Communication key to being a better leader - Editorial

Discount Store News, March 7, 1994 by Don Longo

Leadership is a much misunderstood concept in today's business world, yet it is crucial to any organization that wants to keep apace of the many changes in today's world marketplace.

Take, for example, the supermarket industry's efforts to implement Efficient Consumer Response. Developed as a response to the growing competitive pressure of so-called alternative formats (i.e., warehouse clubs, discount and drugstores that all grocery items, and the newest threat, supercenters), ECR was heralded as a new concept that would take billions of dollars in costs out of the food distribution pipeline. To date, few supermarket operators have done much more than study the concept. In contrast, discount industry leaders like Bobby Martin of Wal-Mart and Dave Carlson of Kmart, among others, propelled electronic data interchange and Quick Response into mainstays of the mass merchandising industry.

In my view, the main prerequisite for leadership is communication.

No one has done a better job of communicating the need to change ingrained ways of doing business than Wal-Mart ceo David Glass. Glass says, "All concepts of doing business are changing." These changes are driven by how consumers view value in the '90s and what they expect out of customer service. How do you find that out? By communicating with the people who shop in yout stores and the people who work in them

Gene Hoffman, former SuperValu and Kroger ceo and currently a self-described "leader-shaper," wrote recently in Grocery Marketing, "We must learn to speak a new language, break down bureaucracies, empower our employees, create new measurements for executive performance and always focus on the customer."

Yes. Language and communication is the bridge between the idea and the reality. Indeed, the power of communication is an instrument through which the new reality is attained.

Do warehouse clubs have a viable future? Are supercenters a fad? What do retailers and vendors really mean when they talk about "partnerships?" Is employee training keeping up with the demands of today's customers? Is there a role for the regional discount chain in the face of competition from the national behemoths? Will Washington's attempts to socialize the health care system induce havoc on the cost of retailers' benefits packages, not to mention the economy? Will spring ever come in the Northeast?

These and other questions are of critical concern to the discount retail industry. Tell us what you think.