When Retailing Becomes More Than An Industry

When Retailing Becomes More Than An Industry

Isabel P. Jimenez Savannah College of Art & Design NRF – Next Generation Scholarship Competition 2018

Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

When Retailing Becomes More Than An Industry

While it has been difficult for all of us to watch the many televised reports of the impact of the hurricanes that have destroyed communities around the world, including the divesting triple blows of Harvey, Irma, and Maria, for me this is something more personal. I am proud to be from Puerto Rico, a beautiful Caribbean nation known as the Island of Enchantment and home to a thriving community of people full of the joy of life. While the people of Puerto Rico understand they must live with the threat of disaster that comes with every hurricane season, the fact that Puerto Rico suffered this year back to back blows from both Irma and Maria has left my homeland in a state no one could have imagined.

It has been weeks since hurricanes Irma and Maria delivered their blows to Puerto Rico. However, today, the people of Puerto Rico are living without many of the necessities of life including food, water, fuel, shelter, and access to medications. The people of Puerto Rico have a right to ask why, in the year 2017, they have been reduced to living as if they are in primitive times. While some may turn to political leaders and government agencies for answers to this question, I believe the leaders of the retailing industry in Puerto Rico could have made a very positive impact on minimizing the devastating effect of these hurricanes on the quality of life experienced by the people of Puerto Rico.

Retail leadership is about responsibility

When we think of the retailing industry, our minds often turn to glamorous shopping malls and the major avenues of the world’s great cities. We sometimes forget that the retailing industry includes the providers of the very necessities of life that sustain our communities. I am going to put myself in the shoes of a CEO for a major grocery chain serving the people of Puerto Rico and I am going to ask myself, “What can I do better?” To answer this question, I must examine every functional aspect of my business internally as well as explore the network of relationships I have developed with community leaders and emergency responders.

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

Effective leadership begins with the willingness to accept responsibility. As CEO of a grocery chain, I must recognize that my ability to manage the supply chain that keeps food and water on the shelves of my stores is about more than producing sales and profits.

It is about preserving and protecting human lives. There is an opportunity to better manage the grocery store supply chain to prepare for the onset of natural disasters like hurricanes. Grocery stores have the ability to identify those basic items carried in their assortments that are non-­‐ perishable and that are critical to sustaining life in the community. Once this list of essential items has been identified, as CEO I would work with my operations team and with my inventory managers to develop locker stock warehouses strategically placed across the island of Puerto Rico dedicated to hurricane preparedness. Prior to the arrival of the hurricane season, during the months of May and June, I will work as CEO with my management team to make certain the shelves of these warehouses are stocked with at least 30 days of supply for each of the items on our list of community essentials. I will also work with my logistics and transportation managers to make certain we have a fleet of trucks available throughout the hurricane season capable of delivering necessary inventory from the locker stock warehouses to major stores in our grocery chain. This fleet of trucks will also be available to rush food and water directly to those neighborhoods mostly severely impacted by the hurricane.

Retailing is about creating and sustaining lifelines to the community

With our locker stock warehouses in place, I will work with our store management team to identify our flagship grocery stores serving high-­‐density neighborhoods to create a network of lifeline stores for the community of Puerto Rico. When the threat of a hurricane becomes apparent, these lifeline stores will become the focus of our entire operation with a total team commitment to keep these lifeline stores open and operational at all times. To accomplish this, each of these lifeline stores will receive

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

an emergency preparedness audit and the necessary investments will be made in the physical plant for each of these stores to make certain they are energy independent and structurally sound. Each lifeline store will ask for volunteers from their team of managers and associates to create the retailing equivalent of first responders, people volunteering to do what it takes throughout the duration of the storm to continue serving the community that sustains their livelihood every day of the year. In addition to our own managers and associates, we will extend the opportunity for people who care across the community to be trained as an emergency back-­‐up team, ready and able to help staff the stores during time of crisis. Preparing the lifeline stores for staffing in this way recognizes that our grocery stores don’t just serve the community, they are the community.

Shelter from the storm

Grocery stores are most often positioned on large pieces of real estate and include substantial parking lots. As CEO of our grocery chain, I would recognize that this real estate presents a valuable opportunity for providing the community with temporary shelters and emergency health care immediately following a hurricane. Our emergency preparedness plan for our lifeline stores will include the erection of major tents equipped with cots and energy resources made open and ready to serve those in the community who find themselves homeless following the impact of a hurricane. In addition to providing temporary shelter, I will work as CEO with the Red Cross, with local hospitals and with the medical community of Puerto Rico to make certain that the homeless taking shelter in these tents will also be provided with the medical attention and health care services they need to sustain their lives.

Communication is its own lifeline

It is critical during the process of a hurricane that essential lines of communication with the community are kept open and operational for the sharing of valuable information. As CEO of my grocery chain, I will work with

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

the major media outlets of Puerto Rico and with those community leaders responsible for emergency preparedness to develop an operational plan for sustaining communications throughout the duration of a hurricane. This plan will support communication across a variety of venues including television, smartphones and dedicated radio frequency channels. The network of community leaders with access to these venues will extend beyond media and government officials to include business leaders like myself who accept their responsibility for serving the community and for keeping the community informed during times of crisis. While a hurricane can present a community with a devastating blow, it can also present a community with the opportunity to come together from all walks of life, including retailing, to accomplish great things for the good of all.

As the CEO of my grocery chain, I have developed a deep appreciation for what diverse teams of people can accomplish when they come together with a sense of common purpose. Perhaps it isn’t the politicians, but business leaders like myself who can step forward to become the voice of the community who taps into the power of people to rise up in their own defense.

Grocery retailing: We’re not selling tank tops

The retailing industry serves final consumers with a vast array of products capable of sustaining sales at prices that produce profits. As CEO of a grocery chain, I recognize that there is a difference between keeping food on the shelves and keeping sunglasses on the counter for the people of Puerto Rico. From my point of view, CSR means more for retail leaders like me than for others in my industry. Part of the sense of purpose and joy I receive from my job as CEO comes from walking through the aisles of one of my stores and seeing the faces of families light up as they gather everything they need to satisfy their lives. It is difficult for me to imagine the thought of those families coming to my store during a time of crisis to find the doors locked and the shelves empty.

At this very moment in Puerto Rico, 70% of the island is still without power with no date in sight for its restoration (CNN, 2017). The management of the utility company responsible for providing Puerto Rico with the energy it needs is under investigation for mismanagement. Thousands of people remain homeless. Supplies of clean water are severely diminished and many people are striving to make do with a gallon of water a day. Most food stores and restaurants in Puerto Rico remain closed or are open for reduced hours, with long lines of people waiting hours hoping to find something more than empty shelves (Fox News, 2017). The generators that have been supplying energy to support hospitals and essential services are running out of fuel and the people of Puerto Rico are afraid they may be running out of time (NPR, 2017).

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

It doesn’t have to be this way. If those responsible for leading and managing necessary utilities, media outlets, community services and essential businesses will join with me in accepting responsibility for protecting the quality of life for the communities we serve, I am certain strategic plans can be developed for protecting the people of Puerto Rico from the natural disasters that are certain to come their way. As retail leaders, we prepare for critical seasons and events every year, such as back to school selling, Mother’s Day, and the ever-­‐important holiday selling season.

Why not challenge ourselves to prepare for the hurricane season with the same determination to protect our communities that we apply to achieve the December sales plan?

The sun also rises

It is easy to forget as we watch the many images of a devastated Puerto Rico that the Island of Enchantment is still there. Puerto Rico is a paradise nestled in the Caribbean with a community of people who would find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. Effective leaders are people with vision, people who can keep their focus on what is possible even in the face of an ugly reality. Puerto Rico will come back better than ever but it is going to take time. It is also going to take business leaders including the CEOs of major grocery chains to make certain through preparedness that the people of Puerto Rico are never forced to live this way again.

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

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Isabel Jimenez

NRF – Next Generation Scholarship 2018

November 5, 2017

Grush, R.B. (2017, September 26). How Puerto Rico is trying to recover from Hurricane Maria’s devastation. Retrieved November 03, 2017, from https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/26/16369420/puerro-­‐rico-­‐hurricane-­‐ maria-­‐2017-­‐electricity-­‐water-­‐food-­‐recovery

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