Refreshing the Board for the Digital Era 2014

ReFRESHingtheBoard
forthedigitalera

GREEN PARK
Green Park is a multi-award winning supplier of executive search, interim management
and business advisory solutions, operating from the UK across 52 countries. Green Park
has consistently featured in the top four of the HOT 100 industry league tables by Recruiter
magazine. We have a strong track record of resourcing at board level and for senior leadership
teams both in the UK and internationally.
At Green Park, we care passionately about helping our customers change or grow their
businesses. Our pioneering spirit and innovative approach gives us the dynamism and focus to
consistently deliver new ideas and fresh solutions. Specialising in our core areas of experience
and expertise is why our clients have helped the team at Green Park achieve continuous growth
since conception and over 40 international award nominations.
About the Retail Practice
Green Park’s retail practice collectively boasts more than 50 years’ experience working with
leadership teams across executive search, HR consultancy and interim services. We have
longstanding partnerships with a number of UK and international retailers and private equity
houses spanning geographies, categories and operating models. Our practice has a strong track
record of working alongside these organisations at Board and operating Board level to build core
leadership teams. We help them to acquire, develop and retain best-in-class talent across the
leadership and core corporate functions as well as more specialist functions including digital,
e-commerce, m-commerce and buying & merchandising.
In 2012 and 2013 we were proud to be corporate sponsors of the Retail Week Power list.
Steve Baggi has been a leading figure in the
Consumer executive resourcing market for
over 15 years. Steve co-founded Green Park
and leads the Executive Search Practice with
a particular focus on the Retail & Consumer
practice, leveraging his extensive networks
across the Private Equity and Corporate
Recovery markets. Steve’s focus is on
recruiting Chairs, CEOs and Chief Financial
Officers.
Rachel Ford has over 13 years’ experience
in international executive search. Her
clients include FTSE 250, AIM and private
equity backed retailers in the UK as well
as listed and privately owned businesses
internationally. With significant experience
of board, NED and full C-suite appointments,
Rachel’s specialist functional expertise is
focused on sourcing Digital and International
talent, in addition to core enabling functions
such as HR, IT and Supply Chain.
© Green Park Group, 2014
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction of any part of this publication is prohibited.
London office: 15 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PT, UK
www.green-park.co.uk

ReFRESHing the Board
for the digital era
Steve Baggi and Rachel Ford

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1. The evolution will be digitised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Five deepening omnichannel trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Are your leaders made from the right stuff? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Non-Executive Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Advisory Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chief Executive Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chief Financial Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chief Marketing Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chief Technology Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Multichannel Director (Group Sales Director) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Supply Chain Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
HR Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Temporary specialist roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3. Thinking differently will help you win . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Matrix working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Cognitive diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Outside sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Mind-shifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. It’s not as complex as it seems… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
THE GREEN PARK ACTION PLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
WITH THANKS TO ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
FURTHER BACKGROUND READING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

3
INTRODUCTION
B
ricks and clicks, online and offline, mobile and good old-fashioned customer service
are joining up. If ever proof was needed that omnichannel – a single view of the
customer, of sales and of the brand, regardless of channel – is driving new retailing,
then Christmas 2013 was it.
Changes in the way customers shop and behave reached a tipping point and online/offline
hybrids like click-and-collect, as well as mobile commerce dominated the Christmas shopping
landscape. The clear winners were those who captured the omnichannel zeitgeist, like Next
and John Lewis Partnership, whose click-and-collect saw a
61.8 per cent increase in orders on last year.
Amazon also announced a record-setting holiday
season, with 426 items per second ordered worldwide
on Cyber Monday. Amazon Prime, the annual
membership program offering unlimited free Two-Day
Shipping, attracted more than a million new customers
around the world in the third week of December.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The first six weeks
of 2014 has seen announcements from Tesco and
Waitrose, entering into partnership with Transport for
London to open grocery collection points at London
underground stations. Stores are transforming – with
a new innovation store in Preston for Morrisons and
a ‘technology playground’ from Verizon providing just a
couple of examples. Apple and Amazon are making inroads into the mobile payment market.
And Amazon continues to play the role of retail pioneer, with new fulfilment initiatives that leave
many of the high street stalwarts in its wake.
Nowhere is this transformation clearer than in the new talents and capabilities that top teams
need to thrive, flourish and steer retail brands to success in today’s market. It is time to remove
vertical silos and improve integration through cross-functional teams. Omnichannel’s need for
increased collaboration, and shared information from a single, centralised knowledge base,
goes right to the heart of organisational design.
Steve Baggi Rachel Ford
This is the shifting retail
paradigm: the scale and
pace of change within the
operating environment
requires retailers to be more
agile and channel-agnostic
than ever before. Digital is
transforming every retail
function and department.

4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND METHODOLOGY
I
n this White Paper, we draw on in-depth, refreshingly honest interviews with influencers
in the field to look at how the next stage in the digital revolution is reshaping the future for
retail leadership.
To avoid looking narrowly at like-for-like examples within high street retail we have sought
advice and input from leaders across a wide array of consumer-facing businesses, including
media, technology, travel and financial services. All have had to adapt – some more quickly
than others – to a more tech-savvy, more fickle and more demanding customer. And all share
experiences in terms of how they interact with customers, regardless of channel.
Quick, bold and smart use of emerging technologies have played a very important part in
some of the sector’s biggest success stories, but it is undoubtedly the people at the heart of
a business that drive it. Regardless of operating model, product or customer, the balance of
essential skills within retail leadership teams is shifting. We wanted to explore the DNA of this
new wave of leaders to understand better what skills are transferable, and what skills need to
be created and nurtured, particularly in the Board room and the ‘Big 5 – the CEO, CFO, CMO,
CTO and Multichannel Director’.
Green Park interviewed, in confidence, more than 100 Chairs, NEDs, CEOs and C-suite leaders
to garner their insights into the impact of these shifting sands as well as their own strategies
and action plans; what they would regard as cross sector success stories and where they look
for inspiration. We investigated with them the extent to which retailers are concerned with
‘finding a balance’ of commercial perspectives at Board level and also explored the level of
comprehension; whether there is a true appreciation of the benefits and/or repercussions of
an holistic digital strategy. Here is a summary of the take home messages from our interviews
with leaders and influencers in the omnichannel space.
• The convergence of new technologies and multiple touch-points along a single shopping
journey is pointing the direction of travel firmly towards an omnichannel strategy – a single
view of customer, of stock and of sales.
• Mobile is the fastest-growing area of commerce and big retailers are investing heavily.
With customer satisfaction on mobile transactions still fairly low, there is clearly an overall
performance shortfall to make up. Retailers who get their location-based apps, scan codes
and payment platforms right will win big.
• Omnichannel is increasingly driving Boards, Non-Executive Directors and Senior
Management Teams to interrogate, question and challenge established ways of thinking
and explore new operating models. Partnerships, for example, offer new routes to
omnichannel profit, as well as helping retailers to be more creative and test out different
approaches to the customer.

5
E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y A N D M E T H O D O L O G Y
• For some CEOs, rising to this challenge means embracing what they don’t necessarily
understand, hiring people to cover their blind spots, seeking external counsel, asking
disruptive questions, setting clear goals and having the narrative skills to inspire the whole
organisation to work towards the end destination.
“ People are recognising the need to change but it’s simply not
the bitter pill they’re prepared to swallow. CEOs are often
taking the easy route and should be challenged more
robustly by the Chair.”
Chair, Digital Agency
• It is agreed that this is a riskier proposition and as such bravery was a common theme in
our interviews.
• Existing Chairs and Non-Executive Directors are at risk of being seen as out of touch with
the customers of today. Traditionally recognised as finance and governance specialists,
there is undoubtedly an issue of digital literacy at Board level.
• The remits of the retail C-suite are changing individually, and the orientation of the team
is changing across the piece. New mandates fall under old functions and increasingly
redundant structures and new functions are gaining in prominence.
• CFOs need to have a far more compelling narrative to communicate transformation
agendas, investment plans and long-term strategies to analysts and investors.
• The CTO role is moving away from the back office function of yesteryear to be at the heart
of transformation. It is becoming more commercial and innovative, about technological
possibilities and not just ‘the guy that fixes my blackberry’.
• Future success in the evolving CMO role rests in the ability to blend the traditional ‘art’ of
marketing with the new ‘science’ of digital and data.
• Multichannel roles whilst acknowledged as being increasingly important to the strategic
direction of the retail business, are still the source of much confusion, expectation and
disappointment in retail; who should it be, what should they look like and what should
they own?
• Short-term, specific appointments with an 18-month timeframe are increasingly needed to
get management and staff up to speed with new skills and knowledge. These roles include:
Digital Director, Customer Director and Transformation Director. But with little precedent
against which to benchmark this talent, recruiting for such roles can be a challenge.

R E F R E S H I N G T H E B O A R D F O R T H E D I G I TA L E R A
6
• Executive teams need to rethink priorities, investments and performance metrics. Retailers
have to ring-fence more for innovation and technology spend.
• Insights from outside the sector can be invaluable and some of the best hires are those that
use perspectives from other sectors to invigorate company strategy.
• With consumer-facing businesses all battling similar pressures from changing customer
behaviour and constantly evolving technology, Travel and FMCG, digital expertise from
Technology and Telecoms, and customer insight from Financial Services and Social Media –
can all offer new talent pipelines.

7
R
etailers have always had to adapt. From the rise of shopping centres and out of
town supermarkets to the emergence of pure play retailers and mobile commerce;
new formats, trends and technologies have constantly changed the shape of the
retail landscape.
But the pace is unrelenting. Since 2000, dozens of new technologies, devices
and channels – online commerce, the smartphone and tablet, ever-evolving
forms of social media – have burst upon the scene. With new technologies
being adopted by consumers at breakneck speed retailers face big challenges
in meeting the needs and keeping up with the future customer.
“ Customers’ adoption of technology and new ways of
working is advanced, particularly compared to businesses!
We used to be on the front foot but now the consumer
is speeding past us. ”
MD – Online, FTSE 100
By 2016, Forrester predicts that ‘connected retail’ will influence 44 per cent of retail sales1
. This
convergence of new technologies and multiple touchpoints along a single shopping journey
is why omnichannel, according to year-end surveys, is where most retailers are going to be
investing the most over the next twelve months.
There’s been a great deal of emphasis on the continued rise of new technology channels. Online
and mobile have dominated the sector headlines, along with cries of the ‘death of the high
street’ and the bleak future for traditional bricks and mortar retail. But a recurring theme during
our discussions was that that the high street will remain an important part of the portfolio.
“ Future success lies in investing across the portfolio rather
than swinging the needle in one direction at the cost of
another. Those making big investment decisions and putting
their money where their mouth is are emerging as the real
contenders.”
Executive Director, Global Property Consultancy
1The evolution will be digitised
Change is
in the DNA
of retail.

8
Tesco, John Lewis and Next have all been brave in their investment strategies whether
that be in multichannel initiatives, new experiential stores, dark stores or more innovative
collection strategies, and they are to be congratulated for thinking laterally.
Five deepening omnichannel trends
1. Mobile commerce
“ With changing customer behaviours and people more likely
to search on the go, we need to accommodate different
technologies and market in a different way. ”
COO, Global Pure-play
The UK is the European capital of m-commerce, with almost a quarter of British consumers
using their phones to make purchases, compared to just four per cent in France and 14 per
cent in Germany.2
And mobile is the fastest-growing retail channel. According to the IBM Digital
Analytics Benchmark, online sales from mobiles on Boxing Day increased 63 per cent on the
previous year. As widespread ownership of universal 4G devices brings a further surge, mobile
is the next force to reinvent retail.
With almost half of those using mobiles to make purchases expressing disappointment that the
experience falls short of their expectations and where data indicates that customer satisfaction
with this channel can translate into a ten-fold rise in a retailer’s online revenues, there’s clearly
an overall performance shortfall to make up on the mobile front. 3 4
Investment in m-commerce is hotly debated; Argos is trialling near field communication (NFC)
technology in its stores and Spanish department store chain EL Corte Ingles is rolling out a
contactless payment system that will mean shoppers can pay using contactless cards and NFC-
enabled phones.
With so much to play for, those retailers who get right their location-based apps, mobile point
of sale systems and payment platforms, QR and scan codes, as well as the real-time information
that leads to compelling and relevant personalised offers, the gains will be big. And with multi-
sensory developments – using touch and voice recognition, finger-printing and scanning, as
well as more wearable technology – we are all moving in new and intriguing directions.
2. Personalisation
Success for the retailer lies in engaging with each customer individually, however, wherever
and whenever – online, through an app, or as they shop in store – and offering personalised
service and promotions across all channels. Researchers at Forrester have speculated that the

9
1 . T H E E V O L U T I O N W I L L B E D I G I T I S E D
future consumer will increasingly want ‘adaptive’ interaction, with content delivered in a way
that best suits them as individuals, and their particular device.5
“ With regards to the single customer view, we’ve invested in
the technology, but we need to change behaviours and learn
how to use these new tools and work in a new way. ”
CEO, FTSE 100
Big data is reaching new heights of sophistication. New systems can assimilate data gathered
from everywhere – social media, geolocation, the physical till, and now also from mobile swipe
terminals in the hands of sales associates – to enable retailers to target ever more precise
micro-segments of their customer base.
Amazon has, of course, been leading the field; using collaborative filtering technology,
which allows it to develop automatic recommendations for customers based on their
purchase history data. A pioneer of digital
innovation in the luxury arena, Burberry is
proving that it understands its customers
and is communicating with them
through the right channels with its ‘Smart
Personalisation’ technology and ‘Made to Order’
service, and in the US, Target uses social sentiment data – insight gleaned from social
networks – to monitor how shoppers respond to its designer collaborations.
Some consumers will also become more conscious of privacy and legislative developments
in the US might inhibit some of the collection of data. Retailers should offer ‘do not track’
solutions, and may need to convince shoppers that personal data leads to a relevant and
tangibly improved experience.
3. Transformation of the store
“ We have to accept that the DNA of an organisation
is retail. ”
Chair, Private Equity Fashion Retailer
Despite the rise of online and mobile sales, retail stores remain at the heart of the customer
relationship and have an irreplaceable role in the omnichannel world. As Kearney’s Future of
Stores study in 2013 confirmed, shops still capture the majority of shopping time (61 per cent).6
The study also identified several emerging themes for the future use of stores, including:
• Discovery – to learn about and test products
With the proliferating number of channels,
brands also need to manage the risk of
redundant or inaccurate customer data.

10
• Entertainment – the experiential and social element of stores
• Relationship – a personalised service, before, during and after the sale
Whether the call centre of the future, the digitally-enhanced playground or the new
showroom, the traditional bricks and mortar store is evolving beyond recognition.
“ There are technologies that are definitely changing the
way we shop in store as well as online. App technologies
are so much better now. QR codes, fashion finder, blippr and
shoptwist will all have an impact, for example in instant
digital recognition. ”
Digital Director, FTSE 250
High-end fashion stores like Burberry’s flagship on Regent Street and Tommy Hilfiger have led
the way, offering 3D hologram runway shows, screens that switch to mirrors, items chipped
with identification technology triggering multimedia content, and interactive window display
that captures and stylises customer profiles.
We can expect this integration of technology into the store to become more widespread and
more immersive. Wal-Mart is testing ‘Scan and Go’ checkout systems that allow shoppers to
skip checkout lines by using their mobile phones to scan items and pay at self-serve kiosks. John
Lewis Oxford Street is the first department
store in the world to be fully mapped
using Google Street View.
So while there’s a downsizing
of shop space, there’s also more
investment in the customer experience,
part of which is expertise of sales staff. Apple pioneered this, with its Genius Bar, where
customers can get expert service or sign up for free lessons and advice sessions. Verizon
has recently opened a flagship store, a ‘technology playground’, where you can test and
customise products as well as get advice.
4. Social media
At the National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York in January, Infosys released the results
of an extensive survey of consumers and revealed that 89 per cent of shoppers said interacting
with a retailer via social media affected their final purchasing decision.7
While it sometimes
comes under pressure to generate new streams of revenue, Facebook is still the main forum for
consumers to interact with brands. Interestingly, the survey data shows that younger consumers
engage most on Facebook, women are more likely to be influenced by content on Pinterest, and
men by YouTube.
The growth of offline/online hybrids is further
transforming the role of the store, with most retailers
now offering the option to order online and pick up in
store, or order online in store and deliver to home.

11
1 . T H E E V O L U T I O N W I L L B E D I G I T I S E D
Social media is moving into new territories beyond peer-to-peer recommendation. Top Shop
is using Pinterest to develop products and decide how and where to display them, and they’ve
just run a popular hook-up with Instagram and Facebook to generate a buzz around styling in
store. Twitter is mulling a venture with US e-commerce site Fancy which could allow users to
buy products directly from the site.
5. Globalisation
The UK is one of the largest export economies for e-commerce in the world, with latest figures
showing annual overseas online trade of £720m in 2013.8
According to the BRC-Google Online
Retail Monitor for the fourth quarter of 2013, UK retailers have
experienced a surge in online searches from the Netherlands,
France, Germany and the US. Shoppers in Russia, Argentina and
India also visited UK sites in droves, with particular interest in the
home and garden, beauty and leisure sectors.9
The Chinese consumer, for example, has very high expectations of
same-day delivery, and cash-on-delivery is the norm. Meanwhile
in Russia the courier waits outside while customers try on
purchases, and Ozon, the Amazon of
Russia, takes payment in cash for
80 per cent of its transactions from
customers still uncomfortable about online transactions. And
drive-thru click and collect is growing in popularity in France –
offered by the majority of grocery hypermarket groups.
Speaking at the recent NRF conference in New York, Claire’s
Accessories CEO Jim Fielding asserted that e-commerce is a
“relatively low risk way” of testing whether a retail brand will
translate successfully abroad,
“ If the brand and product effort is compelling and
differentiated,you can dip your toe in the market with
a digital strategy. The ever-changing channel
provides wonderful expansion opportunities and
is relatively low risk.”
CMO, Mid-cap retailer
The globalised online retail market could also challenge the dominant players. The Chinese
site Tmall is poised to become the world’s largest e-commerce retailer in the next two years,
with sales projected to hit $120 bn (£79.1bn) by 2017, some $20 billion more than Amazon,
according to analysts Euromonitor.10
With the growth of
overseas online trade
comes a need to
understand the nuances
attached to particular
international markets.
A robust digital
strategy can be an
invaluable part of a
traditional retailer’s
investigation of new
international markets.

12
A
s the retail landscape transforms, so too must traditional Board and senior
management roles – and the right blend of experience, talent and perspectives
within top teams is more important now than ever.
“ When I realised just how big this transformation was going
to be I made two crucial changes; my first was to bring in the
best possible NED I could find that could talk directly to me and
teach me. Secondly, when I needed to appoint a new digital
lead to my operating board, I decided not to appoint like for
like but went for the person that was going to eventually
replace me, that would be the next CEO in waiting.”
CEO, FTSE 250
The first requirement is a meticulous people audit. Assess the skills of your current leaders and
benchmark these against future requirements. Ask pertinent questions. What competencies
do we require to lead the organisation in the short, mid and long-term? How does our existing
talent and pipeline compare with the external market? And as the
sector evolves, how future-proof and resilient is that talent?
A thorough skills audit should look both at non-executive and
executive directors. Although the need for governance and
rigour has not abated, there is increasingly a demand for Chairs
and non-executives to have a better appreciation of the digital
agenda and the commercial impact on operations and strategy.
We gained a fascinating insight into the extent to which serving
executives and non-executives are freely admitting to these
particular skills gaps, but are not yet aware how to supplement or
build on meagre digital nous.
“ Although I’m the only person on the operating Board really
with digital experience, we’ve made a concerted effort to
make sure that digital business and digital marketing is at
the heart of our business.”
Group Development Director, FTSE 100 Supermarket
2Are your leaders made from the right stuff?
For many we spoke
to, it is a time for
reflection: who amongst
us will be the catalyst
for change and who
will drive the
strategy forward?

13
2 . A R E Y O U R L E A D E R S M A D E F R O M T H E R I G H T S T U F F ?
The second imperative is a reconsideration and, in many cases, reconfiguration of
key roles. A number of themes emerged from our conversations regarding the recalibration
of strategic leadership skills and accountabilities, in particular the prospect of the ‘Big 5’; CEO,
CFO, CTO, CMO and Multichannel Director.
Thirdly, there is the need for further education and training – which our interviewees agreed
upon almost unanimously. This may be through the hiring of new talent, through external
advisory support, third party training programmes or a more proactive exercise of ‘horizon
scanning’ that can help create innovation evangelists amongst us.
And finally, it was also agreed that some great pockets of innovative talent are currently
hidden three or four rungs below the top team, and therefore often unable to exert an
explicit influence, therefore better succession planning and more robust management training
programmes need to be developed to nurture this talent.
Chair
The remit. To set strategy and vision in partnership with the CEO. The Chair ensures the
resources are available to achieve objectives; reviews management performance; ensures
that the Board operates as an effective working group at the head of the company; and is
accountable to shareholders.
“ Driving change should start with the chairman. Although
supermarkets are 130 years old; online food is only 7 years
old. No-one has really been there and done it – there’s so
much fresh ground to cover, mistakes to be made, but
also successes to be celebrated.”
MD, FTSE 100 Supermarket
How the role is changing. Increasingly Boards need to interrogate, question and challenge
established ways of thinking, attitudes towards investment and performance metrics. Chairs
have a tangible prerogative as the leading interrogator – challenging both the executive team
and Board colleagues.
“ We are still measuring success by the same old metrics, which
aren’t relevant anymore. But no Board wants to rock the boat
… it might take one or two pioneers to lead the way before
we start to see real change.”
CEO, FTSE 250

14
Commercial questions, particularly concerning governance and risk, have always been the
mainstay of the Chair’s remit. But the Chair of today also needs to be in a position to seek
answers to new questions.
“ Is the customer being adequately championed at the
Board table? ”
NED, PLC specialist retailer
How can we translate technological advancements into business benefits? Does our three to
five year strategy provide the platform for sustainable growth across all platforms? Do we have
the skills to go on that journey and deliver that strategy?
“ You need to build a culture around you that embraces risk.
Who can mandate these things? The Chairman – he has the
power to be disruptive. You need confidence and bravery in
these roles without question. ”
CMO, FTSE 100 Digital/media organisation
The role of a Chair will differ greatly according to the ownership and operating structure
of an organisation. Boards that are heavily PE-influenced will have different expectations
of their Chairs. PE shareholders, it was agreed, require much more relevant, hands-on
experience from their Chairs than the more
strictly governance-oriented PLC Chair
with regular City interaction. PE firms
are inclined to appoint Chairs that
will work in close partnership with
them, particularly in setting the
strategic agenda and direction.
“ The PE view on Chairs and CEOs is starkly different to that
of a PLC. We want to work with the Chair to set the overall
strategy after investment and the CEOs role is to implement
that strategy. The Chair needs to ensure that the Board
is structured correctly and that the organisation has the
right resources for the CEO to lead the team to a successful
implementation. Therefore we prefer our Chairs to be
relevant and more current than a PLC Chair. ”
Investor Director, PE house
Many in our network suggested that the
risk-averse practice of hiring time-served,
experienced Chairs may be on the wane, with
more first-time Chairs being appointed on
the basis of recent experience as CEOs or high
performing, successful business leaders.

15
Non-Executive Directors
The remit. To scrutinise the performance of the executive team and to act as custodians of the
risk and governance process.
How the role is changing. NEDs traditionally come from financial or legal backgrounds, but
there is an increasing demand for retail NEDs to offer creative criticisms through different
lenses. It is precisely the balance and miscellany of the NEDs’ backgrounds, skills and
perspectives that will enable a Board to gain an advantage in today’s fast-paced, highly
competitive omnichannel operating environment.
“ As each business is different, so is each Board; there is
no one set mould. We must build on flexibility and learn to
adapt quickly.”
NED, FTSE 100 retailer
Certain specific business functions – such as international operations and supply chain – are
becoming more prominent, and these may also need to become more influential in the
Boardroom through the appointment of relevant NEDs. And with the overwhelming majority of
Board members having little or no hands-on expertise of digital and new technology, NEDs can
greatly increase a Board’s focus on the digital agenda.
For NEDs to really help set this agenda, our interviewees agreed that, like the Chair, they
have to be current, with a deep understanding of what is happening today – particularly
in technology and customer journey.
Sainsbury’s appointment of Google’s
Matthew Brittin to the Board
offers a great example.
It was also suggested that healthy
commercial challenge sits very comfortably in the Non-Executive Director’s remit, and that
a disruptive NED can be a very positive element within the Board structure:
“ A disruptive NED is a very good idea, it’s very hard to
say unpalatable things when in an executive role – that’s
often best left to the confident NED. In addition, a bold
NED can steer the Board away from group mentality –
which can otherwise make for a conservative group. ”
Divisional MD, £Multi-billion retailer
But where ‘current’ often means ‘younger’, the
challenge is for Boards to instil the right culture
in order to elicit these NEDs’ best contributions.

16
There can be no doubt that the value of the low engagement but high profile NED is under
scrutiny; it is no longer sufficient to read the papers and present oneself each month for the
Board meeting without having a tangible contribution to add to the table.
“ If we hire these new up and comers to the Board how can
we expect them to exist and operate in the NED governance
jungle? Often this person will either become the stroppy
character on the Board or the quiet one who doesn’t actually
impact the way we hire him/her. ”
NED, FTSE 100 fashion retailer
Advisory Boards
The remit. To share knowledge and insight, help the Executive Board, and advise on core
strategic priorities, particularly where there are specific skills gaps.
How the role is changing. Our network’s views were divided regarding the efficacy and power
of Advisory Boards and whether they contribute positively to the evolving omnichannel agenda.
A number felt they were of limited, even negative, value, linking up neither to the Senior
Management Team nor the Board. But when we examined these views further, we discovered
that Advisory Boards have in many circumstances been presented as the panacea to issues that
are not being addressed directly within an organisation. When tasked with answering questions
that the Board has yet to define clearly, it is not surprising that their impact is reduced.
“ When I hear talk about digital shadow Boards I roll my eyes,
these actions need to be at executive level otherwise you
won’t get listened to! ”
MD - Online, FTSE 100
In contrast, where Advisory Boards have been set a precise brief, with quantitative and/or
qualitative objectives, their operational and strategic influence and ultimately their output can
be tangible – and they were seen as successful additions to an organisation.
Specifically, they can offer targeted support in areas of organisational weakness, and can
typically boast a wealth of experience and expertise that outweighs the skill-set of a single
full-time executive – providing a vital tool for transformation as a business develops its strategy
without the risk, lead time or cost of an individual executive hire.
Beyond this, examples were put forward of shadow youth and digital Boards providing
useful feedback and representing the ‘conscience’ of the customer – an invaluable

17
perspective into what products and trends are taking hold. BQ and Co-op are among the
retailers that have used shadow Boards to advise their top teams to positive acclaim.
Chief Executive Officer
The remit. To be the visible executive leader of the company, to internal and external
audiences. Working with the Chair, the CEO needs both to add shareholder value and create a
sustainable strategy, as well as lead its implementation.
How the role is changing. The challenge for the CEO is to implement a more creative,
innovative and digitally-savvy culture without losing sight of the commercial imperatives of
retail trading. The CEO of today is far less focused on ‘business as usual’ and is now regarded
as the guardian of the transformation agenda.
Historically, retail leaders have been promoted through the ranks of operations, store
management, marketing or trading roles. And credence has mostly been given to a general
management, PL-focused track record. But far too many CEOs have singular views and very
few have experienced the benefits of working across more than one of these functions.
CEOs who have been tested not only in their core area of expertise, but who have also earned
their stripes in areas such as digital, marketing, supply chain and technology, will undoubtedly
have a more rounded commercial perspective and are therefore more likely to be able to
build businesses that are cohesive, with holistic views of trading and customer interaction.
They will have a better understanding of the risk implications of large capital investments such
as technology. They will have an appreciation of the evolving role of stores as retail theatres
rather than merely places to transact. And ultimately, they are more likely to have their finger
on the pulse of what their customer is saying and doing and how they’re doing it.
This additional knowledge can be gained through a number of channels and need not come from
a series of full-time executive appointments – periods of secondment, international assignments,
the use of mentors and the allocation of key strategic initiatives will all allow high potential
executives to add strings to their bow,
standing them in good stead for a
future CEO appointment.
For some CEOs today
taking on the new broader
remit and setting the direc-
tion of transformation will mean
embracing what they don’t necessarily
understand, hiring people to cover their blind spots, seeking external counsel, asking disruptive
questions, setting clear goals and having the narrative skills to inspire the whole organisation to
work towards the end destination. A strong Chair or a confident, experienced NED can be the
necessary influence to say “Come on, let’s be brave.”
We are beginning to see examples of retailers that
have recognised the need to nurture and grow their
own talent. Kingfisher has established its Talent
Marketplace scheme and other large retailers such
as Asda Walmart, the Morrisons Academy and the
Co-operative Group are all going to great lengths to
develop the leaders of tomorrow.

18
Chief Financial Officer
The remit. To manage the financial risks, planning and reporting. The CFO directly assists the
CEO on all strategic and tactical matters as they relate to budget management, cost benefit
analysis, forecasting needs and, in some circumstances, the securing of new funding.
How the role is changing. The role of the CFO has been changing for some time with the remit
now as much about external strategy as internal operations. Although long regarded as the
right-hand man to the CEO, the CFO has in recent years become a true commercial partner with
a breadth of responsibilities, particularly relating to the transformation agenda. While CFOs
must still attend closely to cash flows, controls, costs and risk, it has also become a big picture
strategic function, about balancing the empirical with the creative.
In November 2013 American Express undertook a global study of over 500 CFOs, which
uncovered ‘fascinating insights into how the CFO’s role and responsibilities have evolved
since the onset of the recession.’ It found that ‘the CFO has become more of a catalyst,
spurring the wider organisation to execute necessary changes’.11
As agents for change, CFOs
are being relied upon to help facilitate growth by, for example, encouraging innovation, or by
feeding insight to management on under-utilised company assets in order to provide
new avenues for development.
“The role of the CFO has already transformed. The financial
engineering of a retail organisation has fundamentally
changed and is now far more complex. How do we now assess
profitability, stock and store performance in an omnichannel
world? From a shareholder point of view we need a far more
detailed understanding of how these issues affect investment,
cash and profitability. Many CFOs are struggling to grasp this
and therefore we’re seeing a higher turnover in CFOs of late,
as they’re simply ill-equipped to
deal with these demands. ”
Partner, Private Equity Group
Part of the complexity of this new financial engineering is that consumers are switching
channels throughout the buying journey, bringing the challenge of apportioning profitability
and revenue streams to traffic via individual channels. But within an omnichannel strategy
this separation is becoming obsolete: a single view of sales, stock and customer is the new
imperative for enhanced financial performance and efficiency. Increasingly, the CFO needs
to have intellectual agility, as well as concrete reliability, in order to act as the link between
financial rigour and strategic insight.

19
Omnichannel also requires a level of risky investment – in innovation and new technologies
– that retail firms are not typically used to. Similarly, it is harder to demonstrate clear and
absolute definition of profit and return on these investments when their timeframes and equity
are now under such different terms and there aren’t any precedents to observe and follow.
With this in mind, CFOs also increasingly need strong communication skills to create a
compelling narrative that satisfies diverse stakeholders’ calls for both immediate and long-term
sustainable profitability, as well as champion specific, often disruptive initiatives internally.
“ The elephant in the room is that in most cases the commercial
return on this is thin and long. So the biggest issue is the
economics. It’s still possible to get quicker better returns in
other areas.”
COO, FTSE 100 retailer
Chief Marketing Officer
The remit. To build the brand while fuelling business growth, co-ordinating efforts across digital
and traditional channels. In partnership with the CEO, the CMO has an innate understanding of
a retailer’s current and potential customers. In addition, they act as a crucial internal business
partner, disseminating that information to drive commercial decisions, from range selection to
pricing to new proposition development.
“ The CMO should be the custodian of the brand, the data,
the pulse of the customer. ”
Chairman, Private Equity backed retailer
How the role is changing. For many retailers, it is the CMO who has to date absorbed a large
part of the omnichannel brief, with an increasing emphasis in this role on market orientation,
customer intimacy, customer loyalty, customer experience and journey.
In contrast to many retail functions, which have evolved almost in isolation, the profound
transformation within marketing has been multi-faceted and all-encompassing. Big data has
precipitated a proliferation of more powerful analytics, and new digital forms of marketing
have emerged.
Ensuring that the customer is at the front and centre of an organisation’s thinking is
imperative for the CMO; setting the agenda, compiling the necessary financial evidence that
show the return on investment from marketing and customer-oriented activity, furthermore
the partnership with the CTO is fundamental to perfect the forensic analysis and creative
implementation of complex data and customer intelligence.

20
“The Marketing role is morphing into that of Customer Director,
but it’s possible that might be too broad a function for just
one; having tried in the past its been one of the hardest roles
to fill in retail – there just aren’t that many good people out
there that boast the skills in that specific combination ”
CFO, Specialist multichannel retailer
The future success of this evolving role rests in the ability to blend the traditional ‘art’ of
marketing with the new ‘science’ of digital and data. As marketing moves beyond imagery
towards analytics, effective CMOs will understand both dimensions.
Chief Technology Officer
The remit. To provide the vision and leadership for developing and implementing technology
systems.
How the role is changing. This role is moving from the back office and now underpins and
informs business strategy. It is becoming more commercial and innovative, about technological
possibilities and not just the supporting infrastructure.
“ There is a breed of IT people that are now far more
commercial than ever before – they really grasp the art of
the possible – and these could be the leaders of tomorrow. ”
Speaking at the NRF conference in New York IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty asserted that
the foundation of retailers’ competitive advantage in 2014 will be information and how they
analyse it, claiming that thinking strategically about big data “will determine the winners and
losers” of the retail industry. Retailers who use hybrid clouds will benefit from “speed, agility,
security and privacy”, that the retail industry is “facing a new cognitive era of computing – this
is not a new era of technology; this will be a new era of commerce,” she said.
The successful CTO must also be a broker for change, as part of the transformation team
leading the organisation. They must possess both the commercial foresight and specialist
expertise to look ahead and build a proactive technology strategy that can withstand a
constantly evolving landscape. As they become a far more business-centric function – working
in partnership with other departments as the most important enabler of operational change –
the CTO’s interpersonal skills will also be in high demand.

21
With an increasingly influential voice at the Board table, we will see CTOs contribute more
to commercial discussions, including setting the roadmap and future-proofing the business;
investigating in detail certain investment programmes; and the subsequent risk analysis.
According to research by MGI and McKinsey’s Business Technology Office, ‘big data is fast
becoming the key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth,
innovation, and consumer surplus.’12
And if, as predicted by Gartner, there will be nearly 26
billion devices on the Internet of Things by 2020, we have to assume that the CTO can not only
adapt to, but somehow harness and optimise the tools available in this new world that will
increase in value exponentially.13
In the world of the single customer view, the CTO needs to push for better integration. This
means rolling out the technology that best supports cross-channel collaboration, implementing
effective systems to mine big data, establishing POS systems across multiple touch points, as
well as enabling mobile commerce. The CTO is now required to create a high-quality, adaptive
technology infrastructure.
Multichannel Director (Group Sales Director)
The remit. To manage all customer sales points – primarily stores, online and mobile – in a
role that bridges marketing, sales and technology. Without question this is the divergent role
of the ‘Big 5’, varying in title and structure from organisation to organisation. This was also,
surprisingly, the role that drew the most consensus from our network.
“ Don’t let the minutiae and the differences distract you –
a sale is a sale regardless of channel let’s stop thinking in
slices and think about the whole cake! ”
CEO, FTSE 250 retailer
How the role is changing. The Multichannel Director must work very closely with, and hold
significant matrix relationships within, the top team. With the CTO, they investigate innovative
technologies and new means of engaging their customers. With the CMO they focus on the
single customer journey, making every experience, transaction and conversation seamless. And
with the CFO, the Multichannel Director manages the sales and profitability across all channels,
including store, web, mobile and international.
“ The Omnichannel or Multichannel Trading Director role
has to be soon, it’s long overdue. Joining up electronic
and physical shops is a no brainer, the customer did
it ages ago! ”
Director, Digital Consultancy

22
Multichannel roles are becoming more senior, and some are even saying that this is the new
route to Chief Executive, as the combined experience and skills gained in this role become
increasingly important to the strategic direction of the retailer. However until now, it is
undeniable that few businesses have Multichannel Directors who are truly operating across the
channels and incorporating retail stores: there are handfuls of Online Directors, and there are
still Retail Directors, but there are very few examples of individuals owning all sales channels.
This has led to a plethora of job titles, confusing semantics and disjointed organisational
structures that are counter-intuitive to the very ‘single customer view’ that has been lauded as
the future of retail. The majority of our interviewees agreed,
“ Ignore the semantics and job titles and focus on the task –
integrating sales.”
Strategy Director, International Specialist Retailer
The overriding need is to look holistically at the sales, and be less emotional about the point of
transaction.
“ One startling statistic to be aware of is that whilst grocery
online is 5% of the market, actually much more importantly,
40% of our shoppers use groceries online, so it’s not 5% of
your business but 40% of your customers, that’s the way
to look at it. ”
Group Development Director, FTSE 100 Supermarket
Supply Chain Director
The Remit. To manage the logistics of moving products identifying efficiencies in the supply
chain across the network strategy and inventory management through buying and monitoring
systems.
How the role is changing. Customer expectations of fast, reliable delivery and free shipping
are growing. Fulfilment will continue to be a battleground. We can expect to see an increase
in what Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulparu
calls ‘the last mile wars’14
.
The need for speed is unquestionably
one of the priorities for Boards in 2014,
while Amazon’s prototype delivery drones caused some mirth amongst the cynics, they
also point to a future in which people purchasing online expect virtually instant – and
personalised – fulfilment. Their next initiative is to ship before you buy, which Amazon calls
Within the need for speed, the supply chain
will increasingly become part of the personal
dimension of the retail business model.

23
‘anticipatory shipping’. By analysing a wealth of user data including wish-lists, shopping cart
contents, previous orders and even how long a mouse cursor pauses over an item, Amazon
is confident it can predict individual sales and further slim its already impressively small gap
between receiving an order and delivering to the customer.
Fulfilment efficiency is also transforming the use and type of warehouse space. Tesco, Asda and
Waitrose are all building more unmanned, ‘dark stores’ as distribution centres for online orders,
to ensure better availability and a faster, more efficient service.
HR Director
Last in this section, but paramount to the organisational, structural and cultural change
discussed in this paper, the HR Director will play
The remit. To administer the company’s personnel and training strategy, in addition to
contributing to overall company strategy and policy making by advising the board on the
personnel and/or human resource implications of its decisions.
How the role is changing. Volatility, Unpredictability, Complexity and Ambiguity (known as
VUCA) – a phrase originally coined by the US Army War College – are now considered by
many as an apt description of today’s business environment. Yet many of the structures,
systems and processes that underpin organisations are unsuited to this turbulent backdrop,
and HR professionals have an important role in helping their organisations to navigate VUCA
territory. In terms of the HR remit, the days of ‘straight line’
job descriptions within highly structured, ordered HR
departments are almost over, with more fluid models
required to match the speed and scale of change.
This means that recruitment, retention and talent
management have to be sufficiently agile to adapt to
continually changing requirements and skill demands.
Last year, in partnership with Henley Business School,
we undertook research which identified a need for
pragmatic commercialism from HR professionals. HR
departments must be realistic and flexible – now is not
the time for rigid five-year plans. This is essential if they
are learning how to operate in an environment where
there are constantly shifting priorities. A key question
is whether or not HR professionals are equipped with the
experience, skills and expertise to deal with such an environment. If the HR department is not
able to navigate this ‘new normal’ environment then it is unlikely that it will be able to help the
rest of the business to do so. We are finding that HR professionals with previous experience
of a change environment such as a restructure are better suited to dealing with volatility and
complexity than many of their peers. These individuals are also more likely to demonstrate a
An over-reliance on
processes and historically
popular models by HR
can also hinder the
flexibility, adaptability and
entrepreneurialism required to
design, implement and embed
change in a more risky and
unpredictable environment.

24
greater diversity of thought, an important capability when it comes to problem-solving in an
unpredictable business environment. These days it is essential to be inquisitive, open-minded
and able to shift perspectives when a complicated situation or challenge manifests.
Temporary, specialist roles
In addition to the roles above, our leaders and influencers acknowledged that as the retail
sector finds itself in times of change, there is a general shortage of specific skills in particular
disciplines, and that retailers need to make some short term appointments to ramp up
momentum. A war for some highly prized and commercially viable talent is being waged.
Several of those suggested include:
• Digital Director
Many regard the Digital Director as a transitional role as businesses begin to adapt to
the new digital epoch. In the short term, this director can act as facilitator – the digital
evangelist, to educate colleagues in the fuller potential of digital working, and to help get
knowledge of emerging technologies disseminated across, and embedded within, the
organisation. Our network predict that within a few years the UK retail sector will have
adjusted to the point that it is fully digital and there will be collective responsibility – for
“ Digital is not and should not be just one person’s
responsibility. ”
Commercial Ecommerce Director, International specialist retailer
• Customer Director
The Customer Director can act as the central guardian of the customer experience – driving
coherence and connectivity across all customer points of interaction. It is more than three
years since Forrester heralded the importance of this new role.15
“ So many organisational structures are still in transition. I
suspect that we’re heading towards there being a ‘Customer
Director’ rather than channel-centric roles.”
CEO, Mid-cap PLC
The UK is now beginning to see the trend emerge from Shop Direct and Morrisons. This
could be regarded as a short to mid-term solution while more traditional CMOs acquire the
new specialisms that will refresh their own expertise.

25
“ We have just appointed a new Chief Customer Officer (first
job), we needed someone to own the customer experience
and the customer journey. Owning the customer touchpoints
whether physical or digital. But I was so surprised, when I
appointed him and announced it, none of the trade press
made a fuss, simply because they didn’t recognise this role! ”
MD, Digital/Media organisation
• Transformation Director
By definition, this is a temporary role that supports organisations through change, whether
cultural, structural or, more specifically, focusing on functional areas such as technology.
This role could be a fundamental part of reviewing and assessing the relevance of the ‘Big
5’ as it drives the organisational phase of reflection and adapts to this new world. The
Transformation Director could equally be a member of the change implementation team,
incorporating project management skills rather than strategic analysis. Irrespective, it
should be an agile role albeit with fixed objectives, of determinate nature.
Recruiting these specialist roles can be challenging – particularly in retail, as there is such little
precedent against which to benchmark practical experience and capability in some of these
areas. We believe therefore that talent should be sourced from more wide a field; exploring
sectors beyond retail – such as travel, FMCG, financial services or technology – will introduce
fresh perspectives and test critical thinking.

26
W
hereas in the previous chapter we looked at the talent issues – hiring the right
people in the right place and within the right timeframes, here we look at the
impact on the wider business – the organisational and cultural changes needed to
support an effective omnichannel strategy.
“ Surely the objective and end point for an organisation is
full integration.”
CTO, International Luxury Goods Group
Matrix working
Nearly all of the leaders we spoke to said it was time to remove vertical silos and improve
integration through cross-functional teams, “with people writing code sitting next to
commercial”.
“ Remove the vertical silos. Culturally things are still very
hierarchical, don’t operate seamlessly, teamwork is therefore
difficult, we need to fundamentally change behaviours and
want to learn.”
MD - Online, FTSE 100
An omnichannel strategy brings the need for increased collaboration, and shared information
from a single, centralised knowledgebase, and this goes right to the heart of organisational
design. It touches every business function from supply chain to inventory, marketing to
merchandising. It is therefore acknowledged by many that
“ We need to turn the organogram completely upside down.
There is a significant piece of work to be done around
culture, organisational design, incentive programmes and
technology.”
NED, FTSE 100 fashion retailer
3Thinking differently will help you win

27
3 . T H I N K I N G D I F F E R E N T LY W I L L H E L P Y O U W I N
An omnichannel approach enables bricks and mortar retailers to use digital innovation to
enhance the customer’s experience in store. It also offers opportunities to develop attractive
offline/online hybrids like ‘click-and-collect’, or inversions of this such as Ikea’s new stores that
function more like a showroom than warehouses, with customers purchasing on tablets in the
store for home delivery. Collaborative matrix working between the store and online, supported
by good staff incentives to sell and up-sell regardless of channel, should increase the number of
these profitable hybrids. However,
“ people don’t like what they don’t know, and as such this
is pretty threatening for many traditional retailers.”
COO, FTSE 100 retailer
Cognitive diversity
Cognitive diversity means having people who bring fresh perspective and different ways of
thinking. Leaders who bring greater cognitive diversity to the team tend to ‘embrace disruption’
and may be more tempted to ask the difficult questions that get to the heart of the customer’s
experience. And the more diverse the thinkers and perspectives involved in problem-solving,
the more connections are made, sparking vital innovation.
Moreover, while most of the information that enables retailers to understand and predict
customer patterns comes from big data, team members from diverse perspectives and
backgrounds can also offer insights on the way customers behave. Depending on the unique
demands and pressures on a retail firm, this may mean, for example, bringing on talent from
Generation X and Y to balance out the perspective of older, more experienced senior directors.
“ If our customer is significantly younger and from a
different perspective than ours and with different
expectations, how can we represent them? ”
MD, Global Advertising Digital Business
Dimensions of diversity beyond differences in age can also play a vital role. At Green Park we
have made a detailed study of the gender balance, as well as the ethnic and cultural diversity,
across the most senior roles within the FTSE 100. We found that retailers perform relatively
well on gender diversity, ranking at fifth place in the sector league tables. But the retail industry
is still lagging on ethnic and cultural diversity at the highest levels, with non-white executives
accounting for just 1.7 per cent of retail sector Board members.16
Retailers may find that
widening the diversity of backgrounds in their top teams may add a freshness, more angles of
vision and valuable perspectives to their broader transformation agenda.

28
Outside of sector
“ Look outside the sector to see how radical you could
actually be.”
Insights from outside the sector can be invaluable and some of the best hires are those that
use perspectives from other sectors to invigorate company strategy. With consumer-facing
businesses all facing similar pressures from changing customer behaviour and constantly
evolving technology, there’s usually ‘massive crossover’ in what senior executives do. Travel
and FMCG, digital expertise from technology and telecoms, can all offer new talent pipelines.
We have been encouraged by some of the more radical moves, and the considerable success in
transferring talent from the likes of Accenture and IBM.
“ There is massive cross over in what we all do, between
customer groups, the power of brand, delivering our
brand through people and some of the technical elements
such as how to segment. Moving between sectors
is invaluable.”
Commercial Director, £Multi-billion consumer organisation
The only word of caution about importing people from other sectors with these highly
desirable technical skills is the importance of cultural fit. The key is to ensure that there are
shared values and a common approach.
Mind-shifts
One of the biggest shifts in outlook comes with changing approaches to investment in
technology. Technology has come right from the back office to the very centre of retail
growth.
In a constantly evolving landscape, retailers are having to ring-fence more for innovation
and technology spend. But directors will need to articulate to the City, shareholders, the
Board and staff that investment will be longer-term and more risky, following a model more
like a technology company and less a traditional retail firm.

29
3 . T H I N K I N G D I F F E R E N T LY W I L L H E L P Y O U W I N
“ You have to accept the risk associated with digital, it moves
so quickly that you might spend time and money developing
something that you don’t actually use, whereas traditionally
any type of similar investment would mean that you have to
use it and you have to get it right.”
CFO, £Billion+ PE fashion retailer
Partnerships
Partnerships offer new routes to omnichannel profit, as well as helping retailers to be more
creative and test out different approaches to the customer.
Ocado and Morrisons agreed a £216m partnership deal last year that involves Ocado
operating a new online grocery service for Morrisons using its customer fulfilment centre in
Warwickshire. Waitrose and Tesco have entered into a partnership with Transport for London
to use underground stations as grocery collection points. And retail partnerships with major
network operators are driving innovation in the development of the mobile wallet.
In order to compete with Amazon’s Locker delivery there was a Landmark tie-up in 2013
between Ebay and Argos, trialling a click-and-collect scheme, similar to the operations Ebay
already runs in New York and San Francisco – the eBay Now service which works in partnership
with ToysRUs, Urban Outfitters and The Home Depot.
Partnerships can also improve digital literacy. The Sainsbury’s Board for example, has been
to Stanford and Google to understand and embrace new technology. And as another of our
leaders said,
“ We did a digital day last year and we will do it again. We
invited Google, Amazon, Forrester and others to get a better
external view.”
Commercial Ecommerce Director, Global specialist retailer

30
T
he clear message from our research is that buying patterns of customers have changed
irrevocably as a result of digital technology and the retail industry is for the most part
still playing catch up in developing its approach to creating omnichannel strategies that
can offer an integrated approach to retaining and growing sales.
One of the key challenges is understanding the scale of the impact
on retailers in terms of organisational structure, skills capability and
design of their supply chain in responding to this new paradigm.
For most it is going to require radical transformational change across
the business, significant investment and an ongoing assessment of
future buying trends that is radically different to past approaches.
“ If you want to build a shiny new
bathroom, sometimes you need to
change the plumbing and the whole
system, not just the taps! ”
Chairman, Specialist Retailer
There are two elements to an effective transformation agenda: people in the right roles with
the right skills; and an organisational design and culture that enables agility, encourages
innovation, and supports integration and collaboration across business functions.
It has never been more essential to have the right people making the important decisions.
To address the current imbalance of skills in many retail top teams – where finance and
governance often outweighs digital and data-driven customer insight - Chairs and Board
directors need to undertake formal reviews of their own blend of skills, talents and capabilities,
as well as that of their Senior Management Team, particularly focusing on the ‘Big 5’ roles.
“ Financial performance will always be at the top of the list,
but there needs to be an emphasis on deliver today and
create for tomorrow.”
NED, PLC specialist retailer
Honesty about what talent and expertise currently sits at the top table is critical. Bringing in
specialist experts in the short and medium term may be the only option to add knowledge, pace
4It’s not as complex as it seems…
Bring the best
of the store
experience to the
web and the best of
the web experience
to stores.

31
4 . I T ’ S N O T A S C O M P L E X A S I T S E E M S
and rigour. Although the CEO should always own the transformation, he/she may have to bring
in expertise in the form of new, temporary roles to lead the certain operational aspects of the
change.
“ This doesn’t necessarily mean a full and all-encompassing
change of the Board, but a less risky phased approach,
focusing initially on assessing the strength of digital and
international skills at Board level, these go hand in hand.”
Director, Digital Retail Consultancy
Appointing NEDs who are savvy in this new world can be a speedy action to provide some
much needed expertise and questioning at Board level. This, together with other outside
contributions such as Advisory Boards (if used in the right way and are seen as an addition not
a replacement for executive expertise and ownership) can furnish some immediate solutions.
Other temporary appointments will also kick-start transformation. Precisely what these roles
are will differ from organisation to organisation, depending on the skills already within the
team - Digital Director, Transformation Director, Customer Director are all examples. But in the
long term it is critical that no one individual is the “digital expert” or the “customer expert”
around the Board table and that eventually the whole team has ownership of the digital
agenda and it becomes the new way of working.
“ This means training the whole Board – a Digital 101 to
improve Board literacy. It is paramount that we’re not afraid,
that we don’t abdicate responsibility and that we avoid
window dressing and tick-boxing.”
CMO, Digital/Media FTSE 100 organisation
The very shape and framework of the organisation must change, and
reviewing organisational design will be critical to success. Again, this will
be different for each retailer but all must ask: How can we make quicker
decisions? How can we fully integrate digital knowledge into all areas of
our business? How do we make sure we understand the data from our
customers in order to influence all areas of decision-making?
Most retailers are discovering that the traditional silo model of
organisational design is no longer fit for purpose. More collaboration
across functions is central to the changing retail landscape, and sets the framework for
more nimble, quickly responsive teams, that can also share insights to gain a much deeper
understanding of customer expectations and patterns of behaviour.
The retail sector
as a whole needs
to think differently
about how to build
its future leaders.

32
The research brings into sharp relief the broader question of how retailers choose and develop
their future leadership. It is clear that CEO’s will increasingly need to be more well-rounded, with
the capability of understanding how to lead their senior teams in an increasingly volatile market,
driven by better informed and technological enabled customers, in both their traditional and
emerging markets.
Equally, Boards must have the experience, insight and robust management information to be able
to judge whether their company has the capability to meet the new market dynamics with strong
management teams that can work collaboratively and across traditional business silos.
Finally, the Boards themselves need to assess as a matter of urgency whether they have the
right blend of skills and experience to be able to challenge or support new business strategy and
investment decisions on building digital and omnichannel capability for the future.
“ Retail is full of trading, product and financial skills; the new
world needs leadership teams that are more highly analytical;
that’s the major shift from old skills to new.”
Director, omnichannel/digital consultancy
The prevailing question is who can we look to? Without the myriad of comparable success stories
we cannot consult the usual competitor analysis, instead we have to use advisers, consultancies,
third parties that give us a wider market perspective and new benchmarks for excellence. We have
to be brave and remove the comfort blanket of what we’ve done before and what we know. The
use of external partners does not necessary mean gargantuan fees or theoretical but impractical
advice, certainly not if approached with a more creative and open mindset – experiment with new
partnership models, test your assumptions and challenge your cynicisms.
We are grateful to those we interviewed for their candour and for the insight they provided across
the sector from small PE backed businesses to luxury brands and large high street household
names. Their contribution has enabled us to shed light on the journey much of the sector is on in
trying to re align their business models and strategy to meet the challenges and opportunities they
face in retaining and growing their customer base.

R U N N I N G H E A D
THE GREEN PARK ACTION PLAN
As a quick, one-stop check for Boards embarking on the omnichannel journey, we present a
SIX-POINT Green Park Action Plan:
1
TALENT REVIEW
The Chair should lead a skills and competency talent review of the Board
and Operating Board, or Senior Management Team, in relation to the new
strategic direction of the firm. Key focus must be applied to the new, core skills
that an omnichannel strategy requires: digital; data; customer insight; and
transformation. This talent review should answer the question: Do we have the
right ‘Big 5’? if not, what’s the plan? And what specialist skill sets in the short to
medium term are in order to fast track progression?
2
BALANCE THE NEDS
Review the balance of your non-executive directors and make changes quickly,
focusing on the gaps of the executive team.
3
OD REVIEW
Review your entire organisational design. Is it fit for purpose? How can you be
better at integrating key skills, working across teams, and being more agile? What
structural changes will help to ensure that new skills are being developed across
all levels of the organisation?
4
INVEST EDUCATE
Invest in educating your Board and Senior Management Team. Whether through
partnerships with experts, individual coaching and mentors, or the input of
Advisory Boards – make sure you are seeking the views of experts and that your
senior decision makers have more rounded views of what’s current and future
trends.
5
LOOK OUTSIDE
Be brave when bringing in new skills. Look outside the sector to TMT, Retail
Financial Services, FMCG and Travel – executives in these fields have relevant
expertise in customer insight, big data, and technology. Focus on building more
rounded teams.
6
BUILD TOMOROW’S CEO
Build better leaders from within. Spot your future stars at mid-level management
and make sure they have a detailed talent development plan that involves
them being rotated across different disciplines with particular focus on digital,
marketing, and technology, as well as stores and commercial. Make sure they
have access to expertise outside the organisation as well – invest in them to
produce the next generation of CEO.

34
WITH THANKS TO …
The team at Green Park would like to acknowledge and thank everybody that has contributed
thoughts, commentary and feedback in support of this White Paper. We would like to give
particular thanks to a number of individuals who have generously shared their time, experience
and insights with us in our preparation and research.
• Christine Cross, NED, Next plc, NED, Sonae Group Ltd (Portugal), NED, Woolworths Limited
(Australia), and NED, Kathmandu Limited (New Zealand), previously Chief Retail Advisor to
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Director at Tesco plc
• Colin Holmes, Chairman, Go Outdoors, Non-Executive Director, Admiral Group plc and Non-
Executive Director, Bovis Group plc
• Alan Jacobs, Founder and Principal Jacobs Capital, Chairman, Zoggs International Ltd,
Non-Executive Director, Iceland Foods, Executive Director, Blue Inc, Non-Executive Director,
ZeroC Holdings Ltd, Chairman, Redbus Media Group, Non-Executive Director, Reiss, Non-
Executive Director, Austin Reed Group
• Iain MacRitchie, Founder CEO, MCR Holdings, Former Chairman, Hobbs and Chairman,
Institute For Turnaround and Transformation
• Norman Pickavance, Non-Executive Director, HM Revenue Customs, ex Group HRD, WM
Morrison Supermarket plc
• Darren Shapland, Non-Executive Director, Ladbrokes and Non-Executive Director, Poundland
• Amit Aggarwal, Director Corporate Finance, PWC
• Andrew Bisson, Omnichannel OD Consultant
• Tim Davies, Owner, Adwerth LLP
• Nick Martel, Chief Operating Officer Head of Retail Strategy, CBRE
• Justin Maltz, Director UK Private Equity, 3i Group plc
• Finlay Clark, Industry Head - Retail, Google
• James Donaldson, Chief Operating Officer, Travelocity
• Martin George , Chief Marketing Commercial Officer, The Post Office and Non-Executive
Director, Thorntons plc
• Will Ghali, Group Director of Strategy, Clarks ltd

35
W I T H T H A N K S T O . . .
• Shaun Gregory, Managing Director, Global Advertising, Telefonica Digital and Non-Executive
Director, Tagman
• Luke Jensen, Group Development Director, J Sainsbury plc
• Alastair Miller, Chief Financial Officer, New Look
• Will O’Connor, Commercial and E-Commerce Director, The Body Shop
• Michael Sharp, Chief Executive Officer, Debenhams plc
• Michael Ross, Co-founder Chief Scientist, Ecommera, NED, Abcam, NED, Wex
Photographic, NED Board member, Spreadshirt.net
• Simon Thompson, Managing Director, Online – Food, Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc
• Michael Ward, Managing Director, Harrods
• Mark West, Chief Executive Officer, Labelux Global Business Services SA

36
NOTES
1 US Cross-Channel Retail Forecast, 2011 To 2016, Forrester, June 2012
2 “10% of UK consumers use smartphone as main method of shopping as UK becomes
European leader of m-commerce”, www.thedrum.com, October 2013
3 “Retailers mobile sites lag behind as customer satisfaction gap between mobile and
desktop retail sites widens”, www.theintegratedretailer.com, January 2014
4 “Half of Brits say m-commerce experience falls short of expectations”,
www.thedrum.com, May 2013
5 2013 Customer Experience Predictions, Forrester, January 2013
6 Recasting the Retail Store in Today’s Omnichannel World, A.T. Kearney, October 2013
7 “Survey Shows Strong Demand for Omnichannel”, www.allanalytics.com, January 2014
8 “UK leads global e-commerce export market”, Retail Week, 20 January 2014
9 “Overseas online shopper numbers surge”, BRC report, Retail Week, 4 February 2014
10 “Analysis: Online oddities – how ecommerce changes country by country”, Retail Week, 5
April 2013
11 Supporting Growth with New Technologies, American Express Company and CFO Research,
November 2013
12 “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity”, McKinsey, May
2011
13 “Gartner Says the Internet of Things Installed Base Will Grow to 26 Billion Units By 2020”,
Gartner, December 2013
14 “First Look: 2014 Outlook for Digital Retail”, presentation to NRF’s Big Show, January 2014
15 “The Rise of the Chief Customer Officer”, Forrester, January 2011
16 Green Park Leadership 10,000: a Review of Diversity Amongst the UK’s Most Influential
Business Leaders, Green Park, February 2014

37
Further background reading
Digitizing the Store. The Next Wave of Online and Offline Convergence, National Retail
Federation and the University of Arizona, January 2014
How Retailers can Keep Up with Consumers, McKinsey Company, October 2013
“Competing in the Age of Omnichannel Retailing”, MIT Sloan Management Review, May 2013
Retail Supply Chain Management: the Omnichannel Revolution, LCP Consulting Report, May
2013
Omnichannel leadership: the hidden risk facing retailers, Green Park White Paper, February
2013
Retailing 2020: Winning in a polarized world, PWC and Kantar Retail, 2013
Omni-channel Vision, Cross-channel Reality: Meeting the Consumer Where they Want to Buy,
Toshiba Report, 2012
Winning the Retail War, Accenture, 2012

www.green-park.co.uk
15 Portland Place • London • W1B 1PT
t: 0207 399 4300 • e: info@green-park.co.uk

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