CxVG Owning the Numbers: Data-Driven Decisions

Labor Management and Staff Empowerment A distinctive aspect of Sultan’s presentation was his approach to staff management and empowerment through data tools. He elab- orated: “As an entrepreneur, as somebody that’s curious, I like setting the stage for them and then literally just handing it over to them.” This approach empowers employees while improving operations.

Roy Strasburger asked about Sultan’s staff structure, particularly if different employees manage different departments and respon - sible for their success. Sultan confirmed and further explained, “It becomes their job: Grow that department and get rewarded accordingly.” Strasburger noted that this approach is “very enlight- ened,” as many owners he’s worked with “were very, very reluctant to share informa- tion with their employees.” The discussion turned to how this approach affects employee relations. Eva Strasburger asked whether giving staff more technolog - ical responsibilities had changed the profile of FavTrip’s employees. Sultan affirmed this shift, referencing “The Good Job Strategy” book, “When you give folks autonomy and ownership, the relationship will change because they feel this is their baby, their department.” Sultan described how this approach has positively transformed FavTrip’s relation- ship with employees. He shared examples of employees creating social media content about their work at FavTrip, noting that if these channels become monetized, “It’s all

their money. They just leverage our brand.” Eva Strasburger connected this to feedback from other Vision Groups, where retailers found decreasing store sales, generally because the store managers felt disenfran- chised. She asked whether FavTrip has had less trouble finding workers because of this empowering environment, to which Sultan responded affirmatively. Final Reflection The April CxVG quarterly virtual meeting highlighted how modern data visualization and analysis tools, particularly Tableau and AI, can transform operations for convenience retailers. Free, accessible technology can enable even the smallest operators to gain powerful insights into inventory, SKU man- agement, sales, staffing, and weather-related trends, replacing outdated, time-consuming methods. A shift from reactive to proactive decision-making, in addition to empowering staff with data ownership and reshaping vendor relationships for better control and profitability can lead to more power over inventory management, promotions and profitability.

“ As an entrepreneur, as somebody that’s curious, I like setting the stage for them and then literally just handing it over to them. So all the employees that are in charge of the department, I will make a quick video. We leverage a lot of video training. I would show them how I went about getting access to that data and demonstrate the commands that you saw. It could be something as easy as that for them, and they’re in charge of that as each department. It becomes their job: Grow that department and get rewarded accordingly, as well. That’s how we have it. We hand it over to them. Babir Sultan , President, FavTrip