Founded in 1956, Payless ShoeSource, Inc. is North America's largest family footwear retailer. The company sells more than 200 million pairs of shoes to nearly 150 million customers each year, with sales around $3 billion. The company's core business, the Payless ShoeSource chain, features fashionable, quality footwear for women, men and children sold at affordable prices in a self-service shopping format. Payless operates almost 5,000 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Island, Guam, Saipan and Canada - located in regional malls, shopping centers, central business districts and freestanding buildings.

One of the primary purposes of the RPSS is to be tool for re-engineering the way work is done in its stores. The concept is a holistic approach to ensure that Payless' business objectives are accomplished through a combination of "smart applications" that drive business, reduce workload or provide critical learning to promote the behaviors Payless believes will increase sales and delight customers.

At the very root of RPSS is the desire to achieve day-one performance with a minimal amount of training - if any. Each year Payless expended about 33 man years and about $3 million for associate training. Recognizing this, Payless wanted to find a better way of bringing is associates into the best practices zone.

The key to achieving this goal is to design RPSS so that learning becomes an integral part of doing, that it should be supported and provided at the moment of need, extending associate capabilities and increasing Payless' competitive advantage. Payless' desire is to become a company that has a sustainable competitive advantage by learning faster and better than our competitors. RPSS is the top project for accomplishing this purpose.

© 2000 Payless ShoeSource.