Kroger

Delivering Quality, Value and Affordability in a Changing Market

Our top priority is making sure our customers have access to high-quality, affordable proteins that their families love. Due to a number of factors, we’ve seen fluctuating prices in the meat and seafood categories in the past few years. Across our store and digital shopping experience, we have a responsibility and opportunity to find ways to keep prices competitive, providing the value and quality they expect from Kroger.

Leading Through Innovation with a Clear Strategic Framework

Leading at scale is one of the biggest challenges for any large organization. The goal is to provide associates at all levels with a clear strategic framework that empowers teams to run without being told what to do next. We anchor our team around fresh, fast, affordable, friendly and for you. Everyone has a role to play from our category managers at our headquarters office to the department leaders in each of our more than 2,600 stores.

Innovation is an important part of how we think about “fresh” and staying competitive. We push our teams and suppliers to create items that taste great and have a compelling value proposition. Sometimes this means brand new products, and sometimes this means “re-innovation” by improving an item already in our assortment.

Our Heritage Farms chicken is a great example of this in action. A few years ago, we made a few small, unglamorous tweaks that made a big improvement in the quality. Customers noticed and reward us with real, lasting loyalty.

Balancing Emerging Consumer Trends with Lasting Customer Value

We’re seeing a few big trends reshaping how customers think about meat and seafood, chief among these is GLP-1 adoption, protein-forward diets, the natural and organic megatrend, and the clean-label movement. All of this is happening on the back drop of an increasing demand for e-commerce.

We’re well-positioned to succeed in many of these spaces. At the base, no matter how our customers’ eating habits change, we continue to remain laser focused on making sure our products hit their peak of freshness in our customers’ homes. We know that is the measure that matters, and when we get that right, customers will keep coming back to us, no matter what trend is influencing their dinner tonight. Making sure we support where the customer is today and can see where they are going tomorrow well, finding that balance is what makes this work so interesting.

Keeping the Customer at the Center of Innovation

Anyone in the grocery industry will tell you the only constant is change. That means the teams who thrive are the ones who genuinely embrace change instead of just tolerate it. For me personally, a lot of my time goes to trying to anticipate where our customers are going. Every day, we try to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes to answer the question, “What’s for dinner tonight?” While it sounds simple, it’s an incredibly powerful organizing principle.

The goal is to provide associates at all levels with a clear strategic framework that empowers teams to run without being told what to do next.

Items like our new Private Selection Marinated Meat program were created to answer that question directly. After a few minutes in an oven or air fryer, a customer has a restaurantquality, center-of-the-plate solution their whole family will love. That’s innovation that’s useful, instead of innovation for its own sake. Every day, I challenge the team to keep the customer at the center of their decisions. That’s the way we’ll win, even when the industry is moving quickly.

Leading with Authenticity, Humility and Continuous Learning

Lead with authenticity. I’ve never been a fan of “fake it until you make it” because it’s easy to see through. Leading with the person you think you should be instead of who you are is the easiest way to lose trust with your teams and your peers.

Being authentic doesn’t mean knowing everything, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. By acknowledging weaknesses as readily as strengths and learning when you don’t know something is a great way to build a team whose strengths complement yours.

It’s important to always seek out mentors and never stop being curious about the business. This is a leadership superpower that never expires. You’ll never “arrive” if you stay humble and keep learning.

I keep coming back to the same analogy, I’ve hit a lot of home runs during my career, but yesterday’s home run doesn’t win today’s game. Every day, I have to step back up to the plate. That mindset keeps me hungry, humble and earning my seat every day. This is the only sustainable approach that I know. Lastly, I would say know your true north. Be the person leaders can count on. Regardless of the role you’re in today or where you want to go, be humble, learn something new every day and always embrace change.