When it comes to CEOs, is the 'digital guy' the best guy?
No industry has gone untouched by the rapid technological growth of the past decade, but journalism and retailing certainly number among those that have changed the most.
In early December, staff at The New Republic made their feelings known about the tech-minded direction Facebook co-founder and TNR owner Chris Hughes sought to take the publication: they walked out. So great was the enmity in some segments of the journalism world that an op-ed in The Washington Post referred to Mr. Hughes, who bought The New Republic in 2012, as a "dilettante and a fraud."
With Art Peck, Gap's "digital guy," taking the helm as the retailer's CEO in October, one wonders if there isn't something in Mr. Hughes' story to which he, and retail c-suiters nationwide, should pay attention.
Of Mr. Hughes' transgressions at The New Republic, the ones that inspired the most ire were his doing exactly what one would expect of such a Silicon Valley-steeped figure — in a word, "disrupting." Mr. Hughes had given his word to keep The New Republic's long-form journalism tradition in place, but after two years was investing resources into apps and demanding "snackable" content.
Mr. Peck's decade at Gap leading up to his CEO status show that he's no dilettante, but he is leaning heavily on digital. Discussing his strategy with Buzzfeed, Mr. Peck stated that, "The numbers are going in a way where, very quickly, the majority of traffic will be digital as opposed to people walking into our stores."
It goes without saying that omni-channel initiatives are important, but it's also important to recognize that not every retail tech gamble has pointed to the inevitable rise of the robots.
This can be seen at Barnes & Noble, another company with a CEO with digital experience. Michael Huseby, who helmed Nook Media before his promotion, has been falling back on his finance background and working to spin off the imperiled division. Discussing the company's most recent earnings report, Huseby said, "Retail sales continued to benefit from improving physical book industry trends ... while our college bookstores comparable sales improved on favorable textbook sales trends and higher merchandise sales."
This good news seems to offer yet another argument that new technology doesn't spell the absolute end of all that came before it.