great leaders
tough times
learn from
the best

Thursday 12 June

Millennium Gloucester Hotel
4-18 Harrington Gardens
London SW7 4LH

We asked a number of the key speakers at the conference to share their views on what the single most important factor is in ensuring that a business remains successful and stands out from its competitors, particularly in the current economic climate.

Sir Stuart Rose, Chief Executive, Marks & Spencer
“You need to have ‘a point of view’. Even if you’re up against the world’s best, you need to ensure you can offer something really special. Our point of view at M&S is a combination of high-quality, unique and innovative products. In food it’s our focus on provenance and innovation and in clothing it’s value and quality. If you lose sight of your point of view, you lose sight of why people should shop with you.”

Alex Gourlay, Managing Director, Boots
“Being customer-led in everything you do. Listening and investing in customers and broadly sticking to your long-term customer and business plans is our advice.

“Customer loyalty to your brand and offer is the essential factor. You must support and give your customers more through good times and bad times. Doing this in difficult times will mean changing faster, becoming more focused on the key things customers demand – convenience, value, great product and service, all of which come at extra cost and investment.

“Therefore the job of leadership is to engage everyone in the need to change faster internally to ensure that we can afford to be consistent with customers and thereby drive loyalty. Short-term cost and margin action almost always ends up in lost customers today and, more importantly, in the future.”

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium
“‘People’ is the one-word agenda for challenging times – your customers and your staff. Making your store – every store, every day – a great place to shop and a great place to work is not easy, but it sits right at the centre of making those other people – shareholders – happy. Put on your to-do list, ‘I will spend more time in our stores and our contact centres talking to our people and our customers.’”

Hugh Harvey, Managing Director, Comet
“In the current economic climate, it is essential for retailers to have clear positioning and to play to their strengths. In our case we will continue to maintain our strong price heritage, underpinning this with a market-leading, multi-point consumer offering. We will continue to invest in a website that informs and excites, in stores designed to bring products to life, and in colleagues who have a passion to serve coupled with unrivalled product knowledge. In addition, we will continue to differentiate ourselves through our delivery, installation and support services that enable our customers to get the most from the products they buy.”

Angus Thirlwell, Managing Director, Hotel Chocolat
“I think difficult economic conditions are a bit like a tricky patch in a marriage. It’s a time when it’s more important than ever that you exceed expectations on as many levels as possible – that you keep the magic alive. Be they exciting new products, unexpectedly high levels of service or a memorably minute attention to detail – your customers will remain loyal if you remain an exciting proposition for them. In short, I could sum it up in two words, Surprise Me. And that’s exactly what we will continually strive to do for our customers.”

Anders Dahlvig, President and CEO, IKEA Group
“In the current economic climate I believe it is even more important to stay true to the core components of your customer offer, take a long-term perspective and resist the temptation to please the investor community with short-term profit maximisation.

Fran Minogue, Global Head of Retail and Consumer, Heidrick & Struggles
“In challenging times the three most important words in business are focus, leadership and clarity.

“In the current economic climate I would urge retailers to play to their strengths, be absolutely clear about their brand proposition and not try to second-guess or copy competitors.

“Clarity of communication is key both to customers and front-line staff, who should be fully empowered to deliver that brand proposition at the point of sale. This can only be achieved by an inspirational and devolved leadership style, which aligns every member of the team behind the company’s objectives.”

Mark Hudson, UK Retail and Consumer Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers
“Retail is detail and therefore it is tough to identify one single factor. However, if there has to be just one, then it is to have a deep understanding of your customers and why they purchase from you, and then to translate this into a brand image, service and value-for-money product offer that meets their needs better than your competitors. This applies equally to all retailers from luxury goods to hard discounters. In tough times, the critical factor to avoid is becoming part of the undifferentiated mass market, where the heat of competition is the fiercest.”

Ian Cheshire, Chief Executive, Kingfisher
“The most important success factor is a close practical relationship with your customer, because in this environment retailers must adapt to the changing needs of their customers, at speed. We have to innovate and keep improving our offer, but it will only work financially for us if that newness is really valued by the customer. The analogy for this customer relationship that I use is when you know someone well enough to buy them a present that they hadn't thought of, but which they love when they get it. Stay as close to them as you can!”