Shoes with a name
Wouter Torfs, CEO of Torfs (‘Shoes with a name’), is both an inspiring CEO and a haunting management guru. The Stanwick consultants experienced this first-hand during an inspiring exchange of views with Wouter.
From the customer orientation of Bomma and Bompa (this is 1920) to the current generation of company management: Wouter knows how to translate the roots into management practices that resonate, both with staff and customers. Highly recommended is his book ‘De ziel zit in een schoenendoos’ (Roularta), where Wouter distinguishes four parts: the company's genesis, managing the Torfs company, social views and Wouter's own personal development journey.
Even more advisable, however, is a moment of intervision with the man himself. As a lawyer, Wouter calls himself a ‘professional chatterbox’ and as consultants, we can only agree. Wouter's speech does not leave us unmoved for a moment. He effortlessly plays on both our managerial and human curiosity by not avoiding a single question.
Some statements we will remember for a long time:
‘Shoemaker stick to your last’ (how could it be otherwise...)
- Customer focus, both internally towards our own employees and externally towards our customers, has made us great. The HUMAN is and remains the common thread in our management approach.
- Shopping as a total experience: grandma buys shoes for the children, the granddaughter advises grandma what she should buy; the whole experience is pleasant and enjoyable. Torfs sells a ‘transformation’, not just a transaction.
- Think longer term: advise the customer not to buy, when you see that the customer has doubts; in the long run, this is the right approach.
- Listen to your customer and follow the trend: customers prefer to shop in the periphery, so this has implications towards shop implantation.
- Take into account the culture of the Fleming (Torfs is anchored in Flanders as a company). For example, a Fleming wants to be received politely and kindly, but doesn't actually want too much attention either. Employees are trained to find these balances.
‘When you take care of the people, the people will take care of the business’ or
‘We are a Human Resource driven machine’
- Our personnel cost is 6% higher than the market average, but we consider this a marketing cost!
- Create a great workplace together: happy people and job-lovers really do make a difference. And getting the right people on the bus: that's what Torfs has better salary conditions for.
- ‘Beware, culture eats strategy for lunch’ as Wouter snidely puts it. For Torfs, permanently maintaining and spreading its corporate culture is a key task. This is done in new shops, for instance by employing veterans who know the ropes and possess the desired Torfs DNA.
- And how do we know/measure this lived corporate culture? Thanks to a Mystery Shopper who visits each shop six times a year and scores the Torfs values. Admit it ladies... a dream job?
- Fancy a two-day personal development programme? At Torfs you can, paid for by the company! After all, employees who develop themselves also develop the company.
‘Great place to be involved = great place to shop = great place to work’
- Our social branding, including the collaboration with Cunina, is also very important to us as a company. We don't see this as charity, but as a WIN-WIN transaction. After all, happy employees = engaged employees, so this is how we indirectly measure our employee satisfaction.
- ‘Do good and do care’. This is not as we are used to it in Judeo-Christian thinking (a penny for charity quietly dropped in the collection box). Rather, Wouter opts for transparent negotiation, with a clearly expected Torfs visibility from the NGO.
- Rather partner with SME NGOs; they are more empathetic towards responding to each other than large NGOs.
Business results also speak, ‘happy cows give more milk but happy bulls also give a bit more’. The journey continues, Wouter is always a man with a plan: the web-store is out of the starting blocks, consistent with the vision, the site offers that touch more ‘people-feel’. And on the horizon Wouter already sees ‘corporate social responsibility’, because today this may still be a trend, within 10 years customers will count us on it.
Are we as Stanwickers convinced by this story? More than that, we are enthusiastic (even in the corridors and the pint afterwards). So enthusiastic, in fact, that we don't blame Wouter for his statement about consultants: ‘Consulting a consultant can be very useful at a certain point. Therefore, they don't have THE answers, but they do dare to ask the right questions.'
We wish Wouter and his team every success.
