Retailer of the Year/Food Industry Hall of Fame

Gordon: Miller Is a True Merchant with a Mind for Finance

Robert Gordon serves as EVP and general counsel for Albertsons Cos., handling legal matters for the company. He closely works with Bob Miller and the board of directors.

Gordon joined Albertsons when his former company, Safeway, was purchased by Albertsons in early 2015. Gordon had been with Safeway for about 15 years. Before that, he worked for a law firm in San Francisco.

Gordon says what impresses him most about Miller is that not only does he have deep understanding of store operations and store execution, but he also has “a very sophisticated understanding of finance and financial engineering and other broad-picture items you might not expect from a true merchant.

“We have a lot of people on our board that are very sophisticated in high finance, and Bob can hang right with them and dish out the insights.”

He’s also unique among CEOs in that “he believes in accomplishment through humility and integrity, not through intellectual dominance or anything else,” Gordon says. “He cares about the success of other people so much more than others I have come across in the business world. And the people whose success he cares about are not just his immediate lieutenants, but everyone in the stores and everyone in the whole company. It certainly was obvious to me shortly after meeting him that that’s how he leads, and that’s inspirational.” get something done. You are working hard at what you have to do.

In my case, I wanted to be the best at what I did, so if I had the soap aisle, I wanted it looking better than anything else in the store. When I was working in the grocery store, you had aisle captains. So, I remember my first captain’s job was the soap and dog food. I had to order that, stock it, reset it, actually price it…mark everything up 16 percent with a grease pencil.

So it’s working hard, but also treating people right. At one time I had nine CEOs in the Fortune 500 that had worked for me. That’s pretty good. The best thing about that was I could call all nine and they’d answer the phone for me. That’s really, I think, the best part of that story.

You attribute that to what? Well, treating people right. You get a payback over life. I still have lots of people I know who know me who don’t have

Bob is such a great influence on everyone he meets. He has a special ability to keep things simple: Work hard, take care of our people and have fun selling! Bob trusts his team and allows them to do their jobs. He encourages risk-taking and “playing offense.” “Do something; if that does not work, do something else.” He has amazing insight and is a great coach!