Navigating the New Retail Landscape ─ A Guide for Business Leaders

The retail industry globally is in the early stages of an era of profound, perhaps unprecedented, change. This book is intended to serve as a robust and practical guide to leaders of enterprises tasked with both understanding and delivering success in the new landscape of retailing.

The book firstly describes the major directions and drivers of change that define the new global landscape of retailing (Part 1). Accelerating technology change, the rise to prominence globally of internet enabled shoppers and the rapid emergence of entirely new retail enterprises and business models are combining to re-shape the very fundamentals of the retail industry. No longer are shops needed to be in the business of retailing. No longer is choice for the shopper limited to the neighbourhood, town or even country in which they live. No longer is the act of retailing solely the preserve of traditional retail enterprises as internet-enabled businesses, technology, logistics, suppliers and financial services enterprises all seek direct relationships with the shopper.

The new landscape of retailing is an unforgiving one. Success can be achieved more quickly than has ever been possible before but failure is equally rapid. The opportunities in the new landscape of retailing are profound, but so too are the challenges. Part 2 of this book discusses the structures, skills and capabilities retail enterprises will need if they are to be successful in this new landscape and the skills and perspectives that will be required of the leaders of retail enterprises.

Case studies of innovative and successful enterprises are presented throughout the book to illustrate the themes discussed. Frameworks are presented to provide practical guidance for enterprise leaders to understand and contextualise the nature of change that is re-shaping retail landscapes globally. Clear guidance is given of the capabilities, skills and perspectives that will be needed at both an enterprise and a personal leadership level to deliver success in the new landscape of retailing.

Alan Treadgold, Independent retail sector consultant,Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director, Oxford Institute of Retail Managemen and Deputy Dean, Said Business School, University of Oxford

Dr Alan Treadgold is an independent consultant and adviser. He advises a wide range of retail, supplier, property, and other enterprises globally on issues of shopper engagement, go-to-market strategy, and retail industry change. He has spent over 20 years in senior roles with management consulting and marketing and communication companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Leo Burnett, and WPP. He has lived and worked in many countries around the World. He has a number of Board advisory roles with enterprises globally and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management at the University of Oxford's Said Business School. He frequently presents at conferences globally on the nature of change in the retail industry.

Professor Jonathan Reynolds is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Deputy Dean at the University of Oxford's Said Business School. The Institute undertakes a range of both commissioned and public domain research with direct relevance to practitioners, but which is nevertheless grounded within rigorous academic scholarship. He is also Associate Director of the Consumer Data Research Centre, an ESRC Data Investment. Jonathan's own teaching and research has focused primarily on the retail sector for the past 30 years. He is particularly recognised for his scholarship and expertise in the changing role of place in marketing and retail management, in electronic commerce and omnichannel retailing, innovation and entrepreneurship in retailing, and retail productivity and skills. While his academic base lies in marketing and geography, Jonathan's research activities have also extended into science and technology studies and strategic management.