SUMMER BONUS: Shift Happens

Remarkable Retail

Welcome to a special Remarkable Retail podcast summer series focused on what leaders need to do to help their organizations win the future and leap to higher ground. In this six-part limited series, Steve is unpacking key lessons from his new best-selling book Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption, available everywhere books are sold.

Having spent most of his career working in either senior leadership positions at a corporation or as a strategic advisor, where he was focused on driving growth & innovation, Steve has had a front- row seat to the seismic shifts that have reshaped the retail landscape. It’s hard to overestimate the disruptive power game-changing technology has had on just about every aspect of our culture and commerce.

Our world today looks very different than it did when e-commerce first emerged, when smart devices started to transform how we communicate, or when pervasive connectedness and operating in the cloud began their inexorable march toward ubiquity.

These shifts have allowed for entirely new and incredibly valuable business models to emerge. These shifts have also brought many iconic brands to their knees or set them on a path to seemingly endless struggle.

So it’s worth asking “If the world has changed so much, why have so many leaders changed so little.”

Indeed, shift happens. And it’s happening faster and faster all the time.

The challenge is not to figure out how to mount resistance but to accept the things you cannot change, get intensely focused on the things you can, and then get to work.

• Shift happens. Get used to it.
• Shift happens. Shake hands with the new weird.
• Shift happens. Don’t let it destroy your future.
• Shift happens. Summon up all the courage you require.
• Shift happens. Get ready to leap.

This 6-part summer series explores why we must choose remarkable or risk irrelevance. We will go deep on unpacking the root causes that lead to an overly timid transformation. We will delve into what is required to lead in the face of relentless, unyielding disruption.

Season 9 of the Remarkable Retail podcast returns on September 10th in its usual format. Follow us wherever you enjoy your podcasts, and don’t forget to give us a 5-star review.

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.