Three companies. Eighteen years. The Same System.
The descriptions below are drawn from my own record. Read the first line of each — they describe the same intervention, two decades and three companies apart.
TELUS
CORPORATE RETAIL STORES · VICE PRESIDENT 2000–2004
What I built
A store management performance model designed to make strong performance repeatable across the chain. Built on clear targets, observable standards and a coaching cadence that managers could put into practice.
How it was built
Thirty temporary mall kiosks had been launched in six months. The challenge was to turn them into a thriving national retail chain, expanding our market coverage as the consumer wireless market grew. I had no retail experience, so I built a system rather than a set of answers. I had no retail experience, so I built a system rather than a set of answers. Over my four years at TELUS, we grew the channel to 100 corporate retail locations. By the twelfth year, the program had expanded to 500 locations across three brands. Four things made the difference: Purpose made practical. Standards people could demonstrate. Operations as partners, not auditors. A weekly cross-functional forum.
What changed
We achieved 107% of our 2001 sales target and 122% of our EBITDA target. Subscriber churn fell 57% year over year. Points of distribution grew 76% while capital spending remained at 80% of plan. Sales grew more than 20% year over year, consistently. Employee engagement increased 20%, reaching the best levels in the company and best-in-class performance, alongside exceptionally low attrition.
Why it matters
There's a question behind every performance improvement initiative: can you raise the bar without losing your people? At TELUS, performance and engagement improved together. That's not a trade-off. It's what becomes possible when people understand what good looks like, have the capability to deliver it and are given ownership of the result.
WOW MOBILE BOUTIQUE · SVP & MANAGING DIRECTOR •
2015–2018
What I built
A store management performance model designed to improve results and reduce the gap between stores. Built on clear, non-negotiable standards, manager ownership and coaching that turned expectations into everyday habits.
How it was built
We had 93 mall locations selling six wireless brands. The culture was command and control: problems went up the chain, solutions came back down as instructions. We didn't have a corporate training department or a national systems team. We couldn't rely on infrastructure to do the work for us. We changed two things: How we worked together, moving toward ownership and unbiased advice. How we managed performance, building Impact Store Manager around non-negotiable standards.
What changed
Sales increased 60%. EBITDA increased 300%. Store productivity increased 60%. Employee turnover fell 15%. Customer experience reached an industry-leading LTR of 92%. In Alberta, the gap between the strongest and weakest stores nearly closed. We hadn't just improved the average. We'd lifted performance across the area.
Why it matters
We achieved 107% of our 2001 sales target and 122% of our EBITDA target. Subscriber churn fell 57% year over year. Points of distribution grew 76% while capital spending remained at 80% of plan. Sales grew more than 20% year over year, consistently. Employee engagement increased 20%, reaching the best levels in the company and best-in-class performance, alongside exceptionally low attrition.
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS
VP BRANDED RETAIL
2018–2021
What I built
A store management and leadership model designed to improve performance and reduce inconsistency across a large retail network. Built on clear targets, observable behavioural standards and a coaching cadence.
How it was built
We had 362 corporately owned stores and more than 3,000 people. Performance was below potential, and it wasn't for one reason. We identified three issues: Leadership and culture, wanting inquiry and ownership. The labour model, where part-time hours didn't fit complex products. No consistent management system. We didn't assume we knew the answer. We tested the fixes separately, measuring results against comparable control stores.
What changed
Sales increased 60%. EBITDA increased 300%. Store productivity increased 60%. Employee turnover fell 15%. Customer experience reached an industry-leading LTR of 92%. In Alberta, the gap between the strongest and weakest stores nearly closed. We hadn't just improved the average. We'd lifted performance across the area.
Why it matters
We achieved 107% of our 2001 sales target and 122% of our EBITDA target. Subscriber churn fell 57% year over year. Points of distribution grew 76% while capital spending remained at 80% of plan. Sales grew more than 20% year over year, consistently. Employee engagement increased 20%, reaching the best levels in the company and best-in-class performance, alongside exceptionally low attrition.
Why Three Matters
One strong result can be timing, context, or a talented individual. Two can still be read as coincidence. Three, from the same components, in three different companies, across eighteen years, is a pattern.
A pattern is the only thing that credibly transfers to an organization I have never seen. That is the whole argument: consistency is a system, not a personality.
And each time, performance and engagement rose together, which is the result most leaders expect to have to trade one for.
These examples are counted in locations because that's where I spent my career. The problem isn't retail, and it is not geography.
It appears wherever there are more managers than one person can lead directly — a plant with forty supervisors, a hospital, a claims operation, a contact centre, a head office of three hundred. Same spread, same causes, same fix. The unit that matters is the manager, not the building they sit in.