Talent management and assessments, executive...
jeaniewells@columinate.coop
785-766-8454
Leaders in the co-op industry have long identified the challenge of finding General Managers with the skills to successfully lead a co-op. Even the best candidate in a board’s qualified candidate pool likely lacks some of the skills necessary to lead and manage a successful food co-op. Columinate’s experienced team of grocery retail experts is well qualified to address [...]
Mighty Community Markets receives national award for Cooperative Innovation & Achievement. Read more >> NEW for 2024 Mighty Community Markets Intensives INTENSIVES Offer a deeper dive into an additional topic area. These are supplemental courses covering material not included in the Boot Camp designed for stores who are [...]
By: Carolee Colter & Jeanie Wells When an organization is going through rapid change, roles within the organization change, too, and not always in a consciously thought-through manner. Expansions can result in forming new layers of positions. For example, opening a second store creates the necessity for new approaches to buying. Relocating to a new facility with a much-expanded food service leads to [...]
Independent grocers and co-ops face formidable challenges to survival, from WalMart to dollar stores, while often lacking the resources they need. Columinate's Jeanie Wells is providing these retail operations with essential skills and tools. At the June 2023 CCMA conference, Wells' Mighty Community Markets (MCM) training program was held up to its national audience as an outstanding example of cooperative innovation and achievement. (Go [...]
In January of 2022, Columinate Organizational Development Consultant Jeanie Wells launched a four-part remote training program for Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville, Ark., to address how to manage price image during a volatile period of high food inflation with a relatively new management team.
Dennis Hanley, Manager on Contract—and more Dennis Hanley may have opened and managed more stores of various retail formats than anyone in the food co-op system. He has worked in most states in the U.S. and abroad. His grocery career of over forty years began in a family meat business as a youngster and never stopped.
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Columinate Library – lots of articles and videos on building great GM/Board relationships. GM Development Program Manager on contract services Peer networking at conferences or regional relationships. Rural Grocery Initiative has good resources for rural stores. Columinate, NCG, INFRA have people and resources to help. NCG and INFRA stores have access to association resources, FCI has some primers and templates Mighty Community Markets [...]
There is an entire genre of films and TV shows dedicated to pointing out the soullessness and drone of American workplaces, with 1999’s Office Space perhaps the most famous example. Columinate consultant Mark Mulcahy has the prescription for both the workers at Office Space’s fictional Initech, and for the real workers at co-ops and independent grocers across the country. “I’m working on bringing joy and balance back to the workplace. That’s gotten lost. That’s what makes people want to come to work: to find joy and purpose in their work. Everyone carries the same products and margin pressures will continue. Businesses who build a culture of doing real work through joy will thrive.”
