Meeting the BearQuarters – Part 1

Today the interns had a three hour session during which different directors, managers, supervisors, etc. from around the BearQuarters (headquarters) shared what they do in their departments and in their roles.  It was interesting to see how it all fits together and how so few people do so much.

Below are a few notes that I took, some more serious than others ( 🙂 ):

• International likes fun vocabulary words.  Today’s word: “pachanga” – Spanish for”a rowdy celebration”.
• Build-A-Bear posts jobs/looks for applicants on Monster, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
• Build-A-Bear has extremely low turnover and hires an even smaller percentage of applicants.  Besides the fact that the company is awesome, I’m sure that this has to do with the fact that it is one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.
• Communication is never perfect – but what can we do better next time?
• Who is our Guest?  Everything starts with our Guests – a.k.a. customer service is key!
• Build-A-Bear has some pretty exciting licensing agreements – including fruit snacks!  There is also a new “craftshop” series of products coming to Michael’s in September.

We will continue the conversation with Meet the BQ Part 2 next week.