Meeting Retail's Challenges, and Our Own

An annual report focuses on the state of the business for the past year. It also projects the primary events, and critical issues, impacting the industry for the next year.

Stagnito Media spent the better part of 2013 restructuring the company for continued, rapid growth in 2014 and beyond. What we changed, and the reasons we changed, closely parallel the shifting state of the retail industry.

Our new name is: Stagnito Business Information (SBI). The tagline is: Integrated Retail Information.

During the months we brainstormed about the company name, and the restructuring of the organization, we applied the trends of the retail market as an overlay to create a plan for growth and leadership. The key goals were growth and expanded services to better report and interpret daily issues in the marketplace.

The company now has three separate units: media, research and information services. With a combination of internal growth, new product launches and selective acquisitions, SBI recruited managers specialized in these disciplines to lead the groups.

The following major industry trends guided us in transforming our business from essentially a media company to a retail information business.

• Retailers traditionally have offered thousands of branded products to consumers. Are there too many?
• CPG companies emphasize brands, retailers stress category management. The revised SBI can better assist in brand sales, and help with shelf management.

Influences altering the industry such as:

• Technology (selecting the most efficient tools, and measuring them);
• Social media (gauging expectations and what works best);
• Shopper data (sorting through, and presenting the most meaningful data);
• Health and wellness (conveying best practices through success stories);
• Sorting out more sophisticated supply chain efficiencies.

Challenges and opportunities of the blurring of multi-channel retailers:

• Expansion of c-stores, and specialty food stores;
• Diminished customer loyalty, and changing shopper habits;
• The division of large and mid-size chains, and wholesalers and independents;
• The emergence of up-scale regional retailers;
• The increasingly competitive landscape, in differentiation and pricing;
• The growth of store brands, and retailers manufacturing their own brands.

The final part of this restructuring process, and the most difficult, is creating a corporate culture that aligns the personnel with the profit centers and the company mission.

We've identified the most important areas to accomplish this alignment.

• Hire superior people.
• Train, train, train to the new business model.
• Plan innovation, and introduce new products to cover emerging industry trends.
• Accelerate new ideas from concept to market.
• Improve customer and vendor collaboration.
• Maintain a high sense of urgency.

That's our Annual Report. The next time I see you, I'll tell you how our restructuring is progressing.