The Voice of Retail

The Future of Retail Education is happening right now in Montreal

Episode Summary

In this episode I’m in Montreal talking with Anwar White, Program Director and Faculty Lecturer for McGill's new Bensadoun School of Retail Management.  We talk about their new MMR  - Masters of Management in Retail, their new retail innovation lab  partnership between McGill University and Alimentation Couche-Tard, and tap into Anwar’s retail experience to get a sense of the future of retail and consumer behaviour.

Episode Notes

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode I’m in Montreal talking with Anwar White, Program Director and Faculty Lecturer for McGill's new Bensadoun School of Retail Management.  We talk about their new MMR  - Masters of Management in Retail, their new retail innovation lab  partnership between McGill University and Alimentation Couche-Tard, and tap into Anwar’s retail experience to get a sense of the future of retail and consumer behaviour.

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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail.  Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed  this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.

I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat  follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!

Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!

Episode Transcription

Michael LeBlanc 

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. In this episode, I'm in Montreal talking with Anwar White, Program Director and Faculty Lecturer for McGill's new Bensadoun School of Retail Management. We talked about their new MMR, Masters of Management in Retail, their new retail innovation lab partnership between McGill University and Alimentation Couche-Tard, and tap into Anwar’s retail experience to get a sense of the future of retail and consumer behavior.

 

Anwar White 

The in-store experiences are going to have to look and feel different, right. But I think people are going shopping as well. It was funny back in the holiday time period, I went to the mall once to, I had an appointment at Apple to get a product, really going in and out. They were, the malls were packed. And it was because people wanted to feel connected and create community as well. Right? They wanted to get their stuff. So, retailers are all are going to have to also think about that as well. How do I do that in a store or physical environment? Versus, I think it's really easy to kind of do it online, or easier, but how to how to do it in a significant way, physically as well.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Let's listen in. Anwar, welcome to The Voice or Retail podcast. How are you doing this morning?

 

Anwar White 

I'm good. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Great to have you on the podcast. Let's jump right. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do, and your role at McGill's Bensadoun, the School of Retail Management.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, so my name is Anwar white, and I am the Program Director for the new Masters of Management in Retailing program at McGill. I'm also a Faculty Lecturer, so I teach marketing and some retail experiential courses as well. But before I was doing that, I've been doing this for about two years. But before I was doing that, I was well into the fashion retail landscape and working for companies like Uniqlo, USA, Versace, Tom Ford, Guess. And even did some more mass fashion retailing at Kmart and Sears apparel. So, you know, I've had a variety of different roles within Strategy and Finance and Marketing and Merchandising and Product Management. 

 

But, the reason why I decided to take on this role of the Program Director for the new Masters of Management in Retailing program is because I really truly believe like it's, it is a program that is completely unique and something that has never really been done or seen before. And that really excited me. And I think it's exciting a lot of the students that are applying and wanting to join in this amazing experience.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Well, it was looking at your background, lots of experience in the in the fashion.  It's, we really go from guardrail to guardrail right. From some prestige to mass, you know, the Kmart and so you really got a great span of experience. So, what was it that brought you to you know, you're not an educator by trade, so to speak, you're really a retailer by trade. 

 

Anwar White

Yeah. 

 

Michael LeBlanc

What was it that brought you over to that side? Like how, how was it that you said “this is the right fit for me”? Or this is the right opportunity to teach what I know. How to, connect those dots for me.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, no problem. So, a while ago, a long, long time ago, when I was, let's say in my you know, lower to mid-20s, I was actually looking for a program just like this, right. I had just graduated. I had done a couple years of consulting, and I was like, I really want to get into retail, I want to get into fashion retail. And there weren't any programs out there like this that really hit upon a variety of different, you know, different topics and themes and learning modules, right. 

 

So, you have a lot of programs out there that are just focused on the design or the creativity, and then you have others that are just kind of business focus. This program is definitely a program for the future in that it focuses on like creativity and innovation, as well as kind of the management and leadership principles. And then finally, the analytics and the technology piece. Which I think is for a lot of retail companies, and for a lot of talent out there, kind of a missing ingredient in their skill set right. So being able to hit all different parts of these learning experiences, I think makes the program really special. 

 

As well as a variety of different kind of collaborations and partnerships that we have with so many retail companies around the world. It really is a really special opportunity. So, for example, you know, the school is, you know, having meetings with companies understanding and trying to figure out what they need, what they want, and making sure that our curriculum is tailored to that right.  Not just what they need now, but what they're going to need in three years and five years and so on, you know when they're doing their strategic planning every year. So, I just love the approach of the school is taking the Bensadoun School of Retail Management. And really just being very methodical about truly training the future leaders of retail.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Well, let's, you know, I went to McGill actually, wonderful university. So, I can't think of a better, you know, better environment. I went to a couple universities, but McGill such a wonderful school. So, tell us about the mechanics of the program. So, it's a Masters program, how do you get into the program? And how many years is it? Or how many semesters? Or just give us some practical kind of tactical stuff about the program itself and the designation.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, no problem. So, we are actually having our first inaugural class this fall. And students generally apply through our uApply app, But we're really looking for a variety of different students, right. What's this one of the biggest questions that we get in terms of like, who is really good for this program? 

 

We have a good mix of new graduates, right. Who are looking to kind of level up their career and get that advanced knowledge. Not just like the foundational knowledge of retail and marketing, but really advanced concepts and skill sets to be able to hit the ground running when they, you know, enter into their companies, their dream companies. 

 

We also have kind of young professionals that have maybe one to two years of experience, that maybe have been more on the analytics or technical side, that are really looking to understand like the management and leadership principles that strategic mindset and the big picture to start making the decisions, instead of kind of crunching the numbers, right. 

 

And then we also have those individuals that have been in retail for a while, right. Let's say your Inventory Analysts or your Buyer’s Assistants, right. That really need all of that, right, they need the creativity, they need the innovation and the analytics, you know, skill sets to really help them level up their career within retail. They know that they want to be in retail already, they just want the added skills that are going to get them to that next level. And this program is definitely a way for them to do that. 

 

Now in terms of the actual curriculum, we have two kind of program lengths. We have a 12-month and then that 12 month program is really for individuals that have had a significant retail experience, at least two years or more. And then we have the 16-month program, which the majority of our students are going to be in. And that really includes a three to four month internship that that summer.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

wow. So the 12, just so I'm clear. That 12 month, already had senior, had experience in retail, that's not necessarily on the front lines, that's in or, describe that admission process, the difference between the 12 and the 16 just so 

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, so generally, the 12, the people that are going into our 12 month program, are really individuals that have two or more years of experience. And that's really more in the corporate setting right. So again, let's say your entry level positions. That they've been there for a, you know, a year or two. Depending on exactly,

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Your Buying Assistant or something, buyer assistant,

 

Anwar White 

It depends on the level. And that's something that we discuss in the Admissions Committee, just to get a true understanding of kind of the things that they're doing. Just because they have a ton of experience already, this internship component that is very important for a variety of, the majority of our students, is something that actually brings into the program, right, to be able to have that experience and be able to leverage that and speak to it intelligently in those interviews, you know, post graduation, is really priceless.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

And again, just so I'm clear. So, the first cohort as you and I might call it ,now that we're talking academic talk, would start this fall. So right now, the school is not, right now you're getting set up and the first students arrive this fall.  Did I get that correct?

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, correct. I mean, this the actual school is definitely operating. But our program within the school is starting in the fall in September 2021.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

So tell us a little bit about the founder, a famous name and Canadian retail. So, tell us about how that came to pass and who the school was named after.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, no problem. So, back in 2017, Aldo Bensadoun, the founder of the Aldo group, really kind of stepped forward and provided this visionary gift to McGill University, which was his alma mater. And, you know, that gift was really aimed to create you know, new knowledge and developing leaders for this, as you know, rapidly changing retail industry and environment right. 

 

Thanks to a donation of $25 million from the Bensadoun Family Foundation, McGill has developed the Bensadoun School of Retail Management in the fall of 2018. And it really serves as a kind of interdisciplinary, state of the art school that's really dedicated to all facets of retail right. 

 

So, I think that's another thing that I think differentiates this school that we're talking about not just fashion or beauty. We're talking about grocery. We're talking about restaurant, food, health, wellness. We're talking about intelligent mobility. We're talking about financial services. We're talking about Fin Tech. We're talking about entertainment, hospitality. So, this isn't just, I think some people think, you know, well, people outside of retail, think of retail and equate it with fashion, or beauty. And but, this school is much more than that. You know, I think that his vision, Mr. Bensadoun’s vision was really to create the world's premier institution dedicated to the future of retail.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

My good friend, Carl Boutet, who I believe was somewhere involved. You might know that name, 

 

Anwar White

Yeah.

 

Michael LeBlanc

Great retail strategist, based in Montreal. Now he shows, he sent me some pictures of something called the Innovation Center. What is that? Is that is a physical, look like a location, where you bring this all together in a practical? Tell me about the like. Do I have that right? Is at the Innovation Center?.

 

Anwar White 

It's called the Retail Innovation Lab. Yeah. And this lab, I think there's like not much, there's really nothing like it, especially in Canada. And it's really about using artificial intelligence. And I think other McGill strengths as well, such as neuroscience and psychology, to understand and research how consumers are making decisions. So, the way that it goes is that the Retail Innovation Lab, in partnership with Couche Tard, who's a partner, it actually opened in January of this year. And it features real world simulations, and it's a regular store, right. But it's frictionless and cashless, and it provides an, you know, basic, and has a ton of artificial intelligence, intelligence and sensors all over. Where it serves as a store for students and anyone else walking in downtown Montreal. But on the back end, it's, it provides students and researchers and retailers with hands on opportunities to work, you know, on contemporary and relevant retail problems, right. 

 

So, you know, these are the stories of the future. And this is one of the things that I love about being the Director of the MMR program, because our students are going to have the opportunity to do research projects with Professors as it pertains to the Retail Innovation Lab, right. As a, whether it's merchandising, whether it's pricing, whether it's kind of store layout, whatever it may be, right. The students are going to have complete access to it. And that's going to help them really manage the kind of future technology of retail stores moving forward. 

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Alright, let's, let's switch gears a little bit. I can't miss this opportunity to tap into your vast experience. And now that you're sitting in amongst academics thinking big thoughts about retail, and how are you and your colleagues thinking about the COVID era from a structural perspective? So we know retailers are making day to day tactical adjustments to adjust to the COVID era. I had a great interview with Vince Guzo, from Google Cinema last week, and he was talking about, you know, all the things he's had to do to adjust. How are you thinking today about structural changes to retail that can come to pass because of this, let’s all it the COVID era? So, you know, for example, clearly, ecommerce has leapt ahead, you know, years. But are there other things you're thinking of that says, you know, that this has changed retail in some pretty fundamental ways? Or, is it just too early to know those things?

 

Anwar White 

So a couple of things before I go into that question, I think it's important for us to realize, and this is how my colleagues and I are thinking about this, but really, you know, we are going through a very interesting retail cycle that happens every 10 years, right. This is this is part of the retail cycle, every 10 years, we have this transformational thing back in 2008, we had similar, we had some issues as well in terms of, you know, a bunch of plan pricing, and you know, consolidations and bankruptcies and things like that. So, you know, this is part of retail. I think that's why we are in retail, and we love it because it has these challenges, and it's so fast paced and competitive. And so, this is just another experience of that, right. So yeah, you mentioned ecommerce before. I think we're at like, what 21 - 22% of all sales now versus 15% prior year. So yeah, ecommerce is definitely super, super important now. But on top of that, right, we have to also understand, and this is a challenge for retailers, how they're going to start to create the technologies to create connections with their consumers and make sure that that experience either replicates or is even better than a store experience, right. Because this trend 

 

Michael LeBlanc 

It’s funny because, you know, if you, if you and I were talking kind of pre COVID, in the before time we talked, we'd be talking about how retailers are doing everything to remove friction from the store, right, the store processes. It's, it's almost all about friction now. So, I guess we'll get back to that part, but in a different way, what would I think you're talking about. It's so interesting.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah. So, and that's really just from the ecommerce standpoint. I think from kind of the physical stores, it's interesting, because beforehand, there was a huge push toward, like, how do we create more contact with our customers, right? How can we give them samples? How can they try on lipsticks, right? Like Sephora, so that to help them purchase. And I think we're actually going the other way because of COVID. And focused on contact with right. 

 

So, you know, I think Lowe's, in certain regions has different lockers that people can pick up their purchases, right. And just the exact reason why we have the Retail Innovation Lab so that our students can understand how to manage a cashless and frictionless environment with Scan and Go apps and things like that. So that's also happening. But we saw this before COVID, right. We saw it, we saw the, we saw that platforms in airports. We saw the checkout, the self-checkouts at grocery stores. So again, this isn't new, it's just kind of accelerated because of COVID. 

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Carl is writing I think, a bit of a book on the great acceleration. He coined that term. I think he gets it’s either he gets a nickel every time someone says it, or an angel gets its wings. He and I haven't figured out which is the case yet. You know, they're talking about,

 

Anwar White 

On that point really quickly. Because I think that there are also other things that are happening too when it comes to (inaudible), I think about retail. And my colleagues as well. When we think about retail, we think about it in terms of like, convenience and experience. And you have to be a master in one of them or both of them. Anyone that's kind of like in the mix, in between, is probably going to get lost. And that's what we're seeing, right. But when we think about convenience, right, I want us to also understand this, these everything stores that have been pretty successful, these big box stores that have been pretty successful and open and will probably continue to, versus kind of these mall stores that are very more specialized. And, I truly believe that we'll continue to see more of these everything stores. That some of these like dollar stores will expand and have bigger footprints. And some of these small stores will unfortunately, not be here. Because it's not convenient to go to eight different stores for the things that I want.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Well, as you say, the waves, the waves of change are so different because we were, it was going away from the department store, if you call the department store, store everything right. It was going into specialty. It's almost the different way. 

 

Now let's change the lens a little bit on your thinking to consumers. So, we probably haven't had a circuit breaker of consumer behavior event since the Second World War, right. Consumers are doing things, you know that they're going to stores less, their baskets are huge. They're not buying the commodities they used to buy. Tthey're buying commodities that never bought before. I’ve read 47 or 45% of consumers said they bought from a retailer that never bought before. Like we're seeing changes we had never seen, again I wanted your thoughts short term. You know, some people just can't find it or they you know, they're shopping local because they're working at home. Any sense on changes of consumer behavior that may last post vaccine, post COVID

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, I hate to be the cliche person that talks about omni channel, but you know, we have to, we have to really speak about the big elephant, the big O in the room, right? Right. And how because of COVID and the different levels of comfortability around the pandemic, right? It's not like everyone's going to one day say everything's back to normal. Everyone's going to have a different, it's going to take people a different amount of time to get to their normal, right. And that means meeting them where they are. And so whether it's buying online and pickup in store. Whether it's just I'm buying everything and having it delivered to my home. Whether it's these lockers. Whether it's I'm shopping by appointment now or I'm you know, utilizing a lot of the you know, telephone customer service to make purchases now. Retailers are going to have to really make sure that they have the talent to be able to not just have people employed in these places, but strategically, how do you maximize that right? And how do you how do you create, how do you have employees that know just know both, you know, online, offline and all of these different touch points? Because I know traditionally, we had like, people who were focused in store and people that were focused online, right? Now, we really have to have employees that are, have, know about all of these different touch points and how to leverage them. How to optimize them. And I think that's one of the big kind of added values of our MMR program. So definitely omni channel. 

 

But like, even just the nature of the economy, right. Like, if I'm working from home more often, my clothes are going to be more casual, right. I'm going to be cooking more at home. 

 

Michael LeBlanc

Yeah, 

 

Anwar White

I don't think that's going to change much. Which means my spend is going to be more in grocery than maybe in restaurants having lunch with my coworkers. I'm going to be purchasing more home goods, because I want to feel good when I'm working, I'm going to have less transportation costs. And, you know, all of the money that I would be spending while transporting back and forth, is going to go somewhere else, right. 

 

So definitely omni channel, I would also say that the in-store experiences are going to have to look and feel different, right. But, I think people are going shopping as well. It was funny, back in the holiday time period, I went to the mall once to, I had an appointment at Apple to get a product.  Really going in and out. They were, the malls were packed. And it was because people wanted to feel connected and create community as well, right. They wanted to get their stuff. So, retailers are all are going to have to also think about that as well. How do I do that in a store or physical environment? Versus, I think it's really easy to kind of do it online or easier, but how to how to do it in a significant way, physically as well. 

 

And then finally, one of the things that I think about too, quite often because I'm surrounded by millennials. University is like, right, you know, Millennials are doing the majority of their shopping online, right. So how, how can we start to really leverage social media in a significant way where I can just like, press a button and buy it immediately, right? Because TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, that's where their eyeballs are. And I think Instagram has started to create more of a buying portal for its users, but that has to be across the board. And so, how do retailers also create partnerships with these, with third party providers or these social media companies to make sure that that happens?

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Well, and one point, you know, Snapchat is doing a great job of that. And then one point of course, there's some talk that Walmart was going to buy TikTok. I think that was just a bit of whatever that was, yeah, from a media perspective. But clearly, I've seen retailers in TikTok and that's the secret sauce, right? Well, just that, you know, putting connecting ecommerce with a great buy right now kind of vehicles. 

 

Alright, so where can people go to learn about the program? And maybe even to support you or to apply to the program, Where can they go learn more? 

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, no problem. So, if you want to learn more about our program, please go to www.mcgill.ca/mmr. Or you can email us at mmr@mcgill.ca. And we will be able to answer all of your questions. Now, if you are listening to this, and you do some research and you're like, I want to apply, you can go to www.mcgill.ca/uapply. And you can start your application right then in there.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Well, it's fantastic. Anwar, we live in interesting times. I think you and I, as retailers say that could say that almost every week or every year there's always something interesting going on in retail. But thank you for your time. It's a great discussion. Wonderful work going on there. It's much needed in the industry and thank you for taking the time to share some of your insights with The Voice of Retail.

 

Anwar White 

Yeah, no problem. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Michael LeBlanc 

Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so that we continue to get amazing guests onto the show. I'm your host, Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc Company Inc. And if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn. Visit my website at meleblanc.co. Until next time, stay safe and have a great week.