ReThink Productivity Podcast
In this exciting podcast, Simon Hedaux from ReThink Productivity shares his insights and strategies for improving productivity and efficiency in the retail and hospitality industries. With the help of clients, partners, and the ReThink team, Simon covers everything from measuring and tracking productivity to developing and implementing effective strategies.
Whether you're a business owner, manager, or employee, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn how to get more done and improve their bottom line.
Here's what you can expect to learn:
- How to measure and track productivity
- Proven strategies for improving efficiency and reducing waste
- How to create a culture of productivity and innovation
- Tips for motivating and engaging your team
- Real-world examples of how other businesses have used ReThink Productivity to achieve success
Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from the experts and get ahead of the curve with your own business.
ReThink Productivity Podcast
The Perfect Fit with Bob Neville
Bob Neville a leader in the retail industry with a wealth of experience from worldwide footwear brands, takes us on a journey through his impressive career, sharing invaluable insights into the cause-and-effect relationship between consumer engagement and purchase behaviour. He also delves into the intricate balance between leveraging technology for data-driven decisions and the indispensable role of human judgment
We discuss the critical role of staff scheduling in achieving operational efficiency, especially in assisted and semi-assisted sales environments. Bob emphasises the need for clear communication and alignment within organisations, driven by technology, and highlights the importance of maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset to stay agile and competitive. Don’t miss Bob’s timeless advice on the necessity of continual evolution and strategic revolution to remain ahead in the market
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Welcome to the Productivity Podcast. Today, I'm joined by Bob Neville, who's a strategic global leader driving growth and innovation and transforming retail landscapes with visionary leadership and agile strategies. 30 plus years experience in retail. Hi Bob.
Speaker 2:Hey Simon, how are you going? You make me sound like a bit of an old man there.
Speaker 1:No, I was just when I read that I was thinking. On our website it says 30 plus 50 plus years experience, which is combined, clearly. But, um, experience is a good thing, don't underplay it. Don't underplay it. Thanks for joining us. Really, really appreciate you taking the time out. Um, before we get into kind of talking about operational efficiency, customer service, that kind of stuff, do you want to give us a bit of career background, bob, and what you've been up to recently?
Speaker 2:yeah, sure, so I've my. I got into retail in the in the broadest sense, um, through product design, um, really interested, you know, when you see a product you've really put your heart and soul into on the shop floor and people just walking by, I got really interested in, you know, human behavior. How do you get people to stop, how do you get people to interact, how do you get people to do something? And, obviously, how do you get people to buy something and engage with you? So that was sort of my journey.
Speaker 2:I've always loved sport so I was really really lucky to be part of the early days of Adidas in Asia Pacific in the 90s and from then on I've gone through with Adidas, new Balance, under Armour and more recently, clarks, but really always within that space of brand environment, retail, selling, dtc, that sort of broader space, but both operationally and from a brand perspective, depending on what we see and find when we're working through a business and depending on where on the world that we're actually working. So, top line, that's what I've been up to. It's getting human beings to do something. It's getting human beings to do something and it's getting human beings to engage and want to be part of who we are and who that brand is, whoever that may be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some amazing brands there. It must be a really cool feeling then if you're, I suppose, in the early days, designing and then seeing that come to fruition, as you say, on the shelf, and then actually seeing people buy into that, understand the design and then physically purchase it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it gets really interesting because it's really cause and effect. What sort of things have you got to do through your process, your ways of working? Environment design it's not one magic bullet. Working environment design it's not one magic bullet. Great retail is really coming together over your whole organization. But it is really interesting because you can definitely see that there's certain buttons, figuratively, that you can press that have a real uptick in, whether it's consumer engagement, purchase, intent of purchase, all sorts of things. So I think that gets really rewarding.
Speaker 2:And technology you and I have had conversations around tech. I mean now, tech can be used in a number of different ways in terms of helping understand what's going on within your physical space or your digital space, and I think that's something again, you can derive a lot of value from that tech. And it's not about tech for tech's sake, which I think can be a mistake but the more data you have and the more data you use to drive your decision making, I think that's a really sound way to work. But, again, making sure that it's also nuanced. It can't be sort of you know, almost like data to work, but, again, making sure that it's also nuanced, it can't be sort of you know, almost like data to paralysis, you can't just purely look at the numbers. It's there to help inform your decision making. But yeah, that cause and effect I think is always really interesting. Can be frustrating at times, but also really quite exciting when you get the right buttons pressed at the right time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And we're going to kind of touch on operational efficiency because we know it's a hot topic. It's something we live and breathe every day in Rethink, in those environments which well, I suppose every retail environment is classed as customer-facing, but some increasingly more self-serve now than others, in those ones where there's a reliance on the colleagues to be part of the journey because they've got to go and fetch the stock or the stock's not accessible to pick and take. Operational efficiency is really really important in that. And kind of from your background and the things you're seeing at the moment, is that more because you need to free up the time to spend with customers or because actually you've got more customers than kind of colleague ratio, so you need to get through customers quickly. Why? Why is it so important in those more assisted sell or semi-assisted sell environments?
Speaker 2:well, I think there's a number of factors to that One. We've always got to make sure we have the consumer at the centre of everything we do and, whilst appreciating that staffing ratios and levels can vary depending on the category and type of retail, that obviously varies but when it comes to foot sort of footwear, um, and apparel to a point. But if we talk about footwear, um, there's obviously a need there where you know somebody's come into your environment, into your store, and is wanting to try shoes on and you know they, they need advice, they need help. Does this fit correctly? Do you have? You know there's going to be questions.
Speaker 2:So I think the big challenge there comes in terms of making sure you've got staff and associates on the floor when needed but not there when they're not needed.
Speaker 2:And I think that's all about the scheduling and making sure that you've fine-tuned that, because you know when you've got a, because when you've got a multi-store fleet, those numbers can really stack up and they really need to be under control, and that's the difference between making money and losing money. So at the same time, you don't want to frustrate the customers by having people standing there holding boxes or looking at shoes on the wall and going well, who can serve me? Who's here can serve me, who's here to help me? And I think that's equally important, because you could lose sales that way by having too few staff, and you can lose revenue and profitability by having too many staff when they're not actually needed. So it's a bit of a juggling act, but that's the nature of retail. It's continually understanding what's going on in your stores. It's continually listening to your floor staff, your store management. This isn't something that can just be omissive from head office. It has to be a two-way street, working as a team, to actually understand the right sort of staffing ratios.
Speaker 1:you know, working as a team, to actually understand the right sort of staffing ratios. And that must be an even bigger challenge. When you've got kind of fluctuating demand over the various seasons and if we keep with the kind of footwear theme, you've then, within the season, got events, haven't you? So you've got kind of back to school, so clearly at the end of the summer holidays you've got big events, haven't you? So you've got kind of back to school, so clearly at the end of the summer holidays you've got big events. You've got Christmas, then you've got kind of sandals in the summer, and then you move out of that maybe into more boots and winter wear. So it's not as simple as flat lining that because we're busy in the summer, quieter in the winter, or vice versa.
Speaker 2:You've got peaks within peaks yeah, 100, 100 and and I think you know the thing that plays into that is that, um, having you know, having people, um, in your stores staff wise, that actually understand your product, know how to fit shoes, um, you know, have maybe gone through some specialist training within your organization. It's then very hard when you've got to make sure you don't lose that experience, you don't lose that cost of training through continual churn. So again, trying to get that balance between how do you uplift the numbers of people working in your stores during those busy periods, as you say, and keep that continuity in terms of regular work and income for your sales associates. So again it's a juggling act. Coming in and a member of staff standing there, humming and harring, not quite sure what they're talking about, maybe not really understanding how to fit some shoes. So again it's a real juggling act.
Speaker 2:I mean I'd like to think there was some sort of magic bullet, but there isn't. Just in the same way as going out to the back of house to get shoes for people to try on. I mean there's all time associated with that. Going out to the back of house to get shoes for people to try on, I mean there's all time associated with that and that can be impacting productivity, the cost of serving that customer, but also from the consumer's perspective. The customer's perspective is making sure that they're feeling that they are being attended to and they're not just sort of sitting there um wasting time yeah, it feels there's always that kind of magic moment when you try and choose on.
Speaker 1:If somebody goes off to get the, the size that you want to try on or the designs you want to try on, and there's that anticipation of are they actually going to come back with your sizes or are they going to come back with some alternatives because they've not got your sizes. That feels like a bit of kind of shoe jeopardy. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say something. I think there's a part that comes into this, as well as SKU productivity and actually knowing what actually sells within a store and a particular geography, and also what you need to introduce into a particular store to show customers the latest things. The last thing that you should have is just this wallpaper of products that just sort of just makes it hard for everybody, it makes it hard for the consumer, it makes it hard for the shop staff and it just introduces a level of complexity and and cost that really is going to undermine your business. So skew productivity, amongst other metrics, I think is really important to ensure that you know what you're doing in stores is as efficient and as focused as possible yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And if, if we cast our mind back, I don't know, maybe even yeah, pre-pandemic probably there was this whole view that we'd live in this gig economy and people would have three or four jobs and they'd, you know, wouldn't necessarily be loyal to one employer over the other and they'd go where the hours were. I don't really think that's. That's played through. Maybe covid got in the way and other things and rising costs.
Speaker 1:But in an environment where you need those specialist skills of being able to fit shoes correctly, being able to understand that, especially then dealing with kind of children as well and you know, babies even that probably don't want to conform to putting their foot in a machine or on a machine because they don't know what's happening, don't want to conform to putting their foot in a machine or on a machine because they don't know what's happening. Having um staff colleagues that are have a good level of tenure that you can retain must be really, really important. Rather than you know some of the figures we see now in retail in general, where people are in 60 70 I think there were hotels are in kind of plus 100 labor turnover yeah, again it's, it's getting that balance, I mean, and where you tap into that labor.
Speaker 2:You know there's many of the brands I've worked with through peak periods. You know there are regular temp staff that like that sort of holiday-type work. So there are ways around it. But again, you know whether you're running a marathon or sponsoring a marathon and you're running an expo, where you suddenly need this massive upturn, uptick of staff to be able to deal with what you're going to get over that marathon weekend or week, with what you're going to get over that marathon weekend or week. So having the ability to get that regular access to that sort of temp pool of people that then provides them with continuity of work and then provides the brand and the company with continuity of experience is really, really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, again, there's tech which is starting to enable some of those call outs. You know, if the big catering companies need it for events and all that kind of stuff, there's tech out there that helps enable that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:In terms of metrics.
Speaker 1:yeah, Some of the stuff we always get asked around is what metrics do people use to manage productivity? What things have you used in previous lives to help manage productivity in terms of metrics?
Speaker 2:I've always broke them down into really four buckets and I think these would be applicable no matter the category. But I'd break it down into financials, store development, traditional retail KPIs, let's say, and then merchandising and VM, and by doing that you're capturing the key data in each one of those four areas. So financials, revenue, gross margin, contributing margin percentage um, you know, labor versus sales, that type of thing. Store development, um size of stores, productivity per square foot or meter stock room is a percentage capex per square foot or square meter. And then, when it comes to traditional retail kpis, obviously units per transaction conversion, average transaction value and the like. And then merchandising and VM, weeks of cover range, assortment, skus how many SKUs do you have? So by looking at things in those four broad buckets but in each instance having like six to seven metrics, I think is incredibly important in having a view on that process and operational efficiency, part of part of your retail business yeah, so getting that balanced overall yeah, sounds like sensible approach.
Speaker 1:Has seen seen variations and themes of that, but that yeah, that rounded approach. So you've taken into view of kind of the productivity metrics, the physical attributes, the stock attributes, the customer attributes and colleague attributes. Um, that rounded approach yeah, tends tends to win through yeah, they will.
Speaker 2:They will sit within there, but I again, I think there's there's a need for data and then there's a need for people in the right professionals in your organization to look and understand that data and really understand what's happening. Why has a number dropped? Why should we reduce a number to a certain percentage? That understanding and application of data is incredibly important as well, because data is really important, but it's part of the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at a local level it needs to be actionable, doesn't it? So, as a local store leader, what are those indicators telling me? But actually, what can I do about it or how can I influence it to, to make it better or to manage those numbers? Otherwise, it's just a nice bunch of maybe red, green, amber numbers on a wall that I don't feel I can influence.
Speaker 2:So therefore I'm not involved in the journey yeah, and I think that you touched on a really important point there, simon.
Speaker 2:I think what's really important with this is making sure that the information, the data that you're gathering and spending money on whether it's through tech or systems is enabling people at a store level to really see what's happening within their store so they can actually then influence it.
Speaker 2:And I think it's also really important that when these core KPIs and metrics are pulled together, that's done in a way where you're working and understanding that there's different views and perspectives that are needed to get a rounded view. As somebody standing or sitting there in HQ, you know it's very easy to turn around and throw a percentage out there, but when you get to a store level and even in a particular geography, there's going to be an interpretation or an impact of that decision, and it's really, really important to make sure that there's again that sort of 360 team view on the strategies and the KPIs and things that we'll ladder up to delivering against those strategies. So again, great communication, clear communication of what your business plans are, what your marketing is. Communication has to be the key. You all have to be on the same page, marching to the same tune, but understanding from a leadership perspective, that there needs to be nuance and that could be geographically, at a national level and a regional level. But yeah, there has to be nuancing there for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree that alignment from senior leadership down to kind of the part-time colleague and again, tech's really helped enable that with comms platforms and being able to reach kind of the frontline workers that maybe before would have relied on a briefing from the manager, et cetera Tech's really, really, really starting to push that forward, which is great to see. So final question from me then, um one that everybody gets. What's the best bit of business advice you've ever been given?
Speaker 2:so it's a tricky one, so if you need a second to think, that's fine um, I, I, I would say um very early on in my career um, I won't mention the company names, but very early on in my career we were looking to establish a global brand throughout Asia Pacific and the budgets that we had were pretty minuscule compared to some of the competition. And I can remember then having a conversation with one of the main board directors and just describing how we were continually getting beaten up by the competitors, being outspent, and they turned around to me and just sort of said it's not what you've got, it's what you do with what you've got. And he talked about actually more of an entrepreneurial mindset and maybe a bit politically incorrect, but almost undertaking guerrilla warfare. And by that he was really meaning being very prudent with the resources you have, but using those resources in a way that are both unexpected and surprising and that causes issues for your competition and provides a lot of value for your customers. So for me, that sort of advice I mean it wasn't what I wanted to hear at the time because you know I sort of left with no additional budget but it sat with me from then on in terms of, you know, agility of thought, you know an entrepreneurial mindset being unexpected and, like I say, sort of politically incorrect, but undertake guerrilla warfare.
Speaker 2:You know, don't be predictable. Don't just use the same playbook. You know, don't do the same things year in, year out. Use data to inform your decisions. But you know, look at what you're doing.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and is is a really important part of business, growing and continually moving, um, but. But what's more important is is revolution and understanding when is the right time for revolution. Because revolution is is expensive, um, but, but there is a need at times for evolution. But one thing for don't stand still. Don't think because you've got a market leading position, you're going to be in that spot forever and a day. That's not what's going to happen. So I would say, maybe a bit of a long answer to your question, but I would say that bit of advice, going back now probably 25, 30 years, has really stood me in good stead and it's the way I approach whatever I do with whoever I work for. It's really really important Agile mindset, entrepreneurial mindset, act fast, learn from your mistakes quickly and just keep moving. Keep moving forward and maintain a leadership position through that sort of continual change mindset.
Speaker 1:Amazing, Very wise words. Love that one. Thanks, Bob. And if people want to reach out to you, Bob, and have a conversation, find out a bit more, explore opportunities with you. Where's the best place for them to do that?
Speaker 2:They can contact me via um linkedin um. Look for bob neville uh on linkedin um, or I'm sure with this there'll be some details as well that you can put uh in the links for people to to connect through with me. But I'm happy to have conversations. I love conversations around the sort of things that are happening, the sort of things that are possible. Um, and yeah, I mean, I'd love to have conversations with your listeners.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. We'll put the link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes so people can click through and get in touch. Fantastic. So, just leaves me to say thanks for your time, bob. Really appreciate the conversation and we'll catch up soon.
Speaker 2:Awesome Simon, really great conversations and yeah, chat again very soon. Thanks very much, have a great day.
