Wegaman Food Markets, a privately-held company, has transformed from a small food store to a successful self-service food market. The innovations that were innovated by Wegman's were vaporized water spray, refrigerated food display windows, homemade candy shop, and a cafeteria lounge. In the 1970's Wegmans wanted to transform their store into a “mall in a store” concept. This concept included gift cards, floral products, and pharmaceutical departments. Along with all the innovations of Wegmans, they also provided their customers with their services for 24 hours.
Danny Wegman took over the presidency and CEO duties in 1976. When Danny took over the company began to sell their own product and offer a variety of different products to their customers. If a parent brought their children to the store and they were getting on their nerves they could simple drop them of in the child care center. Wegman's tried to make it easiest as possible on the customer to make them happy and satisfied so they would return and support their company.
The culture of Wegaman's relies on providing their people with the best products, service, incentives, and programs to maintain them as loyal employees or customers. Wegman's does a lot for the community . It started a Work-Scholarship Connection program. This program helps kids who are thinking of dropping out of school due to bullying, grades, or certain other issues. They take this kids in and give them part-time jobs and a teacher that would train them to do their job along with their school work. If the student was successful in both areas, the student would get a 5,000 scholarship to a college of their choice after graduating form high school.
Danny Wegman is the man that makes this business one of the best companies to work for according to Forbes. This is because of the leadership strategy that Danny possesses in the workplace on a daily basis. Wegman's management team is very informative and accessible to their employees. They make you feel as if you are part of a family. The management team is always visible to employees and customers, as they walk down the aisles and says hello to you and see how you are doing. Some companies have their management team in a office all day and you never have the chance of talking to them or giving any in point you might have to help the company grow and expand. Wegaman's not only allows employees to participate in meetings to discuss professional and personal issues, but it is highly encouraged that they do so. This allows the executives to get inside feedback directly from their employees to see how they are doing and could they improve their company in certain ways. Wegman's also wants to hear from their customers. There are survey forms that are sent in a newsletter or magazine articles to hear what their customers are experiencing while shopping at Wegman's.
Wegman's is a very successful company because of their CEO Danny Wegman's leadership. Danny knows that to become a success in business you must be backed by your employees, customers, and community. The skills that Danny uses to have the support of those individuals are communication, team work, and being friendly and accessible throughout the community. Danny kept the lines of communication open between himself and the people he hires and provided his service towards. He does this by allowing for feedback by customers filling out survey forms and employees being active in the meetings of the company. Team work is shown through managers, stockers, cashiers, and all others being on the floor together working as a team. Thirdly community service is shown by offering programs to children struggling in school and allowing them a chance to learn the ways of Wegman's by being part of the organization and getting help in there eduction. Wegman's is a grocery store that knows how to attract and retain customers.
Wegman's is an excellent example of how a company can innovate their ideas and become a leader in the business world. Danny Wegman was the man who made this all happen by his willingness to listen to his employees, customers, and community to help him make his business and rewarding them with a friendly environment to work at, shop at, and learn from in their lives.
Have you ever worked for a company that cares so much about their employees, customers, and community? If so, Were did you work and what made them such a success in your eyes?
http://www.wegmans.com
www.good2work.com/article/5029
Posted by: Mitchell Terry
I worked for a company that every monthly had cookouts for their employees. We would go to a park and have a a lot of food and be able to play games like kickball and softball. We also were able to do this for about 2-3 hours, so the afternoon was pretty much used for having fun. It was just a simple way of saying thanks you to all of the employees. It made me always work harder because I knew that I would be rewarded every month by the Naperville Park District. We also had community fundraisers like during Christmas, Santa would be able to see kids and at Easter there would be an Easter egg hunt. It was things like that that made the community help reach our goals.
ReplyDelete-Brian Cullum team 7
I agree with some of the points you made Mitchell. Communication is vitally important in any organization, but especially so in business. I have been an employee of multiple organizations that have different philosophies on communication. I have worked for employers whose management is rarely seen on sight. They are perpetually preoccupied with their work elsewhere. As a result, many of the employees were unsure about their duties or their abilities to carry out their responsibilities. Morale suffered and the entire situation was a disaster.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, I have also worked for an employer who used amazing communication. Managers at multiple levels were always available for questioning and they usually provided helpful feedback. As demonstrated in class, this is a very powerful mechanism that aides productivity and encourages long term growth.
Regards,
Jarek Palmer
I have not worked for a company that cares so much for employees as this Wegmans company, but I have experienced similar situations like that. I have noticed that when my managers are interested in how things are going on with me my co-workers, are really interested in helping customers and no just "doing their job," and do what they can to make the work environment more relaxed and enjoyable, I felt more motivated to work harder. This took place with one of my managers who has been recently laid off at my job at Menards. This manager would always make an effort to put a smile on the co-worker's faces and would be willing to help out guests no matter how busy he was. Being able to look at this from an outside perspective is great because it puts you in the mindset of if you're ever in a position like that, that is the correct way to not only get stuff done, but have people leave the store with a smile and have your employees come in and do what they are supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteWith that attitude, I learned how to move that into any group settings I may have at school whenever I'm in a leadership-type role. Goes I've made for myself or for my group members have always been met with this type of leadership strategy. Being able to care for others, sympathize, and understand any issues they may be experiencing, then taking that and making it a positive so that the classwork or project can still be completed is not easy, but a great way to learn from others and grow as a leader.
If I'm ever in a manager position, I plan to use some of Wegman's tactics and make sure the customer is getting what they need, but also make sure my employees are comfortable and have little to no complaints about someone or something.
Jon Locke Team 2
It really sounds like Danny Wegman is setting a golden example for other food markets to follow. I think it is a fantastic idea how he encourages even the lower level employees to attend meetings and provide the "higher-ups" with some feedback. Personally working as a lower level employee in a local grocery store, I know all too well how sometimes you feel as if you have no voice in the company. I think it's important to at least give lower level employees the chance to provide input, to help them feel like their opinion really counts and possibly even gain some very insightful suggestions.
ReplyDeleteI was also quite interested to hear about the scholarship program that Danny has employed in his company. This scholarship shows that Wegman truly cares about the whole idea of corporate social responsibility. Danny realizes the companies duty to the community and strives to go one step further by providing such great opportunities.
I was also very intrigued by Wegman's system of having managers located in the aisles. I know from personal experience some of the frustrations that both customers, as well as employees, can go through at times to find a manager on duty. I agree with this concept and feel that it is crucial to have managers located in the aisles ready to answer questions from the customers and other co-workers. I felt your article was very well written and touched on some interesting topics that I look forward to hearing more about in the future!
-Jason Dangles