Dear Catalog CEOs: Overworked

Dear Catalog CEOs:

We expect you to be overworked.  If you're working 8-5 every day, somebody is going to pin a random business issue on the fact that you're not fully committed to "the brand".

Now let's take a look at that random marketing director of yours.  You remember this person, he was a promising manager back in the fall of 2007.  Then the economy collapsed, and you decided to collapse three or four departments into one, offering the whole shooting match to this person, promoting the individual to director without an increase in salary.

Today, this person is doing three jobs ... and has 70% of the staff that existed in 2007.


And you want to know why your marketing team fails to answer a single strategic question you have?


It's time to invest in people, once again.  

After all, you happily funnel a half-million dollars to Abacus each year ... have you seen improved performance from Abacus over the past four years?


You can't outsource everything ... when you do that, you outsource intelligence.  Intelligence is your competitive advantage.  These days, so many catalogers outsource intelligence to the vendor community, bankrupting their own brand of profitable ideas.

Change this trend.