BRC Learning Blog

In an ever-changing retail landscape, the idea that "we're already ahead of our competitors" is dangerous. Senior leaders in retail need to be constantly learning and developing, and this blog post outlines the pitfalls of complacency. To stay competitive, retail leadership development, executive leadership programmes, and comprehensive retail management training are essential. Furthermore, the post highlights the importance of cultivating an innovation culture, embracing strategic leadership, and keeping a customer-centric focus. Explore how senior leaders can navigate the retail industry's complexities, ensuring long-term success and resilience.

In 2020, M&S launched its BEAM Academy to accelerate growth of colleagues’ digital and data skills and embed digital-first ways of working. Helping to continue making M&S a great place to work, BEAM Academy gives employees access to many programmes, including industry-leading data apprenticeships, live learning events and workshops, hackathons, and more. To date, 350+ colleagues have benefited from the level 3 and level 4 data apprenticeships. But in November 2021, M&S launched retail’s first Level 7 AI & Data Science apprenticeship in partnership with Cambridge Spark. This enabled M&S to offer colleagues more advanced upskilling in data in line with their ambition to grow industry-leading data science and analytics capability. M&S now have 4 cohorts and are the largest provider of the programme in the retail sector with fellows from the first cohort having graduated in October 2023. Suzanne Howse, Head of Enterprise Data at M&S, says key to their decision to partner with Cambridge Spark to deliver a Level 7 AI & Data Science programme was the fact that the apprenticeship provider's CEO Raoul-Gabriel Urma intimately knows what it's like to "live and breathe as a data practitioner". It was also clear the company’s sole focus is on educating workforces with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era. The programme has seen value added through colleagues participating from across business areas, including Clothing & Home, Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Digital and Tech, to name a few. Visit the Cambridge Spark website to read the full case study.

Mastercard have been announced today as one of our headline partners with a specific focus on our BRC Leaders' Summer School.

The article "Net Zero: The Role of Operations Managers" by ESG Clarity raises an important question: how do we educate operation managers on Net Zero? As we strive to reduce our carbon footprint and achieve sustainability goals, it is essential that we equip operation managers with the knowledge and tools they need to make a difference. This idea has led to the development of a 10-step plan for educating operation managers on Net Zero.

Unlearning what we can assume to be true can really free us up to reconsider and reimagine our own personal growth, ourselves as conscious leaders, and even as participants in radical, new economies. Read our latest blog post from our programme designer, Rob Husband from space2think, where we think about how unlearning from the inside out can have a big impact on even large global systems.

Vicki Young, Head of Leadership Programmes & Events, shares the evolution of the summer school programmes from what was Oxford Summer School to the BRC Leaders Summer School it is today since 2021.

Jonathan Reynolds, Associate Professor in Retail Marketing at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and Programme Designer for the BRC Retail Masters, gives his thoughts on the future of retail over the next 25 years.

The digital skills gap is well documented and is being felt across industries - retail included. Organisations are generating masses of valuable data but are lacking the skills to transform it into actionable insights that will create a competitive advantage for their businesses. They know they need more data analytics talent, but it’s difficult and costly to find candidates with the right skills - which is why more and more companies are reaching out to data science and AI capability partners like Cambridge Spark to help train their existing staff.