Strategy

Today, when it comes to adding new members to your board of directors, creating a balance between industry experience and innovation is extraordinarily important. Filling board seats with industry veterans and compliance experts may feel comfortable in the short term, but to adapt to today’s savvy and demanding consumer, companies must be more forward thinking.

We’ve all witnessed the recent evolution of the C-suite — companies bringing in new, young talent, often from other industries, to modernize a brand, enhance the store experience or to leverage technology.

Jeff Rubin, founder and CEO of It’Sugar, has always had a sweet tooth — and a passion for retail. Both are in his DNA. His father owned a chain of toy stores in the Midwest. After leaving the toy business, he went on to open a chain of bulk candy stores. Rubin worked on Wall Street for a while before returning home to help run the candy chain. In 1994, he left to go out on his own. He’s been on an upward trajectory since.

Experts credit Rubin with breathing new life into the candy store format.

Joel Alden, partner in the retail practice at A.T. Kearney, said that investments in technology and physical stores mainly fall into two distinct categories: maintenance investments or growth investments.

“For maintenance investments — replacing a degrading building infrastructure, for example — the cost of not making the investment is critically important,” Alden said.

From investments to support omnichannel initiatives to energy efficiency programs and equipment upgrades, prioritizing and approving capital expenditures has become increasingly complex for retail CFOs.

“Retail CFOs are performing a high wire balancing act these days,” said Rod Sides, vice chairman and retail and distribution practice leader for Deloitte. “Online sales are growing while the traditional business is flat to declining, but still accounts for 80% of the revenue.

Enough of the “retail is dying” narrative that has dominated so many headlines the past few months. It’s way overplayed.

Brick-and-mortar is evolving, not dying. And it’s full of exciting new players — many of them digitally native — that are infusing the industry with something it can always use: new blood. Here’s a quick rundown of some of these newcomers to the physical space:

Dyson, the consumer electronics brand best known for it pricey vacuum cleaners, has opened a store in the heart of London’s main shopping district.   The sleek, futuristic-looking store, on Oxford Street, is designed to allow shoppers to see and test Dyson’s complete line of vacuum cleaners, fans, heaters, humidifiers and other products, with some 65 items on display. It also has 64 different dust/dirt samples and four floor surfaces available on which customers can to test vacuum cleaners.   

PGA Tour Superstore is growing its retail presence even as many other big-box stores downsize.     The chain will open a 45,500-sq.ft. store at Woodlands Shopping Center, Houston, in a former Sports Authority location, this fall. It’s the first Houston location for the company, whose controlling owner is Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot.  

Mom’s Organic Market is extending its renewable energy portfolio.    The family owned and operated Maryland-based chain has begun purchasing all power from a designated solar farm in Kingsville, Maryland., bundled with national solar renewable energy credits.   This 1.5-megawatt DC system is projected to output 2,124,000 kilowatts per year. Mom’s will purchase the entire system's output for the next 20 years.  

Walmart did not reach its stated goal of rolling out the Walmart Pay digital payment service to every store by the end of June, but it certainly made a lot of headway.  

That’s one of the key findings of The 2016 Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey of more than 1,200 facility and energy management executives.