Buying things has never been easier. Selling them, however, is increasingly difficult. Blame changing tastes and the explosion of online options for killing off numerous retailers and forcing others to rewrite playbooks. Just last year about four dozen chief executives of U.S. companies making everything from Tupperware to jeans departed, according to researcher Exechange.
“The game has changed,” said John Wood, a vice chairman at recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles. Much of the traditional marketing and merchandising that worked in the past doesn’t anymore, he said. Plus, today's CEOs need different skills, like enough humility to know their limits and continually upgrade their management teams, said Alice Elliot, founder and CEO of the Elliot Group, an executive search firm.
In pursuit of what may breed retail success in this new decade—one that’s bound to cause even more upheaval—Bloomberg News interviewed the chief executives of four chains that are thriving. Mary Dillon of Ulta Beauty Inc., Ritch Allison of Domino’s Pizza Inc., Eric Lindberg of Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. and Wingstop Inc.’s Charlie Morrison took different paths to success, but two themes emerged—convenience is crucial and stores still matter.
Department-Store Killer
The woes of department stores, like Macy’s, get blamed on e-commerce, but brick-and-mortar competitor Ulta has also played a central role. Makeup is one of the biggest attractions for department stores, and Ulta’s supersized outlets, filled with major brands at often lower prices, have been poaching those customers. In the past decade, its sales jumped almost sixfold to more than $7 billion, leading to a stock gain of more than 1,000%. CEO Mary Dillon, a veteran marketer and former head of U.S. Cellular Corp....Read More
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