In this episode, Kara Cutino, Vice President, Store Development, Facilities Services, Asset Protection & Store Purchasing at ascena discusses the behind-the-scenes strategies in facilities, the importance of trusting your team to fail, and how to provide a beautiful client experience.
From the outside, facilities can often seem shrouded in mystery. Our guest today knows how important it is to illuminate, collaborate, and celebrate the work that’s being done in the brick-and-mortar space.
This episode features an interview with Kara Cutino, Vice President, Store Development, Facilities Services, Asset Protection & Store Purchasing at ascena. Ascena is a leading national specialty retailer offering apparel, shoes, and accessories for women through brands like brands Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, and Lane Bryant.
In this episode, Kara discusses the behind-the-scenes strategies in facilities, the importance of trusting your team to fail, and how to provide a beautiful client experience.
Guest Bio:
Kara Cutino, a Store Development, Asset Protection & Facilities Services professional currently at ascena, has over two and half decades of experience in leading operational teams. Ascena, which is a national specialty retailer offering apparel, shoes and accessories for women through these collective brands—Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, Lane Bryant and Cacique – serves women across generations, identities, affiliations and body types.
In 2017, Kara was given the opportunity to create a Store Development Collective that managed over 4000 retail stores supporting 8 Brands with a small team of professionals located across the US.
She specializes in building highly motivated teams that focus obsessively on the client by providing unparalleled customer service. Her management style is driven by the relationships she builds with her teams and the needs of their clients; whether that be cross-functional business partners or the clients that shop ascena’s brands. Deep down inside, she is a data nerd that leans on analytics to guide fiscally responsible business decisions in support of creative solutions to problem-solving.
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Guest Quote
“When I first started out, I thought I had to do it all, be it all, solve it all myself. But really, I think the best leaders are the ones that'll allow their teams to lead. The hardest lesson and the best lesson I learned was that, you know, to be a good leader, you actually have to trust the teams that work for you and let them fail.” Kara Cutino
Time Stamps
**(02:08) - Kara’s journey to her role
**(06:05) - How has facilities evolved?
**(11:15) - Kara’s approach
**(19:00) - How you do it
**(22:14) - Tools Kara can’t live without
**(28:16) - Words of wisdom
**(35:35) - Advice for others in the field
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Sponsor:
ServiceChannel brings you peace of mind through peak facilities performance.
Rest easy knowing your locations are:
ServiceChannel partners with more than 500 leading brands globally to provide visibility across operations, the flexibility to grow and adapt to consumer expectations, and accelerated performance from their asset fleet and service providers. Get to know us at Servicechannel.com
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Links
Narrator: Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar, a podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance. On today's episode, we talk with Kara Cutino, Vice President, Store Development, Facility Services, Asset Production, and Store Purchasing at ascena. ascena is a leading national specialty retailer offering apparel, shoes, and accessories for women through brands like Ann Taylor Loft, Lou & Gray, and Lane Bryant. Kara has over two and a half decades of experience leading operational teams. Her management style is driven by the relationship she builds with her teams and the needs of their clients, whether that be cross-functional business partners, or the clients that shop ascena's brands.
In this episode, Kara discusses the behind the scenes strategies in facilities, the importance of trusting your team to fail, and how to provide a beautiful client experience. But first, a word from our sponsor.
Want to rest easy knowing your brick and mortar locations are offering the best possible guest experience?
Partner with Service Channel for peak facilities performance. Check out servicechannel.com today to learn more.
Here's your host, industry and FM technology thought leader and chief business development officer at Service Channel, Sid Shetty.
Sid: Hello everyone. Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining. I'm here today with Kara Cutino.
Kara, welcome. Hello, how are you? Thank you. Let's jump right in. So, Kara, what is your role and uh, what are you responsible?
Kara: Sure. My role is I'm the vice president of a couple of different divisions at ascena, So I head up store development, which is design, store purchasing and construction. I also have the store and corporate facilities teams, as well as asset protection and recently just picked up, uh, strategic procurement and have a little bit of, uh, risk management dabbled in there as well.
So pretty exciting, uh, group of professionals I work with and we, we cover quite a large swath of responsibilities with the organization. Wow, that's
Sid: a lot. So you mean you have a wide span of control and a lot of responsibility. Tell us about how you ended up in the space and how did your role evolve?
What does that journey look like?
Kara: Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't wanna, I don't wanna start out as I was born in a log cabin type story, but I started out working in construction, um, when I was a teenager. My father had a business, um, uh, residential business, and I really got the construction bug. And from there, after college, I was able to, uh, start working in retail, uh, with construction and I ended up going to Ann Taylor and I was a part of their construction department and really worked my way up with them.
Did a lot of remodel work and um, new store work and, you know, was able to grow with a business and was given the opportunity to, uh, provide additional services and over the, you know, the past. Almost 15 years has have really been able to provide different services to the business and grow within it. And, um, it's been an exciting, you know, career with the organization.
Very
Sid: impressive. For sure. So tell us more about ascena and, and your offerings. You own a lot of brands, right?
Kara: We do. So ascena makes up Ann Taylor Loft and Lane Bryant, and then we also have our, um, our outlet divisions which roll up into their parent organization. And so, you know, we have about six different, uh, businesses that we support, um, with the outlet and the full price, um, offerings.
You know, um, we're a US based company, um, you know, we've got a really strong e-commerce business. Um, and you know, really. Uh, great presence in our malls across the US for all of our brands. Um, and it really gives us an opportunity to support and, uh, uh, and sell to a really diverse, uh, cut across the the us.
That's
Sid: great.
Kara: We're gonna go inside, we're gonna go outside, inside and outside. We're gonna get him on the run Mo once we can run, run, we're gonna keep on the run and then we're gonna go, go, go, go, go, go. And we're not gonna stop to that whole line.
Sid: So, Kara, what are your goals for the type of consumer experience you want to deliver?
What do you want your customers to think when they hear the name of Cena or any of its
Kara: brands? So, you know, when I think about, uh, the, the service that we provide, and because I touch from new store. All the way through, you know, I, I call us cradle to grave, right? So we, we design the prototype, we execute the build out, and then we maintain that store.
And you know what, what my goal is, is that, you know, we give the organization a foundation to be able to put our best foot forward, which is our product, right? And so what we wanna do is make sure that we're providing, you know, a blank tableau for our creative teams to be able to deliver beautiful product, um, to women who.
Uh, you know, are in the workforce, um, wear it at home, are able to go out in it. And so our sole objective is to provide, um, a space that's easy to shop, that's bright, um, that's engaging, and that quite frankly, not only our clients, but our employees love to work in. Um, and, you know, owning the end to end responsibility of that helps me really understand and define, you know, um, how we make sure that what we're delivering at the.
When we build out a store is something that we can maintain, um, to provide that beautiful client experience. That's
Sid: great. You know, my, my wife is a big fan of your brand, so, uh, I have been to a few, uh, and tailor stores for sure. When you look at the role of facilities, And, and the value that facilities seems in general brings to an organization.
What do you think that role is and, and do people within the organization understand that?
Kara: Yeah, I, I think the role of facilities has really evolved over the years, and I think we've had to, right? Because I think probably. You know, 10 years ago we were a necessary evil. You know, we, we solved problems, but maybe didn't collaborate as well as we probably could have across the organization.
And I, and I see our facilities teams right now, both corporate and stores, as you know. Um, Delivering excellent customer service. And so they really need to make sure that we're partnering with our field leadership and listening to our store teams, and also balancing their needs with what our financial responsibilities are.
And so I think we've moved away from just tactical execution of tickets that come in to really being an advocate for the business. For the store teams, for the field leadership. And you know, I have a wonderful group of leaders that work for me, um, that really own their business and take pride in the fact that they're able to, uh, provide our clients with a beautiful place to shop.
And so I think we've gone from, you know, being super tactical and just, um, releasing work orders to really engaging with our clients and being much more, um, collaborative and proactive in how we're resolving issues that we may have in the. Um, and I, and I think that's super important when you think about what your role is.
And I mean, when you look at all of my responsibilities or my organizations that roll up underneath me, we are a client. We are a customer service, um, organization. Our sole job is to ensure that the business is able to deliver, you know, a, a wonderful experience to our clients and also ensure that our employees, you know, um, are satisfied where they're working and they feel appreciated as.
Do
Sid: you think, um, organizations understand the impact that facilities has on the overall customer experience and, and as a industry, do you think we do a good job articulating the impact we have?
Kara: I can talk for my team. Like I, I don't think we celebrate our, our, um, Our support as mu much as we probably should.
And I would say that's probably across the industry. You know, when you look at the volume of work that comes through with an organization as large as ours, there's not a lot of time to celebrate the wins and I, and I think we don't sell ourselves as well as we probably should. I mean, listen. The, the build out of a new store has a very finite time, right?
So, you know, you're talking about a 10 week build out or an eight week build out, and then we turn the store over and they leave and they leave the happiest client, right? Because you've just given them something new and beautiful, Whereas the facilities team really lives with that store for the life of the lease.
And so, You know, they become a much more important and integral partner to the field because they are their advocate to make sure that the stores, um, are functional and beautiful, you know? And so I think that our importance, uh, comes to light more so when we're, when we have issues, but, you know, um, When I first took over store facilities, we did an assessment of how many tickets, tickets had been opened in one year that our teams had touched, and it was over 50,000 tickets in Wow.
Like a 10 month period of time. And so when you think about that volume and the amount of opportunities for us to do something excellent for the field, I mean, it's pretty intense when you look at that volume. Do, do
Sid: you think that as an industry collectively we can do anything different to raise awareness about what we do and, and why we do it?
Kara: I think there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that a, a business stays open. And I think there's a lot of strategy around how we deploy, uh, work. And I think there's a lot of work that's done behind the scenes around trying to keep costs down in this economy, et cetera, that we just don't publicize.
Um, and I think that comes with, um, having greater levels of detail provided to us so that we can tell that story. And I think as an organization or as an industry, I think we talk a lot about, um, service, but I don't think that we, we don't provide great. Um, Insight into what that looks like. I mean, people think it's a broken toilet all the time, right?
Right. That's not necessarily what it is, you know? And I think that, um, you know, we probably don't celebrate ourselves well enough
Sid: at all. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I think that the more we can do to. Celebrate the impact we have on the brands that we serve. Uh, the impact that we have on the consumer's experience, um, the better.
Because, you know, when someone walks into a location and they look around, you know, everything they see is touched by facilities. Yeah, absolutely. They either walk in and they get wowed and they, and they want to shop there. Yeah. Or they feel uncomfortable and they feel like the brand isn't really welcoming them and they might.
Uh, to spend a few minutes and then walk out. Right. That's the difference. Will they come back? Is is, is what, uh, matters and facilities has a huge role to play in that. And like you said, we don't do enough to celebrate that. And the more we do, um, I think the better for the, for the entire industry. Um, so Cara, what do you think has improved or changed about what you're doing now compared to maybe three years ago and, um, what has enabled that?
Kara: So I, I think one of the things that we've really, uh, focused on is up, um, yearly collaboration with our finance partners to understand, you know, what, where, and what they would like us to be, uh, focusing on from a spend standpoint. Um, and so we work really hard with them. We present to them, um, what we believe the next year's, uh, program should be, how we should be reinvesting.
If there's any refresh dollars that need to be assigned, we work with them to, um, to understand what that allocation should look like. And then we really try to get ahead of it from a communication standpoint with our operations team and our field leadership team. Um, and so, you know, I think, uh, visibility and open communication really, uh, we've tried to focus on when we're having a problem, we.
We certainly share. And I will tell you this year's been a, uh, just a huge challenge for us. Um, and I'm sure you know my counterparts in the industry as well from an H V A C standpoint. And so, you know, we've had a really tough summer of failure. Of units, um, and not being able to source replacement parts or units and, you know, really dipping into temp cooling.
And so, you know, we were really upfront, uh, with the leadership team and with the field team to say, this is gonna be a real challenge. We have to. We have to go into this holding hands. Um, and you know, we've, we've just really collectively kept the line of communication open When they're frustrated, when we're frustrated, you know, we're really sitting down and, and just trying to come up with a solve.
Um, and so, you know, I think, you know, facilities should never be shouted in mystery. And we should make sure that the business has the information where we have opportunities and challenges to be able to provide them service. So I think that's a, that is a really big, um, you know, an opportunity for a lot of teams is get ahead of it.
You know, if something's not going right, just get ahead of it and let 'em know what's going on. Um, it's much easier to plan around that than it is to be reactive.
Sid: I wanna double click on that, uh, for a little bit. You know, you mentioned collaborating with finance and with, you know, your peers within the organization, and that's so important, right?
Because sometimes, you know, organizations forget that we're still dealing with. A lot of the challenges that came out of the pandemic, a lot of which relate to, uh, you know, supply chain, uh, disruption. And, you know, the impact it has on facilities is you have to wait longer to get parts or, uh, any new equipment.
Um, how are you having those conversations internally, you know, to communicate those existing challenge? And also how are you able to articulate, um, you know, with your peers like finance and so on, about, you know, the impact that has on, on your budget and, you know, what do you do to get around
Kara: it? So I think, um, early on in the spring, I mean, listen, I think H V A C has been a challenge probably for about, you know, 18 months.
I mean, during the pandemic we, you know, really started to feel the pinch around, re uh, replacement and repair materials for a lot of our meps. And I think it's just, you know, the shutdown of industry and then the supply chain issues really have just crippled our ability to manage our repairs as we would in the past.
And so, you know, we were very upfront in the late spring with our field organization to say that this is where we're gonna have challenges, these are the areas we're gonna be challenged. Um, and we meet on a monthly basis with our finance partners to give them visibility to where we're seeing a forecast, um, a forecasted increase in labor or materials.
And so they adjust based on, um, our monthly actuals and where we think the business is going. And I think one of the really volatile, um, businesses that. Brought in a new partner to help us forecast risk is with our utilities and utilities this year. I mean, certainly not out of the ordinary. You know, they have far exceeded what our, uh, increase our year over year increase has been, and we expect that to follow into next year.
And so, you know, what I've done is worked with a team to go outside to find, uh, resources that can give us good intel. And I think that's really important. I mean, we should never expect that our interior teams will always. Matter experts, we need to rely on the industry to be able to, to let us know what our risks and opportunities are and, and lean into that data, um, and, uh, and be able to provide that up, um, uh, cost increases.
Should never come as a surprise to your finance partners because we have That's right. You know, we have a good run at seeing when we're starting to see creeps, right? And so possibility to do some, um, uh, digging to find out, you know, where we feel like the top is or what we should, uh, help them to help them define risk in the future.
And so, you know, um, the team's really done a great job, uh, especially around the energy piece. And, uh, just making sure that they have monthly visibility to where we're actualizing.
Sid: Kara, are you able to share some important or key investments that you've made, uh, within your team and, and the, the divisions that you oversee and maybe share what impact they've had?
Kara: There's a couple of different things. Um, you know, I talked about the energy management piece. We've done a lot of work around, you know, changing our resources who support that for us, and that was always a huge risk for us to be able to consistently forecast what our spend was. And so we've invested in.
Companies that, um, you know, have really done a great job, uh, getting our, our costs and our payments under control. And that's, uh, you know, I'm not shy to share with you that, um, you know, CAS pays our bills and Schneider Electric provides a couple of services to us. One, the most recent one is forecasting risk.
Um, and so, you know, we've really started leaning on them. To, uh, to help us understand that. But something that's, you know, kind of an unsung hero for us is, you know, our asset protection team has started really thinking about, um, how we provide, uh, security to our stores a little bit differently from looking at different cctv.
Um, that's out in the, um, Industry right now and how we can, you know, help our store associates feel like they have someone keeping an eye on them. And that's not a negative, that's a positive. Take my word for it. Our, our instances across the, the, the industry. Uh, violent crimes in our malls have definitely gone up, and I think if you have visibility to facilities and ap, the, you know, facilities is the ones cleaning the, the glass up afterwards and asset protection is the one.
Trying to ensure that we have a plan in place to keep our employees safe. And so I think, you know, we are, uh, looking, uh, we are working on replacement of aged equipment. Um, and, uh, and I think it provides a greater sense of security to our employees. And I mean, listen, you know, anybody who's not, uh, working on an H V A C replacement program, you know, uh, versus waiting for things to break, you know, you're gonna be impacted in the next 36 months just because of the, our inability to secure units at the mo at the most, uh, inopportune time.
You know, I, I think, uh, you know, it's the little things like that to really try to deliver a different level of service to the organization that we're, we're really working on.
Sid: So let's move on to our next segment, which is all about how you do it.
Kara: This is how.
Sid: Kara, you mentioned in the past that you know, you are a bit of a data nerd. Yeah, for sure. Have you seen that using data and having that approach to managing your team has paid dividends and a big part of your success? Oh,
Kara: a hundred percent. I mean, listen, I, I am a data nerd and my team is a, our data nerds too, and I think that's why we all get along so well.
Um, I mean, it started out with store development. It started out with, um, tracking. You know, over 200 line items of costs and averaging that out. And then using a couple of industry tools to be able to help us forecast costs, um, on a store by store basis. And h sighting on that cost. And really fine tuning our cost estimating tools, um, to make sure that we are providing, uh, the, the tightest in, um, estimates possible.
Which, why is that? I. Is because the more money I can push back to the business, the more projects I can do, right? So if I'm holding high contingencies, that means I can't do 1, 2, 3, 5 stores because I've overestimated, or God forbid, we underestimate. And so that kind of led me into the next group, which was store facilities.
And so, you know, we have really, we track store facilit. Buy store, buy GL code. We find out where our, our cost drivers and reducers are. We find out our top 10 stores, um, when we look at, uh, spend, and then we drill down on those to fill out. See whether we have design flaws from a prototype that we need to start looking outward at.
Um, and so, you know, we really allow the information that gets fed to us from, uh, from just regular tickets to influence how we do work. Um, you know, we, after we open a store, we hindsight on the facilities tickets and we, you know, disseminate that information and pull it back into our prototypes to ensure we're not, uh, applying continued failure go forward.
You know, when I look at the asset protection team, that is a story of numbers, not, it's not old school theft anymore. It's really about the analysis around, um, how, how loss is quantified and, and tracking the wears. So it's a very different way to look at that and, um, you know, so. I have an operations team that supports me.
I have someone who heads up an operation team. She does a great job and her team does a great job of crunching numbers. And what I love about them is my team is always open to look at things differently. And every year we say, Okay, how are we gonna look at it differently this year? And how do we deliver value?
And by having a, a very high level of detail, I am able to drill down and find change, um, in our organization. And so, you know, analyzing your data, doing h sighting, um, you know, becomes super critical for us on how we drive change and improvements in the program and every aspect of the program too. Are there
Sid: any specific tools and strategies that your team, um, has used successfully that you think, um, you couldn't live
Kara: without?
Yeah, I, I mean, listen, we use Lu Cernex for our lifecycle management, um, and we've really worked in partnership with that company to. Build the program that we need to be able to, to lean into the analytics. Um, we have a couple of asset protection tools. Um, think LP we use quite a bit. We've actually expanded their role with us, um, from a facilities management piece.
You know, just give you guys a little bit of a t you know, we definitely have been leaning pretty heavily into service channel. We did a lot of customization work with you guys, a lot of executive summary work in the past year to be able to provide. Um, you know, quick looks. Um, and that work's been really successful.
And, um, you know, I, I will tell you anybody who is interested in finding out data around, um, kind of construction futures, uh, we, we lean pretty heavily on RS means. Um, we use RS means, um, construction insight to inform our budgets, um, by zip code on a yearly basis so we know what we should be paying, um, So, you know, happy to walk anybody through that program, but, but they're a, they're a great, um, compliment to the program that we've put up.
They've, they've basically been fairly foundational for us, so thanks for
Sid: sharing that car. I really appreciate it. Um, Asina has a lot of brands, right? And. You know, they range in terms of your, your demographic and the type of product you sell, is there a common model in terms of how you service each of those brands?
Do you see them differently or you, you have one consistent approach to them? So,
Kara: you know, listen, I, I think that, you know, I'm part of a shared service that supports all of these organizations, but I do feel like Loft and, and Lane Bryant deserve to have customization based on their type of business. And, you know, really what drives our store facilities, um, how we touch stores through store facilities is we, look, we spend a lot of time looking at age since last touch.
And so, you know, we've built a tra, we've built a, a mechanism to be able to see what we've. The stores previously so that we can explain and under and, and understand, you know, what businesses need. What if you have a younger ace since last touch? Chances are I don't need to be concerned about your, you know, your fixture package.
Um, you know, I may wanna clean up your fitting rooms if you haven't been touched in 12 years. I need to look at a lot more. Right? And so, you know, agents last touch becomes a real, uh, qualifier for me when we're thinking about how we reinvest and. Looking at a reinvestment program, we'll work directly with the brands on what stores they wanna target.
Sometimes one year they may have a strategy to top their, to touch their top 50, or they may wanna touch their lower 50, you know, And so what we try to do is be a compliment to what their strategy is. Um, we'll tell them what they need, what we would like them to budget for, and then they'll let us know.
Um, what strategies they wanna put in place for the year so that we can complement it. And so, you know, um, we, we really just try to, um, to mirror where the business is and what their needs are. Um, so it is definitely not a one size fits
Sid: all. I love the fact that you use the word invest, right? It's, you know, usually, you know, folks and departments tend to use, you know, talk about it as a, as an expense.
Yeah. Uh, but you know, the fact remains that it is an investment in, in your location and in your. Consumer experience. Absolutely. So, So that's great. Cara facility tends to have a challenge, right? Where usually it's one of the first budgets to get hit. It is during like dips or when an organization needs to tighten its belt.
In general, what do you think? that you know, that the impact it has on the consumer experience and how does one maneuver through this to ensure that your budgets and investments, uh, stay intact?
Kara: Yeah, I, I mean, I think what we have done is we've worked to kind of create like a baseline budget for the brands and basically these, this is what you need to do to be able.
Um, address demand, uh, demand r and m, or emergency r and m. And then, you know, just like everyone else, we have, uh, a long list of PMs we wanna provide to the business, right? We wanna keep 'em clean, we wanna clean the windows, we wanna do H V A C, maintenance, general maintenance, et cetera. And so, you know, the expectation is, is if business is struggling for a season or you know, um, or they're doing really well.
That we have to be fleet of foot enough to be able to change, to support that, that business. And while I think it breaks the heart of all of us, the business, the finance teams, the field, and myself, I also understand that we're part of the team. Right? And so if they're asking for the teams to cut back on marketing or to add marketing cuz we're doing really well or visual or you know, we, we are one of the levers that they need to pull to continue to be successful.
And I think. In some ways, you know, I always, uh, I, I know we always contribute when there is a need, um, but I also know that we're not the only one doing so. And so I see it as kind of a team effort. And you know, what we try to do is each year supplement where we have deferred work, um, and try to keep our eyes on the things that would not allow us to execute our.
So it becomes, um, it becomes a little bit of a balancing act. But as a, as a business owner, which we are, we need to collaboratively try to help the business solve their issue, Right? Cause their issue is my issue. I, I own the business just like they do. So you've
Sid: clearly been very successful in, in the space and, you know, have a lot of responsibility when you look back and, and you see like how you've grown in the.
And the impact you have on the organization, what message do you think has resonated on, continues to resonate with your peers and the leaders that you work?
Kara: Well, listen, I could tell you, you know, the one thing I didn't know when I first started out was you can't do it all yourself. And so, you know, what I've tried to do is really surround myself with a group of leaders that actually are like-minded when it comes to customer service and delivery, right?
And so, You know, I think when I first started out, I thought I had to do it all, be it all, solve it all myself. Um, but really I think the best leaders are the ones that'll allow their teams to lead. And, and sometimes that's a struggle for me. You know, I'm a, I'm a control freak, but I think so is my entire team.
I think. That was probably the hardest lesson. And the best lesson I learned was that, you know, to be a good leader, you actually have to trust, uh, the teams that work for you and let them fail. Um, and I think, you know, that was a hard learned experience for me, but it's made, it's given me the opportunity to.
To have all these teams, right? Like, so I didn't do it all on my own. You know, I'm, I'm kind of standing on the shoulders of the teams that have, have helped me grow. And, you know, I've had a leadership team that's been with me for a long, long time. You know, and I think we make good partners. So I think, you know, that if somebody had told me that 20 years ago, I don't know that I would've believed them, but I certainly do now for sure.
I love it.
Sid: Okay, so let's move on to our final segment, uh, where we talk about the future,
Kara: the future, the future, the future.
Sid: I'd love to get your take on. The industry and how you think it has evolved over the past 10 years, and then maybe you can talk about what change you would like to see as you move forward.
Kara: I mean, listen, when I look at our industry as a whole, I, I think one of the things that's really changed is the shift from owner managers to vendor partner management. So, you know, in my previous career, you know, we have always had. A lo we have always had large owner bus business owners, right? Like so, so I, when I first started with Ann, we probably had a 80 person team with facilities purchasing, construction.
Like these teams are humongous, right? And so, as. As a bus, as a, an owner needs to fluctuate, you know, based on where their business is. Headcount is always the easiest thing to go cut, and so what I've noticed over the years is not what I've noticed. What I've had to rely on and lean into is that I don't necessarily need my team members to be the experts.
In the field, they need to be great project managers. They need to be great client reps. They need to hold vendors accountable, but we have to find great vendors in the field that provide the expertise. So that's the big difference. Like I need to know what I need to know, what my business needs us to deliver.
I need to have excellent customer. Uh, teams that have a functional knowledge, but I'm gonna rely on my, my partner vendors to deliver that. And so that's true for construction, that's true for facilities, That's true for ap, for purchasing. You know, we rely more on, more with our external partners to be the subject matter experts and, um, and that, that, you know, has been.
That has taken the meetings over the years where, you know, procurement needs to deliver savings has sometimes impacted our ability to have relationships where there's a reciprocal deliverable. We have to figure out how to continue to grow a relationship, be accountable, so it. It's a, it's complicated, but for me it is kind of turned.
I have very small teams, you know, I have a, I have very small teams, uh, you know, we service over 1400 stores and I have, you know, a team of, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, uh, facilities managers, uh, including. One lead. Um, you know, and then I have someone who manages energy and, um, you know, they, they have their hands full, but we rely on service channel.
We rely on our partner vendors, um, to be good customer service partners to our stores because that's really who the client sees. So, you know, it's changed, you know, And I think, I think that's, that's for the good, quite frankly.
Sid: Are there any rising trends in consumer behavior or technologies or even covid related shifts that you think are here to
Kara: stay?
Well, I mean, listen, I think E-com took a huge step forward. I mean, that probably stepped five, seven years further with Covid than we ever thought it would be. Um, which I think is great. I think what's interesting to me is, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when we were talking about how E-com was going to impact, Bricks and mortar.
There was always this fear that bricks and mortar would slowly, you know, um, dissolve. And what I found is that, you know, I don't know, I don't know that we've solved the conundrum of how do you complement an e-com experience with a bricks and mortar, uh, brick and mortar experience. But I think that's really the challenge ahead of us right now is, You know, how do you make a brick and mortar experience as inviting and quick and successful?
Um, or do you make them linger further? Do you want them to stay longer? Um, so I, so I think there's still a lot of work to be done there. You know, brick and mortar has to figure out how to deliver a different product to the clients that they can't get online. And so that becomes, you know, high client touch, you know, um, uh, a pleasant experience when they're in the store.
Great customer service. And so, you know, for me, I think that's really what is, you know, what the evolution, uh, the next five years is gonna look like for our stores. Um, so it's kind of exciting to.
Sid: That's great. I mean, I, I agree. You know, if you look at where we are today, I mean, yes, there was this, this lingering question as to, you know, what's gonna happen with brick and mortar locations, but guess what, you know, brick and mortar is here to stay.
It is. I think what's gonna happen though, and what is happening is that it's just evolving. It's just changing, uh, you know, location. Uh, are maybe getting, um, better at how they use their space. Uh, it's more experiential. Yeah, for sure. And it works because that's why you see traditional e-commerce, uh, businesses now open brick and mortar motor spaces as well.
And on the flip side, you know, locations that traditionally. You know, relied on their brick and mortar spaces to deliver experiences with, to their consumer and now getting digital experiences and, and, and getting into omnichannel to make sure that they are expanding their interactions with their consumers.
So very interesting times and I think that, The one key word that I think we all need to keep in mind is adapt. Right? We have to all adapt. Yep. And, and, and I think the ones that adapt will continue to do really well and succeed as we move forward. For sure. So Kara, what advice would you give to others in roles like yours?
Kara: I think where I really benefited my first job was as a project coordinator. I built, uh, uh, Sears stores, remodeled and built Sears stores, and I had the luxury of identifying really talented people that were generous enough to share what they knew with me. And I think I. Gravitated towards a generous leader who was willing to tell me how they got where they were going.
And once I found those generous people, I asked them and I asked them the questions that I didn't wanna ask in front of a big group. And I asked them the questions that maybe I, um, Wasn't, wasn't sure of. And I felt comfortable discovering with them what instruction and facilities meant. And so what I would just tell a person who's just starting out is, you know, uh, gravitate towards the people who are generous in their leadership and ask them the questions and spend time with them.
And I think there's something to, on the job learning where you are working with your peers who can help guide you that I, that I think is better than. College book, you know, it, it's better than anything, um, because these people have the, have experience and then make your own decisions from there and make your own judgements from there.
Um, but, but build your knowledge by asking questions, um, in a safe place. Um, and that's really been a win for me
Sid: as a prominent leader. Like, do you have any advice for. Women who are aspiring to enter into our space and
Kara: grow. Yeah, I mean, listen, I, I think it's really interesting that, uh, you know, I go to conferences and I see more and more and more women as I, I'm, I'm getting, not gonna say getting older cuz I don't wanna consider myself getting older.
But I am, unfortunately, as I age , I notice, you know, that there's more company in the, uh, in the room, you know, and. You know, listen, I, I think like anybody, um, you know, do your homework. Know what you're know, know the subject that you're speaking of, ask the right questions. Um, find the leaders that can really give you good guidance and then, you know, work your heart out to get where you need to go.
And I think. I'm by no means saying that the struggle is not real. But I think, you know, I just keep going back to find the right people to surround yourself with and they help you get there. They help recognize how good you are and they'll help facilitate your, your growth. Um, And, uh, I think that's just really important, you know, and join the groups and go to the conferences.
You know, that was something I didn't do early on and I regret it. Um, so I didn't find my, I didn't find my peers, um, until much later. In life. And I think that that's important. You know, there's a lot of great organizations out there. Um, you know, I'll give a shout out to Build Point cuz I'm a member of their, uh, board.
But I love those guys and I love what they pull together and, and how they, they do, uh, you know, small meetings with, uh, women at their conferences just to help you build some peers. And so, you know, you have to, you have to look for your people is what I would.
Sid: Well, Kara, thank you so much for the time today.
You're welcome. I've really enjoyed the conversation. Yeah, me too. For sure. Kara, can you tell our audience where they can find you?
Kara: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, um, I'm in Cleveland, Ohio. , , Just kidding. . Listen, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm not as active on LinkedIn as, as I would say, but, you know, certainly feel free to reach out to me if you have any, um, you know, any questions, um, or you wanna connect, just go on my LinkedIn page and you can reference this podcast and, uh, gimme a couple of days and I'll
Sid: reach out.
Well, with that, Cara, thanks so much for joining our conversation today. I really appreciate it. Thank you for your,
Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar and for subscribing to our podcast. We truly appreciate it. If you enjoyed this conversation and have thoughts, comments, or questions, be sure to follow Service Channel on LinkedIn so you can be part of our community of like-minded folks as well as have access to a lot of other great content.
Feel free to also connect and follow me on Linked. I'm your host, Sid Sheti, and I'll see you on our next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar
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