In light of Justin King’s Sainsbury’s departure and Tesco’s leadership crisis, supermarket leaders must remember the importance of innovation.

The first half of 2014 has been a tumultuous time for the major supermarkets with reports of falling profits, unhappy customers and new rivals cutting into their market share. There has also been the well-documented departure of Justin King from Sainsbury’s as well as the leadership crisis at Tesco to consider.

However, for many supermarkets the ongoing challenge has been how to satisfy customers at a time when they have more options and platforms through which to buy products than ever before.

That has led the majority of the major food retailers to adapt their strategy away from the ‘space race’ of the past decade or so, towards new avenues where they can understand and provide what their customers want.

That has resulted in a number of new schemes, including Asda unveiling its series of ‘drive-throughs’ to meet shifting consumer needs as well as a number of supermarkets installing click-and-collect points.

All of these changes in strategy and focus require leaders with an understanding of the retail market, but also a wider commercial knowledge – something many of the supermarkets have struggled to recruit.

Retail is now influenced by areas such as analytics, social media and ecommerce to list just a few, and it is no longer acceptable to look for someone with a track record of success in the sector alone.

As a result, HR teams in the major supermarkets will increasingly have to explore new avenues for their future business leaders, or as Asos chief executive, Nick Robertson said, “They’ll need to start thinking outside of the box when it comes to talent strategies”.  

The ideal leader is hard to pin down. After all, each organisation will have its own ways of working, but wider commercial knowledge is something that is irreplaceable. These leaders will also need to be able to grasp how social media affects their businesses and should demonstrate understanding of the organisation’s brand and consumer needs.

Added to that, they must be able to appreciate the true value of analytical data and analysis. This field is only going to become more vital to supermarkets that are increasingly having to deal with consumer demands that are changing at a quicker rate than ever before.

However, the most important skill that supermarkets could gain from recruiting their future leaders is innovation. The sector is in the midst of an ongoing talent shortage and hiring from outside retail not only helps to attract more talent, but also provides fresh thinking and ideas that can aid an organisation’s growth.

Tesco’s appointment of Unilever man Dave Lewis is one step in this direction and we predict the trend will continue to grow over the coming years. While Lewis’ background in consumer goods provides a solid basis for a position leading a supermarket, it’s interesting to see that Tesco went for fresh thinking over proven experience in the sector.

Perhaps the future supermarket chief executive will be someone without any experience in retail and will be brought in to provide new ideas gained from their past experience outside the sector.

Either way, the major food retailers have realised it’s time for a change in approach and the appointment of Lewis to head Tesco could be the first of many ‘outsiders’ taking the reins at a UK supermarket.

  • Sarah-Jayne Bennell is director and head of consumer practice at executive search and selection specialist Veredus