Sports Authority's New CEO Outlines Past Issues, Plans For Future Success

By Kara Murphy, contributing writer, Integrated Solutions For Retailers

Assuming the role of CEO in 2013, former Petco exec Michael Foss believes the company can always be better

Despite cementing itself a position in the top 100 retailers, Sports Authority still has plenty of room for improvement. At least that’s what its new CEO Michael Foss said in a recent interview.

Foss, who took over the role of CEO for Sports Authority in June of last year, told the Denver Business Journal that sales and profit growth have been erratic in the company’s history. “There’s a management model called a “leadership profit chain” that is a philosophy around how you can get a business to be robust: To show robust levels of sales and profit growth consistently. We have been pretty erratic. Our revenues hadn’t grown as much as they should and our profit has been a bit erratic. Still high levels of profit, but just not the consistency we should be driving,” says Foss. He also says he has identified goals for changing that trajectory. Included in those goals are:

• Bringing in a “tremendously effective” leadership team. Foss says the company has senior management he counts on, plus has a new head of marketing, CFO, and CIO. “We have a really healthy balance of people with lots of institutional experience, people who have been promoted into new roles. We’ve recognized some people who have just knocked it out of the park and then we’ve got some great outside influence with different kinds of experiences,” Foss says. “There’s a lot of what I call constructive contention. We all have debates on issues and sometimes it’s really passionate debates. But the good thing is that everyone knows we’re all trying to make something better.”
• Improving associate management through engagement. An engaged workforce is more committed to its employer and is happier,” Foss says. That translates to a better interaction with customers. “The more that they are engaged and they feel proud about their store or they feel proud about their company — that will lead to a much better experience for that customer.”

Check out how another retailer found ways to maximize its associates

Sports Authority has also struggled with a reputation of poor customer service, admits Foss. He points the blame of those issues on poor inventory practices, explaining that Sports Authority stores carry seasonal inventory. In the past, the stores would not have enough inventory at the beginning of the season, creating frustration with customers. “A lot of the work we’ve done over the last 6-7 months is really improving our inventory and our logistic practices to get the right kind of quantities,” says Foss. “The lack of enough inventory snowballed with customer service as sales associates sometimes didn’t handle that customer frustration well.” Foss continues, “We’re trying to get to better customer service. Late last year we changed some labor models in our stores, a little bit more labor to provide better service.”

He also says the company is now measuring customer satisfaction through a “net promoter system,” that reaches out via email to customers who are signed up for Sports Authority’s loyalty program and asks them to take part in a survey. The model allows Sports Authority to get immediate feedback on exact customer experiences, which gives store managers the ability to make immediate changes if necessary.

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