Quick bite: Can Rod Duke beat IKEA?

How does Briscoe Group's Rod Duke view incoming competition from international retailers like IKEA and Sports Direct?

The retail veteran shares his unconventional strategy of welcoming customers to try competitors. Plus - Duke reflects on his transition from hands-on management to mentoring, and why building a lasting legacy matters more than short-term defense.

This clip is taken from our previous episode: ‘Occupy, dominate, and defend’: Briscoe Group’s growth plan. For more or to watch on YouTube—check out http://linktr.ee/sharedlunch

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to a shares these podcast Who are you
looking at when you're competing with because I guess if
you're looking at where people shop now, it's all over
the place. People might jump on and jump on Timur
or something and get something extremely cheap and run through
and that kind of thing. Are you worried about them?
Are you worried about Ikea who are tuning up in
this country later on this year? Or was sports Direct?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I think the I think the Teamurs and the Shines
and those folks operate at a different end of the
market that I operate in. They do meet other competitors
in this country, but they don't meet me. But I'm
more focused on the the costcos and the Ikia's.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Normally, when a competitor turns up new entrant, they throw
a lot of money around to try and draw custom.
That's got to be something you have to chew on
and shore for sure.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
But we've got people in their stores already. I know
how they operate, i know what they sell, I know
the propositions. I've got a lot of stores, and I've
got a lot of stores right next door the stores
where they think they're going to put foot jobs. It's fine,
I've got to lift my game. People will go to
these places and experiment with them. I want people to

(01:16):
go there and experiment a service level or quality of
service that is lower than mine, to have a look
at a range of product it's not even nearest significant
as mine, to go into an environment that's not as
comfortable as my environments. So does that mean I have
to lift my game in some centers and in some brands. Yeah,

(01:38):
it's okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
You've still got a lot of energy. And I guess
that comes back to the question that one of our
listeners that in viewers that asked there what keeps you going.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I've been in the retail business since I was sixteen.
I just happened to love the concept of buying something,
selling something, buying plenty, selling plenty, having plenty of stores,
having plenty of customers. It's a lot of fun building
something from pretty much nothing into an organization that's really, really,

(02:09):
really well respected and successful. And it's hard to give
away something or move away from something if you gave
birth to it. I have to tell you I'm in
a really, really, really fortunate position at the moment. I've
got about three or four really really key people who
have been here for a very long time, who are very,

(02:29):
very very clever. And I'll tell you now, I don't
get down in amongst the weeds as much as I
used to. Well, because it's not my job anymore. My
job is the mentor, who is to guide, to assist,
to encourage. I try to be a different sort of
manager these days than I was, because I'm past the

(02:51):
halfway mark. I'll concede you that, And so this is
my legacy. I don't want this business to fail just
because I go. That'd be a slight on me. You
didn't do a job particularly well. You didn't train these
people particularly well, you didn't encourage them enough, you didn't
set the platform for success for them. Well, that's not

(03:13):
what I want to do. Investing involves the risk you
might lose the money you start with. We recommend talking
to a licensed financial advisor.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
We also recommend rereading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest.