Recently appointed CEOs for retailers ranging from Chanel to Greggs have come from a people-focused background. Could the HR department be the proving ground for more future leaders as retailers assess their culture and strategy post-pandemic?

  • The appointments of Roisin Currie at Greggs and Leena Nair at Chanel highlight a new route from HR to CEO
  • Nair’s assertion that “human capital is as important as financial capital” is gaining traction post-Covid
  • With people teams often headed by women, Pets at Home’s Peter Pritchard sees the route as “a positive driver” for diversity

Boardroom-diversity

The pandemic and a greater focus on diversity have seen the roles of chief people and HR officers grow in strategic importance  

Retail has ridden out a period of relentless and radical change during the coronavirus crisis. The rapid shift to online shopping, fluctuating peaks and troughs in demand, supply chain snarl-ups and the evolution of customer communications have all been borne out of a turbulent two years. 

But perhaps the most pertinent and permanent change has been retail’s heightened focus on people, purpose and culture.

Retail has always been a people business – and such areas were already firmly on the agenda prior to the pandemic – but the importance of the industry’s frontline workers in stores, warehouses and distribution networks was laid bare during the Covid-19 crisis.

And as employees in head-office jobs switched to remote working, the productivity, morale, mental health and wellbeing of the entire workforce was thrust into the spotlight like never before. 

Modern leaders are increasingly being tasked not just with defining and driving a company’s strategy, but with establishing and embedding its culture; attracting, developing and retaining talent; and engaging meaningfully with employees in the new era of hybrid working.

Enter retail’s chief HR and people officers. 

“Before the pandemic, what you would often find is that the human resources department was brought into play when there was a problem. They were not as actively engaged when you were setting the strategic roadmap,” explains Susanne Given, chair of fashion brand Hush and online furniture specialist Made

“The chief people officer’s value is much more explicit – they are rightly seen as someone who is critical to the success of the business”

Susanne Given, Hush and Made

“Over the last two years, strong CPOs [chief people officers] have been actively brought into the early stage of problem-solving and strategic planning.

“Smart CEOs, who have gotten to grips with these dynamics quicker, have looked at their CPO and said: ‘I need you now to be at the table very regularly and to solve problems with a very strategic mindset.’ 

“Because of the CPO taking on a much more engaged, involved role, actively driving change for the company and assisting the board, the CPO is far more visible. Their value is much more explicit and you are seen to be providing answers to a huge challenge – they are rightly seen as someone who is critical to the success of the business.”

From sideline to strategy

It is perhaps no great surprise, then, that certain retailers and brands are now turning to executives with direct experience in the HR and people divisions to take on the top job. 

Roisin Currie

Greggs’ new chief executive Roisin Currie has a background in people functions

Last December, French luxury fashion house Chanel named Unilever chief human resources officer Leena Nair as its new boss.

In an interview with Time magazine last spring, Nair declared: “Human capital is as important as financial capital” – a mantra that others appear keen to build their businesses on. 

At the start of January, Greggs revealed that outgoing chief executive Roger Whiteside would be succeeded by Roisin Currie, the food-to-go specialist’s retail and property director, who had previously spent the majority of her career in the people functions at Greggs and Asda.  

And Pets at Home chief people and culture officer Louise Stonier has been identified internally as a potential future leader of the FTSE 250 company within the next decade.

Peter Pritchard, Stonier’s boss at Pets at Home, believes such appointments are a reflection of how culture has become “the most important thing you are now responsible for” as a chief executive.

“When you recognise the value in building talent and capability, your expertise in building high-performing teams is a distinct advantage”

Peter Pritchard, Pets at Home

“If you have already been responsible for your people and building a culture, then I think that’s a distinct advantage today when taking on the CEO role,” he argues.      

“If you look at the organisations that have succeeded during Covid, they have had really strong cultures – their people have come together, they knew what they were doing, they dealt with all sorts of rubbish and they found their way through.

“That has defined the winners and losers of Covid, so that will continue to be a very sharp focus for retailers.

“Coming from a people function is definitely an advantage when it comes to leading that. When you spend your life in a people function and recognise the value in building talent and capability, your expertise in building high-performing teams is a distinct advantage.”

“The power of leaders having really tremendous interpersonal skills is absolutely paramount for any business to be successful”

Tony Gregg, Anthony Gregg Partnership

Tony Gregg, the founder of executive retail search consultancy Anthony Gregg Partnership, agrees.

“The people CEOs are the ones that are going to come out of this period shining, rather than the CEOs who just deliver for venture capitalists or shareholders,” he asserts. 

“The power of leaders having really tremendous interpersonal skills is absolutely paramount for any business to be successful. We can openly talk about mental health and people’s wellbeing is absolutely paramount now, so the drive towards being people-focused and understanding the ‘touchy feely’ bits of the job – everyone is focusing on that.

“The companies that aren’t doing it are losing their employees.”

Cultural clout

Are those characteristics and skills, now valued more highly than ever by retailers, likely to trigger an influx of HR and people directors moving into chief executive positions as Nair has done at Chanel? 

Louise Stonier

Pets at Home’s chief people and culture officer Louise Stonier has been tipped as a potential future leader 

Pritchard is sceptical but believes “the doors are wide open” for HR professionals to “move sideways” into other parts of the business as part of a career development plan that maps out a route to the top job – a pathway that might not have been available to them prior to the pandemic. 

Gregg concurs: “A route to CEO was never seen as a path for people in HR. Roles were very singular and you just did your bit – there was never any cross-functional involvement. 

“But over the past few years there has been – and businesses are seeing the benefit.” Gregg points to senior leaders such as the Co-op’s Helen Webb, Joules retail and people director Lyn Warren and Dunelm’s Amanda Cox as examples of people leaders who “really get retail”, having added wider general management skills to their people expertise. 

Melissa Reed, managing partner at HI Executive Consulting, believes that trend will drive an increase in the number of internal promotions being made by retailers.

“Companies must be looking at internal succession plans in much more detail than they are now,” she suggests. “Those internal plans can and will now include people from HR backgrounds, whereas before they would probably have been excluded from that.

“The key is, when you have got a great HR person, show them other parts of the business. Roisin [Currie] is a great example. She is currently retail and property director – she’s been prepared so that when the conversation about a new CEO came there were options. Those options, I think for the first time, can legitimately include the chief HR officer.”  

Pritchard and Given are both at pains to emphasise that point, highlighting that “breadth” of experience is crucial for the modern chief executive. But Given says that, in an era when the days of “the big almighty CEO voice” are long gone, someone with “low ego” and “strong interpersonal skills” is a must. 

“A talented CEO today is someone who empowers the whole organisation to interpret the relationship with the consumer and allows that information, data and insight to formulate a strong, clear strategy,” she suggests.

“Your job is to utilise a huge amount of human resource, a huge amount of data, a huge amount of consumer insight and build answers through that. That change in CEO DNA has been taking place for the past 10 years and that changes the type of CEO you look for.

“You need somebody who is not only able to manage the business with low ego and through data, insights and people, but also somebody who can bring skills to drive strong culture, drive strong engagement among employees who are working from home, define what great employment branding looks like and go and find the best talent.

“We are on the next leg of that journey because of the pandemic.”

Driving diversity

But it is not simply the pandemic and the increasing importance of their roles that have thrust HR and people directors into succession planning conversations. There are two other factors at play, argue Reed and Pritchard. 

Reed observes that the appeal of a career in the HR and people functions has increased dramatically, improving both the calibre and quantity of candidates applying for such roles. 

“We are now seeing HR attract a far, far better quality of people into that job because of its relevance, its importance and its commerciality”

Melissa Reed, HI Executive Consulting

Amanda cox jpg

Dunelm’s Amanda Cox is cited as a people leader who ’really gets retail’

“Even before the pandemic, we’d come a long way in terms of how businesses perceive the value of HR. It used to be a back-office role that reported to a CFO. Now it’s sitting on the executive committee. That’s given a huge amount of visibility to the benefits that HR people can bring,” she says.

“We are now seeing HR attract a far, far better quality of people into that job because of its relevance, its importance and its commerciality. I work with some outstanding HR directors and what really separates them is that they are absolutely focused on the commercial needs of the business but through a people agenda.

“They are now absolutely fundamental to business-making decisions, to culture, to values, but they now also have to be incredibly commercial.” 

Pritchard, meanwhile, believes retailers also have one eye on their diversity and inclusion agendas, and are increasingly looking to their HR functions for talented women who have the ability to progress into even more important positions within the business. 

“We have recognised that we need to see more diversity of talent coming through,” Pritchard explains.

“Often you will find that your most senior female leaders sit in the people function. How do you unlock that? That’s a really positive driver. 

“Traditionally, many of our HR functions have been led by females. What a great example of how retail is developing its female talent, backing them to step outside that function and encourage them to broaden their careers in other areas and demonstrate that they can make it to the top job.”

While that leap from HR into the top job may not always be as direct as the one Nair has taken at Chanel, one thing is for sure: retailers and boards are placing greater value on its people function than ever before. 

In an era when the “almighty CEO voice” has been displaced by leaders with softer interpersonal skills and an ability to instil the right culture across their organisation, the stocks of HR and people directors have never been higher. 

They might not be your next chief executive, but they have established themselves firmly among the runners and riders jostling for the top job.  

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Be Inspired logo

Retail Week’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) programme Be Inspired pledges to break down barriers in retail and give everyone –regardless of age, background, gender, race, sexual orientation or ability – the tools, inspiration, knowledge and connections needed to fulfil their career aspirations.

Four of the individuals in this article – Pets at Home’s Stonier and Pritchard, Hush and Made’s Given and Dunelm’s Cox – are Be Inspired ambassadors. These D&I champions are committed to driving progressive change and equality in retail and, thanks to their time, skills, support and direction, BI are able to inspire and connect individuals at all stages of their career throughout the sector. 

You can find out more about the role of an ambassador here or email head of D&I programme laura.heywood@retail-week.com to get involved.