Retail Therapy

Designing a successful retail business depends on relationships with four groups of people: customers, shareholders, employees and suppliers. This book takes you inside those strategic relationships and shows you how to redesign your business to get them right. Don't let the humour fool you, there are ground-breaking ideas here. Highlights include a new theory of brands which shows how customer loyalty and service can be transformed. Insights into supply chain structure reveal a path to a new level of excellence. Job satisfaction is also given a complete overhaul for the new century. In each case the solution seems paradoxical - by finding a way to let the human element back into strategy we can actually increase its objectivity and extend its reach. Combining hardcore retail experience with state of the art theory and a steady flow of humour, this is the retail strategy book you've been waiting for. It's infectiously readable, relentlessly illuminating and irreverently funny - it's also the key to successful retail.

'This book is very well written and entertaining, and it gets behind the scenes to show how large retailers operate, from customer relations to creative accounting. Why can't all business books be this much fun to read?' - Julian Richer, Chairman, Richer Sounds Ltd

'Retail Therapy is an excellent study of the issues confronting retailers and their suppliers. It is not a therapeutic read, it is a call for improvement. Retail Therapy provides some practical solutions so that retailers and suppliers can work together to deliver a better offer to their customers.' - Stuart Rose, Chief Executive, The Arcadia Group

'If you think this book is just another retail primer, think again. This is a stimulating book that places retail in the wider context of good business practice. It is based on common sense and observed practice, both traits that private equity investors value and are applying increasingly to the exciting world of retail. If this book has an underlying theme, it is that there really is a better way out there, something I have believed in all my career.' - David Williams, CEO, First Quench Retail (Thresher and Victoria Wine)

'These guys not only know their retail stuff, but are able to impart their extensive knowledge and experience of this complex and competitive sector in an entertaining way.' - Marketing

'...a highly entertaining, commonsense view of how retailers could approach their business operations differently...Where itdiffers from most business books is that in learning the potential solutions from the anecdotes and case studies, it is actually an enjoyable read.' - David Phillips, Business development manager, supplies The Co-operative Group, Supply Management.com

ROB JONES is a Director of Retail Influence Limited and a writer and consultant who has undertaken key assignments in the retailing sector. Rob started his career eliminating communications problems and thinking up performance tweaks for early global networks. These days it's big business retailing that gets the repair and tune-up treatment. Claiming he was pursuing an MBA, Rob has taken time out to acquire degrees in physics and molecular biology.

DAN MURPHY is a founding Director of Retail Influence Limited. His career spans more than 20 years working with some of the UK's most successful retailers. Since 1997 he has worked as a consultant to the Boards of some of Europe's largest multiple retailers, helping to improve areas such as supply chain management and organisational structures. Most recently he has worked closely with two of Europe's largest LBO retail acquisitions, helping to deliver large scale turnaround programs.