Q: Can you say a few words about your professional experience prior to joining the firm and how it’s helped you shape your career with the company?

A: Part of the benefit I share with my clients is that I come out of the sector and approach the search process with a deeper perspective around critical success factors. Prior to getting into search, I spent close to 20 years across retail and consumer goods companies, and I bring credibility and a commercial orientation that can shorten the search process because I understand the context a little bit better. This enables me to better relate to client challenges from the perspective of customer, consumers, and competitors and I can drive results in an effective time horizon, which bodes well for retail decision makers. Additionally, I keep up to date with major changes in the industry: I sit on industry associations, attend conferences, and stay connected with retail leaders across professional services firms.

Q: Can you talk a bit about the types of clients you’ve worked with?

A: Part of growing up through consumer goods is knowing the power of branding, and thus, I have targeted working with big brands because of the associated prestige and leverage. Additionally, leading brands are driving market strategy: they tend to have more complex and sophisticated operations, more robust talent needs, and are at the forefront of technology and innovation. Whether it is in digital transformation, AI, customer journeys – it’s the big brands that are shaping what the future of the sector looks like on a global scale.

Q: Based on your observations, what are the greatest shifts that the sector has recently experienced? 

A: When I think about the greatest shifts and when I speak to CEOs and C-suites across the organizations, there is very much a consistency in needs. They have to have a very strong strategic understanding around the consumer. What is going to drive behavior? Where are they shopping from an omnichannel perspective? How are we going to achieve profitable net sales and build up resilient, inspired teams that are accountable and can achieve results? Part of what I love about this industry is there's a bias to action - you need to gather as much information as you can in a short period of time and then make a decision. If you're somebody who just sits on the data, someone who falls victim to analysis paralysis, this is not necessarily the right industry. You need to know how to move fast, you need to know how to move with impact, and you need to know how to influence others - even without knowing all of the answers.

Q: What qualities, other than being a swift decision-maker, are essential for leadership positions in modern retail?

A: There are some key components that are critical to having a lasting career in this industry and one that can be transferable across companies. The first is accountability. This is an industry where results come down to the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks. It's very much a balance of strategic planning and reactive pivoting to deliver results and you have to have that love around the complexity of it, because that's just the nature of the business. You need to be clear and focused on priorities, and measure accordingly, ensuring that everyone in the company is “rowing” in the same direction. The second competency is an extremely strong P&L understanding. This is an industry where margins are significantly lower than in other industries, and if you don't know the drivers around top and bottom line, it can very quickly flip to unprofitability.  And the last is exceptionally inspirational people leadership - knowing how to lead through others, influence through others and build resiliency and determination into high performing teams.

Q: And what are the qualities that help a leader to build and sustain strong teams?

A: The leader needs to be a talent magnet – must know how to inspire, how to build, know what great looks like, and how to keep their team motivated. This is a tough industry - it needs a lot of grit. There are sometimes very small incremental wins, but you need to keep the teams motivated because otherwise you can burn out, as it is very fast moving. And layered above that is a clear strategic vision. Not necessarily looking at what the business is doing today, but what it needs to do over the next 18, 24, 36 plus months and building in the capabilities today that will accelerate those big bets over the long term.

Q: You recently became one of the leaders of Amrop's Consumer and Retail Practice group which brings together specialists from Amrop’s offices around the globe. Can you tell me what the main goals of the Practice are and how you’re working towards achieving them?

A: I was honored and flattered to be asked to lead the practice. For me, it's about a deep connectivity around the world. This is an industry that's highly relevant in every country, in every region, in every geography. And the sector is so interconnected because, as we've seen over the last five years, issues in one country are going to drastically affect profitability in another. Therefore, it's critically important to understand the macroeconomic drivers globally and then how they may trickle down and affect your local clients. Leading the practice enables me to have better visibility to trends and relay that information to my local clients so they can plan accordingly and benefit from learnings at a global level. This may mean building in risk mitigation, contingency planning or succession considerations. 

To find out more, reach out to Kelly Freeman or the Global Consumer & Retail Practice members in your country.