Gloria Jean’s big boss bags 2014 Michael Page Retail Exec award

Find out what made Mark Bilton stand out from other nominees.

Michael Page recognised Mark Bilton, Managing Director of Gloria Jean’s Coffees, as the winner of the 2014 Michael Page Retail Executive Award.

According to Richard Wynn, Michael Page’s Regional Director in Australia, Bilton stood out from the rest of the nominees for his “ability to design and implement a business strategy that added significant value for all stakeholders, through a leadership style that is genuine, inclusive, and engaging.”

“Mr. Bilton introduced a three year strategy with a clear vision and milestones that lead to a sense of collective responsibility, individual empowerment among franchises and a change in company culture,” added Wynn.

Along with the distinction, Bilton will be awarded an exclusive place on the 2014 Westfield World Retail Study Tour.

The tour highlights a two-week immersion in five world-class retail destinations, namely San Francisco, Seattle, Stockholm, London, and Barcelona.

Below is a Q&A with Richard Wynn, Regional Director of Michael Page in Australia.

QSR Media: What key trends are you noticing in Retail?

Wynn: As we move into 2014, the retail market is already showing signs of improvement. Consumer spending continually rose across Australia in the last 16 months and according to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Business Sales Indicator, spending rose 0.9% in December and increased by 9.8% over 2013.

This improving consumer confidence, coupled with the fall of the Australian dollar, should provide a further boost to activity and help lift spending across the retail sector in 2014.

Following positive business results recorded during Christmas 2012, hiring activity in the retail sector was fairly steady in 2013 and this enhanced opportunities in the retail job market throughout last year.

This is expected to continue over the next six months of 2014 – particularly off the back of a relatively strong Christmas trading period – with opportunities continuing to rise steeply, compared to last year in NSW and VIC, and on-par in QLD. This is true across most retail sector groups but particularly non-food, general merchandise and food.

Furthermore, with retailers having to adapt quickly and dramatically to combat (and be competitive to) the on-line retail market, their need for new talent at all levels, and in all job types, is forecast to increase dramatically this year and beyond.

Key personnel are taken out of the normal day-to-day roles and put into new, exciting “change” projects. This redeployment therefore has a positive knock-on effect for the backfilling of these roles.

QSR Media: What's your advice re recruiting and retaining the best talent?

Wynn: Talent management strategies that mirror the incentives employees want to receive at work are likely to be most successful in recruiting and retaining top talent.

A mix of financial and non-financial incentives is best. Bonuses and salary increases remain a key component in attraction and retention strategies for retailers, but businesses are shifting their attention to building strong company culture and recognising and rewarding staff with non-financial rewards, such as career development opportunities and flexible work arrangements.

QSR Media: What are some of the key challenges for the sector?

Wynn: The online retail sector continues to outperform physical stores in terms of overall retail sales growth. In an aggressive bid to compete, stores are increasing their focus on the customer experience, store theatre, and visual merchandising.

Although consumer confidence has improved immensely since the global financial crisis, impacts like the mining and resources slowdown continue to affect the Australian economy, which in turn affects consumer spending. Despite key areas of growth in the sector it still remains a challenging market for retailers in Australia but there is definite optimism in the market.

Below is a Q&A with Mark Bilton, Group Managing Director of Gloria Jean’s Coffees.

QSR Media: What are you key business philosophies?

Βilton: • If your people grow and their potential is realised, then your organisation will be healthy and sustainable.

• The 'golden rule' still applies, treat others as you would like to be treated.

• Never underestimate the power of encouragement.

• The answers to a company's problems are often known but not acted on. The key is in harnessing the collective intelligence.

QSR Media: What are some of the elements that make a successful culture in the competitive retail environment?

Βilton: • Great culture is caught not taught, live it before you teach it.

• Hire great people, agree on a direction and get out of the way.

• People own what they help create, a collectively derived strategy will always win over an individual's idea.

• Performance and engagement are built on a foundation of transparency and trust.

• Be who you are, everyone else is taken; we all have God given talents personalities and abilities that are unique to us, and each one of us have a significant role to play in life at work.