Strategic Planning and Management in Retailing

This course provides a strategic look at the best methods to win in the highly competitive retail sector. Topics include:

• Building retail strategy and culture
• Financial and productivity analysis: the strategic profit
• Model and the strategic resource model
• Omnichannel and online retailing
• Strategic thinking and planning
• Case studies on leading global retailers, social media and online retailing.

Sample Program Schedule*

Day one

The Eight Ways to Win in Retailing

Day two

Comprehensive Retailing Strategy Case. Examples: Target Stores, Uniqlo, Whole Foods

Financial and Productivity Analysis

Day three

Financial and Productivity Analysis Group Exercise

Master Matrix Group Exercise, productivity by department by store 

Day four

Assortment Planning and Merchandise Management Exercise

Integrated Framework for Strategic Resource Management

Begin Online Exercise

Strategic Thinking and Planning

Day five

Marketing Research, Segmentation and Positioning Case. Examples: TJ Maxx, Meijer Hypermarkets 

Customer Satisfaction and Social Media. Examples: Sephora, Ulta Beauty

Online Exercise continued

Day six

Strategic Transformation Case. Examples: Home Depot, Walgreens, Tesco, Zara & H&M

Twenty-Two Tiny Retailing Tidbits (summary)

*AGSE continually updates program content to best serve participant needs. Course content may vary.

In a highly collaborative and interactive setting, peers from across the retail industry and around the world share ideas, explore best practices, and learn to:

• think more strategically about the business
• become more data driven in building strategy, including financial modelling and productivity analysis
• interpret consumer, competitive, and market research insights effectively—and implement changes based on the data
• develop and apply enhanced merchandising management and assortment strategies
• manage strategic resources efficiently.

Designed specifically for leaders across the retail sector, this program will help you learn to adapt to the continued changes in the retail sector—especially those that dramatically affect efficiency and profitability including the growing tide of online retail transactions.

A diverse participant mix collaborates in an interactive setting, looking at best practices, sharing ideas, and exploring nuanced and broad-based approaches to effective leadership, management, and planning.

Founded in 2001, the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) is Australia’s first dedicated entrepreneurship school. Based in the Faculty of Business and Law, the AGSE is connected to expertise in the wider university. Building on Swinburne’s longstanding practice of engaging with industry, AGSE executive education is cocreated with senior industry leadership.

In collaboration with the Customer Experience and Insight (CXI) Research Group, AGSE programs are led by highly regarded researchers and educators who are both thought leaders and pragmatic practitioners. With a focus on real-world business challenges, AGSE’s suite of executive education programs develop participants through instruction, collaboration, and peer interaction.

Lawrence J. Ring

Lawrence is Chancellor Professor of Business and the Executive MBA Alumni professor of Executive Education at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary. He was the founder and first director of William & Mary’s Executive MBA Program, and served the business school as associate dean for academic affairs. His teaching and research interests focus on marketing management, and marketing and retailing strategy. He has received numerous teaching awards including the Thomas Ashley Graves Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching.

He is the co-author of the books: Decisions in Marketing, Retail Management, and Strategic Marketing, and has published a variety of scholarly articles, technical notes, and cases. In 1983, he co-founded the executive education program, Strategic Planning and Management in Retailing. He has served on the boards of directors of five publicly-held retail companies.

Ronald L. Hess

Ronald is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary. He currently teaches Customer Experience Management and the Business-to-Business Marketing Career Acceleration Module (CAM) in the William & Mary MBA Program. He is a two-time winner of the Outstanding Professor Award at the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary.

Professor Hess has considerable experience in consulting and executive education in the retail industry. His expertise involves managing the in-store and digital retail experience, improving customer satisfaction and improving customer profitability and customer lifetime value. He has published scholarly research in several highly reputable academic journals and authored cases on many important retailers. Hess has also taught in the Babson Strategic Retailing Program for about ten years, and has worked with many retailers in Australia, USA, South America, Europe and Asia.

John S. Strong

John is the CSX professor of finance and economics at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary (USA). He received his master’s degree and PhD from Harvard, where he also has taught. Strong focuses on financial analysis of retailing, especially in the areas of productivity analysis, project evaluation, acquisition valuation, the retail credit industry, and merchandise performance. He has published numerous articles and cases on these subjects, and is currently writing a comprehensive text on retail finance.

John is a twenty-time winner of the William & Mary MBA and Executive MBA Outstanding Professor Awards, and received the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award at the college’s Tercentenary Celebration in 1993. He has taught in the Babson Strategic Retailing Program for almost two decades, and has worked with numerous retailers across Australia, the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.