{"id":17273,"date":"2024-03-07T13:43:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T18:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/?p=17273"},"modified":"2024-03-07T13:43:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T18:43:51","slug":"trailblazers-celebrating-womens-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2024\/03\/trailblazers-celebrating-womens-history-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailblazers: Celebrating Women\u2019s History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

March is Women\u2019s History Month and CSG will be celebrating by spotlighting women leaders in foodservice and retail<\/a> all month long. The women covered in our series have all carved their own path into the traditionally male dominated corporate structure. These women have all led their company in new ventures or bolstered an area of need. Women are becoming more common in board rooms and finally have long overdue representation. Progress is still needed and hopefully the successes of the women spotlighted here pave the way for the future.<\/p>\n

Our first spotlight goes to Cheryl Henry, CEO, President, and Board Member of Ruth\u2019s Chris Steakhouse.<\/strong> Ruth\u2019s Chris has been around since 1965 when Ruth Fertel opened her first restaurant<\/a>. The company was one of the first fine dining chains and set out with the mission of providing a familiar experience to traveling customers who would be looking for restaurants they could trust. Cheryl Henry took over the role of President and CEO in 2018 after joining the company in 2007. Henry\u2019s accomplishment was followed by the difficult task of propping up a company that was sliding in the wrong direction. Ruth\u2019s Chris saw declining sales in 2018 and two short years later it would be rocked by the disruptions of the pandemic. To turn things around Henry needed to update and modernize a company that is known for tradition and familiarity.<\/p>\n

Henry went to work and began targeting a younger crowd that Ruth\u2019s Chris may not have traditionally appealed to. She expanded the bar and introduced more affordable drink options. She did the same with the restaurant\u2019s food menu and began offering pre-planned multi-course dinners at a discounted price. This helped the company curb their initial slide and proved to be invaluable when traffic fell during the pandemic. A more diversified menu allowed them to navigate supply chain issues and the expanded age range of the customer base helped the company survive. Henry wasted no time in making her next tradition challenging move, the acquisition of Ruth\u2019s Chris by Darden Restaurants.<\/strong> Darden completed their acquisition of the fine-dining chain in 2023 in a $715-million deal. Henry will stay on as President and CEO of Ruth\u2019s Chris as part of the deal. Following the move Henry has access to more resources including the strategies used by Darden\u2019s other fine dining chain, Fleming\u2019s Steakhouse.<\/strong> In her short tenure Cheryl Henry has turned tradition on its head by bringing in younger customers with value options and by merging with one of the restaurants largest corporations and the new Ruth\u2019s Chris is stronger for it.<\/p>\n

We have another spotlight this week that goes to Neelima Sharma, Senior VP of Digital Commerce and Technology at Lowe\u2019s.<\/strong> As a home improvement store<\/a>, Lowe\u2019s is not the first name you think of when it comes to technology, and many would expect the company to be behind the times. In reality, the company has a robust digital presence and much of that is due to Sharma after she joined the company in 2017. Sharma has used her 25 years of technology experience to overhaul Lowe\u2019s digital platforms and bring it into the modern age. Before joining Lowe\u2019s, Sharma was in charge of technology at Staples and their B2B e-commerce business. Her work took on even more significance in 2020 when the pandemic forced more companies to lean into digital offerings.<\/p>\n

Sharma has overhauled Lowe\u2019s omnichannel experience in order to provide a smoother experience for customers while reducing the burden on employees in stores. Lowe\u2019s digital platform and pick-up options have freed employees to work more closely with customers to solve home improvement issues. Sharma is also in charge of designing the company\u2019s pricing strategy and is responsible for maintaining their value proposition to customers despite rising costs. Sharma\u2019s focus on Lowe\u2019s private brands also helped the company deal with supply chain issues that devastated competitors. Neelima Sharma has ensured that Lowe\u2019s is set up for the future and is well positioned for any future challenges in the digital space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March is Women\u2019s History Month and CSG will be celebrating by spotlighting women leaders in foodservice and retail all month long. The women covered in our series have all carved their own path into the traditionally male dominated corporate structure. These women have all led their company in new ventures or bolstered an area of… Continue reading Trailblazers: Celebrating Women\u2019s History Month<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":17274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-17273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trailblazers","tag-csg-exclusive","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}