One of the first comments about this reading was that the owner is not always right, and I agree with her. Sometimes the owners are wrong or confused because they didn’t know what they really need and creates a barrier between what they need and what they want, and this is a typical case. In my professional live I had to deal with persons that knew what they wanted but not what they needed and sometimes negotiating or explaining these issues could become more complicated when they are your friends.
There is a big difference between retail store employees and headquarters staff because they have different roles, they have different needs. As a result, they need different spaces. This is one of the first things that I need to tell the owners. In this case, what the owner wants is not related to the real necessity of its employees.
In my opinion, this issue needs to be discussed from the very beginning because sometimes the owners need more time to process all the arguments, we give to them. If not, they are going to think that we change our mind or that we do not know about the subject. From the beginning, the owners are going to have an idea of what is best for them. We need to talk about the benefits that they are going to obtain if they follow our advice. For instance, I could talk about the policies of other companies like Tiffany & CO and how their employees benefit from it.
This problem is more common than we think. For instance, I bought a Dell computer and need to talk with a sales representative. When I answered the phone, I heard more than four peoples talking at the same time, making hard for me to understand what the saleswoman was saying, and the first thing that comes to my mind was this reading. I understand that the calling center is in India, but it made a very bad impression on me. So now I have a new argument when I meet with clients who don’t know what they need.
