Molly Phipps is a new cooperative member of Columinate—welcome! Phipps has joined the Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) team, but she also brings other key skills to Columinate and to her clients, developed over twenty years of diverse consulting engagements.
Timing is key to any recipe. Cook things too long and they burn. Wait too long to add an ingredient, and it may not cook all the way. Before you prepare to cook a new recipe, you give yourself ample time for the work of reading the recipe directions, cutting, chopping, and measuring ingredients. That way, when the beautiful chaos of cooking begins, you’re prepared for each step in the process.
Heading into 2024, grocery retailers need to understand the trends they face in today's marketplace. Being a leader in an independent grocery store has always been difficult. Our business model itself is brutal, and the competitive landscape is fierce. Adding to the difficult business climate, the pandemic brought with it additional crises—many of which we are still navigating as business leaders—that intensified the pressure on independent grocers’ performance.
Columinate consultant Dana Tomlin specializes in supporting deli departments and making sure general managers have the knowledge and confidence to oversee successful programs and systems long-term. Learning the complexities, language, rhythms, and pitfalls within your deli can make a huge difference in performance and consistency. Deli departments need to put out product in abundance and quality that meets customer expectations across staffing changes, daily chaos, and product availability.
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.
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.
The board and general manager need to become literate around the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects of the marketing field. Marketing is often at the top of the list of operational tasks that become part of the discussion at meetings of the board of directors. Topics can range from the quality of the marketing to the board feeling it’s not plugged in enough when engaging with owners through marketing channels. Marketing issues are often of concern—whether warranted or not—to boards and individual directors.
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 [...]
I was born to Jamaican parents in Hartford, Connecticut, and later migrated south with a company (the food retail group Ahold), landing in Ellenwood, Georgia. I was working as a commercial property accountant. My husband and I met in Connecticut during our music days as writers, performers, producers, and recording artists on the reggae scene. After our first son was born, we continued to produce and record music, literally changing diapers between recording tracks. Creating music is still a love for hubby and me, but now, creating in our home studio, it's more of a solace for me and personal therapy for both of us. We've also included cooking in our therapy toolkit. After almost forty years together, each moment is precious, and we're making the moments count. My dad has passed on, but my mom is about an hour away and loving life. Our sons are both young adults now and are amazing human beings. And I love to write; I'd love to publish a couple books one day.
By Michael Healy 182 January-February 2016 As a director, you may notice or hear things about your co-op that may be cause for concern—or are at least worth asking about. How can you respond in a way that honors your sense of responsibility, your board’s clear delegation to the general manager (GM), and your GM’s professional judgment? Here is an approach that opens [...]
