The Voice of Retail Interviews with top retail advisors David Poirier, CEO The Poirier Group and Ted Salter, Partner, Advisory Practice, EY plus Canadian Retailer Editor-in-Chief Sean Tarry
Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of July 15, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this episode I interview two of retails biggest thinkers and most strategic advisors for their thoughts on modern retail and what it takes to compete and win profitably.
First up is David Poirier, Founder and CEO of The Poirier Group - we look back at a bit of retail history through our mutual lens as former Hudson’s Bay executives (Dave was CIO of HBC, I was Director of eCommerce and CRM), the nature and pace of change in retail technology (hint: don’t buy the Pink Pill), moving to agile processes, helping retailers understand how the work gets done, sustainable results and the right metrics.
Next my interview recorded in Vancouver at the Consumer Goods Global Summit with Ted Salter, Partner, Canada, Advisory Services, EY. We talk about his vast experience working with retailers at the most senior levels and helping them move beyond being efficient, helping them imagining the future consumer with customer “hackathons”, creating future worlds, un-freezing the worldview and Ted’s response to my “if you had a Billion dollars, what would you do?” retail question.
Finally we check in with Canadian Retailer Editor-in-Chief Sean Tarry who fills us in on the latest edition of Canada’s only magazine dedicated to the retail industry, this edition dedicated to retail sustainability but chock full of other great content from you’ll hear all about including must-read articles from contributors including Retail Insider’s Craig Patterson and interviews with retail brand gurus Joe Jackman and Tony Chapman.
Next we’ll cover off Retail This Week including Aritizia’s new loyalty program, Bezos climbs to the top of the thunder dome to celebrate a record breaking Prime Day(s) sales result, Reformation comes to Canada, Father doesn’t know best in Turkish eCommerce, Charming Charlie closes the book on all of it’s 261 stores, Fred’s closes 129 and Dean and Deluca is just eerie now, and Zara going 100% sustainable fabrics by 2025.
But first, let’s listen to my interview with David Poirier
Thanks to Dave, Ted and Sean for being my guests this week, now let’s hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, biggest retail weekly in Canada and you can subscribe on www.retailcouncil.org for free.
That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition.
I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn
Until next time, have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.