In the modern world, becoming an effective company leader is no simple task. One must overcome numerous obstacles, endure demanding stages, follow current trends, and contend with competition. This is the starting point of the voyage!

Winston Weber, Chairman & CEO of Winston Weber & Associates, has 60 years of expertise in the retail sector. He finds the present retail environment to be both challenging and interesting.

He pioneered retailer/supplier collaboration in the late 1980s, which is now known as collaborative business planning. He was acknowledged as one of Category Managements initial developers in 1990 after presenting it to the American market.

With the current launch of the new Shopper-Centric Retailing business model and its key element, Shopper Solutions Planning, Weber was the first to see the need to expand beyond the 30-year-old category management strategy.

Professional Growth and Invaluable Work Experiences

Win worked for consumer product firms for 23 years following his graduation from Syracuse University in 1962, before spending more than 36 years in the consulting industry. He worked with Colgate Palmolive for his first ten years before switching to General Foods, where he quickly advanced from the position of retail salesman to sales supervisor, district manager, and regional manager. He thought these were great business experiences that had taught him a lot, but he was still looking for more. Win thought that his ability to drive change to enhance the working environment and performance was too constrained by corporate culture.

Win later moved to Beechnut Baby Food as vice president of sales after leaving General Foods. He soon discovered that baby food sales people had the highly expensive job of stocking all of the supermarkets’ shelves in addition to selling products. He tested no shelf stocking in a small market. Competition followed immediately, and this led to his decision to expand nationally. He shares, “We eliminated 1500 sales/shelf stocking positions and considerable expense. I was then invited by Sunshine Biscuits to be their Vice President Sales. At that time, they were losing money.” His responsibility was to fix the problem. He designed the strategy and plan to move Sunshine from direct store to warehouse delivery. This immediately moved the company from a several million-dollar loss to a several million dollar profit. This move also helped us gain market share.

The Drackett Company (Windex) then requested Win to join as a regional vice president, and after one year, Win was given the opportunity to advance to the position of president of sales. He implemented a variety of organisational improvements at Drackett, including the first appointments of African Americans and women to executive positions. Given that this occurred more than 40 years ago, this was done far before other businesses adopted comparable strategies. Although Win would have stayed longer at Drackett because it was a wonderful experience, he was approached by Atari with an employment offer he could not refuse. Win was engaged as Senior Vice President of Sales in order to bring retail channel knowledge for consumer goods and make significant modifications to the structure and operational procedures of the sales organization.

Win’s final corporate experience was as President of the Schering Plough Sales Corporation, where similar changes were made.

Drive behind founding Winston Weber & Associates

Win made so many achievements at such a young age while holding senior management positions with significant consumer products companies that he decided to leave corporate life after 23 years of working for a single company in order to pursue opportunities where he could help many businesses grow and help spur change across the consumer products industry. His choice to start Winston Weber & Associates, Inc. in 1985 was influenced by this. He states, “My goal was to form a small “boutique” consulting firm with a global perspective that would provide leadership thinking with practical, implementable solutions to grocery retailers and consumer packaged goods companies.” Win wanted to employ a controlled growth strategy with an emphasis on providing more value and client return on investment than very large consulting firms staffed mostly by junior consultants, many with minimal business experience. This has been accomplished and maintained during the 36-year journey.

WWA

In 1985, Winston Weber & Associates (WWA) was established. The company’s mission has always been to provide leadership thinking with doable, practical answers while maintaining a global perspective. It is renowned for offering clients greater value and a higher return on their investment than both loose consortium consultancies and very large consulting firms, -which are often staffed by junior consultants with little business expertise and uneven quality control. An unwavering focus on quality and trust, a “tell it as we see it” attitude, and the capacity to constantly surpass customer expectations equate to greater value and client return on investment. These traits, and the team’s commitment to offering cutting-edge ideas with workable solutions, have assisted the company in achieving its objective. This approach led to the firm’s reputation today.

WWA client experience includes retailers, consumer products companies, and B2B companies ranging from $100 million to over $70 billion in sales. This includes national and multi-national corporations in over fifteen countries. Most consumer product sectors are represented by the firm, including food, beverage, beverage alcohol, health and beauty care, household products, apparel, luxury goods, automotive aftermarket, entertainment, toys, home improvement, and industrial safety clothing. Win shares, “We have worked with companies in nearly every retail channel, sales model, and distribution mode.”

WWA is viewed as a high value resource in areas such as strategic planning, organization restructuring, business process reengineering, supply chain optimization, strategic retailer/supplier collaboration, trade promotion optimization, brand marketing, shopper insights/marketing, category management evolution, shopper solutions planning, in-store merchandising, merchandising systems and tools guidance, skills development and more. Win asserts, “Our consulting services are provided to retailers, wholesalers, distributors, consumer products manufacturers, sales and marketing companies, and information providers.”

Leading with “Real World” Business Perspective

Before joining WWA, Win states that senior consultants must have at least 30 years of managerial experience in the consumer products sector, specifically in general management, retail management, sales management, brand management, or supply chain management. They are perfectly prepared to work with businesses looking to utilise leadership positions in the market as well as turnaround situations, and Win expects them to provide a unique blend of talents, expertise, and a “real world” business perspective to each client assignment. Importantly, the team fully understands the necessity to concentrate on managing the firm while it undergoes change, regardless of the circumstance. This guarantees the accomplishment of short-term performance goals while transforming the company. He states, “More value and client return on investment means an uncompromising emphasis on quality and trust, a “say it as we see it” approach, and the ability to consistently exceed client expectations.” He further adds, “These qualities and our dedication to providing leading-edge thinking with implementable solutions have helped us to achieve our goal… this is our reputation today.”

Keeping an Eye on Industry Transformations

As CEO of WWA, Win is responsible for keeping a finger on the industry’s pulse, clearly defining WWA’s role and responsibilities within the industry, serving as the company’s primary marketer, assisting in the acquisition of new clients, supervising the creation of client initiatives, and promoting the firm’s solutions to those clients. Win must be acutely aware of the key issues and trends affecting the industry. He opines, “I have spent a lot of time this year determining the post-COVID-19 new norm for both retailers and CPG companies. This has led to an adjustment in several of our capabilities, with new leading initiatives planned as well as a major upgrading of our website.“

Win defines himself as “Positive” in one word. Whether it is business or personal, Win does not know how to think negative. He believes that if a negative situation is occurring, his mind immediately focuses on possible solutions.

Exceeding Boundaries to becoming Truly Global

WWA team has exceeded Win’s geographic expectations with clients in the U.S. Canada, Europe, Mexico, South America, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. He is personally involved in every client project. His Delta Airlines mileage alone is 3.5 million miles.

WWA has exceeded its industry leadership objective. In the late 1980’s, the company introduced the concept of retailer/supplier partnership, now referred to as collaboration, to the grocery industry. This is a concept that today continues to grow across the industry. In 1990, the company introduced the concept of Category Management to the U.S. market.

Today, supermarket chains, drug chains, and mass merchandisers all around the world use category management. Retailers and makers of consumer goods have both benefited greatly from Category Management in terms of increased sales and profits. The WWA is now offering Shopper-Centric Retailing, a comprehensive and revolutionary business strategy that focuses all functions within a retailer on boosting sales by exceeding customers’ expectations. This approach goes beyond Category Management. This entails moving past engrained business norms and practises and focusing instead on the customer, customer solutions, and improvements to the shopping experience from the top down and across all relevant functional areas. With evolving food lifestyles, digital connectivity, social media, online shopping, delivery options, and growing generational complexity, the grocery industry is undergoing the most dynamic change in decades. This new business model offers the support required in today’s shopper-centric environment to deliver sustainable incremental gain. It is anticipated that by ensuring consumer pleasure for years to come, it will play a significant role in the industry’s growth. Retailers and CPG producers that were surveyed unanimously agreed that we needed to transition from Category Management to this new business model.

As Win discloses, WWA is also introducing Shopper Solutions Change Enablement Training. He believes that today’s hyper-evolving world requires continuous evolution, not one-time change. He states, “Change management is no longer sufficient; we need to build the universally required competencies of non-routine cognitive skills, abstract reasoning, systems thinking, and the ability to experiment that allow our teams to continuously adapt and excel.” This means bringing together the foundational skills introduced by category management with the shift to shopper-centric strategies and processes driven by the current digital revolution. This approach prepares a company’s team for success with trading partners by focusing on the HOW: the infrastructure, people behaviors, and retailer/manufacturer strategic collaboration. This is a first in the industry.

In addition to the aforementioned leadership efforts, WWA also has an advanced multicultural strategy and a new, improved collaborative business planning process that are both intended to considerably increase the ROI for resources committed.

When Win considers what WWA has achieved over the past 36+ years, he realises that the company has built a reputation that has made it the only consulting firm that truly comprehends retailers, consumer product manufacturers, and the relationship between the two parties, as well as the only firm that offers cutting-edge thinking and useful solutions. WWA is well situated to maintain its position as a very important consulting firm as the industry starts to face the post-COVID new norm.

Leader’s View

What significate changes have happened in the sector in the past years, and which modern technologies have disrupted.

Three major changes that have taken place since the beginning of COVID-19 two years ago are: a significant increase in online ordering, it has accelerated the need to move beyond Category management; and digital transformation has accelerated by at least six years.

What has been the best recognition that you have received as a professional?

When I have been recognized time and time again as the creator of the 32-year old Category Management.

Kindly describe how you will know what successes looks like.

I have had ongoing Category Management success for 32 years. It cannot get any better than this.

Where do you see yourself and the company in coming years.

I see myself and the company at the same place I have been for thirty-two years. Leading edge thinking and practical solutions, the story of my life.

 Website: winstonweber.com