What We Can Learn From Who’s Winning Retailer of the Year

Look a little more closely at the two most recent recipients of Total Retail Magazine’s Retailer of the Year and we see what might (and probably should) be a trend taking shape: Disruptors are getting in the game, and disruptors are winning.

It was Paul Raines {link at mytotalretail.com/article/retailer-of-the-year-gamestop} of GameStop in 2016 and Barry Beck {link at prnewswire.com/news-releases/barry-beck-founder-and-chief-operating-officer-bluemercury-named-total-retails-2017-retailer-of-the-year-300532015.html} of Bluemercury in 2017.

In Raines’ case, it was transforming GameStop from the Blockbuster Video of video games - a once-lucrative but now-perilous analog - into a tech giant in its own right, combining the power of wireless and other portable channels with the innovation of modern gaming. In Beck’s case, it was identifying Bluemercury as a universal go-to source for not just the cosmetics themselves but the honest friendly advice for what works best. In both instances, it’s about an innovative business leader disrupting the normal way of doing things and capitalizing when their way is better.

It makes one wonder who is now doing the disruption of normality in order to be put in line for recognition by the same award in 2018.