All Opinion articles – Page 32
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Opinion‘Retail bosses must take personal responsibility for racial equality’
As The Black Farmer founder and CEO Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones prepares to speak at day one of RWRC’s Virtual Leaders Summit on November 10, he shares the motivation behind building his brand and what it has taught him about how leaders, and their teams, can break through the confines of race, convention and tradition
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OpinionMove of the Week: Tom Athron is a great match for Fortnum & Mason
It’s no great surprise to see Tom Athron assume his first chief executive position at Fortnum & Mason. If anything, the surprise is that it hasn’t happened sooner.
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Opinion‘As more jobs go, leaders can never forget responsibility for lives and livelihoods’
The numbers this week speak for themselves.
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OpinionMichael Jary: ‘New normal? Retail needs to get used to the new weird’
Back in March I wrote on Retail Week that coronavirus would bring a tipping point: a permanent change in industry structure. At the time some readers wondered whether I might be hyperbolising. It turns out I hardly knew the half of it.
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Opinion‘Don’t forget about stores this ecommerce Christmas’
Almost £3bn in sales might shift online this Christmas, but don’t underestimate the draw of the store, writes Gemma Goldfingle
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Opinion‘We have a duty to customers to stamp out modern slavery’
In 1785 the English poet William Cowper wrote: “We have no slaves at home.” More than 200 years later, that statement remains untrue.
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Opinion‘Online isn’t enough to sustain retail – effective test and trace is needed’
“The more precisely we try to predict it, the less likely we are to be right.” That’s what Next chief executive Lord Wolfson told Retail Week about his Christmas scenario planning just a few days ago.
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Opinion‘Why are auditors suddenly dumping retail clients?’
Boohoo, EG Group and Poundstretcher have all seen their auditors resign in recent weeks. Having originally fought for the engagement, why the about-turns?
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Opinion‘There has been a hardening of bank attitudes to the retail industry’
With the government loan schemes due to close at the end of November, it is important that businesses seeking to borrow funds to cover trading impacts from the pandemic get their applications submitted quickly – within the next week, ideally.
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OpinionBridget Lea: I’m a proud black director, but we need more black leaders and white allies
Bridget Lea may be Sainsbury’s managing director for the North now, but when she was coming up through the ranks she never saw a senior retail leader who looked like her.
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Opinion‘Lockdown shambles is bad for retailers and consumers’
From Wales to Westminster, a confused and sometimes politically partisan response to the resurgent Covid-19 outbreak is threatening retail’s recovery.
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Opinion'Self-care and support will get us through this Golden Quarter'
On Sunday at 2am the clocks will go back by one hour. For many people, the moment will symbolise the start of a long, difficult winter – one without precedent in recent history.
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OpinionThe Secret Retailer: ‘Colleagues doubt my ability because of my upbringing’
I always knew I was different to my colleagues, but about eight months ago I realised just how much.
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Opinion‘Alibaba’s $3.6bn splurge cements value of stores in retail’s future’
Alibaba, one of the world’s largest ecommerce players, this week splashed $3.6bn on its latest big-money acquisition.
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Opinion‘John Lewis’ non-retail ambitions rely on restoring retail success’
One of the most striking aspects of today’s strategy update from the John Lewis Partnership was the extent to which the retailer is staking its future on what strategy director Nina Bhatia termed “non-retail”.
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OpinionMove of the Week: Can Boohoo’s new supply chain boss prove doubters wrong?
Boohoo’s appointment of Andrew Reaney to the new role of responsible sourcing director is either a significant step on the path to a more sustainable future or an exercise in window dressing designed to relieve pressure on the under-fire retailer.
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Opinion‘The 12 trends of Christmas – festive retail under Covid’
As Christmas nears, there is little seasonal cheer as retailers anticipate a Golden Quarter characterised by levels of volatility and uncertainty they have rarely, if ever, experienced before.
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Opinion‘Don’t underestimate the power of partnerships post-pandemic’
The idea of togetherness is one that has shone through in countless ways amid the coronavirus crisis.
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OpinionPeter Williams: ‘A second wave, curfews, empty offices – is this as good as it gets?’
By now we had all hoped that there would be a predictable path back to some kind of steady-state resembling where we were pre-Covid.
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Opinion‘We’re all responsible for looking after the people that contribute to retail’s success’
We – you, me, every leader in British retail – have been handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prevent a potentially life- and sector-changing incoming mental health storm.