Michael Dart
Senior Partner
Kurt Salmon Associates
Excellence in Retail
Sometimes being a great consultant means having the confidence in your advice, even when you think it's the last thing your clients want to hear. If so, then Kurt Salmon's Michael Dart is, perhaps, in a class by himself.
"One of my earliest bosses made a huge impression on me. He was just so clear that as consultants we do what's right—even if it's not popular," Dart says. "He'd say, 'Don't worry if something, in the short-run, doesn't appear to be in your own financial best interest. In the long run, if you act with integrity, it will serve you well.' He instilled in me a desire to always let the goal of building lasting client relationships be what guides me. 'Tell them the truth.' It has always stuck with me."
Dart took that message to heart when hired by a large retailer to help figure out how to generate the most value from a series of acquisitions. After analyzing the future of the specific markets the client had invested in, Dart's team came to the conclusion that the stores didn't have much of a future.
"Before we were brought in, the client had bought a lot of companies and was now competing in markets that our analysis showed didn't have much promise. What we ended up recommending to that client was that the acquisitions didn't make a lot of sense. Our perspective was directly contrary to what management and the board believed," Dart says.
"This led to a tremendous amount of organizational discomfort. Fortunately, we found that the CEO and key members of the board were able to intellectually detach themselves from the decisions they had historically made," he says. "That led them, in the end, to conclude that they needed to add a strategic partner, which then led to a sale of their entire business.
Shortly thereafter, the recession hit and these businesses would have been in even worse shape than we anticipated. It actually turned out fortuitous for them."
Based on real-world client experiences like these, Dart is co-authoring a book: The Retail Revolution, due to be published in November. It will focus on the enormous market transformations facing consumer businesses.
—Jess Scheer
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