Nigel's Blog
Hi, I'm Nigel the Chief Executive of Retail Trust.
The coming year will be a time of growth and change for Retail Trust. The charity will be working more closely than ever with organisations in the retail sector as we cement ourselves as the charity committed to the well-being of employees in the retail industry.
Part of working more closely with the industry is communication. Technology allows me to communicate with you through this blog – spelling mistakes and all! So please feel free to email me on the Contact page with feedback, ideas, or just to swap stories about our blogs. Enjoy!
You can read my biography on our Trustees and Chief Executive page.
Nigel J L Rothband
Chief Executive
Read Nigel's Blog
02 June 2009 : Him and Her
him are a research based retail consultancy. working with over 100 blue-chip organisations in retail and wholesale.
I met their CEO Mike Greene at their offices in Farringdon this morning to discuss different ways in which our two organisations could work together.
We first met at the fantastic CTP Awards dinner in May, where Retail Trust were the nominated charity and benefited with a cheque from the evening.
Georgina Wild, the marketing director, was also there and I guess it was Georgina who has been the main catalist for our mutual involvment. Thanks for your time guys and I look forward to receiving the notes from the meeting and working in partnership for many years to come.
01 June 2009 : Kings in Common
A full and exciting day that started with my weekly meeting with my Executive Team followed by a quick dash to the House of Commons.
Skillsmart Retail were holding their annual Retail Parlimentary reception. Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury's and John King CEO of House of Fraser talked to about 100 people about the need to continue vital training within the retail sector.
It was good to catch up with John and Justin again and will be meeting up with them both in the near future.
Interesting to meet a number of people from the convenience sector who I will make a point of setting up meeting dates to see how we can work in partnership. They included James Lowman from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS). Jerry Marwood, MD of Spar and Jemima Bird, Marketing Director of Musgrave.
28 May 2009 : Time is running out
We are delighted to be involved in the Specsavers everywoman in Retail Awards, The judges, including Jane Guillaume, a trustee of Retail Trust, will soon be making their decisions of the women who have won the awards. First though, we need you to nominate as time is running out - nominations close on 5th June, so if you know any great women in retail, you can nominate online in a matter of minutes. It's a great campaign that will attract support from the business world, government, industry and the press and hopefully inspire people to consider a career in retail.
I'm also very excited to be meeting with Sir Philip Green of Arcadia later on today. Philip was instrumental in helping us to raise our record-breaking total of over £1 million at the London Ball in January, and at today's meeting we're going to talk about how we can build on this for the next year. No doubt we'll be discussing our Search For A Star talent competition, as the final will take place at next year's London Ball.
27 May 2009 : Crank It Up
We are starting to crank up our efforts in getting our message across to the three million employees who work in our industry.
In the last couple of months we have created a Twitter account. Follow us on Twitter by clicking here
We have posted a couple of videos on YouTube. View the latest one by clicking here
In addition you can join the Retail Trust group on Facebook.
Spread the word and let's see how many people we can get to.
23 May 2009 : Sarah & Jason tie the knot.
Many congratulations to Sarah (our group fundraising and events manager) and Jason who tied the knot today. So sorry we couldn't be with you but hope you had a great day and a long and happy future together.21 May 2009 : Evening With Caprice
The Central London Retail Personnel Group invited Patrick Ballin and I to their meeting to discuss the work of Retail Trust and particilarly ReWork.
We presented for about an hour and had some excellent questions and debate around the issues facing the 3 million staff working in our industry. The members of the group commited to promote our next career cafe on June 4th, details here and to promote our employee assistance programme to their staff.
Back to the office to conduct the final round of interviews for the scholarships for the bssa Oxford summer School. We decided on our 10 individuals who will be receiving a bursary. They will get a call on Tuesday to find out if they have beed successful.
A quick shower, shave and change for a drive into London for the Contour Ball at the Park Lane Sheraton. The event has been running since 1962 and is organised by a committee from the intimate apparel industry. A huge thank you to Peter Cronin, the Ball Chairman, from Panache Lingerie and the whole of his committee. The money raised goes to Retail Trust and TICT.
Special guests on the Retail Trust table were Caprice and her business partner Carol Duncan. They were great company and have offered to work with us on a number of projects in the future. Watch this space!
20 May 2009 : Harold Happy to Help
Following a morning of telephone interviews for the sponsored places for the bssa Oxford Summer School it was off to a meeting with Harold Tillman in his office at Jaeger. Harold has been a great supporter of Retail Trust for years and was instramental in securing many of the donations at our London Ball this year. As always, he gave us food for thought and offers of help.
A dash across town to the London Ball meeting with our chairman Teresa Tideman from Disney followed. A great turnout with a full house. We started to scope the details for Retail Trust Search For A Star and discussed the London Ball format and the various fundraising activities. Twenty tables have already been sold with a discount offer on untill the end of July. Click here to book your table now!
19 May 2009 : Search For A Star
Spent a lot of the day interviewing candidates for the 10 Retail Trust scholarships that are up for grabs at this year's bssa Oxford Summer School. This is the school's 80th year and I am delighted to have been asked back again to speak on the Saturday night to the delegates. They are such a fantastic audience and I always enjoy the evening.
As the dust settles, following our world record success, we are now turning our attention to a brand new competition for retail staff. It is called "Retail Trust Search For A Star" and is aimed at the 3 million staff working on the shop floor. Details of the competition will be coming out very soon and there is going to be a press launch followed by announcements at the BRC and the New West End Company.
The idea is that staff submit their "act", are judged at regional auditions and then the best acts are put onto a website for people to text vote for their favourite. They could be a group, a comedian, a dancer or vocalist.
The four most popular acts are then invited to the Retail Trust London Ball at the end of January 2010 to perform in front of 1,200 of the leading retailers at Grosvenor House, Park Lane.
Watch this space for further details.
18 May 2009 : Recorded for Posterity
Photos of our World Record feat, folding tee shirts at Westfield London as part of Retail Trust Week, can be seen by clicking here.
Thousands of staff from around the country did amazing things for Retail Trust Week last week.
Check out the link to see who raised what.
Thanks to all those staff who got involved. There are lots more events planned throughout the remainder of the year and I will keep you posted.
15 May 2009 : Risky Business
A full day workshop with members of the senior management team, executive team and members of the board made an interesting end to the week.
We refreshed our corporate risk map and it provided us with a better understanding of our key risks and how to manage them.
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