Back in January, Stores Magazine wrote an article on 20 Ideas Worth Stealing in 2013 that had some ideas worth stealing by your Supply Management and Marketing organizations. But were they all worth stealing?

Even though they sounded good on the surface, SI would not have recommended stealing these ideas:

• Offer More Options
  While it might help a new startup break into the market, options add complexity, complexity adds cost, and unless you are serving the luxury marketplace, your corporate sustainability could be put at risk. And SI is not too fond of unnecessary shipping of product back and forth – that’s just not green.
• Picture Success
  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you need the words – in particular, you need the strategic transformation plan to get there, whether we are talking about a new marketing initiative or a new Supply Management initiative.
• Social Crowd-Sourcing
  Offering progressive discounts against unknown inventory might get attention in the consumer world, but it also risks creating unhappy customers if you greatly underestimate demand. Similarly, how long would you deal with a supplier who would never commit to a price or an inventory level? Especially if you valued your CBI insurance!
• Place Ad Here
  While using existing programming may sound like a good idea to get your message out in the Marketing world, you risk alienating your customers that do not want to be exposed to advertising in the few aspects of their lives that are still free from advertising. And there is no equivalent in Supply Management that would make any sense at all.
• Quality Facebook Time
  Facebook is the New Egypt. We don’t need to go back in time thousands of years to when civilization was just learning to preserve its accomplishments for posterity. ‘Nuff said.
• Friends Helping Friends
  If you don’t know what you need, then you shouldn’t be making a purchase. Period. This is a ridiculous idea.
• Bring the Runway to the Consumer
  If you suspect demand is going to be high, and that consumers are not going to want to wait long, then don’t advertise your product until you know what the fulfillment date will be. It’s that simple. There’s a point where acceleration becomes so fast that consumers and suppliers can’t keep up. Remember that.

So, were all the ideas bad? No. Come back tomorrow to learn more.