Introduction
We live in a fast-changing and dynamic world, which brings new changes in our everyday lives. All companies go through a certain life cycle as well: some of them are on the stage of growth, and some – are struggling hard to maintain their profits. Every organization’s initial target consists in not only short-term goals, like profit but also in the long-term results such as building a unique brand and ensuring the company’s profitable and efficient future. Furthermore, each company has a leader, who is guiding and managing the organization all the time, and who will stay with it till the last day of the company’s existence.
A good example of such a leader is John Peterman, who started one of the most profitable catalog companies in the USA in the nineties. This person has several traits, which helped him to launch the company and develop it.
John Petermans’ characteristic
First of all, this man was an open-minded and sincere person, who wanted to express his thoughts to the people around him. So he shared his opinion in the newspaper advertisement. He used simple, but sincere words, which came from his heart. No wonder, some people liked the ad and decided to become his first customer.
Secondly, he is an inventive person, because if he was not, it would be impossible to find new items to offer and new ways to sell the products. The products which were offered by his small company were not inventions at that time, but the way they were sold was, in a certain way, an invention, an invention made by John Peterman. The example of a duster, an ordinary item, but shown in a very romantic way is another proof of John Peterman’s talent to touch people’s hearts.
John Peterman is a very hard-working person; without this trait, the company would not survive. This man spent hours and days developing his business, he devoted most of his time to his “child”.
At first, he did not get any salary, sacrificing this money to the people, who were working with him. So, here is another trait of the leader – a high level of generosity.
Undoubtedly, John Peterman has good organizational skills, because when his company started to grow, involving new people and new products, he managed to handle everything.
Managing a growing company, when the processes in it start getting more and more complicated, is a real challenge. And the leader of the company should have a strong personality, with a certain level of self-confidence. And John Peterman, certainly, possessed this quality. It helped him to work under the pressure of investors, who wanted to see the immediate results of their investments. Despite all the misunderstandings and misinterpretations from the newcomers, he continued recruiting more staff members, training them on the companies’ philosophy and its target goals.
John Petermans’ traits
One of the most important traits of this man is that he was trying to stay true to himself, to the chosen field. When products and their images did not match companies’ philosophy, he did not include them in the catalog. And the company’s idea fit in six simple, but sincere words: “excellent”, “authentic”, “unique”, “romantic”, “journey”, “wondrous”. It can be noticed that these words apply not only to the brand “John Peterman”, but to the personality of John Peterman too.
It is useless to say that John Peterman is a perfect leader because he is a man, not ordinary, but with his doubts and fears. Some products were included in the “John Peterman” catalog only because of their profitability, not the fact that they are the perfect match to the brand. The “Heart of the ocean” necklace is a good example of such a products. And it is interesting that John Peterman, even when he had doubts deep in his heart, often found the justifications to maximize the income. Later, looking back at some decisions, he expressed regrets about them.
It can not be denied, that John Peterman had outstanding entrepreneurial skills because he never stopped developing the company. He followed all the innovations of that time, using all available resources, like the internet and retail stores, mail. The company was steadily moving forward on the wave of the success of the brand “John Peterman”.
John’s passion for what he was doing was a very important factor in the overall development and history of his company. This passion and love have eventually passed to the employees of the company, who devoted themselves to the advancement and leadership of the brand in the market. John Peterman was an authentic person, who liked to wear comfortable clothes; he is an open-minded person, always polite and friendly with the staff. The behavior of John Peterman contributed to the image of the brand and helped in building a stronger team.
John Peterman has an amazing personality, comprising both love to Grandmother’s barn and country’s traditions. This amazement at the treasures from the past has helped him to make his retail stores so exclusive and “fresh”. All his ideas were not complicated, but they were understood and appreciated by the public.
When a company of John Peterman became the leader in the market, achieving its steady growth period of the life cycle, John has shown one more trait- his respect to the employed staff. He started inviting his employees to Friday’s breakfast, this was not a fancy ceremony, but this way John had a chance to get to know his staff better. These breakfasts contributed to the understanding of the company’s members of the philosophy of the brand and helped the recruited people feel more comfortable and important in the huge company.
The hardest time for John Peterman
The time of crisis of the company was the hardest time for John Peterman. In the struggle for the future of his brand, he showed the strength of his character. All the challenges and obstacles, which led to the collapse of the organization, did not devastate him. John Peterman looks back at the time when he was in charge of the well-known brand and admits all his mistakes. This is an essential trait- to learn from your mistakes and never give up; this trait will help him to start a new business in a new field. John Peterman is ready for new challenges.
Following the history of “John Peterman” company, it is possible to identify the main external and internal factors, which led to its collapse. Today the importance of such management elements, as the mission and business plan, can not be denied or argued about. As far as it can be judged, John Peterman did not have an elaborate plan of the actions; neither had he had a research of the markets, where he was going to operate with his products. This is the first significant internal factor, which affected the processes inside the company.
Secondly, the expansion of the product line leads to an increase in the profit, however, it happens to a certain point, when consumers start doubting about the quality of the numerous products or it is impossibly hard to manage such products assortment. And John Peterman admitted that it had been one of the most significant mistakes of their management.
Thirdly, there is a concept of the triple bottom line, which states that the company can be successful and profitable only based on economical, environmental performance, and human resources. John Peterman should have paid more attention to the training of the old personnel, not to the expensive and time-consuming recruitment of new though highly qualified staff. The expenses, which were connected with the recruitment of these people, did not correspond to the effect they made on the overall performance of the company.
It also can be mentioned, that there was no marketing department in the company if there was one, then the level of its activities was not high enough to cope with the problems of the company. The main task of the marketing department to diagnose the development of the organization in the future, and with the combined efforts of the marketing specialists, it would be possible to predict the collapse of at least serious problems of the “John Peterman” brand. However, this essential department and its possible contribution to the company’s efficiency was neglected and not recognized by John Peterman.
There were external factors, which made an impact on the development of the “John Peterman” brand. The new trend of our time is an amazingly fast advancement of the Internet and web resources. Many companies, who have been taking advantage of this technology, are now far ahead of their competitors. So, John Peterman‘s company did use websites to advertise, however, this new resource did not receive proper and enough attention, otherwise the company would have survived.
The next external factor which should not be neglected is the bank’s mistake, which negatively affected the reputation of the company. Those events were the first signal, that company has serious problems, which should be solved immediately. We live in an informational society, where information disseminates very fast, and no matter whether it is accurate or not- it influences many processes in the market and the world.
And the last factor, which hurt the overall performance of the company, is the fast-growing market, where competitors are using any opportunity to catch up with the leader. While the company was struggling to manage its internal problems and conflicts, its followers have gained steady positions in the market. Unfortunately, the company was not flexible enough to survive in such fast-changing conditions. John Peterman’s main investors have surrendered and found new perspectives and profitable projects to support.
Summary
To summarize this paper, it is important to highlight the contribution of a person, the company’s director or founder, to the development of any company. Every company’s performance is connected with the personal traits of the person in charge of it. The story of John Peterman is a good lesson for all entrepreneurs and it teaches us many obvious, but often forgotten things. John Peterman is an outstanding person, with all the necessary qualities of the manager of a large company; however, every leader needs a team of skilled employees. And it takes time for employees to become a successful team that can handle all obstacles and is ready for any changes of the time.