The Retail Leadership Lens

December gave us a little jolt, right when many hoped for a clean finish. Barclays reported UK consumer spending fell 1.7% year on year in December 2025, and the British Retail Consortium said retail sales growth slowed to 1.2% year on year in the same period. If shoppers are this cautious at Christmas, you can feel what that means for the months ahead.

Trying to project real authority through a laptop can feel a bit strange. I’ve seen fantastic leaders, who normally command a boardroom with ease, suddenly seem smaller behind a webcam. This is the new challenge of leadership. In our world of hybrid and virtual meetings, you can’t rely on a loud voice or physical stature to hold everyone's attention. Your influence now comes from how you present yourself on screen, the energy you bring, and how well you manage the technology

Imagine that “someone” is an AI system helping you choose your next regional lead, predict sales volumes, or decide whether to close a struggling store. You’d want more than just the answer. You’d want to know the logic behind it. The “why”. That’s exactly the problem a new research project from Anthropic is trying to solve. It’s called Project VEND, and although the name sounds like it belongs to a dystopian thriller, the idea is refreshingly practical: get AI to explain its

In the executive search business, you see things unfolding on the horizon long before they hit the headlines. I’ve talked about this topic quite a lot over the last few years, but right now, I’m witnessing a full-blown tech tsunami crashing into the retail landscape. The question isn't if it will change things, but how profoundly things will change. Most importantly, are the leaders in place ready to navigate the storm?

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping retail, making operations smoother, customer experiences more personal, supply chains more efficient.