traders and whitecoats

just spent an amazing evening with two principal scientists from oracle retail's optimisation solutions group in cambridge massachusetts, usa. their names however, would not have been out of place in the line-up of the rajasthan royals, or any other of the ipl teams for that matter.

they both had phd's from ivy league schools and work in a team of 35 phd's...wow!
their grasp of inventory theory and levers that affect retail sales was fantastic. their ability to systematically break down a complex problem into its component challenges and put these challenges into a logical order to solve, was simply brilliant. the intelectual intimidation factor was high.

we discussed size curve optimisation , markdown optimisation and replenishment optimisation, over some great food and red wine. for any person who enjoys intellectual jousting and floyd, it was heaven.

i am discouraged by the gap between these guys and the people who run retail. the retailer is notoriously "technology-phobic", and instead of recognising this, the technologist has filled the world with three and four letter acronyms, and gave the world the dot-com and bomb. as a result, technology is often seen as a neccesary evil.

the tragedy of this outcome was evident to me tonight. here were two guys who could save/make a retailer a large amount of money, without changing store, product or people. someone who trades just needs to guide them, listen to their logic and trust their solutions.

i challenge you to find the "propeller-head" in your i.t. department, or even an oracle scientist, call her in, and really try to understand what she would like to do...it could mean a lot of money in these lean times.

the job of the techies amongst must however be to make themselves "understandable" to the person who sells the goods...no more tla's!!!