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 Opinion/Store Management

OPINION: Embrace change in order to succeed

The most memorable idea in John Stanley’s keynote presentation at the Local Shop Summit was that the world of retailing will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 100.

As a result, local shopkeepers were going to have to change their thinking, embracing things such as using social media to establish themselves as “day makers” for their local communities.

<figcaption>Retailing is changing. Are you ready?</figcaption>” width=”234″ height=”144″ /> Retailing is changing. Are you ready?</figure><p>The usual suspects heard his message, and their positive feedback energised the team who put together the event. But what of the other retailers there: what were they thinking? I don’t know but I will have a stab at it.</p><p>One of the first retailers I met more than 20 years ago when I started to cover this industry ran a small local shop and was passionate about his customers and what he sold. In the town where he operated, his shop had a reputation as the place to go for hobby magazines and collectables. His passion for news and for stocking the latest stuff translated into a successful business.</p><p>However, as the industry changed and as shoppers changed he refused to change the way he operated. So enlightened in terms of understanding what shoppers wanted, this man was openly dismissive of investing in EPoS. His business horizons were limited by the size of his shop, which was small.</p><p>But he was a driven man and he had a cause, which remains a just cause. He wanted newspaper publishers, in particular, to return terms to 26.5 per cent, which had been the case in the 1980s when his business was doing well.</p><p>His tragedy was that as shopping habits changed and as more competition arrived, and as the ubiquity of his offer diminished, he was left selling commodities in a shop with no advantages of scale.</p><p>For him, change was a negative. As the world changed, he would think fondly of the past. Collectively, with retailers like him, he hoped they could agitate for special protection from the market. This strategy has still not delivered. It was not a wrong cause. The mistake was, however, not to embrace change.</p><p>My next column will be about how to embrace change, with an interview with Richard Gerver, who has written a remarkable book on the subject of change.</p><p>Gerver made his name working in education as the national curriculum was introduced, and as a generation of teachers abandoned the profession because of change. His personal stories will appeal to the maverick self every good independent possesses. When you read about his staff and his pupils, think about your staff and your customers and the power of the book will be clear.</p><p>And think on his words: “At what point did we start to wish that Christmas was just like it used to be, for TV programmes that crackled in black and white?”</p><p>Nostalgia for a lost past is not the path, he says. Change is part of our lives and his book explains how you can thrive in a world of change.</p></p></div> </section> <aside class=

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