2. Goals
•To learn exactly what the company does
•To learn how the employees of the business work together to achieve a goal
•To learn exactly what a salesman does
•To see if this type of business is a potential work option for my future
4. What does Atsco do?
Branded Private Label
Atsco Design Group Change design of ADG
Khombu shoe for another
Expendable company
Ex. Khombu boat shoe =
$100
Kohl’s = $59.99
5. Types of Business
First Cost Landed
Atsco works as middle Atsco buys shoes
man between factories directly and stores is
and buyers warehouse
Only earn sales More profitable
commission Becomes buyer’s goods
Becomes buyer’s goods when shipped from
when they leave factory warehouse
for freight
6. What does Andrew do?
Salesman
Contacts buyers
Establish business relationship
Presents samples to buyers
Contacts factories regarding design and price point
in terms of duty
Communicate with Larry, the man who places all of
the final orders with the factories
7. Sales Projections Meeting
Committed to the bank to be at $27 million at end of
fiscal year
Late May only at $19 million
One Fiscal Year = $22 million
Increase sales by $5-$6 million in next 6 months to
be at goal
8. CAD Designers
Computer Assistant Drafting- color sketch of a shoe
and all of its components (materials used)
Generally copy high end company’s products
Ex. Sperry design a boat shoe for Bass
Design patent vs. Full patent
Bass Men’s Boat Shoes Sperry Men’s Boat Shoes
9. Prototypes
Elaine
CAD- drawing
First Prototype – factory’s interpretation of CAD
Sales Sample – Aesthetics
Fit Sample – material and shape- durability test
Confirm – final product to be sent to buyers
10. Amortization
Jeffrey Schneider – new business, relationships use
branded label to promote private label business
Shoe molds cost $20,000
Promise of 40,000 pair order
Atsco adds on 50 ¢ to each pair to offset mold cost
Only profitable
Buyer can choose to use existing mold that a factory
has
11. Working Relationship
Andrew &
Jeffrey
Buyer Designers
Factory Elaine
Larry Factory
12. Is This The Job For Me?
Yes No
Tight knit co-workers Math
Dependent working
environment
International relations
and travel
14. What Does Maplewood Senior Living Do?
Sub division of Hunter Gregory Realty Corporation
Start up company
Provide 3 levels of care
Mentally competent Residents who need daily assistance
Residents who are beginning to demonstrate characteristics of
Alzheimer's live in separate units that are secured a night
Residents who have fully developed to severe Alzheimer’s or
other forms of memory loss live in a separate unit where they
receive exceptional care
15. Day 1
East Norwalk Facility
Job Applications
16. Day 2
Newtown
Danbury
Landscaping meeting
East Norwalk
Conference call with
Callahan
17. Day 3
JP Morgan and Chase
Manhattan
Transactions
Lending
Marketing at East
Norwalk
Union activity
Newspaper Interview
18. Is This The Job For Me?
Yes No
Hands on, interactive High Stress
High stress In depth knowledge in
Always keeps you many areas
thinking
Personal relationships
ADG is expendable because companies such as Kohl’s can choose to be divided meaning that they have buyers and they have private design groups, meaning that they manufacture all of their own product and don’t need Atsco. However, they still consult Atsco because they need to be aware of fashion developments and new ideas.
Atsco meets with buyers from various stores (i.e. Nordstroms) and learns what line of shoes they are interested in for the upcoming season. Then Atsco, who has contacts throughout China, contact the representative from the factory that makes the product that the buyer desires the best. This process can take a while because they buyers almost always find flaws with the samples they are given. This is when Atsco contacts the representatives in China and tells them what needs to be fixed before they place a mass order. With a ”First Cost" order the buyer will pay Atsco an 8% commission for their work as an intermediary with the factory. This involves emailing back and forth corrections on samples they have received from the factory. I helped my supervisor write many emails to factories in China on my first day with corrections to product.The other way the company can make a profit is through the process called “landed." This is when Atsco makes a direct purchase from the factories in China of an order of shoes. Then they will store them in their ware house until a company wants to buy a certain amount of shoes from them. This way, they aren't trying to perfect a specific product for the buyer, but provide them with the option of purchasing readily available product if something sells faster than they expect it to. Additionally, Atsco makes a larger profit from “landed” product because they receive all of the money, not just a commission from the sales that are made. On my first day, my supervisor explained all of this to me. Then we drove to TJX headquarters in Framingham to present a fit sample to a buyer. However, they declined to see us because they were in a meeting so we just left the samples with them.
I worked with Larry on sending out final confirmation samples, packaging samples and labeling them. Additionally, we sent emails to one of the representatives from the factory in China. Once the buyers receive these and they say that the factory can produce them, Larry emails the contacts in China to tell them to start production. Larry basically places all of the order with the factories that Andrew and Jeffrey sold to the buyers.
Tuesday, I sat in on a 3.5 hour meeting that demonstrates how the company makes a profit and really is in the sales side of business. The biggest thing that I took out of this meeting was that the CEO of the company expects the number of sales to increase each year, even if that means beating record breaking numbers in a bad economy. The purpose of the meeting was basically to tell the salesmen that they each need to find 2-3 new buyers to bring in a revenue of at minimum, $1 million each. The purpose of sales projection is to estimate how much money they will bring in for the company with the deals that they are working on. At this meeting, they only came in at $22 million so the need to sell another $5-$6 million in the next 6 months.
On Wednesday, I sat in with the designers who work specifically for Atsco Design Group, making shoes for the brand Khombu. However, they can also do private label business by designing knock off versions shown above and putting the buyer’s name on it. When I sat in on a meeting, the designers were just about to send their sketches to Bass via email where they would hopefully get the okay to send them to China for a prototype to be made. A design patent is where no one is allowed to copy the color combination, materials etc. basically making the same shoe. Atsco gets away with this because they make enough changes to make it different. If they were to copy a full patent, where someone else’s technology and research is used, they could risked being sued.
On Wednesday, I worked with Elaine for part of the day. She is responsible for getting the product just right for Andrew and Jeffrey before they present it to the buyers as a final product.
CADs that designers make are given to Elaine who gives them to the factory. The factory produces it and communicates back and forth with Elaine until a confirmation sample is made, or in other words the final product. Then Elaine gives the sample to Larry who communicates with the buyer to make sure it is okay. If he gets the okay, he places a mass order at the factory. Then, the factory sends it to the buyer.
The company currently has three facilities that are open with residents and two facilities that are under construction. However, because this is a start up company, everyone helps with everything. I learned that the company’s main goal is to add new properties throughout Connecticut and they are thinking about expanding to Massachusetts. However, there is also the aspect of maintaining current facilities. The more they add, the more complex it becomes.
I spent my day reading through over 400 job applications. We were just giving them a first glance to weed out people who didn’t have enough experience or were not certified nursing assistants. Some people were not friendly when they handed in their applications or couldn’t speak English and had to have someone translate the application for them. However, I learned that, legally, we can not discredit them because of that. I also learned that in the state of Connecticut, you have to keep someone’s application for 10 years, even if you don’t hire them.
Danbury was completed 6 years ago and Newtown was finished this past August. At the Newtown building, Shane talked with the head nurses and the head of maintenance. They had been having problems with the air conditioning so we climbed up through a tube ladder onto the roof to inspect what has been going wrong. At Danbury, I learned about how they deal with their staff and if they make mistakes, especially in regards to giving a resident the wrong medication. First they are given a final warning and then they are terminated. I learned about the legal issues surrounding termination and the threat of a lawsuit because the man that will be terminated is of a minority race. Although he will be fired for his errors in the work place, he could always sue saying it was because of his race, so my supervisor made sure that all the incidents that he had been involved in were accurately documented so that no issues would pop up. After visiting these two buildings, I returned back to the home office and had lunch with my supervisor and his co-workers. After lunch, Shane and I met up with the owner of the landscaping company about renewing their contract for all of the buildings for the summer. After this, he took me to the property in Norwalk and gave me a tour of the building that is under construction. It is two months behind where it is supposed to be now as a result of errors on the contractor's part. We returned back to the main office around 5 o'clock and met with the owner of the company about what we saw at the Norwalk property because it is a huge set back financially and is completely unacceptable. At 5:45 we had a very heated conference call with the general managers of the site that we were at about everything that has been going wrong and our concerns with finishing by the end of summer.
At 11:00 am I sat in on a meeting with Chase Manhattan Bank and JP Morgan who were trying to be the bank for the assisted living homes. Chase Manhattan represented the transactions half. Transactions is when a resident pays their monthly bill, it is submitted to Chase Manhattan and they manage and process all of the money. It also gives them investment rights etc. Through talking with the man at JP Morgan, I learned that they were interested in the lending part of banking. To create an assisted living facility, JP Morgan would do a commercial lend upwards of $80 million to the company. Two out of the three representatives showed up, but unfortunately the third could not so the meeting was postponed to a later date. We worked with an architectural photographer to photograph the model units that had been completed in the building for the website and various other brochures. I learned that with marketing, the space might look small online, but it is all in presentation so that you can get a buyer in to look at and consider a unit. This took about 3 hours. I returned back to the home office at around 3:45 with my supervisor and the owner informed us that he had received a call from a reporter asking for a comment in regards to the union activity on his property. He asked the head of marketing how he should respond and so they both decided to call their public relations consultant, who are based out of Boston, before proceeding. After sitting in on an hour long phone call as to how he should comment, we hung up and the owner called the reporter. The call went perfectly fine and the reporter didn't put him in any uncomfortable situations. It was fascinating to watch the entire story develop and it was great to follow it from beginning to end.
As long as I’m not sitting at a desk all day, I think its many facets are highly interesting.
