After planning to pursue an engineering career, Kim Eskew saw the opportunities that grocery retail had to offer and turned an entry-level position into a life-long career with Springdale, Ark.-based Harps Food Stores.
Now the company’s chairman and CEO, Eskew shared his thoughts on leadership, management and getting started in the industry with NGA’s Independent Grocer magazine. The following are excerpts from his responses; you can read the full profile in the Spring 2024 issue.
How did you decide on grocery as a career?
It was a part-time job I needed while getting my education to help pay my expenses and survive. When I entered the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the fall of 1977, I was looking for a job and saw an ad from Harps Food Stores and applied. After working for about a year as a student checker/stocker plus anything else I was asked to do, I began entertaining the possibility of changing my career choice from civil engineering to this business. After a discussion with my store manager at the time, I did that during my second year at the university. With Harps, I saw an opportunity to grow and become a store manager.
Growing up very poor in rural Northeast Arkansas, the wages Harps was paying store managers looked like a fortune to me. I also really felt comfortable in the business. It truly felt like home to me, a good place with good people. I didn’t know at that time how right I was, and that decision was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
How has working your way up through every level of operation influenced your evolution as an executive?
I believe my experience in the stores allows me to relate to what life is like, every day, working in our stores with our customers and other employees. While employees and work habits have changed a lot since 1977, some things remain, and the basic blocking and tackling at store level still is necessary to be successful. But I understand that somehow my supervisor managed to come to my store at the worst possible times far too often. So, when I make my one or two visits to a store each year, I don’t assume that the store always looks however it may appear on the occasion of my visit. I am going to encourage and acknowledge that team on that day. I value them and the contribution they are making to our company’s success. They are the most important people in our company, not me.
What is your management style and what has had the greatest influence on it?
I hope that I have a servant’s management style. I prefer to find the best people possible and give them the support they need in order to do their job. I like to think I lead with a collaborative style, looking for input from the people closest to the action and our leadership team before making any major decisions.
What advice would you give to someone just starting a career in the independent grocery industry?
Patience is required in order to pursue a career in our business. You can learn some aspects of our business through formal education, but much of your necessary education will be through doing the job. It seems that a young college graduate today would like to do a good job for a year or two and then become a VP. That is not going to happen in our company. But I do think, for the right people, this is a great job, and our industry has enormous opportunities for people who are willing and able to do what it takes to be successful. It just seems to take a while for that success to really materialize.
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