Sen Brings Merchandising Skills to New BJ's Role

CHRISTINA VEIDERS

Name: LAURA SEN

Title: President, chief operating officer, BJ's Wholesale Club

Biggest challenge: Steal share away from competitors with right merchandise mix and with pizzazz.

NATICK, Mass. — Laura Sen is not the leader of the club yet, but she is close to it after returning to BJ's Wholesale Club after a four-year hiatus.

BJ's Chairman Herb Zarkin, who in late 2006 took on the chief executive officer role, following a disappointing financial year and facing lagging customer traffic and general merchandise sales and the departure of then President and CEO Michael Wedge, initiated a turnaround strategy in which Sen would play a major role.

In January 2007, BJ's veteran Sen returned as executive vice president of merchandising and logistics, a position she held for six years before leaving the company in 2003 shortly after Wedge was named CEO.

This January, one year after returning, Zarkin promoted Sen to president and chief operating officer in charge of day-to-day operations. “It is my hope someday down the road Laura will do a great job and become CEO. That is really the plan,” Zarkin told SN.

Sen's tenure with BJ's began with Zayre Corp. in its discount store division in 1979 as the assistant to the general merchandise manager. She held various positions with Zayre. After Zayre sold its nameplate to Ames Department Stores, BJ's, a Zayre subsidiary, was spun off as part of Waban. In 1997, BJ's became an independent company. From 1989 to 1993, Sen was BJ's vice president of logistics, and from 1993 to 1997, she was senior vice president of general merchandise.

Expertise in logistics and merchandising is viewed as a big asset when it comes to the club warehouse business, where efficient delivery of goods to the sales floor at the lowest possible cost is critical.

“On the buying side there is usually too much art rather than too much science. Laura has a great mix of the two, which makes her unique in her world,” said Debra Weinswig, senior analyst with Citigroup Global Markets, New York.

Zarkin said bringing Sen back was an easy decision. “It takes awhile to understand the club industry, and her knowledge is a blessing for us. Laura is not a stranger. We don't have to do a dance for a long period of time in order to understand each other.”

Retaining the CEO title for now, Zarkin is in charge of long-range planning, reporting to shareholders, expansion plans and management succession, while Sen oversees the management teams of all BJ's departments.

Sen has worked with many of her direct reports for years, and knows them well. “We are architects of the company over many generations of work we did. There is a very deep understanding of the business,” she told SN.

While Sen thought she'd have more time to spend with her family during her four-year break from BJ's, she soon found out that two teenage children only want two things in life: money and rides. But the time away from BJ's proved a retail educational experience for Sen in her consulting work for Daymon Worldwide, where she got to see other retailers such as Kroger, Harris Teeter, Meijer and Fred Meyer from the seller's side. “It was extremely instructive for me to see retailers' practices: How they go to market, how they are viewed, and what they do well and don't do well. That should lend a lot of perspective to coming back to the business and sitting on the other side of the desk again,” said Sen.

Sen's immediate challenge is what she said was a “deep dive” into divisions that she is less familiar with — operations, marketing, finance and legal.

Zarkin called Sen a natural leader, given her skills in team building. “She is a sharer of good cheer. She doesn't take credit and always gives credit to others in the organization. She really works the team together,” he said.

Sen believes in value-based leadership. The ability to walk the walk and not talk the talk is very important, she said. “Out of value-based management we want to do the right thing for all of our constituents [club members, team members, vendors and shareholders]. Having a clear view of who our constituents are and what is the right thing for all of them in balance is how I intend to talk about the business and manage it.”

According to Weinswig, BJ's is working pretty well at the moment as a refocused company. “At this point in the game it's all about gaining market share. It's not about square-footage growth. They need to figure out how they will be more competitive in their market.”

Chuck Cerankosky, analyst, FTN Midwest Securities, Cleveland, said Sen's experience on the merchandising end will be very important for BJ's. “They have done reasonably well on consumables, but they've got to get general merchandise moving faster,” he said. The bigger-ticket items are where BJ's can build up its margins, he said.

Sen admits that BJ's has been less focused on the “wow or treasure hunt” items that contribute heavily to warehouse club margins. “We'll put more of that on the floor and excite members, and [it is hoped] there will be enough demand to make those items successful.”

Sen's success depends upon BJ's ability to steal share away from others and staying on target with the right mix of merchandise. “The core business hasn't changed since I started in 1989. It is just a matter of how we execute against that. We have a team not just at the executive level but throughout the organization that has a very deep background. They know how to do this.”