From Abercrombie & Fitch to Polo Ralph Lauren, Rick Amari has advised some of the most well-known US brands and unsurprisingly, his wealth of knowledge and experience is due to his varied background in the industry. He started his working life as a consultant at Arthur Andersen (now Accenture) and then moved into retail after taking a job with the franchise grocery store Piggly Wiggly.
After 10 years of working in IT and operational roles, Amari relocated to Ohio and took up a role at the largest American lingerie retailer, Victoria Secrets, a division of The Limited (now Limited Brands). He rose up the ranks to become head of IT in the mid ‘90s and then Group CIO of Limited Brands, leading the Lane Bryant, Limited Stores, Lerner (now New York & Company), and Limited Too (now Tween Brands) divisions. Following 12 years of working for LimitedBrands, Rick decided in 2001 to create his own consultancy business, Columbus Consulting, which he still runs today.
Besides the various mergers behind The Limited Stores, Amari has seen many changes concerning the US retail industry and he pinpoints the emergence of the brand as a key shift in retail thinking. “In 1990, many mall stores were just that, stores with merchandise. Now there is significant emphasis on developing the image, the story, the brand. Go down the list of US retailers, Abercrombie, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, Coach, and so many more through Victoria’s Secret, these brands conjure up an image. The stronger the image: the stronger the performance. Developing the brand is critical to the success of the business and it demands far more attention than it was afforded 20 years ago.”
Indeed, the US retailers who are currently doing well in the economic crisis can be separated, according to Amari, into three different categories. There are the discounters such as Walmart, Big Lots and the dollar value stores who “are setting the performance bar.” The value orientated brands such as DSW and Aeropostale are doing well and Rick notes, “the luxury branded companies such as Coach and Polo Ralph Lauren will weather the storm, get more efficient during the tough times, and emerge ever better positioned as the economy improves.”
The increased importance of the image has also had an effect on the responsibility of retailers. As consumers awareness of retail’s impact on the environment grows, the need for the industry to respond increases. Rick Amari believes, “we are just putting our toes in the water on this one to date, but we may be hit with a tsunami soon.”
He continues by stating that “in the US, the awareness about being green and the environmental impacts of everyday actions are being heightened to new levels. I would expect consumers to begin expanding their awareness not only to their own actions, but to the actions of others. They will reward companies that act responsibly and avoid those that appear careless.” In terms of what Amari calls the “change management curve,” “we are still at the awareness stage,” but he predicts that acquiring more environmentally friendly IT equipment, re-assessing Green IT and disposing of obsolete computers, servers etc in a responsible manner will soon be on the retailers’ agenda.
There’s no denying the impact of the internet on retailers’ IT systems, “from an operational perspective, the internet allows the enablement of systems for collaboration and information exchange in speeds and efficiencies we couldn’t begin to understand, even 10 years ago.” The internet has transformed both the speed of IT and the speed of business as Rick explains, “In the time we used to design new EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) scripts or remotely install a new desktop application 5 time zones away, we can now deploy a new application for sharing information. Plus, it is no longer just textual information on PO status, it include images, video, technical specifications, and so much more.”
According to Rick Amari, retailers will be better positioned if they take advantage of the new technologies available. From his experience, Amari knows that solutions for Assortment Planning and Size Profiling require large amounts of data to be managed. IT can now store and handle the data and applications are emerging to use the information. In addition, collaboration can improve through technology. “We are clearly in a global market and engage with parties almost anywhere. IT must enable the information sharing required to make these relationships effective.”
So why are the industry treading cautiously when it comes to IT solutions? Well “the main fear is overspending on IT and not gaining the value expected.” Rick suggests that businesses need to establish realistic expectations of what it takes to deliver in IT and what they can get out of the solution. By being realistic, getting solutions in place and evolving them, the industry could avoid the disaster of inflating justifications, compressing timelines and underestimating costs in order to get project approval. And here is where Columbus Consulting comes into play, as Rick affirms, “our initial focus is to establish clear and reasonable expectations, and then work diligently with our clients to meet and surpass them.”
As the largest retail niche consulting practice in North America, Columbus Consulting offer many solutions to solve these problems. From planning, allocation and replenishment space to supply chain, global sourcing, warehouse management and logistics, Rick Amari’s business is growing rapidly. They also have a well developed data warehouse practice and provide strategic IT services. Following a record year in 2009, they aims to be the dominant service provider for Planning, Allocation, and Replenishment solutions. Rick explains that, “as we build our consultant network, we will expand our service offerings, provided we can deliver exceptional services in the disciplines we serve.”
With an impressive list of clients already on their books and an experienced and knowledgeable president, Columbus Consulting brings the requisite experience to enable retailers to really reap the benefits from new technology solutions and improve their business practices.
For more information on Columbus Consulting
click here