Executives School Next Generation of Retailers
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Director, Fine Food Network
A select group of Britain's top retailers are taking training into their own hands. A new Fashion Retail Academy was recently opened in London with the purpose of training top talent for the retail business in the U.K.
An interesting element of the new learning institution is that it is being jointly funded by well known retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco, GUS, Next and Arcadia along with recently formed, government-backed Learning & Skills Council (LSC).
"It is very unusual to get four retailers working together, but it has got to be better than poaching each other's staff," said Sir Philip Green, who owns some of the U.K.'s largest retailers including the Arcadia Group and British Home Stores.
Sir Philip told The Telegraph the idea for the academy came to him because he was not happy with the talent pool for retailing.
"When you have vacancies for jobs paying £100,000, £150,000 a year that says something," he added. "You get people with a university degree and a good idea but they haven't a commercial bone in their bodies."
In addition to Sir Philip, other top executives are taking an active role in the academy. Stuart Rose, chief executive of Marks & Spencer; John Pearce, the group chief executive officer of GUS; Simon Woolfson, the chief executive of Next; and Terry Green, the chief executive of Tesco Clothing are all going to be teaching master classes.
The academy, however, is not all about classroom work. Forty per cent of the time, students are learning various aspects of the business by working in stores and headquarters locations.
Discussion questions: What are your thoughts on the cooperation between leading retailers in the U.K. to create and support the Fashion Retail Academy? Do you see similar applications working in the U.S.? What about Sir Philip Green's observation that university students are coming into the business but "they haven't a commercial bone in their bodies"? Is something similar taking place here?