For Matthew Speight, stores director UK & ROI at consumer electronics and home appliances retailer Currys, part of the complexity facing any business leader is that organisations grow and evolve over time. Leaders often arrive looking to the future, but having to contend with a business’s legacy.
“If there was a book written on the business you work for, you might come in as a leader at chapter 10 or chapter 20,” he says. “It’s important to respect what’s happened before, but your role is also to leave the business in a better place than when you found it.”
The idea of leadership operating at the apex of the past and the future seems particularly pertinent when Speight describes Currys – which sells the very latest technologies, but is also a heritage high-street British brand.
“It’s high-tech at one level,” he says, “although not to the extent that you’re a disruptor like some of the big global tech firms. And right now we also have the AI and data revolution that is transforming retail at pace. But Currys is also seen as a very traditional, dependable high-street shop. It’s a fascinating place to be.”
Retail basics
The complexities of retail may sometimes be overlooked, perhaps because of our familiarity with it. We know how it works. We go to a shop. We look around. If we see something we want and can afford it, we may buy it. If we don’t, we leave. Traditionally, this happened in bricks-and-mortar stores, but more recently, of course, the shops we visit have also been online. However, the basic premise of retail remains the same: simple.
The history of Currys (see page 60) highlights just how much retail can change. The business’s timeline shows shifts in the kinds of products sold. New technologies emerge, which alter customer needs and expectations. Companies merge as businesses grow. Brands evolve, disappear and are resurrected. New services are offered. External pressures (for example, sustainability) come to the fore. The mission statement needs a refresh. And all this happens while, every day, the customers come and go, the cash registers ring and the online order confirmations are sent.
“We help everyone enjoy amazing technology” was adopted as Currys’ vision in 2018
In retail, the potential for success or failure is a daily – even a minute by minute – occurrence, a fact known only too well by those on the shop floor and looking customers in the eye. People, then, are retail’s ever-present, always-on judge and jury – and, yes, they literally vote with their feet. Keeping the customer satisfied is retail’s evergreen mission.
For Currys, that understanding is summarised in its corporate vision: ‘We help everyone enjoy amazing technology’. But how is that done?
For Speight, remaining people-focused while being agile and able to adapt at speed are crucial aspects of leadership.
“I didn’t set out to spend all my career in retail,” he says, “but I did want to work with people, and in retail I’m in a career where there’s a high people agenda. I’ve also always been fascinated with performance, whether that’s in terms of sport or business, and I’ve worked with teams that have faced change and transformation.
“Cutting through all of this – through the decision-making and the complexities – the focus is always on being clear about what matters for the organisation. In retail, if you can achieve alignment across people and teams, then you can achieve pretty much anything. That’s easier said than done, because there’s lots to do and many priorities, but the quicker you can get to what matters, the faster you can go and the better performance you’ll get.”
Omnichannel challenges
As stores director, Speight leads teams that have two interlinked roles: to sell technology and to help people sell technology.
“My job is to help people sell technology,” he says. “It’s to take the resources I’ve got, the talent I’ve got, the products we’ve got, and find a way to meet and exceed as many customer expectations as possible, across all of the Currys stores in the UK and Ireland. My responsibilities also include the property, marketing and interaction with our internal teams, and our transformation agenda.
“It’s about continuing to raise the bar and make it as easy as possible for our colleagues to serve customers. I like to think of that as ‘servant leadership’. I’ve also got to navigate the now, the next and the later, and set a strategy for us to win. In retail, if you are not transforming now, you’ll get left behind.”
If that sounds fast-paced, there’s one further complexity. Currys, Speight notes, is not a high-frequency business. Customers don’t visit the stores every week like they do to buy groceries. They might only visit a handful of times in half a decade. Those visits, therefore, need to be memorable – for positive reasons. The same goes for the retailer’s online stores.
“We think of ourselves as an omnichannel business, and getting omnichannel right is really important for Currys,” he says. “In recent years, we’ve seen a clear shift to speed and convenience. People want to shop for a product when they want it. Ultimately, they want the right experience in the right place at the right time. That might be on a phone or in a physical store. Retailers have to optimise their channels. Websites need to be slick, with an easy checkout experience, clear information and engaging content. In store, you need brilliant colleagues who know their stuff and can create that slick and easy shopping experience. They’re the foundations.”
These days, the vast majority of Currys customers start their journey online.
“We have to deepen the relationship with the customer in that channel and not disrupt their journey,” says Speight, “while also allowing customers to move between channels seamlessly. Omnichannel is about how we ensure that, wherever that experience is, we have the right advice, reassurance and expertise for customers.”
Reducing friction across the customer journey is a familiar challenge for many businesses. But the move from browsing online to visiting a store to make a purchase can be a particularly pronounced jolt for retailers such as Currys, whose customers may be considering a large financial outlay.
“When customers aren’t buying very often, and spending upwards of three or four figures, you need to get it right,” says Speight. “Our selling journey is about helping people navigate big choices. It’s about listening, making people feel engaged in the conversation and then using our experience to inspire. If a customer starts online, what is it that’s going to make them go to a store? How do we all work together to make it easy for them?”
Time for change
Speight’s strategy to stay agile and keep the customer satisfied is a plan of three parts – or three ‘time horizons’: Run, Change, and Transform.
“Run is looking after the day-to-day operations. As the stores director, I need to know how we are operating in the stores today. Are we ready for the customers? Have we got the right people? Have we created the right environment? Then we have a Change agenda. This is about making things better, listening to the frontline, getting feedback, tweaking the operating model, and making small changes to improve our effectiveness. Finally Transform is about making a real step change. For example, we introduced headsets to keep our colleagues on the shop floor safe, and electronic shelf-edge labels to allow us to keep up with price fluctuations and stay ahead of the market. Then, behind the scenes, we’ve adopted AI tools to help our managers navigate complex datasets.
“These are all aimed at delivering for customers and helping our people meet their targets and get results. In retail, it’s not like being a lawyer who builds a case over weeks and months, with the outcome sometimes years later. The three ‘time horizons’ need to work together.”
Speight has another three-part strategy for success. Leadership, he says, needs to come from the front, the middle and behind. What it means to lead from the front may seem clear (playing an active and visible role in the everyday running of the business), but what does he mean by from the middle and behind?
“To me, leading from the middle is about being with the team. For example, I spent a week in a store earlier this year. We’re in there together. I get to experience what it’s really like and gain a perspective on the business that I wouldn’t get if I only worked from the office. I think that’s something people don’t do enough of.
“Leading from the back is about setting the tone, building the team, creating the capability and the infrastructure. It’s about how we operate and how we set people up to succeed. It might be about governance, for example, and it affects the business’s foundations. It’s from there that people can realise their potential. Being able to move between these three leadership positions and roles is incredibly useful.”
Is there not a danger in being a business leader who isn’t always seen to be standing firmly, assertively, in one place? “I guess the contradiction,” says Speight, “is that, as a leader, you need to give clarity. Clarity and cohesion get things done. But you also need to be open enough to allow ideas to come in and percolate through the system.
“It’s OK to get things wrong as a leader, as long as you’re prepared to recognise when they are incorrect, and to make changes. When you lead from the front you set an example – but then you need to run a temperature check and ask ‘how are we really getting on?’”
“As a leader, you need to give clarity. Clarity and cohesion get things done. But you also need to be open enough to allow ideas to come in and percolate through the system”
Future of retail
With many high-street units standing empty across the UK, and with social-media retail predicted to boom in the next few years, it would be easy to be pessimistic about the future of bricks-and-mortar retail. Speight, however, takes a more positive view. Again, people are at the heart of the vision.
“Stores are going to be increasingly relevant – and experiential – for customers,” he says. “In a world where we don’t have as much human contact as we used to, stores can be a fascinating place to play and enjoy interaction. This isn’t just about Currys. I think retailers are starting to recognise how they can become a real force and that they are good when they work together. Retail is a massive employer in the UK, and it is a place where people can build fantastic careers. And we are social individuals. That keeps stores relevant.
“There is work to do, however. As leaders, we are guardians of the business and we need to create a culture in which we stay ahead. If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing our job.”
Martin Bewick is a writer at CPL One.
