Rarely in mass retailing have so many senior management positions changed hands in so short a time. Since the turn of the year, no fewer than five new faces have ascended to the highest levels in mass retailing.

Rarely in mass retailing have so many senior management positions changed hands in so short a time. Since the turn of the year, no fewer than five new faces have ascended to the highest levels in mass retailing.

But these changes have more significance than the inevitable transition of one leadership generation to another. The group of leaders who have just ascended to the corner offices of the nation’s leading retailers is special — for several reasons. They combine experience, leadership skills and a passion for retailing that don’t come along all that often. Then, too, these executives have succeeded at every job they’ve undertaken, whatever the challenges or obstacles.

Finally, they bring to their new jobs varied experience across the gamut of retail disciplines that is, in itself, remarkable.

In brief, these individuals know retailing — its complexities, its nuances, its many chances for failure, its few opportunities for success, its emphasis on being just different enough to excel but not too different to succeed.

Here, in no particular order, is a brief look at the five:
• Doug McMillon — The new chief executive officer at Walmart has been a vital part of this exemplary retailer for longer than most current retailing participants have been on the job. He has successfully fulfilled every important assignment in the organization, and has, for many, epitomized the definition of retail executive. Shortly after assuming his new role as CEO, McMillon was asked if he would move tentatively at first, reintroducing himself to his associates. “They all know me by now,” he answered. “I’m here to do business.” Anyone who doubts that sentiment doesn’t know Walmart — or McMillon.
• Helena Foulkes — The new president of the CVS drug chain has long been an industry favorite in the chain drug community. Her long and varied career at CVS has produced a succession of successes, and her performance has won for her a long list of admirers, both within and outside CVS. Now she’s moving quickly and
decisively to remake those portions of CVS that need remaking, while rounding off the rough edges that have allowed CVS’ productivity to fall off in recent years. Here again — and this can be said for any of the executives mentioned here — anyone who doubts Foulkes’ intentions, determination or ability to get things done needs to take a refresher course in chain drug ­retailing.
• Alex Gourlay — Walgreens has a new president, an individual who only joined the company within the past year, coming to Chicago from the Boots drug chain of Nottingham in the U.K., where, as that retailer’s leader, he posted a string of record years unequaled in the drug chain’s long history. His top priority, initially, at Walgreens will be to oversee the company’s integration with the Alliance Boots organization it is now acquiring. No one at either organization is more capable of doing so.
• Brian Cornell — Perhaps less is known about the new CEO at Target than about any of his contemporaries. Yet his resume is possibly more impressive. He combines retailing experience with successful tenure in the supplier community. He excelled at Walmart. He was a standout at PepsiCo. His resume combines grocery and general merchandise experience. And he has invariably produced results, leaving every organization in better shape than when he joined it. At Target, he faces the biggest challenge of his career — or of virtually any retailing career: reversing Target’s flagging fortunes and returning it to the prominence it had so long, and so rightfully, enjoyed. Anyone who doubts …
• Bob Miller — In this instance, the job came to the man rather than the man to the job. When the merger between Safeway and Albertsons and Supervalu is complete, Miller will emerge, or reemerge, as one of the most pivotal and influential executives in grocery retailing. Whatever his title, he will be at the helm, leading the nation’s No. 2 food retailer. This opportunity comes at the end of a career that is perhaps unparalleled in the annals of supermarket retailing. That it has been earned there is no doubt. That he will add this assignment to his incredible resume of successes there should also be no doubt.