A different road taken

MMR, Dec 13, 2004 by Greg Jacobson

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Although Kent Larsson's career began in retailing, the path to his present position as senior vice president of marketing for Big Lots Inc. was unique--and not only because it includes a period in the consulting business.

A native of Sweden, Larsson was a young assistant store manager in his hometown for one of the country's two large department store chains when he was offered the chance to come to Columbus and go through Lazarus Department Stores' training program. While engaged in the program he was invited to take continuing education courses in business at Ohio State University (OSU) while working part-time for Management Horizons, a marketing consultancy formed by a group of Ohio State marketing professors.

The invitation was extended by Alton Doody, then a marketing professor at OSU and a cofounder of the firm. Larsson was soon offered a full-time job and urged to enroll in the university's MBA program.

"At Management Horizons my compensation was divided between salary and paid tuition," he recalls. "Between the job and the MBA studies those were very intense days."

By contrast, adjusting to life in the United States was much easier than he had expected, although he imagines his first-year professors were puzzled by his English, which, although fluent, reflected British usage.

Larsson was with Management Horizons from 1970 to 1974, the early days of what quickly became one of the premier marketing consulting and research firms in the country. In addition to Doody, the company's principals included William Davidson and Roger Blackwell, both noted OSU marketing professors.

The firm's orientation toward retail marketing gave Larsson a broad familiarity with the industry and with other channels of distribution. He also worked on the retailing revolution that was remaking the industry in the United States as well as Europe.

In the course of his work he met numerous executives of retail, wholesale and manufacturing firms. One of those encounters resulted in his return to retailing. "On one tour I met executives of Gabbert's Furniture and Design Studio, which had two large stores, one in Minneapolis and one in Dallas," Larsson recalls. "We talked about emerging lifestyles, because they were starting a new division called Room and Board that was geared to the young baby boomers."

Larsson joined the company and moved to Minneapolis. After four years at Management Horizons he felt he had learned a good deal, and he wanted to test his knowledge. He says that he also felt the pull of retailing.

In Minneapolis he subsequently accepted an offer from General Mills Inc., which owned such chains as Eddie Bauer and Talbots. Larsson conducted strategic planning for the retail businesses and worked on other acquisitions before joining Big Lots' predecessor, Consolidated Stores Corp.

Having experience in both worlds, Larsson notes that companies that use consultants wisely can benefit in many different ways, either from the consultants' broader and deeper knowledge of best practices or from specialized talent for a task or from a particular research methodology.

"Consultants can also help organizations manage change," he adds. "But they don't replace management's responsibility. Management has to take ownership of the recommendations and effect the changes; consultants can't do that."