I looked up and high on the shelf in the Dollar Store was a giant eraser with the words “We Make BIG Misteaks”. I thought it was funny and not so funny.
Not so funny when you are the one making those misteaks.
I bet Lululemon doesn’t think making misteaks is funny after their recall of yoga pants in March because you could see through them. The recall amounted to approximately $67 Million in sales, a big chunk of change but small change when last year’s revenue was close to 1.4 Billion.
The supplier said they followed specifications so what happened?
Maybe the Chief Product Officer knows. He was fired immediately.
Then, three months later after the excitement settled down it was announced that the CEO, Christine Day would step down. She gave no explanation for leaving.
Looks like that was a big misteak somewhere. But where: Lululemon or the supplier? The Product Officer or the CEO? We may never know.
We can only hope it doesn’t happen to us.
If don’t want to make big misteaks like Lululemon I have two recommendations to help you ensure product quality control.
Define Guidelines
An important way to ensure quality control is to have specific written guidelines for your product. These standards must be followed at all times. Do not turn a blind eye and make the excuse to let it pass just this one time. If you turn a blind eye to quality you are on a slippery downward slope.
Teach your vendor about your products
Having a good relationship with your vendor will go a long way to getting good results. Help them understand and teach them what is important about your product . Regularly rank your vendors so you can determine which of them needs improvement and work on getting that improvement.
By making these recommendations I am not meaning to act like I know better than Lululemon. I’m not. It’s hard to beat a Billion dollars in revenue. But what I do know is I can protect my business ….and with all pun intended … that’s the bottom line.