his personality. Due to this type of bringing up, his values were centered on the employees. The company he created, The Men’s Wearhouse, was growing tremendously due to corporate culture and strategy that treated employees like kings. Zimmer adds that if you don’t treat employees like kings you cannot expect them to treat customers like kings. During the expansion of Men’s Wearhouse many small business in men’s clothing were not able to survive and were consolidated. The large department stores that had specialty men’s apparel were not offering the service men were seeking. Zimmer recognized the needs of men and offered less expensive, more convenient and a customer friendly shopping environment. While other retailers focused on merchandising and marketing as a strategy to increase sales, Zimmer focused on the employees. It is hard to imagine a CEO of a retailer knowing the names of all store managers and assistant managers. This shows how dedicated Zimmer was with the strategy of treating employees like kings. Zimmer recognized that employees should also remember the names of their customers and if he had remembered the names of his employees, employees would not have an excuse to not remember the names of customers. Zimmer made every employee within the company more engaged and made sure they knew the value of customer service. District managers and regional managers were required to make weekly and monthly visits to the stores and even Zimmer made very frequent visits to stores across the country. Other important strategy in this business was job duties of individual employees. The employees would not be clerks or sales representatives but rather consultants. The company focused on customers by providing exceptional training and mentorship. Zimmer acknowledges that his employees are his customers. The strategy of the Men’s Wearhouse is similar to that of SAS, Southwest and Google. All of these companies were run for a long time by their founders who had a vision that changed the way business is done and became a standard for success. As managers we must constantly be reminded that employees are the customers and those employees are the face of the company. As HCLT article said the employees that work in sales and generate revenues are value zone employees. I’d like to add that all employees should be treated as the value zone of the company and as such will contribute to the success of the business they are in. Clearly, many businesses do not see the value of such a strategy and they must adapt to a soon approaching standard if they are to reach the top.