Big Lots 2013 Annual Report Download - page 3

David J. Campisi
Chief Executive Officer and President
BIG LOTS, INC. ANNUAL REPORT 2 013
DEAR SHAREHOLDERS:
Let me begin by expressing how excited I am to be at Big Lots. Since joining the Company
in May 2013, I have spent a great deal of time with our associates listening and learning about the
business – what has worked and where we have experienced challenges. I truly appreciate the
support, the candid insights, and the honest feedback I received throughout my year of transition.
As a team, we have invested countless hours walking our stores across the country in different types of
markets and customer demographic settings. I’ve seen first-hand what our customer sees … great value
merchandise in many of our categories, which is very important in these difficult economic times. However, we also have
seen challenges and inconsistency in our product offerings, a lack of a “customer-first” mentality when merchandising our
stores, and product assortments that had become too broad and less and less meaningful over time. We were trying to be
everything to everyone which resulted in a business model that is overly complicated to operate and perform at a high level.
The good news is our core customer still loves us, and today through this process, we have a better understanding than ever
before of who she is and how she likes to shop. Her name is Jennifer, and we now have a focus on her in all facets of our
business. In order to align our team on how we intend to operate the business going forward with a focus on Jennifer, we
created mission, vision, and values statements which the organization was thirsty for and has rallied behind …
¡ Our Mission is simple … Surprises in every aisle, every day … across all merchandise categories in our store
¡ Our Vision for the future … providing an outstanding shopping experience for our customers, valuing and developing our
associates, and creating growth for our shareholders … which aligns with our strategic focus
¡ And our Values embody the essence of how we intend to work together at Big Lots each and every day
Developing our Mission, Vision, and Values statements was the first step to our Strategic Planning Process (or SPP). Our
SPP represents a 3-year view with specific strategies designed to position our business for the long term while delivering
improved financial performance. There are three key overarching objectives, or pillars, which were identified …
¡  Jennifer … who represents the sales and customer opportunity
¡  Associates … the team which will deliver the results
¡  Shareholders … who we ultimately work for and who invested in Big Lots for a financial return
JENNIFER
The Jennifer pillar represents the sales portion of the strategy and what will drive the profitability of the model and ultimately
help us achieve our goal of driving shareholder returns. We have assembled a senior leadership team that clearly understands
top line growth, consistency of results, and execution are our top priorities.
Merchandising: It is critical to focus our resources on winnable, ownable businesses … merchandising categories that are
top-of-mind with Jennifer – like Furniture, Seasonal, Home, and Food & Consumables. Our “edit to amplify” merchandising
strategy emphasizes these businesses and edits – or exits – the categories that are less relevant and not top of mind at
Big Lots for Jennifer.
SURPRISES IN EVERY AISLE, EVERY DAY
is about understanding our core customer
Jennifer, and what she wants when shopping
our stores. It’s about exceeding her expectations
with great values on branded products.