join the culture club – searching for an edge in retail

Sitting in a room surrounded by the top minds in UK retail last week I was struck by how similar the problems they face are to the issues I encountered when I started in the sector 25 years ago.

Back then the Monday morning sales figures were the holy grail – we had teams of people putting these together to be pored over as we searched for customer insight. Today the challenge is the same, but much more complex.

The insight available to our retailers is massive and complex, drawn from multi-channel retail offerings where the choice available to the consumer provides numerous entry points to the business. Bringing these altogether to provide a cohesive view of what the customers wants and how best to provide it is no easier now than it was then. The data may be readily available but drawing useful insight from it is a huge task.

The language used by those in the room was also interesting, retailers wanted to know how to drive teams, how to better communicate ideas across their businesses and also how to put measures in place that reward business-wide collaboration rather than foster competition.

How should a large retail store chain reward in-store staff for processing and accepting the huge number of returns that are stimulated by the ‘purchase in bulk online and send back what they don’t want to the store’ buyers of today?

The retailers in the room understood and embraced the need to come together as a sector, to share ideas and initiatives. The key to success is to take this same sense of collaboration back in-house and look at the inclusion within their individual businesses. How many times does one person have a good idea only to be blocked by the silo’d approach within a large company?

Pulling together behind a common goal sounds easy in theory but takes time in practice. It does have a name – cultural transformation, empowering each member of the organisation to have a voice in how the customer is ultimately serviced. From the in-store staff, the head office strategists and not forgetting the delivery drivers each person shares the one goal.

One person I spoke to from a big name retailer who has been in business for over 300 years, explained that their ‘new’ CEO has managed to turn revenues around successfully. The process is ongoing and has already taken five years. Not long in the overall history of the company but a lifetime in our current climate of fast paced sink or swim retail.

Big change is never going to be immediate, it requires brave thinking and a complete oversight of the business. People often talk about culture change without realising how deeply entrenched a culture is – it incorporates the deep values and beliefs of an organisation and can take years to change. However, changing the climate of an organisation is quicker and more immediate. The climate is the mood of an organisation and how that manifests in thinking, decisions and actions. Climate drives culture. To shift a mindset, start with the climate and the culture will follow, whether you are a ‘heritage’ organisation or a start-up.

For all retailers searching for an edge ignoring the climate and the cultural aspects of their businesses is simply no longer an option, not with Amazon snapping at everyone’s heels.

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