Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold

The week that followed my trip to New York was pretty packed. Our office was hosting BOTH the annual (domestic) Category Management Summit and the annual International Supply Chain Summit – i.e. we had A LOT of people wandering around the office.

There were about thirty people here for the Cat-Man summit, which started on Tuesday and went through Thursday, and about twenty here for Supply Chain, which was from Monday to Thursday. I spent my time bouncing back and forth between the two, attending the sessions that I thought I could get the most from. I know very little about category management, so I was lost for a majority of the first day, but once I picked up the lingo, I felt much more comfortable and learned a lot – it’s really interesting! I wouldn’t mind maybe working on that team eventually…

As for supply chain, Emmanuel, one of my supervisors, was leading that one, so I was much more “up to date” on what was happening there. Talking to the internationals was eye opening, though. I rarely consider the “how” of getting stuff into stores, I just like that it’s there (which is probably why I’m not great at SCM). And I really never think about logistics working differently in less developed countries, so hearing the issues the Argentineans are having with water was actually pretty interesting.

One of my favorite sessions was the Cat-Man “team building” piece. We played a board game of all things. It was called The Search for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. We were split into four teams of six and given jobs (Team Leader, Planner, Trader, Collaborator, etc.). We had 20 “days” to play and during that time we had to make it to the mine, mine gold, and make it back home. We were given “supplies” to allocate for the journey and a choice of three paths to take (each with its own challenges). We also had to plan ahead for unknown weather patterns (arctic blasts, floods, etc.). I kinda thought I’d stumbled into a supply chain board game – resource allocation, forecasting for the unknown, transportation choices, etc.  The goal, we were told, was to “mine as much gold as we can” before returning home.

We had 15 minutes to plan our strategy then we started playing. We all got pretty into the game – with the traders trying to make better deals and the collaborators turning into “spies” – and our strategy paid off pretty well (tho not well enough to win). That was where the “twist” came in. We asked the Commissioner at the end who had won, and his answer was,

“Do you remember what the goal was?”

“Sure,” we all thought, “mine as much gold as we can. So, who won?”

“No,” he says, “the goal was to mine as much gold as WE can. Not as much gold as each team can, but the group as a whole.”

*cue lightbulb moment* “…oh…oops”

We’d all gotten so focused on making strategic trades (i.e. getting what we needed while withholding anything that might help another team), that we’d actually impeded each other from helping the group as a whole – VERY category management appropriate. We then had a nice, long wrap-up session and discussed how our competitive natures can get in the way of helping other players so that we can grow the yogurt business AS A WHOLE, not just OUR company. Someone should show this game to General Mills…

The best part of the whole week, though? The AFTER work stuff. Since we had so many visitors in town, we took both groups out every night to show them the awesomeness that is Northwest Arkansas. Monday night we had dinner at Bonefish, Tuesday night we went to Table Mesa in Bentonville, and Wednesday we split into two groups for dinner – Supply Chain at Hog Haus and Cat-Man at Bordino’s (both in Fayettville, both fantastic). I opted to go with the Cat-Man group simply because I’d gotten to know them better…oh, and they were going to Bordino’s... Also, did I mention Dannon picked up the tab for ALL of this – drinks included? Yeah, like I said, best internship ever.

After dinner, since we were on Dickson Street already, we decided to experience some classic Fayettville culture…by going to Karaoke at Jose’s. The SCM people joined us, too. Wow, that was interesting. Especially seeing my boss (with his Barcelonan accent) sing Aerosmith. Great night.

On Thursday, I participated in several store visits with the SCM team. These usually involve going to the shelf, checking up on product availability, shelving, placement, facings, etc. It also involves checking the back room for in-stock numbers. For those of you have never been into the back of a Walmart – it’s not as impressive as I thought it would be. I’d imagined a well-organized and categorized world of tons and tons of stock. Nope. Most of the stock is out on the floor, so there’s very little kept in the back. On top of that, “well organized” is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, I know I go a bit overboard on the organizing occasionally, but still…

Kinda kills the mystery, huh?

So, after that busy week, my bosses decided they needed a vacation. Makes sense, right? Wanna know where they went? South Africa. For the World Cup. All of it. Yup, they’re gone for a month…whatever will I do with myself?