4 Industry Icons on Embracing Change Management

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Tom Welch asked the more than 60 attendees in a morning workshop at Winsight's Outlook Leadership Conference to stand up and spin themselves around three times. Everyone humored the chairman of the Salt Lake City-based Maverik convenience-store chain and did just that.

“That’s how much your career will change,” he said. “Embrace it.”

Welch was one of four panelists, all of whom spent decades leading their c-store chains to large degrees of regional and multistate success. Others included Bob Myers, chairman of the board at Casey’s General Stores, Ankeny, Iowa; Stewart Spinks, The Spinx Cos., Greenville, S.C.; and Lynn Wallis, president and CEO, Wallis Cos., Cuba, Mo.

Here's some of the advice each retailer shared ...

Spinks elaborated on the changes he experienced going from gasoline rationing in the 1970s to a more service-oriented culture, where attending to the customer experience became paramount. He spoke of the importance of building a team that held a shared vision and cultivated mutual trust and support.

As a military veteran, Myers said one of his biggest lessons in leadership came with patience. He spoke of a time at Casey’s when he was asked to solve a significant problem. He predicted initially that he would get the job done in six months. It took much longer. When his boss asked why, he replied, “You didn’t want me to fire everyone, did you?”

The last industry veteran to take the microphone was Wallis, who said especially with family-owned businesses like hers, it was important to make nonfamily members feel appreciated and respected as if they were part of the family. “A company can’t be about one person,” she said. “We’ve encourage leadership throughout the whole organization.”