The Voice of Retail

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special Canada Day episode, meet Edmonton-based entrepreneur and sustainable brand maven Karly Gramlich.  Karly talks about her leap of faith to pursue a passion and develop sustainable luxury fashion and accessories for the modern professional with her brand and online retail store Upper District.  Karly also shares with us how her personal journey has built the resilience and fortitude to take Upper District to the next level on the global stage

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Lalonnie Biggar is a veteran merchant with a depth of experience in department and specialty stores. As president of Northern Reflections, she has big ambitions for this iconic Canadian retailer.

After leading Northern Reflections through the COVID era and out the other side, Lalonnie is preparing the organization for success and growth with new ownership and a fresh vision. We talk merchandising and assortment opportunities, the critical role of eCommerce, and...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode, we welcome back to the podcast a retail veteran and now an analyst and college professor Bruce Winder.

Bruce brings us his informed perspective on the state of retail in Canada we talk about the impacts of changing consumer behaviour and inflation, and then Bruce is a good sport as I pepper him with retail trends in a rapid round of fast paced back-and-forth Q&A.

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Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

From a professional snowboarder to a CEO that eliminated his role by distributing his responsibilities into a leadership collective, get ready for a fascinating interview from Zurich with Oliver Brunschwiler, and meet retailer Freitag

Freitag is a super innovative and agile retailer that takes truck tarps and fashions them into unique handbags and accessories. Oliver takes us through his origin story, which is also the origin story of Freitag. How they...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Founded in Australia in 2009, Ento is a powerful workforce management solution that allows shift-based workforces to manage rostering, time & attendance, leave, and onboarding from one centralized platform.

In this episode, I meet Peter Vigilante, Ento's Canadian Country Manager, and in a wide-ranging interview, talk about how this young company has come to this market to help retailers solve issues around their hourly workforce, mainly on the front lines.

Peter...

Welcome to a special RCC STORE 22 bonus episode of The Voice of Retail podcast!  In these STORE bonus episodes, we'll be meeting the keynote speakers that will be joining us to share their insights and wisdom with the Canadian retail industry.    We talk about their background, business, and a preview of the knowledge they will be sharing at Canada's most significant in-person retail event of the year.  

My guest on this episode is Jacquelyn Kankam, Senior Director of Sustainability & Social Impact for Toronto-based global beauty brand and retailer Deciem.

Jacquelyn started her career in Sustainability, Soci...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special expanded format episode of the podcast, I'm joined by two internationally recognized thought leaders in the digital marketing space to share their insights in a back-to-back set of interviews.

First, Greg Shelly, Vice President, Enterprise Digital Marketing at Canadian Tire Corporation, takes us inside the inner workings of one of the largest digital marketing teams in retail, with a masterclass in structuring teams for the modern era, attribution...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

The RCC Distinguished Canadian Retailer of the Year recognizes a retail leader who has led their company to outstanding business success and innovation and consistently demonstrated community commitment and support. 

The recipient is seen as a role model because of their exceptional leadership within the corporation, Canada's retail industry, and the community through personal and corporate philanthropic activities. 

In this episode, I'm thrilled to welcome back to the podcast Pa...

Welcome to a special RCC STORE 22 bonus episode of The Voice of Retail podcast!  In these STORE bonus episodes, we'll be meeting the keynote speakers that will be joining us to share their insights and wisdom with the Canadian retail industry.    We talk about their background, business, and a preview of the knowledge they will be sharing at Canada's most significant in-person retail event of the year.  

My guest on this episode, making his return to the main stage at STORE, is Ira Kalish, Chief Global Economist for Deloitte.  

We talk about the state...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Canadian retailer Joydrop was just named 2022 Independent Retail Ambassador of the Year by Retail Council of Canada. Shashi Behl, Joydrop's CEO and founder, is my special guest for this episode. 

As an entrepreneur with a passion for jewelry, sharing creator stories and advocating for women in business, Shashi has a history of partnering with other women leaders in business. 

When Shashi opened Joydrop, a retailer that sells unique jewelry and a...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Unprecedented is a remarkable collection of exclusive, first-person stories on leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic from 29 chief executives at iconic Canadian companies.

In this second and final part of a two-part series, I speak with the one and only Michael Medline, CEO of Sobeys, one of the retail leaders contributing to this necessary book for our times and the times ahead.

I take Michael back to the very early...

Welcome to a special RCC STORE 22 bonus episode of The Voice of Retail podcast!  In these STORE bonus episodes, we'll be meeting the keynote speakers that will be joining us to share their insights and wisdom with the Canadian retail industry.    We talk about their background, business, and a preview of the knowledge they will be sharing at Canada's most significant in-person retail event of the year.  

In this episode, the one and only Paco Underhill, breakthrough author of the classic Why We Shop, still essential reading for retailers today, and his latest book, How We Eat: The...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Unprecedented is a remarkable collection of exclusive, first-person stories on leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic from 29 chief executives at iconic Canadian companies.

In this first part of a two-part series, I speak with Andrew Willis, business reporter with the Globe and Mail and co-author and editor of this unique and necessary book. We talk about the story behind the book and the tradecraft of editing that creates th...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this special episode, I am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from my The Food Professor podcast with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. 

Our very special guest for this episode is Richard Scofield, Président et Chef de la direction at Groupe St-Hubert. We start by asking Richard to assess the health of the brand today versus his ambition for the business -is he at where he wants to be as a tea...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

There is no question that employee engagement, education, encouragement, and team building within the retail industry are more critical now than ever before.  

In this episode, we meet Jenny Posthumus, Director, Employee Experience Fire and Flower.  Jenny tells us about leveraging her five years in the cannabis space into 25 years of practical communication and employee engagement.  We discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of finding, keeping and growing your front-line retail wor...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode I am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from my The Food Professor podcast with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  Our very special guest is Carl Goyette President & CEO at GURU Organic Energy.   

Based in Quebec, GURU is succeeding in the highly competitive energy drink category, with a significant share of space in the convenience store, health store and grocery store categories.

Carl shares his back story, fro...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

The COVID era has brought with it many changes in consumer behaviour   - and plenty of questions amongst retailers as to what patterns will stick.  

We are all also trying to understand how consumers view brands in the modern, post-COVID (ish) era and how broader political, social trends and economics impact brand respect, regard and recognition.

My guest on this episode to help answer some of t...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

I’m celebrating my 300th episode of the podcast with an interview with a celebrated retail innovator in Canada, co-founder of the innovative, award-winning Frank & Oak, Ethan Song.

Ethan joins me with Frank & Oak in the rearview mirror to talk about thoughts on post-COVID retail and his latest venture, RareCircles’. His mission with RareCircles is to empower a new generation of entrepreneurs and brands to build deeper relationships with their communities thro...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

I am delighted to share an entire episode from the second season of my Conversations with CommerceNext podcast. From Disney to Playboy, the Gap, Pepsico and now back into retail with Claire's Stores Inc., Kristin Patrick is one of the most experienced and passionate youth-oriented retail CMOs working today.

In a wide-ranging interview with myself and CommerceNext co-founder Veronika Sonsev, Kristin takes us through her fascinating and varied career i...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Live at the SIAL Food Innovation show in Montreal in The Food Professor podcast studio, and I welcome back retail educator and global retail strategist Carl Boutet. Together we catch up in person with pants on in a wide-ranging conversation around retail education, the great acceleration two years on, the future of globalization, the role of innovation, and discover whether Carl is a metaverse skeptic or optimist.

We also have a s...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

With her new book "PREP, PUSH, PIVOT": Essential Career Strategies for Underrepresented Women" and her LA-based consulting company  Twenty Ten Agency, Octavia Goredema" is denting the universe with practical and far-reaching strategies focussed on careers and the workplace. 

As a highly sought after career coach and advisor to companies helping them retain the diverse workplace they are all working so hard to build, Octavia tells us why she wrote her book and...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode I am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from my Remarkable Retail podcast with best-selling author Steve Dennis.  Our guest  is Michelle Poole, President of Crocs. As Crocs celebrates its 20th anniversary we dig into the remarkable growth story behind the increasingly iconic footwear company. 

We address head-on the polarizing (or is it fundamentally under-estimated?) nature of the brand and how Michelle has turned that to a...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

For my last in-person episode recorded live in my Las Vegas pop-up podcast studio at Shoptalk #2022 pop-up recording studio, I'm thrilled to welcome back to the podcast long time friend and colleague, veteran retail technologist, Andrew Cherwenka

As a skilled poker player, Andrew is right at home, walking the aisles at Shoptalk, and right at home in Vegas.  But in his role as head of eCommerce for Vega, a Va...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Recorded live high about the Las Vegas sand in my Shoptalk #2022 pop-up recording studio; on this episode, I enjoy sitting down in person with fellow ReThink Retail top influencer and sought-after thought leader in the retail design and architecture space, Melissa Gonzalez.

With a deep background rich in experience and varied across industries, Melissa has been helping retailers think through everything from pop-up retail to modern store design and i...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Live from my podcasting studio high above the Vegas sands during Shoptalk 2022, I sit down and talk about the latest news and developments in the global eCommerce industry with two of the sharpest minds in the space.

Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, consultants, advisors, industry analysts and co-founders of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, are back as my special guests in-person together for an exclusive interview in my...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

I first met the impressive Linda Maslechko in her dual role of owning an award-winning retail apparel brand was a disruptor in its niche and serving the Canadian retail community on RCC's Board of Directors.   

Fast forward a few years, and her retail brand is no more. Still, the lessons learned from starting, growing and ultimately winding up her retail business are the cornerstone of Linda's new calling - business reinvention.

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode I am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from the most popular Remarkable Retail podcast so far of our fourth season, and second only to our Scott Galloway interview episode, where my podcast partner & best selling author Steve Denis and I welcome Simeon Siegel, the retail rockstar analyst from BMO for a provocative discussion on whether going direct-to-consumer is all it's cracked up to be. In a M...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode I’m picking up an interview from a livestream I hosted for the Retail Council of Canada Retail Human Resources forum.  I’m joined by Liz Volk, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Alex Green, Chief Marketing Officer, from Longos, a 65 year old innovative family regional grocery store operating in southern Ontario.

Employee engagement at Longo’s is deeply rooted in the value of collabora...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

For the first time in its 180 year history, La Maison Simon, better known as Simons, based in Quebec City, will be led by a non-family member as CEO.   And you are about to meet him.

Simons was founded in 1840 by John Simons in Quebec City. It is Canada's oldest private family business, with 15 Simons stores, nine in Quebec, including its head office in Quebec City, three in Alberta, one in British C...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Being a CEO in the modern age is one of the most complex and challenging roles in business. Notwithstanding that, there has been no guidebook or framework that describes what excellence looks like in this all-important role.

My guest on this episode is Carolyn Dewar, senior partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of the compelling new book "CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish The Best Leaders from the Rest."

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

I am delighted to share an entire episode from the second season of my Conversations with CommerceNext podcast featuring an interview with the founder and CEO of CSC Generation, Justin Yoshimura.

Justin and the team have mastered the art of transforming challenged retail brands on the verge of liquidation into high-performance, 'digital-first' operations.

By using their fine-tuned omnichannel technology platform, CSC Generation has a data-driven recipe fo...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

The way we decide matters.  So says Eric Johnson, director of the Centre  for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School and author of the new book “The Elements of Choice”

In a great conversation we delve into the architecture of choice - according to Eric, every time we make a choice, our minds go through an elaborate process most of us never notice. We talk about how all of this applies to our...

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

For this episode we are taking more than a Hallmark moment to get to know Carolyn Spriet, the President of Hallmark Canada.  In a wide-ranging interview we get to learn more about the Hallmark business.  From humble beginnings in 1910,  the Hallmark brand continues to evolve across its business portfolios. From the Hallmark Channel content on the W Network in Canada, to the company’s Crayola subsidiary  - hey did you know they owned Crayol...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode I am thrilled to be sharing an excerpt from a recent episode of my popular Remarkable Retail podcast, where my podcast partner & best selling author Steve Denis and I welcome Rachel Bentley and Carly Nance, the co-founders of Dallas based The Citizenry, the fast-growing, thoughtfully designed, ethically crafted, home furnishing company. We dig into the inspiration for the brand, the "white space" they seek to...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Today I am thrilled to be sharing a full episode from the second season of my Conversations with CommerceNext podcast featuring an interview with Sally Pofcher, a retail strategy expert and proven creator of growth and brand leadership.

From McKinsey to Gap Inc. and beyond, Sally stands on a full and bright career at the forefront of innovative retail brands.  She calls on her experience as a seasoned str...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Stephen Poloz, author, economist and former Governor of the Bank of Canada, joins me on this very special episode for an exclusive interview to discuss the launch of his new book, "The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future."

Together Stephen and I talk about the major tectonic forces that are shaping a chaotic world. Among these forces are an aging workforce, mo...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

On this special episode a pickup of a livestream presentation of the Leger WOW brand results for 2021.  This seminal research looks across formats and sectors within the retail landscape through the lens of the consumer and highlights both important trends and relative brand performance.

I’m joined by Christian Bourque, Executive Vice-President and Senior Partner at Leger in Montreal and Luc Dumont Vice President CPG at Léger based...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

Jeff Rosenblum launched and leads one of the most innovative brand agencies in the world: Questus.

In this episode one of the world’s top advertising executives tells us how iconic brands win new customers and build armies of evangelists, and guides us through to the other side with his new book Exponential: Transform Your Brand by Empowering Instead of Interrupting

Jeff tells that great brands stan...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

It’s a complex world of technology, retail alliances with one thing for certain in an uncertain age: agility, computing power, and an eye for innovation, wins.

My guest on this episode is Tom Litchford, Head of Worldwide Retail at Amazon Web Services (AWS), a technology that bring the computing horsepower and flexibility to business around the world - but you probably already know that.

What you...

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

From Scott Galloway to Carl Boutet to Steve Dennis, savvy business leaders and retail industry thought leaders agree on one thing: the COVID era was the great acceleration of eCommerce.  Best estimate: Canada stepped into a pandemic time tunnel and came out the other end five online years later.

This year, retailers, big and small, are starting off once again with some degree of uncertainty as a result of...