Client Value Story
Holt Renfrew’s Succession Planning: Building a Future Ready Sustainable Organization
Lifting the leadership altitude and readying the organization.
Opportunity/Challenge
Holt Renfrew, a Canadian luxury retailer, recognized their need to embed succession planning into its core governance to ensure leadership continuity and resilience.
As a private company with a long history of excellence, …the retailer faced a dual opportunity to strengthen its Executive Leadership Team (ELT) feeder roles and establish a sustainable talent pipeline for long-term growth. Recognizing that leadership succession is not just a governance responsibility but an executive “must-think about often”, Holt Renfrew sought a solution that integrates a top-down approach to that also linked to the bottom-up talent process underway. All done while simultaneously fostering a more reliable, and sustainable organization.
Through its partnership with Nikoleta & Associates, Holt Renfrew embarked on a journey to start to embed succession planning into its talent and organization management practices. This engagement anchored broader strategic Building Blocks and intentionally engaged the ELT, CEO and the Board.
Solution and Implementation
The succession engagement was designed using a contextualized Booster 90 format—a structured 90-day series that drives momentum on strategic concepts, fostering leadership decisions, education, collaboration, and measurable progress. The format organized the process into an 8-week period and looked to continuously support the People team to architect, lead, and facilitate integrated communication. To ensure progress on multiple fronts, the phases were divided into a series of activities that happened in parallel, creating a dynamic and multifaceted approach that that progressed the key milestones and decision gates.
Phase One (July–September) 2024
The first phase of the program focused on contemplating the process, people, and leadership strategies in parallel to succession planning. This building alignment and trust with the ELT to assess the current talent landscape and establish a foundation for working better towards sustainable and empowered leadership growth. This foundational work set the stage for an enhancing shift in organizational capacity and capability in how leadership was viewed across Holt Renfrew.
Listening and Engagement Series
Central to this phase were in-depth 1:1 listening and engagement series with ELT members. These facilitated discussions for the leaders hosted a moment out of the day to day and consider the organization impacts of this work.
Organization Themes and Future Focused Role Profiles
To translate these themes into actionable plans, future-focused role profiles for ELT positions were developed. These profiles provided a deeper understanding and insights into role-based needs and areas for functional growth while also considering the human beings in seat today.
Inspiration Nuggets
“Inspiration Nuggets” were introduced to prompt innovative and strategic thinking within the ELT. These concise, thought-provoking prompts helped ELT members explore topics like the role of leaders and managers and strategic cohesiveness via cross collaboration. The pieces created not only became to reframe succession as an opportunity for personal and organizational growth and also reinforced a shared vision for organization growth.
The September Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
The culmination of Phase One was the September Quarterly Business Review (QBR), a milestone that brought the output of the first Booster to a close. This session included a section on leadership readiness and tailored succession strategies for each function that centered around a strong focus of collaboration and strategic alignment. The QBR provided a platform to align the board’s strategic direction with the succession framework
Phase One (July–September) 2024
The second phase of Holt Renfrew’s succession engagement centered on mobilizing the organizational readiness and design activities from the first phase and refining them through collaboration and feedback. This phase focused on bringing the succession framework to life, equipping functions for further sustainability, and embedding succession planning into the organization’s broader governance practices, creating a strong foundation for sustained leadership continuity and innovation.
Post-QBR Listening and Engagement Series
Following the September QBR, a next Listening & Engagement series allowed ELT members to align on next steps and refine for mobilization. These discussions revisited individual perspectives and priorities and incorporated board feedback. The sessions provided a platform to assess the effectiveness of the proposed plans in day-to-day context and ensure alignment with Holt Renfrew’s evolving priorities.
ELT Workshop Sessions
An ELT workshop session was a key step both on succession check in and aligning leadership priorities with evolving organization themes. ELT members collaboratively assessed leadership readiness, refined feeder role definitions, and identified immediate and future talent needs. This hands-on approach fostered further alignment across functions and leadership
People Team Enablement
The People Team played a lead role in strengthening Holt Renfrew’s ability to sustain the succession planning work. During this time, there was a focus on enhancing recruiting efforts to support capacity and capability. The Nikoleta & Associates team collaborated to refine and mobilize this work, ensuring a seamless approach aligned with strategic priorities.
December Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
The December QBR served as a milestone that reinforced strategic alignment with the board and tee’ed up the investment. Key updates presented included strategic recommendations assessing leadership readiness and prioritizing near-term actions to sustain momentum.
Results and Look Forward
Holt Renfrew’s succession engagement created momentum, and the Nikoleta & Associates team was re-invited to continue to support the People Team to deliver to the 2025-2026 outcomes.
Holt Renfrew’s succession engagement created momentum, and the Nikoleta & Associates team was re-invited to continue to support the People Team to deliver to the 2025-2026 outcomes.
The work remains tailored to plans and pathways for ELT and ELT-1 leadership, as well as the activation of organization-wide themes with cross-functional considerations. Anchoring in the business strategy has opened new questions, and as time moves fast, new challenges are being contemplated. However, the process is now available for the ELT to engage with.
Looking forward, Nikoleta & Associates and Holt Renfrew plan to continue this strategic collaboration, holding succession as a cornerstone of organizational development. By embedding succession into day-to-day practices, Holt Renfrew is cultivating a leadership culture that emphasizes strategic cohesion and growth. This approach ensures that Holt Renfrew is not only prepared for future challenges, but is also ready for new opportunities in the luxury retail landscape.
“Thank you for the call but more importantly, the thought leadership and genuine care.”
Christina Sanders
Senior Vice President, People, Holt Renfrew
