Brooks Kitchel
Partner
Kurt Salmon Associates
Excellence in RetailKurt Salmon Associates partner Brooks Kitchel imagines he would work as an architect or a teacher if he were not consulting retail clients. It’s not surprising: Kitchel flexes the skills both of these professions require in his consulting work. The conceptual assortment planning (CAP) methodology he introduced to many KSA clients has transformed merchandising strategy in the retail industry. Like any great teacher, Kitchel derives great pleasure from helping younger consultants and his clients exceed their goals.
“One of the more enjoyable aspects of my job is working with younger consultants and seeing them do things they did not believe they could do,” says Kitchel. “I think a good consultant is someone who gets the most pleasure out of seeing the results happen. It’s not about starting a project or getting approval for a project, but it’s the reward of seeing a client do well or gain value from your team delivering benefits beyond what you said you could do.”
The retail industry is hungry for those benefits right now as it seeks to navigate unprecedented changes and pressure. The economic downturn, Kitchel notes, has “almost created a new reality in consumer behavior. … Helping companies adapt to this new reality is an incredibly challenging and rewarding exercise.”
Fortunately, KSA’s CAP process can help. Kitchel and his colleagues developed CAP in response to what flaws they saw in traditional methods of assembling a merchandise assortment: retailers traditionally reviewed what they carried last year and then looked at what the vendors selling them merchandise were promoting. The problem with that approach is that retailers were, A) bound to repeat mistakes; and, B) relying too much on vendors
to tell them about their own customers.
“If you go to the grocery store without a plan and all of the seafood looks good but nothing else does, then you’ll come home with a whole bunch of fish and not be able to put together a dinner,” says Kitchel. Today, more retailers are equipped with a better shopping list, thanks to Kitchel.
—Eric Krell >>
Full list of Top 25 Consultants 2009
