By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner April 13, 2010 April 8 and 9 I attended the annual Global Retailing Conference in Tucson. The event was hosted by the Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing, University of Arizona. While the conference theme was Innovation Generation, most retail executives spoke more about retailing reinvention than innovation. In the months after 2009, or as Mr. Lundgren himself described it “A year to forget,” the topic was instructive and interesting. RSR has two long-held industry observations: change in retail must be driven from the very top of the enterprise, and must be accomplished in a step-wise fashion. It was therefore not surprising to hear about reinvention and transformation from leaders like Mr. Lundgren, Carol Tomé, CFO and Executive Vice President of Corporate Services for Home Depot, Matt Rubel, Chairman CEO and President of Collective Brands (Payless ShoeSource, StrideRite and Sperry Top-sider, Saucony and others), Stephen Quinn, Chief Marketing Officer for Walmart, and Claudia Poccia, President of Mark, Avon. Each retailer has or had a distinct challenge: · Macys: to create a sense of localization and intimacy after consolidating seventy-five different regional department stores into 810 stores under one national banner · Collective Brands need to reinvigorate once venerable, but tiring retailing and product concepts · Home Depot’s need to re-invent and reinvigorate during the worst housing decline in memory and consequent losses in its retail revenue · Walmart’s persistent and challenging public relations problem – changing the perception of the company as “Beast from Bentonville” to a company that adds quality and value to its customers, employees, and local communities · Avon: moving beyond the person-to-person direct selling model of the 20th century to a twenty-first century company selling twenty-first century products through 21st century social networks. Ms. Poccia called it “Omni-channel retailing.” Each executive outlined the approach his or her company took to solving these challenges, and gave specific metrics used to measure success. Of course, it didn’t hurt that March retail sales were announced during the conference, and all evidence seems to point to a cautious return to aggregate retail success. Still, I was really impressed by the thought process, strategies, tactics and technologies employed by each company to achieve its goals. As a technology analyst, I’d love to say that technology solved all their problems, but clearly that was not the case. A mix of smart strategy, careful plans for success and monitoring the execution of those plans, designing and buying fresh products, effective deployment of the workforce, and excellent brand-building were supported by data and technology to create new outcomes. In exquisite counterpoint to these retail re-inventors, we did hear from one true innovative entrepreneur: Kerstin Block, President and Co-Owner of Buffalo Exchange, a Tucson-based chain of thirty-seven company owned stores plus two franchises around the United States. Buffalo Exchange is more than just a consignment shop – the company buys, sells and trades clothes for men and women. It does not accept just any product…it has to meet the company’s standards, and cash is given to the seller immediately, a percentage of expected re-sale price. The company does supplement its recycled clothes with some new product as well. It’s hard to describe the offering…best to visit the company’s web site or better yet, one of its stores. Ms. Block was the most entertaining post-lunch speaker I’ve heard in years (kindred spirits I suppose; all us ex-hippies find each other fascinating)…and her progressive attitude seems to permeate the entire organization. What impressed me most is University of Arizona college students with an expressed interest in retail were in the audience and able to hear the speakers. Hopefully this will help these students start their careers right: understanding that inventing, reinventing and invigorating the retail experience is about more than just product selection. It’s about leadership, commitment, willingness to change, and creating measurements to determine the impact of those changes.
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