The Rise of the Operators: How Retail Ops is Leading to the Top

If we look at the background of the top 50 retail CEOs, the majority come from the Commercial discipline, followed by Finance and, in recent years, Strategy Consulting has become more prevalent. But there is a new trend to watch – increasingly Retail Operations has been the training ground for some of our most successful CEOs. Is this a reflection of the way we lead and create winning teams today?

According to Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report , the UK has the lowest employee engagement score in Western Europe at 8%. This means that the vast majority of the workforce is doing the bare minimum and has little emotional attachment to their employer. Unsurprisingly, employee engagement increases productivity and companies with high engagement are 21% more profitable.

Critical to success in retail is the ability to devolve responsibility to the lowest possible level – front line staff in stores. For that to work, colleagues need to feel valued, empowered and trusted. They respond best to bosses who have good listening skills and encourage them to express opinions. Stuart Machin, Simon Roberts, Thierry Garnier, Steve Carson, Darcy WillsonRymer, Mike Logue, all cut their teeth running stores, regions and markets and learnt at an early age how to serve customers, inspire large teams and lead from the front.

The transformation of M&S has been remarkable - or should I say remarksable ? Of course, it hasn’t happened overnight and Stuart Machin would be the first to say it’s a team effort, but much of it is down to his open style of leadership. ‘Straight to Stuart’/ Straight from Stuart’ has opened up a 2 way dialogue; head office is now the support centre and stores are clearly the heroes. Instore teams are encouraged to show their creativity and delight customer with Tik Tok videos which have now gone viral. This style of empowerment would have been unthinkable under previous regimes and make Stuart accessible, relatable and human. Not only has this personal approach truly engaged colleagues and customers, it’s paying off on the bottom line and also proving a great talent magnet.

Another highly successful CEO who has risen through the ranks is Simon Roberts at Sainsburys. A colleague commented, “retail is 90% execution and if you’ve been a store or area manager, you know what is feasible and can be executed easily and what will just take teams away from their core focus – serving customers.” Outgoing CFO, Kevin O Byrne describes Simon as a very inclusive leader, incredibly hard working and intellectually curious, always keen to learn and understand. “He is driven in a nice way and consensual, but will always ask for more. It was inevitable that Simon would become CEO – he had widespread support from top to bottom across the business.”

At Kingfisher, many of the banner CEOs have come up through the retail operations line, including Group CEO, Thierry Garnier. CPO, Kate Seljiot, believes that leaders from this background do have an advantage. “Being close to stores makes them more aware of market volatility, what consumers want and what competitors are doing in terms of pricing and promotions; they can course correct at speed in a way that just isn’t as credible from HQ”. And those close to Thierry describe his grounded style of leadership. “It’s authentic, accessible and brings a higher level of credibility. Store teams recognise that Thierry knows first hand what he’s talking about; he can move them forward, not just engage, which has a powerful ripple effect”.

Paul Moody, Chair of Card Factory agrees that great leaders can come from any discipline, but that an operations background is certainly a place to hone the key qualities. “If I ask the Board what makes our CEO, Darcy Willson-Rymer, so effective, it would be his ability to create a vision to empower and inspire those around them. He gives people head space and coaches well. His style instore is clear and never patronising; he is genuinely interested in making colleagues lives better.”

Alan Smith, Chair at ScS says that he didn’t necessarily place too much weight on Steve Carson’s operations background when he appointed him as CEO, but now feels it is central to his success. “Steve is great with people, who enjoy working with and want to follow him. Colleagues feel they can express opinions freely that will be listened to. He has high EQ, a real warmth and an encouraging nature. I’ve seen a cultural shift under his leadership; our stores are a happy place to work.” Someone with an operations background who embodies a humble and empowering leadership style is Mike Logue, who took Dreams from basketcase to a highly profitable asset that was acquired for $475m 2 years ago. What is truly laudable about that achievement is that Mike did it with largely the same team – which speaks volumes about his ability to inspire colleagues to raise their game and become a winning team.

So an Ops background might not always create a more inclusive leader, but those who show humility, curiosity and genuine interest in others will succeed in engaging and mobililsing colleagues to strive for success.