Welcome to a special encore episode featuring Michelle Poole, President of Crocs.  We dig into the remarkable growth story behind the increasingly iconic footwear company. We address head-on the polarizing (or is it fundamentally under-estimated?) nature of the brand and how Michelle has turned that to advantage.

We welcome Brendan Witcher, Forrestor's VP & Principal Analyst back to the pod to get his always insightful and provocative perspectives on retailer's priorities for 2024. He helps us separate the real from the imagined with a preview of his upcoming report on where retailers are placing their bets for the future.

Joining us this week is Kristina Rogers, EY's Global Consumer Lead. We leverage Kristina's vast experience working with retailers and consumer brands around the world to get her perspectives on which consumer behaviors are most critical to understand and respond to.

This week we get a glimpse into Steve's forthcoming new book, now available for pre-order just about everywhere books are sold. With Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption Steve goes beyond retail and provides a unique take on why so many strategic transformations fail across a spectrum of industries and, most critically, what leaders must do to go from risking irrelevance to delivering remarkable and enduring results

Our guest this week is Anish Melwani, Chairman and CEO of LVMH, North America. LVMH is the home to 75 distinguished Houses rooted in six different sectors and includes some of the most iconic global luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Tiffany, Bulgari, Sephora, and many more. We explore the differences between LVMH's North American business and the rest of the world, along with understanding  the connective tissue and values that run through all the brands.

Our guest this week is Laurie Lam, Chief Brand Officer at e.l.f. Beauty, the fast-growing cosmetics company that has made a name for itself with high quality, inexpensive beauty products. Laurie helps us understand the origin of the brand and some of the keys to its remarkable success. Instead of kicking things off as we usually do, we take a moment to announce that Steve's new book--Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption--is now available for pre-order at...

Our final episode recorded live at GroceryShop in the Vantage podcast studio features two of the world's leading experts on all things retail: Lindsey Mazza, Global Retail Lead at CapGemini and Stewart Samuel, Director of Retail Futures at IGD. In a wide ranging conversation we delve into the important trends affecting the grocery industry--and retail more broadly--including sustainability, the evolving supply chain, automation, collaboration, cyber-security, retail media networks, and the...

Joining us for our second episode recorded live in the Vantage remote podcast studio at GroceryShop is Barbara Connors, Vice President of Strategy & Acceleration at 84.51° Kroger's retail data science, insights and media company. We start out big picture with Barbara's view of how consumer preferences continue to evolve and which Covid era behaviors are likely to persist. Then we go deep on the move to healthier choices, the growth of private brands, how loyalty is changing, and the...

Our third anniversary episode features the first of three episodes recorded live at GroceryShop in the Vantage podcast studio. We welcome three rock star venture capitalists--Ashley Hartman (Bluestein Ventures), Matt Nichols (Commerce Ventures), and Kevin Parakkattu (Plug and Play) --who share their thoughts on the future of retail tech. In a fast-paced discussion, we dig into the current funding environment, challenges scaling once promising technology, and what each of our panelists are...

On this episode we debut a new segment, designed to recommend specific paths and actions to become truly remarkable. Leveraging material from Steve's best-selling book, consulting work, and keynote speaking, we go deep on a concept first popularized by Nike CEO Mark Parker. At its core, "editing to amplify" means giving customers fewer, more powerfully distinctive options.

Joining us for a wide-ranging interview on how a more than 100 year old retailer stays relevant is Greg Hicks, CEO of Canadian Tire. We start with some history, tracing the evolution of one of North America's most successful retailers from its modest beginnings as a tire shop to today's diverse portfolio of store formats, powerful private brands, and financial services, comprising over 1,700 locations.

The retail graveyard is already filled with brands that failed to transform for the new age of retail and many household names (JC Penney, Gap, Macy's, and more) are edging ever closer to the precipice. Despite the profound shifts in retail during the past decades, these iconic brands continue to fall prey to "The Innovator's Dilemma," choosing to double down on what is very clearly a losing hand.

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today, we bring you our update and perspectives on The Profitless Prosperity of Disruptor Brands with an episode first released in the fall of 2021.

Joining us for our final episode recorded live at last month's Lead Innovation Summit is Ophelia Ceradini, recently departed VP, Digital Technology & Innovation Group at Estée Lauder Companies Online. In a wide-ranging interview we go inside Estee Lauder's innovation process, digging into what inputs drive their strategic agenda, the role of employing a "test and learn" framework, and how to build a culture of experimentation. We also touch on the emerging world of "hyper-personalization."

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today we bring you our perspectives on small format stores for big retail brands. We start with an update on this strategy since we originally released this episode in the fall of 2021.

Joining us for the second of three episodes recorded live at last month's Lead Innovation Summit is Brie Olson, CEO of PacSun, a leading lifestyle brand that sells apparel and related items designed for teens and young adults. In a wide-ranging interview we explore how to be remarkably relevant with GenZ customers. In particular we dig into crowd-sourcing customer insight via TikTok and other social media platforms to inform merchandising strategies, how PacSun's purpose guides their...

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today we bring you our exclusive interview with Joe Kudla, CEO and Founder of Vuori, the fast-growing Southern California-inspired activewear brand. Joe's journey is a fascinating one that anyone in retail and branding will enjoy and can learn from.

We kick-off Season 7 with an engaging conversation on the future of direct-to-consumer retail recorded live on stage at the Lead Innovation Summit in New York City earlier this month. Michael leads Steve--and now three time guest on the pod--Simeon Siegel, Managing Director & Senior Analyst at BMO Capital Markets in a wide-ranging discussion that touches on aligning on a useful definition of "DTC," dissecting what's going on right now that's most important, and what we need to be paying...

Succession patriarch Logan Roy reminds us that it's one thing to be loved. It's another thing to get serious about the harsh realities we often face and to do the work we must to transform at the speed of disruption. In an era of unrelenting change and increasingly volatile market conditions to be anything less than remarkable is to risk irrelevance.

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today we bring you our exclusive interview with Dave Kimbell, CEO of beauty retailer Ulta. First, Steve gives us a powerful update on Ulta's performance under the leadership of Dave since 2022. Both their financial performance and market share expansion are genuinely remarkable.

In our final episode of our sixth season we briefly share our mid-year highlights before dipping into the week in retail news, which includes the prospect of a UPS strike wreaking havoc on the world of e-commerce. Then it's on to our main topic which centers on how economic headwinds seem to be turning 2023 into a year of efficiency. In that context we remind retailers that cost cutting and store closings don't address underlying issues of customer relevance ("bailing doesn't fix the hole")...

Joining us in conversation about his just released new book Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets is Jason Del Rey, the veteran business journalist who has spent a decade reporting on Amazon, Walmart, and how technology is transforming retail.

As we continue our focus on global retail transformation we welcome Wim Blaauw, Chief Digital Officer for the Inkga Group/IKEA. In a wide-ranging discussion we explore the concept of human-centric technology innovation including the notion of responsible automation.

In our final episode recorded live at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona our guest is Martin Urrutia, Global Head Retail Experience & Innovation for the Lego Group. Martin takes us inside the innovation process at one of the world's most beloved brands.

Renowned author, entrepreneur, and leadership teacher, Seth Godin returns to the podcast to discuss his incredibly timely and urgent new book:The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams.