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Luke Sand North Atlantic Whole Body Innovations, Best Practices & Planning for growth

Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

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Page 1: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Luke SandNorth AtlanticWhole Body

Innovations, Best Practices

& Planning for growth

Page 2: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Strategic Vision

• Define the direction and vision for the North Atlantic Whole Body Program

• Exceed Financial Targets in a highly diverse, competitive environment

• Stream Line and increase Communication to create the strongest and most passionate Whole Body Team possible

• Develop solid, lasting bench strength to fulfill the region’s growth plan

• Drive innovation and efficiencies at the program, store, department, and product level

• Back to Basics focus on customer service, training, standards, and team development to continually improve operations and execution

• Strengthen Cross Merchandizing and Communication between regional teams to drive sales

Page 3: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Define the Direction and Vision for North Atlantic Whole Body • Work together to Actively Map out where

we want to be in 1year, 2years and The Future

• Set goals for Bench strength, Cross Merchandizing, Technological efficiencies, Training, Customer Service, Marketing, Differentiation, Plan-o-gram implementation, Vendor partnerships and initiatives, Promo planning, Communication, and Store/regional relationship, Department design/décor

• Define the programs we have currently and how we can improve them, ie. clothing, housewares, cross merchandising, promos, marketing, allocations, holidays

• Define the programs we are implementing in FY2016 and beyond, and communicate the strategic vision for them to the STL, and WB teams

• Work with the STL group to show how vital and profitable Whole Body is and where it can be integrated into the store.

Page 4: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Exceed Financial Targets

• Exceed forecast sales and margin within each Whole body Sub-team for FY 2016

• Drive differentiation to create and retain customers

• Strengthen Partnerships:I. Teams: reach out to the teams and help make

them feel included, challenge the teams to greatness, help to teach and develop retail execution

II. Store Leadership: communicate and work together with the STL group to help execute our programs, and achieve the highest standards

III. Vendors: reach out to the vendors for increased support with training, social media content, and plan-o-gram assistance to foster win/win partnership

IV. Global: collaborate and execute effectively on global initiatives, and continually give feedback

V. Marketing: Have vendors create content for our social media streams, partner with regional and national marketing to highlight our differentiators

Page 5: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Stream line and increase

Communication• Question everything: It is crucial to foster

communication between the Regional team, Store Leadership, and the Whole Body teams to increase efficiency, stream line store operations, and foster a team mentality

• Plan further out so we can communicate ahead of time so both regional and store teams can best execute

• Better not More: Find new ways to communicate to the teams so we can most effectively disseminate promos, allocations, standards, best practices and resources

• Redesign regional share point so that the teams can quickly and easily find information. Catalog all documents sent out to the teams on the share point.

• Work with Regional Grocery, Produce, and Specialty teams to better plan-o-gram, promote and cross merchandize Housewares to best benefit the customer and increase sales.

• Look at Promo ordering and scale selection to reflect multiple store sizes. Create A,B,C selections for promo pre-orders. Reflect this in the sign request to maximize efficiency

• Promo Calendar: a monthly calendar with all major regional and national promos, displays and flyer items mapped out in color blocks

Page 6: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Develop solid, lasting bench strength

• We need to increase the passion, knowledge, and education of all team members to increase bench strength by improving the inclusionary process

• Have three qualified candidates for each open position: Buyer, ATL, TL

• Whole Body team members need to be engaged, knowledgeable and passionate, and part time work does not foster this. We need to look at full the time part time ratio for whole body and potentially change it. We have the smallest teams in the store and a change will not statistically change the store ratio.

• This is a subject larger than Whole Body and needs to be tackled with a concerted effort by Whole Foods Leadership

• Come up with new and innovative ways to train team members in product knowledge, store operations and merchandizing – utilize technology

• Find and capitalize on efficiencies to free up time and energy to devote to Customer service

Page 7: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Drive innovation and Efficiencies

• Question everything we do:I. Challenge leadership to find more efficient and innovative process’ at

store levelII. Communication, how do we do it better?• Look at programs from the store operations perspective to create the most

efficient and impactful programs before roll out, ie fixture options for clothing, a singular supplier for hangers rolled out with the clothing program

• Scale all programs so that all stores can participate if possible, potentially A,B,C, size allotments

• Surface pro or similar tablet for all teams:I. Increase efficiency by having all necessary technology on the floorII. Use for ordering, email, and trainingIII. Have Vendors produce content for training, 5-10 minute webinars/videos,

or PowerPoint presentations either seasonally or ideally to be rolled out with new product placement as part of the plan-o-gram process

IV. Training can take place at anytime of the day on a schedule or when work slows.

V. Create a well cataloged library (one resource) of trainings for both product knowledge and store operations knowledge

• Partner with our suppliers to create and supply content for our social media streams to coincide with seasonality and new product roll out

• Partner with our suppliers to provide samples for passive sampling to coincide with new product roll outs

• Create a bulk DIY program that is easily scalable for store size, but can be merchandised on our existing display units. Bees wax beads, shea, cocoa, and coconut oils, Epsom salt, jars and bottles

• Redesign departments with Body care 2.0 front and center, Create our departments to reflect our luxury products

• Modular shelving to facilitate seasonal resets• Better lighting in Whole Body to show off the beautiful packaging• Use efficiencies to free up resources for training and customer service• Look for local products that are scalable

Page 8: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Back to Basics

• Customer service is a huge differentiator and needs to be fostered through training

• Increase training of product knowledge, department operations, merchandising and standards to capitalize on this differentiators and to develop bench strength

• Work with Store Leadership and WB teams to maximize the impact of merchandising and standards

• Market our differentiators such as Local, our baseline standards, exclusive product, Premium, and Organic standards more effectively

• Look at Promo ordering and scale selection to reflect multiple store sizes. Create A,B,C selections for promo pre-orders. Reflect this in the sign request to maximize efficiency

• Look to Synergy between regional programs and store operations to find efficiencies

• Get Whole Body out of the department and into the stores utilizing key staple items

Page 9: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region

Strengthen Cross Merchandising

• Work with STL group to create buy in for an expanded Whole Body cross merchandizing program

• Use key items such as, protein, chia, flax, commodity and sale items to drive sales outside of the department. High margin, high ring items

• Find new and innovative fixtures to facilitate cross merchandising

• Work with Regional Grocery, Produce and Specialty teams to place product where it makes the most sense and will have the most impact for the customer.

• Add Housewares into Regional Grocery, Produce and Specialty promo plans and plan-o-grams to drive sales

Page 10: Innovation and Best Practices for the North Atlantic Region
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Luke Sand BioI have fond memories of growing up with the Natural Products

industry in the 80s, going to mom and pop health food stores and Coops and I am very happy to say that many of the brands of my childhood are thriving. I grew up vegetarian in the woods of NH, the son of a glass artist and a stay at home mother. My childhood was filled with woodland adventures, horses, home made whole

wheat bread, many of the best artist and craftsmen in the country and a whole lot of hippies. It was a wonderful, creative

upbringing that fostered health, sport and learning of all manner. That upbringing informed my choice to look for employment at

Bread and Circus while my wife pursued her Masters in Civil Engineering (which I also studied at Tufts), and I am happy to say that I have worked my way around the store since, indulging my curiosity and love of food, entrepreneurship, and operations all

the way. I started in the Bakery, moving to Specialty (and gaining 15 Lbs, we could still find true Brillat-Savarin). My next food adventure

was helping to kick off the regions first in-store roasting program. From there I saw an opportunity and took it as Grocery buyer. I

learned a great deal in Grocery and brought those skills to Whole Body as an Atl in a one off Non-Perishable department comprised

of a combined Grocery/Whole Body team. We turned around several years of negative comps, revitalizing Whole Body in the

process. It was a wild couple of years, and a wonderful ride, learning to lead, all while absorbing the vast knowledge held

within WB. Six months before our 2007 expansion, I convinced my Store Leader and Regional Leadership that it was time to split WB from Grocery and I appreciatively have been the Whole Body

Team Leader since. I currently use my sports nutrition knowledge to help drive my running, skiing, biking and sports of all sorts. I’m very happy to

say I set a post high school PR in the 5K (17:47) and the half marathon (1:28) this fall. I also love problem solving of all sorts,

wood working, furniture design, architecture and interior design.