The third and final day of the NACS Leadership Forum in Miami ended with a session focused exclusively on convenience stores?? most important assets: people.
Frank Gleeson, retail director at Topaz Energy Group in Ireland, and Louie Sheetz, executive vice president of marketing at Sheetz, shared their company success stories.
Gleeson talked about the Topaz philosophy of "Thinking Ahead" and always making sure that everything that gets changed passes through the lens of "that??s better" and leads to better things: better service, better returns, better people, better Topaz.
Topaz hires for attitude, trains for excellence and inducts for culture, Gleeson shared. And it??s a sustained focus on doing the right thing, Gleeson admitted, that has helped Topaz beat the bad economy and stay strong ?" and has won the company many awards for best places to work in the United Kingdom.
Sheetz had a similar collection of awards to share ?" and a similar focus on treating employees right. Sheetz employee benefits include: health care for all, a 401(k) match, employee stock ownership plan, college tuition reimbursement and an employee bonus.
In addition, an intense belief in two-way communication keeps Sheetz connected with employees, and employees connected with the company.
The day ended with a relaxed and highly informative question-and-answer session with esteemed PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. NACS CEO Hank Armour, facilitated the interview, which touched upon Nooyi??s personal history, the importance of mentoring, staying connected with employees around the world and Pepsi??s Performance with Purpose culture.
For more specifics on the Indra Nooyi interview, watch for the April issue of NACS Magazine.