Posted Date: 7/31/2008
Pacesetters 2008
Recognition is a good thing. Celebrities and athletes get plenty of it. Some would say too much. But for retail executives, just like working stiffs in any industry, the spotlight is extremely hard to come by.
Which is why RIS likes to recognize retailers with significant IT responsibility who have demonstrated both the vision and managerial talent to achieve exceptional business performance. We are in contact with many retailers throughout the year and know about a large number of outstanding executives who deserve such recognition. Here are 10 outstanding executives that definitly belong in this year's Pacesetters spotlight.
Clarks Companies
Steve Katsirubas, vice president of information systems
Clarks Companies
- Headquarters: Newton, Massachusetts
- Number of retail stores: 500
- Sales: $1.1 Billion
- Vertical: Apparel
For the past 13 years, Steve Katsirubas has played an integral role in driving one of the world's largest footwear businesses forward. At Clarks, Katsirubas oversees the solution delivery life cycle, customer relationship management, project management, and system development. He has directed a variety of successful system implementations across the enterprise following a "best of breed" strategy. According to Katsirubas, his efforts support Clarks mantra, "to provide premier comfort and casual footwear products to both the wholesale and retail channels packaged with best of class service, and supply chain excellence." This strategy has greatly contributed to the 300 percent market share growth that the company has experienced over the past 13 years. Some recent projects that Katsirubas has led include: the implementation of mobile Internet device (MID) allocation for its retail division and the consolidation of product shipments coming out of China. He also notes that he is in the final stages of a product lifecycle management (PLM) project to improve product conception, design and implementation processes. "I see my role as someone that provides leadership in the use of information technology to enhance revenue, improve decision making, promote efficiency and eliminate waste, while providing exemplary service to my customers and the tools that enable innovation," says Katsirubas, who is also a member of the RIS Editorial Advisory Board.
Virgin Megastores
Alan Flaesgarten
director of applications and development
Virgin Megastores
- Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
- Number of retail stores: 10
- Sales: up 11.5% in 2007
- Vertical: Specialty
Highly recognized for its broad selection of music and DVDs, exclusive fashion, and a cutting-edge assortment of games, books and designer electronics, Virgin Megastore and Virgin Megastore Online have undergone some successful implementations led by Alan Flaes-garten. Flaesgarten served as project manager when Virgin implemented its new POS system. "The key element in the success of the project was my extensive operational experience in the stores prior to joining the IT department," says Flaesgarten. "That real- world experience provided a solid foundation throughout the project at various decision points, such as hardware selection, screen configuration and customer experience and allowed the project to have a smooth and non-eventful landing." Flaesgarten also served as project manager when the company added its real-time data warehouse and re-launched its Virgin Megastore Web site. As part of the site re-launch, Flaesgarten was responsible for the integration of the third-party hosted Web site into the host inventory systems. According to Flaesgarten, this integration allows Virgin to offer a similar experience to the brick-and-mortar stores.
Brookshire Grocery Company
John D'Anna,
Director of enterprise applications
Brookshire Grocery CO.
- Headquarters: Tyler, Texas
- Number of retail stores: 156
- Sales: $2.1 Billion
- Vertical: Grocery
Brookshire Grocery Company (BGC) is best known for its customer service and its commitment to the communities that it serves. With outdated procurement processes and disparate mainframe applications, the grocer recognized it needed to improve its back-office systems and processes. This included adopting an IT philosophy that moved away from best-of-breed and point solutions and more towards ERP systems. The retailer also wanted to implement category management business processes. In 2005, D'Anna and his team began a string of SAP implementations, which included financial and HR systems. D'Anna currently serves as project manager as the retailer implements SAP's IS Retail software. This ERP system will provide a global view of the business, replacing 10 legacy systems with integrated purchasing, merchandising, and financial systems. D'Anna says the retailer has begun to eliminate mainframe applications. "BGC has begun to transform its IT department from one focused on development and break fixes, to one concerned with process efficiency and new functionality," says D'Anna.
Hannaford Brothers
Kevin Carleton,
VP of retail automation Hannaford Brothers
- Headquarters: Scarborough, Maine
- Number of retail stores: 165
- Sales: $2.1 Billion
- Vertical: Grocer
Before making the transition to IT and retail technology, Kevin Carleton spent more than 20 years in retail operations. After serving 30 years at Hannaford, Carleton's experience and knowledge helps to act as a bridge between technology and retail operations. According to Carleton, this allows him to work in a highly collaborative nature with retail business customers in order to close the gap that most supermarket companies have between IT and the business side. During the past year, Carleton has been leading the effort to develop a new role-based communication system and associate portal. The first part of the strategy, which was implemented in 2007, was the Reflexis Task Management System. This system enables the grocer to communicate important tasks from the corporate office directly to key roles at retail stores. "The implementation has vastly reduced irrelevant and redundant e-mail, as well as improved effectiveness in following through on product recalls, weekly promotions and standard practices," says Carleton.
American Eagle Outfitters
- Headquarters: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Beth McCormick, senior director of customer systems American Eagle Outfitters
- Number of retail stores: 990
- Sales: $3.1 Billion
- Vertical: Apparel
Beth McCormick is a strong business partner and enabler at American Eagle Outfitters, an apparel retailer that provides 15 to 25 year-olds ways to express their personal style in everyday environments. McCormick identifies opportunities for improving the business and then guides the company to the selection, implementation, and support of these technologies. McCormick ensures that technology implementations enhance the customer experience, which she notes is the retailer's number one priority. The systems also must improve associate productivity. Currently, McCormick and her team are implementing new POS hardware and software platforms across all AE aerie, and Martin + Osa brands. According to McCormick, the system delivers a multi-channel experience for customers and improves their overall experience with the brands. In addition, the system increases associate productivity by reduced training time and provides the infrastructure necessary for the retailer to continue building new capabilities.
The Office Depot
Garth Duff-Gray,
Senior IT director, global support and deployment
The office depot
- Headquarters: Delray Beach, Florida
- Number of retail stores: 1,350
- Sales: $15.5 Billion
- Vertical: Specialty
For more than 20 years, Garth Duff-Gray has been leading the IT efforts at one of the largest office supply retailers in the nation. In his tenure, Duff-Gray has served as director of international IT, where he focused on acquisitions, integration and conversion. Duff-Gray opened multi-channel operations in Mexico, Poland, France, Thailand, and Japan. Duff-Gray was responsible for deploying fully integrated ERP systems, which support business operations and sales channels in new markets. In addition, he provided ongoing operational, systems maintenance, and supported international acquisition conversions and integrations in Australia, Israel and Europe. In 2006, Duff-Gray was appointed as senior director of global support and deployment.
Burlington
Coat Factory
Percy ("Cy") S Young, III
director of store systems.
Burlington Coat Factory
- Headquarters: Burlington, New Jersey
- Number of retail stores: 370
- Sales: $3.4 Billion
- Vertical: Apparel
Percy Young has spent the past 30 years with Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse and has played an integral role in driving the growth of business from 27 to approximately 370 stores. Most recently, Young has spearheaded Burlington's POS (point-of-sale) software upgrades to support electronic check acceptance, on-line returns management and on-line layaway management. Both online returns management and on-line layaway management are utilizing the ARTS XML standards for data transfer. In 2004, Percy was elected to the Board of Directors of The Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and in 2007 was elected chairman of the board. He has been a regular speaker at retail and computer conferences on the subject of the adoption and use of open systems.
Limited Brands
Mark Sull
vice president of brand integration Limited Brands
- Headquarters: Columbus, OHio
- Number of retail stores: 2,925
- Sales: $10.1 Billion
- Vertical: Apparel
Limited Brands, the parent company of six retail brands including Victoria's Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, La Senza, White Barn Candle Co. and Henri Bendel, has undertaken a complex, multi-phase, customer-centric transformation. Throughout the process, culture management has been a guiding principle of the company's change management initiative. Mark Sull has been the driving force behind the design and leadership of this large, multi-year technology and organizational transformation. Sull also works closely with brand and function executives on business process and technology integration, risk management, and change leadership. His professional experience includes developing and implementing new business strategies and operating models in manufacturing, retail, and high-tech companies.
The Container Store
John Thraillkill
vice president of stores, the Container Store
- Headquarters: Coppell, Texas
- Number of retail stores: 41
- Sales: $600 Million
- Vertical: Specialty
The Container Store operates 41 locations in key markets, and places an emphasis on moderate and upscale products. According to John Thraillkill, "The conversation starts with the end user. The beauty comes when we are visiting with employees and discussing their experiences on the back end or with customers." These types of discussions lead the retailer to develop many of its proprietary products. The opening of two Manhattan stores over the past five years, for example, created challenges and forced the retailer to "accelerate some new ideas," says Thrailkill. Sales at each high volume location are about $20 million annually or roughly twice what other stores generate.
Zappos.com
Brent Cromley
director of development, Zappos.com
- Headquarters: Henderson, NeVada
- Number of retail stores: 5 outlet stores (mostly e-commerce)
- Sales: $840 million
- Vertical: Apparel
Zappos is making its mark in product selection and customer service and Brent Cromley is helping drive this forward. Currently, the retailer is revamping online search functions that will allow it to better serve apparel customers. The search model that had been in place utilized footwear search criteria. Now, Zappos' customers can search by size, color, brand, price and other metrics. Other unique offerings that Cromley is behind include: a recently launched Facebook application and blogs that allow employees and customers to communicate, and a wardrobe building feature that lets consumers match apparel, shoes and accessories via a virtual model.
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