Develop Your Leaders

General Manager Development Program: Building a Partnership at Detroit People’s Food Co-op

By Mike Houston|2024-11-05T10:20:41-05:00November 4th, 2024|

The job of a food co-op general manager (GM) is one of the more unique and challenging roles in the grocery industry. GMs manage their staff, report to a board of directors of many bosses speaking as one, and are responsible for a wide variety of functional areas within their business. At any given moment a GM must be knowledgeable about margin strategy, marketing, HR compliance, or fixing a coffee brewer. A GM likely makes dozens of decisions a day and needs context and subject matter knowledge to inform each one. They’re at once operating a for-profit business and stewarding a community asset. In short, it’s a lot.

Nurturing and Cultivating Retail Leadership with GM Development

By Kelly Kristl|2024-09-30T17:48:29-04:00September 30th, 2024|

In the ever-evolving landscape of retail grocery, effective leadership is paramount. Effective leadership doesn't just happen—it must be nurtured and cultivated, equipping emerging talent with the right tools, training, mentoring, and support. Cooperatives as well as other independent grocery stores face unique challenges in a post-covid world, and new challenges emerge frequently. Retailers must remain courageous and steadfast in making the necessary changes to prepare, build, and sustain a strong future.

Andre Chavez Brings a Long Career in Grocery Operations

By Mike Houston|2024-09-17T11:31:57-04:00September 16th, 2024|

As the cooperative grocery industry continues to grow, many stores are looking at hybrid models: a mixture of natural foods and conventional grocery. New Columinate consultant Andre Chavez has so much operational experience in both natural and conventional grocery that he could be considered a hybrid unto himself.

Reimagining Your Board’s Work

By Michael Healy|2024-09-16T15:12:51-04:00September 3rd, 2024|

Have you ever felt like your board is in a rut? Maybe it seems that all you do at meetings is hear reports about operational or committee activities. Or maybe you notice that your board engages in robust dialogue during your day-long retreats, but your monthly meetings seldom include this sort of conversation. Maybe you have begun to wonder what value you—individually or collectively—are adding to the organization.

Meet Molly Phipps: Putting Her Passions to Work

By Allison Meyer|2024-01-03T15:44:41-05:00January 3rd, 2024|

Molly Phipps, welcomed to the Columinate consultant team in 2023, has centered her career around three key passions: food, people, and the natural environment. As a result, this warm and analytical cooperator’s resume exhibits an eye-catching variety of job titles, including evaluation and research associate, farmer’s market manager, board member, and lab manager. The breadth of Phipps’ experience and her leadership in planning/evaluating strategy are sure to generate a positive impact for co-ops in the grocery industry as well as for resident-owned communities in manufactured home parks.

Columinate Learn: Applying Principle 5 in the Digital Divide

By Kelly Kristl|2023-11-08T15:35:16-05:00November 8th, 2023|

Ready for digital literacy Co-ops have a lot of teaching to do. To build a cooperative ecosystem with knowledgeable and invested stakeholders aware of what it is they have become a part of, it takes a lot of orienting, sharing, demonstrating, and educating. A cooperative can fail if it does not consistently apply Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training, and Information. Lack of strong education systems within a co-op culture can slowly erode its core.

Board Training Evolves: Enter CBLD Academy

By Allison Meyer|2023-11-16T15:28:27-05:00October 31st, 2023|

This fall, consultants at Columinate will launch CBLD Academy, an on-demand learning loaded with revitalized and accessible content. Cooperators can expect three courses within the “Foundation Series” at the outset, with more courses planned to round out this base of co-op training. “It's a natural and a march towards progress in how we provide a framework for learning about the co-op business model,” said Leslie Watson, governance at Columinate.

A Long Road of Cooperation: Revisiting Vernon Oakes

By Kelly Kristl|2023-12-05T15:47:20-05:00October 4th, 2023|

I enjoyed interviewing Vernon Oakes and asked him a few questions about his remarkable career. Vernon, tell us a few things to help Columinate readers know you better: people and places that are most important to you. My parents, Odell Oakes Sr. and Florrie Smith Oakes, met while serving in the US Army during World War II and married in New York City, where I was born. We later moved to Bluefield, West Virginia. I attended public schools, and due to a speech impediment, I was put in a “special ed” class in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Words and reading didn't come naturally to me, and reading still isn’t my favorite thing. But math made sense and would later help me to make sense of life and the business pursuits I had. School was tough due to the added factor of racism and integration in 1955, when I was entering the 3rd grade.

Agency and Stewardship: Understanding the board’s dual roles

By Thane Joyal|2023-09-01T16:26:25-04:00September 1st, 2023|

Why do boards of directors exist? We take a lot for granted when we think about serving on the board of an organization. If asked, we might describe the role as being one of a fiduciary, entrusted with its care, and we might be aware that being a member of a board confers responsibilities for the success of the organization in some fashion or another.

Prompts from a Racial Equity Challenge: A Tool for Board Engagement

By Hether Jonna Frayer|2024-03-27T15:55:54-04:00June 27th, 2023|

I serve as a co-chair of the board of directors of PFC Natural Grocery and Deli in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a co-op that identifies as being anti-racist. Dismantling systemic oppression is an ongoing journey. As the primary organizer of our board’s work together, I aim to make sure we are holding ourselves accountable for this work. I don’t want it to get lost or forgotten amidst all of our other roles and responsibilities.

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