Since 1996, Annette Verschuren has overseen the rapid expansion of Home Depot in Canada. She is also currently responsible for the home improvement retailer’s operations in China. It has been quite an ascent for Verschuren, who started her career in mining before moving into retail, including a time as president and coowner of arts and crafts retailer Michael’s of Canada. Here, she’s interviewed by Christine Magee, president of Sleep Country Canada and a 2005 MHOL inductee in the Builders category.
You grew up on a farm in Cape Breton. What were your earliest career aspirations?
When I was 10 years old, my father had a very serious heart attack. He lived for 18 more years, which is great, but he could never do physical work. So the kids really had to work hard. My nickname was “Poopie” because I stunk like a calf. You’d have to milk cows, so you’d go to school and smell like a barn.
But we all did that. And that to me was the greatest experience of having that responsibility at such a young age. I figured I could do anything.
When did you move to Toronto?
I was 30 when I came to Toronto. I could hardly navigate an escalator; there was no such thing as an escalator in Cape Breton… I just fell in love with the excitement. My mother was a city girl and my father was a real entrepreneur, a very creative guy. I just hoped that I had got some combination of those genetics. I’ve always had big aspirations, big dreams. I’m a dreamer.
So how did you end up doing what you’re doing?
I started my career in the [Cape Breton] mining industry, where I worked for nine years. [After that], I worked in federal crown corporations selling companies that the government owned, in the privatization era back in the early ’80s. But I knew then I really wanted to get into the private sector. I joined a company called Imasco, which was a pretty big holding company for many companies including Shoppers Drug Mart and Canada Trust. I joined the company with Purdy Crawford, who was CEO at the time. I made a deal with him. I said, “Purdy, I’ll come and work as your vice-president of corporate development on the deal that I can run something,” because women got pigeonholed into administrative positions. And I really was a hands-on operator. So he honoured that deal. Within two years, I became the director of operations for Den For Men/Au Masculin, a 63-store chain across Canada.
What personal characteristics do you possess that have been significant in your career?
One of the things I love about Home Depot is that the values of this company align with my own personal values. In our value statement, we talk about respect for each other, focusing on customer service, working with [the] community, giving back, making sure that we’ve got good results. Those are the types of values that I can really align with. The entrepreneurial spirit of Home Depot is also a big value that I’ve always lived by. I’m a bit of a risk-taker, and so I’ve always been a little bit on the edge. I always make my decisions at a point where I’m a little bit uncomfortable. I think they make for better decisions and better risks.
Is marketing a science or an art? Do you make decisions more by gut instinct or are you influenced by research?
Both. I’m influenced by research. I’m influenced by analysis. We’ve just introduced a big SAP system into Canada–a big transformation, but, man, the information we’re getting to drive the business is just phenomenal. But the gut and the heart and the experience have a role of about 50% to play. I think if you go too much with your gut, your performance dies. If you go too much with your research and analytical capability, you also die.
How important is corporate social responsibility?
Are you no longer just selling product?
I think this is so big. We started it when it wasn’t a sexy subject back in 2003 and 2004. I remember because I took our practices to the U.S. and I presented our little recycling program. And they thought we were nuts… I’ll tell you, it’s a phenomenon that’s still very strong. Canadians are extraordinarily concerned about the environment. They’re concerned about air quality, about their water. We did this low-flush toilet [sale] event with the [utility companies] across the country. We sold 50,000 low flush toilets in Canada in two days! Normally we sell 4,000 a week.
As someone overseeing the China venture for Home Depot, what would you give as advice for marketing onto the world stage?
One of the things that I feel is extraordinarily important is developing the local leadership team in China and then coaching and teaching them on how we do business. It’s recognizing that business is done differently and that these countries are in various stages of development, and in some areas [they] are more sophisticated but others are not as sophisticated for a North American retailer.
In other words, marketing the real needs for that community or that region. Exactly. My great real-life experience was in Quebec, when we opened our first store. We opened it and realized there were 5,000 products in those stores that just didn’t make any sense in that province.
We made those adjustments as quickly as we could. We did have people from Toronto running it for a while, but it didn’t work. We hired a really strong local team. And even though the [stores] look the same, their assortments are a bit different–for example, the paint area is bigger, because Quebecers paint four times as much as the rest of the country.
What are the greatest opportunities and threats facing Canadian business and marketers today?
I don’t know if they’re threats but I think that the customer has changed. Ten years ago, the retailer dictated how the customer would come to them.
Today the customer dictates how the retailer needs to go to them. I think the multi-channel capability, the ability to serve all channels well, is going to be driven by the demand of the customer. The digitization of your business is making sure your supply chain is exceptional and has the ability to provide services and products in various ways. Those things are critically important to our future.
