Colorado, from a New Yorker's point of view

I met with the recruiter the other day.

He has a Senior Financial Analyst position open.  The position sounds interesting and there would be very little accounting involved.  It would be in a new strategy department.  I would be working closely with the marketing team.  It is with a small company so there is plenty of room for growth.

The problem is that it would basically be a lateral move, which you should never make.  I’ve worked for one of the world’s most premier luxury brands.  I’ve also worked for a large multinational company with almost $60 billion in annual sales.  A company which is consistently ranked as one of the most, if not the most admired companies in the world.  With this type of background a lateral move to almost any other company is really a step back.

I’m still trying to research this potential company.  Their website is outdated and has very poor product information. The company is a very small firm which tries to compete against Walmart on price.  That’s not really a good strategy for staying in business.  That lesson gets covered on Day 1 in business school.

Walmart basically sets their own prices with their suppliers.  If the supplier wants access to Walmart’s customers they have to play by Walmart’s rules.  Walmart has the most purchasing power therefore they get the best price in the market place.   Let’s assume this other company has the same pricing structure from their suppliers.   By selling cheaper than Walmart their gross margins are less.  Walmart is also the king of efficiency.  There is no way this other company can have lower SG&A costs.

You don’t successfully compete with Walmart on price.  Maybe you can do it in a small geographic region of the country.  Maybe you can do it with certain product lines.  But as a general strategy it is not a good idea.

On the other side I could argue that a job is a job. Although I don’t fully believe that.

This could workout well. Large, well respected companies have no problems attracting talent.  Smaller companies, with questionable strategies have a harder time attracting talent.  Therefore to attract talent sometimes they pay more.  Of course in a low volume, low profit margin business there is probably not a lot of money to go around.