The TJX Companies, Inc.’s Post

What to look out for when shopping the high street. Check out my finds in M&S and go watch the video! And here are the 6 questions to ask yourself when you buy from the high street. 1. Am I saying ‘it’ll do’, if so walk away. 2. Does it get me excited, bring something new or elevated to my wardrobe?  3. Would I pay twice the price for it? 4. Do I feel amazed that I am buying it from here and not a more expensive store?  5. When I put it on do I hold my head up high and feel proud to wear it or is there a niggling feeling that I could do better? 6. How does it feel against my skin? To shop my picks visit this board https://lnkd.in/eRaaPnU8

Fire The CEO! For the second successive year MullenLowe employees will be given a chance to fire questions at the CEO on any matter of interest, concern, happiness or frustration. It's an open forum done in a spirit of staff inclusion and engagement. A Shy Box is also placed for the shy Mullenlowites to post their questions. Staff participation such as these helps the senior management team to understand employees and respond to them better. This transparency enables us to give our clients and brands the best attention they deserve through motivated teams. It’s a way of making the work experience wholly fulfilling. MullenLowe - we are always trying hard to be better at what we do.

I was saving my yearly LinkedIn post for my 3 year anniversary in a few weeks, but today’s launch of Brooklyn Storehouse is a far more exciting milestone (first iconic, stateside partnership- watch this space!). Joining Vibration Production in 2021 at the tail end of the pandemic seemed like a crazy risk to anyone looking in at the time (and many told me as much!). Having forged my career in the comfort of big international corporates, moving into event production, heading up a finance function and being tasked with a complete overhaul/creation/imbedding of all processes and a commercially driven team was a big move away from my comfort zone but little did I know, it was going to be much more than that original job description. Best. Move. Of. My. Life. What Broadwick has given/taught me: -Collaboration; not cold hearted competition. -Good Ideas are given a fighting chance. -No one worth knowing is going to take credit for your hard work. -No one is claiming to know it all or have all the answers. -Partners that share our vision fuel us, those that don’t get it, fuel us too! -You need the tiny details to form the bigger picture (always been my mantra but now reinforced daily!). -If you can’t be unapologetically yourself, you’re not in the right place. -Working with people that push and inspire you, will be your greatest education. -And so, so, so much more. Thank you for believing in me, trusting in me and holding me to the highest standard. If giving it your all, being highly adaptable and being fully invested isn’t for you, then Broadwick won’t be. It’s more unbridled passion, inspiring ways of thinking and delivering these to the highest standard across MUSIC•CULTURE•SPACE.

How do you innovate and affect the lives of millions of people? Great question. #Listen. #Borrow. #Experiment. Such was the approach of Herbert Strauss in 1924. Strauss was the President of Macy's and it was the roaring 20’s. Times were good. They had just expanded their anchor store to an entire city block, over one million square feet. Such growth meant a lot of hiring and the majority of these hires were immigrants from Europe. Loving the sentiment of the #Thanksgiving holiday, these newcomers had embraced their new home and wanted to show pride in their new heritage. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲. Mr. Strauss was all ears. It turns out that Gimbels, a rival of sorts, was already hosting a parade in Philadelphia. Could Macy’s borrow that idea? Could Macy’s best that idea? Why not? How about allowing the employees to march in the parade? Perhaps borrow some animals from the Central Park Zoo? In fact, what about welcoming #SantaClaus at the end of the parade in Herald Square? That first parade was attended by over 250,000 people that saw floats of Mother Goose and Little Red Riding Hood. Those employees? They dressed as clowns, cowboys and knights while bears, elephants and monkeys joined in the procession that included four marching bands. Listen. Borrow. Experiment. #Innovate. #creativity #future #marketing

"I experience a warm glow when I hear about Marks & Spencer doing well. It’s like hearing that my favourite auntie won a prize for something. It is so pluckily undefeated, permanently cheerful and optimistic, even when we are mean and call Per Una hideous and embarrassing. You want jeans? It’ll give you jeans. You like the underwear? Here, have six more knickers lines in technical fabrics that won’t show or shrink or crawl up your bum. You want calorie-counted, plant-based ready meals? They’re over there. Yesterday’s performance results from M&S showed that its can-do, no-offence-taken attitude has resulted in soaring success in most departments, with a record-breaking 38.2% market share in bras, and knickers sales up by 3%. Laugh if you want but this is a big deal" | ✍️ Esther Walker Here's why M&S is booming again ⬇️

It took pressure from an activist investor for Macy's to finally nominate real estate professional Doug Sesler to sit on Macy's board after years of no real estate representation on the board. Real estate is often a retailer's most valuable asset after its inventory. If the retailer leases space rather than own it, the real estate function dictates expenses the retailer is committing to for many years on the lease. Real estate was once a key position in a retail chain's executive structure, then over the years, the top real estate professional was brought down a few notches to report to the CFO or COO. That's very short sided. Real estate is so important to retail that every retail chain should have a real estate person on its board.

KING OF CSO This weekend it will be #King's Day in the Netherlands. An occasion to spotlight the King of CSO for once: Dennis Wijnstra Travelling all the way from the far north of the Netherlands, we had Dennis visiting us during our induction days. Alongside the regular team of Bente van den Bomen Peter Gronenschild Jordy Verdaasdonk Vaia Mesitsa Killian Nally Andreas Amukugo and, of course, our LP toppers Annemiek Verstegen Vincent Jansen Yanir Francisca en Robert Spitse, Dennis was present to tell a bit more about his work at The TJX Companies, Inc., Inc. Central Store Operations (CSO).   In 2016, Dennis started his retail career at TK MAXX as a Teamleader in #Groningen, under the inspiring leadership of Henk van der Spek. (today lead by amazing Hayley Gauna)   He was then promoted to Assistant Store Manager and worked in the Almere and Arnhem shops. Eventually, he moved to a position in CSO.   In this role, he is the business partner for all digital communications for our TJX Europe shops. The CSO Helpdesk is also one of his responsibilities. What exactly does that all mean? In a nutshell: If a department within TJX wants to communicate something via our Internal Associate Engagement App, this department tries to make that possible. I personally find this app a great medium, as it keeps me informed of all the fun things happening in the shop, such as parties, promotions and holidays. And there are quite a few of them. CSO s is the heart of all (digital) communication. This is also where all questions are answered as proactively as possible, everything you need to know on how to operate in a store. That is why it's important everyone has the app. Now, we recently hired a lot of new colleagues. That's why Dennis came especially to the south of the country, for a nice presentation and also to personally activate everyone in the system as part of our introduction day. Dennis had never done anything other than retail before, and was keen to know what else was behind this huge organisation. The opportunity at Central Operations gave him access to the operational heart of the organisation, where he was directly involved in implementing changes on the shop floor. For all communication issues and solutions but also operational questions that, for example, the manager cannot answer, Dennis and his team are there to save the day. Dennis is proud to work for TJX Europe: It is fantastic to notice how well we do in creating and maintaining the right working atmosphere. But also the diversity and development opportunities that TJX have are exceptional. It's fantastic to see that in such a large organisation we have a very open door approach, in the sense that everyone is equal, you dare to express your opinion, but above all you dare to be yourself. That is what is essential to us.

Dame Sharon White is a smart person. She is also, from all accounts, a nice individual. However, she was, sadly, the wrong person to chair the John Lewis Partnership – especially as her tenure coincided with a period of massive change that required retail skills which she does not possess. Dame Sharon did not cause all of the Partnership’s problems. However, neither was her diagnosis of them correct. She made two very big mistakes. The first was to set targets for generating profit outside of retail. This showed a lack of confidence in the core business and diverted too much attention from the problems in day-to-day operations. There is nothing wrong with trying new things, but not to the detriment of retail, which should be at the heart of everything the Partnership does. The second was to float the possibility of getting outside investment. Aside from being against the company’s founding principles, this severely undermined her standing with Partners and led to an enormous backlash from which Dame Sharon never really recovered. It is hard for anyone to lead an organization during troubled times if they don’t have the confidence of those below them. There have been many other stumbles too. The view on the role of physical stores has been too negative leading to some unnecessary closures, there has been a lack of innovation at both Waitrose and John Lewis, Waitrose was too slow to react to the cost-of-living crisis, and so forth. This has allowed rivals, especially Marks & Spencer, to steal share. The departure of Dame Sharon is, on balance, the right thing. Her lack of retail experience and her civil service background have, quite bluntly, not served the company well. But to move forward, the next chairman of JLP needs to have both the qualities she lacked. #retail #retailnews #JohnLewis #Waitrose

My absolute favorite day of the year by a country mile was November 9th. Not because it was our annual investor meeting, but because we had the opportunity to announce three BIG and extremely well deserved promotions. Thankfully no one saw me tear up on stage but yes, that happened. Andrew B. -- not to brag, but we knew you were special in 2017 when we hired you as our inaugural summer intern. Thank you for making us look super smart, thank you for not scratching your biotech investing itch and thank you David Selverian for the best intro I have ever received. Andrew - you have been the blueprint for much of what makes our talent programs and culture so special. We truly wouldn't be where we are today without you. On a personal note, I aspire to be more like you every day, more than you can ever know! Can't wait for your partner promotion one day. Let's keep climbing. Chase Goree -- thank you for sliding into my LinkedIn DMs 😘. Building off of the above, sitting 30 feet away from you every day keeps me incredibly honest. It's a privilege to work with someone who pushes you to be the best you can be. Your tenacity, focus, curiosity and thoughtfulness are going to (and already have) made you an unstoppable investor. I have seen you amp it up ever further in the short 6 days since your promotion and that both inspires and fires me up. You push myself and PeakSpan to be better investors. Truly a significant impact has already been made by your presence these past two years and we're just getting started. Can't wait for your partner promotion one day. Let's keep climbing. Justin Kelly -- I guess we have Mr. Goree to thank for how we met you (thanks again CG for another seismic impact). Hard to put into words the impact you have made on PeakSpan this past year. On the investment side, I continue to believe that you are amongst the most talented investors in market today, period. Your being on this team and emerging as a leader will no doubt positively alter the trajectory of the firm and that is exciting as hell. Putting aside anything having to do with investing, as any leader will attest, to find a brand new employee who shows up on day 1 already embodying all of the firm's core values is incredibly incredibly rare. Frankly, it's shocking how rapidly you have adapted to our culture and it has now gotten to the point where you are a top role model, leader, teacher and mentor. The work you do with our team does not go unnoticed and is making an outsized impact on our organization. Can't wait for your partner promotion one day. Let's keep climbing. We talk a lot about impact with our entrepreneurs. That is the perfect word to describe why these promotions are occurring and why we are so excited about the future. Andrew B., Chase Goree and Justin Kelly -- you continue to drive SO MUCH IMPACT. Let's keep climbing 💪