Its been a week where the topic of leadership and leadership style has kept bubbling up. This began with an event I attended that was hosted by executive search firm, Gundersen Partners. The evening event centred around a panel discussion on the theme of “Brands, retailers, consumers - who’s running fastest?”. Behind this theme was [...]
And another challenge
Spare a thought today for retailers in the UK. Not just because at the time of writing the sun is shining and the England football team are due to play a critical game this afternoon, thus conspiring on both levels to keep people out of the stores. The main reason to feel sympathy for UK [...]
Changing before our eyes
Visiting New York last week for the Global Department Store Summit there was no doubt that US retailing has its confidence back. Despite May’s retail sales figures falling back, the overall feeling at the conference and in other meetings with retailers was that the sector was moving out of the recession. As if to reinforce [...]
Top Marks?
Yesterday saw the last financial results presentation given by the boss of the UK’s bellwether retailer, Marks and Spencer. Sir Stuart Rose, the former chief executive, now chairman, has stated that he will leave the business by next March after presiding over a tumultuous six year period of highs and lows. Luckily his final set [...]
Planning for the unbelievable
It’s been too many weeks since my last blog. I can blame the build-up to the World Retail Congress which should have taken place in Berlin on April 21-23rd. But all the work by the Congress team, all our partners and of course all our speakers and presenters who put in many hours of preparation [...]
A little bit of what people want
Earlier this month, at the Retail Week Conference in London, there appeared to be a gloomier mood prevailing compared to the upbeat one at NRF in January. Certainly there were enough presentations on the economic scenario for the rest of this year that would make anyone gloomy. Tax rises, a public debt figure that is [...]
Online friend or foe?
Whatever challenges may lie ahead for retailers, there is general consensus that if you are looking for growth then it has to come from online. It is changing the landscape and indeed many product sectors before our very eyes as we have already seen with financial services, travel, books, music and entertainment. The challenge to [...]
Listening to the past
Most people would accept that it makes great sense to ask advice from people who have faced the same experiences. But it is equally true that so many people choose to ignore this simple rule - despite it often coming for free. I was reminded of that in the last few days having attended an [...]
So why doesn’t it feel better?
On London’s Oxford Street yesterday a man was stood on a box with a loud hailer and a wearing a board proclaiming in big bold letters: “panic no more”. Through the loud hailer he was proclaiming to all the shoppers walking along the Street that “the recession was over” and that “it was safe to [...]
What a difference a year makes
New York in early January would never seem to be the most hospitable of months to visit this great City. The winds that whip through the Avenues and Streets can cut right through you. A year ago, when retailers converged on New York for the NRF convention, the mood matched the weather as the full [...]
