Duncan Fulton, Chief Corporate Office for RBI (Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes) talks about managing the pace of change, and Carl Boutet, retail strategist reflects on his visit to China and Covid-19 action scenarios

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode I kick off with an interview with Duncan Fulton, Chief Corporate Officer for Restaurant Brands International, better known as Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeyes.  Recorded live in a busy media room at the Restaurant Canada trade show in Toronto early March, Duncan takes us through the strategy and culture driving 27,000 restaurants in 110 countries with a new restaurant opening every seven hours and how to figure out the right pace of change in any organization.

Next Carl Boutet, Chief Strategist for Studio RX, recorded from his office in Montreal.  We catch up after missing each other in January at the NRF Big Show and talk about his visit to Asia and China earlier in the year, observations from his tour and lessons learned that we can apply to our situation today dealing with COVID-19 and how the Chinese are pulling themselves out of the crisis.

But first, let’s jump right into my conversation with Duncan from RBI

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Thanks to Duncan and Carl for being my guests on this episode.  Speaking of doing business in China, I’m thrilled to announce that in partnership with some of the top thought leaders in the space I’ve launched a new podcast, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks!  Be sure and check out our trailer episode now available on all the major platforms to learn more.  Now let’s take a look the top retail stories with Retail This Week for the week of April 6th, 2020.

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, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

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 safe 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.