Leadership

Alibaba announced on Monday that Jack Ma will step down as chairman of the board of the $420 billion e-commerce company on Sept. 10, 2019. At that time,  which is Alibaba’s 20th anniversary, Ma will be replaced by current CEO Daniel Zhang, an 11-year veteran of the company. Alibaba said Ma will continue as executive chairman over the next 12 months…

At the core of Trader Joe’s “modus operandi” is a focus on simplicity, better value and a fun shopping experience. The grocery retailer's success factors are there for everybody to observe and copy, yet nobody has been able to do so successfully. The company's founder, Joe Coulombe, was asked in 2006 by Coriolis Research if…

Women CEOs in all industries — including retail — worked harder and longer than their male counterparts to get to the top, according to a study of current and recent women CEOs conducted by Korn Ferry. The study found women CEOs were four years older, on average, than their male counterparts, and worked in a slightly higher number of roles, functions, companies and industries before getting the top job.

Best Buy announced last week that it will pay $800 million to acquire GreatCall, a company that offers health and medical-alert services to 900,000 older Americans. GreatCall offers seniors several products, including portable medical-alert devices and easy-to-use mobile phones, that provide access to urgent-response teams, doctors and nurses, as well as offer reminders to take medications. The acquisition…

Two women have filed a class-action lawsuit against Nike Inc., alleging it discriminated against them in pay and career advancement, according to a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal. The suit was filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., by two former employees, Kelly Cahill and Sara Johnston, who said that they endured a…

Albertsons Companies and Rite Aid Corp. announced on Wednesday that they are calling off their merger agreement. The $24 billion deal, announced in February, has faced opposition from a number of investors as well as top-10 shareholder Highfields Capital Management. Critics have argued the deal provides Albertsons’ private-equity owner, Cerberus Capital Management, a vehicle to…

Today’s competitive physical and online marketplaces have pushed retailers to perform at a higher level in order to turn casual shoppers into loyal, returning customers. The quest to draw customers in, give them the best possible experience and keep sales revenue healthy has turned retailers towards the importance of reinvention. In fact, reinvention is the…

Almost every day Amazon.com makes some announcement about a new innovation or new initiative that will help the company continue to dominate the retailing industry. All of this success has made Jeff Bezos the richest man in the world! Does the growth of Amazon and other online retailers signal the end of traditional brick-and-mortar retail?…

Luck does not just happen but taking advantage of situations with a new or challenging perspective can lead to luck. Parents of the Baby Boomer generation came out of a major Depression and World War II. Those were difficult times yet people, particularly in the Western world, emerged from the 1940’s with incredible optimism and “hope” for a better life.

In 2015, the Harvard Business Review ranked Lars Sorensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, as the best-performing CEO in the world for that year. When most CEOs are asked what makes them and their companies successful, they usually point to a brilliant strategy with hard-nosed, diligent execution and great leadership. Not Mr. Sorensen. When asked what…