Remarkable Retail Michael LeBlanc, Steve Dennis

On this episode we debut a new segment, designed to recommend specific paths and actions to become truly remarkable. Leveraging material from Steve's best-selling book, consulting work, and keynote speaking, we go deep on a concept first popularized by Nike CEO Mark Parker. At its core, "editing to amplify" means giving customers fewer, more powerfully distinctive options.

Joining us for a wide-ranging interview on how a more than 100 year old retailer stays relevant is Greg Hicks, CEO of Canadian Tire. We start with some history, tracing the evolution of one of North America's most successful retailers from its modest beginnings as a tire shop to today's diverse portfolio of store formats, powerful private brands, and financial services, comprising over 1,700 locations.

The retail graveyard is already filled with brands that failed to transform for the new age of retail and many household names (JC Penney, Gap, Macy's, and more) are edging ever closer to the precipice. Despite the profound shifts in retail during the past decades, these iconic brands continue to fall prey to "The Innovator's Dilemma," choosing to double down on what is very clearly a losing hand.

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today, we bring you our update and perspectives on The Profitless Prosperity of Disruptor Brands with an episode first released in the fall of 2021.

Joining us for our final episode recorded live at last month's Lead Innovation Summit is Ophelia Ceradini, recently departed VP, Digital Technology & Innovation Group at Estée Lauder Companies Online. In a wide-ranging interview we go inside Estee Lauder's innovation process, digging into what inputs drive their strategic agenda, the role of employing a "test and learn" framework, and how to build a culture of experimentation. We also touch on the emerging world of "hyper-personalization."

Welcome to a special encore episode of the podcast, where we open up the back catalogue and share some of our favourite and most popular episodes that are worth a second (or perhaps your first) listen. Today we bring you our perspectives on small format stores for big retail brands. We start with an update on this strategy since we originally released this episode in the fall of 2021.