Julie: Retail Sector Expert, Change and Project Manager

Julie A has earned her wide experience of the retail sector through work with household names, including Marks and Spencers, Tescos, Liberty of London and Safeways and has used this expertise in a recent project for IBM.

Fulfilling a variety of roles, from general management to multi-site management, she specializes in offering hands-on change management and organisational development consultancy from Board level down. Her practical approach has given her an enviable reputation for understanding both the needs of the customer and of staff, plus an ability to motivate individualism and innovation and create working cultures that promote excellent customer standards, enhance brand and improve profitability.

• At IBM, Julie lead an 'Emerging Business Opportunity' developed within the global retail sector. Working with IBM's Global Leadership Team, she constructed an innovation strategy to underpin IBM's 2010 vision. Two specific mandates involved taking the lead in company pan-European presentations to board level clients in order to change retailers' perceptions of IBM and coaching and mentoring IBM senior executive partners to create additional returns on investment for the retail client and for IBM.
• For Marks and Spencer Plc, she sourced and project managed a team of consultants to coach and integrate 15 Multi-site Directors to take five times as much responsibility for retail operations, whilst producing savings and efficiencies equal to 1% of turnover, including retail sales growth of over 15% year-on-year.
• Also for Marks & Spencer Plc, Julie mentored and coached two Regional Managing Directors in the execution of the Board’s recovery strategy, with the result that all KPIs were exceeded, making a key contribution to business turn around.
• For Safeway Plc, Julie provided the link between the retailer Safeway and designer Campbell Rigg, to ensure that the 'Fresh and Go' and 'Retailainment' new store design concepts were operationally practical and effective – and achievable within budget and time-scales.
• For Liberty of London Plc, she reported to the Board in the role of Interim Operations Director and held full P&L responsibility for their £multi-million international retail operation. Achievements included project-leading the introduction of a customer account service card designed for direct marketing, benchmarked the strategic retail focus against world-class stores and identifying a sustainable competitive advantage in the UK.