Family-Owned Retailer Case Study

This leading global consumer brand had experienced flat revenue for multiple years and was looking to understand their talent equation so they could provide appropriate incentives throughout the management ranks and maintain the unique features of their talent value proposition.

The company has 100% multi-generational family ownership and does not provide equity incentives to employees. Talent tends to be very “sticky”: retention is not a concern but talent acquisition can be difficult given the location. The Board of Directors is very large, with many family members from multiple generations, and the business has been “more than successful enough”. The Board needed us to help keep them educated about industry trends in compensation and to help them with benchmarking many unique roles.

We helped the client improve its Board decision-making process to have a clearer view of performance and how to communicate the linkage between their long-standing performance measures and the resulting compensation outcomes. We created a benchmarking process and education of the various strengths and weaknesses of such analyses, and articulated appropriate positioning given the uniqueness of the company. We revised the design and participation in the long-term cash incentive program to reduce overlap with the annual bonus program and link to longer-term strategic goals.

Over time the company has experienced revenue growth in a challenging specialty retail environment and has been able to attract needed talent to manage the shift to an omnichannel model and leverage their massive brand asset. Incentive programs have cleared hurdle rates and have been funded throughout the company.