Service is the key to business success, according to Hibbett Sports CEO Mickey Newsome of Birmingham.
Speaking Feb. 19 to a crowd of about 180 at a Business Before Hours event at Â鶹¹û¶³, Newsome said his company has grown because of the emphasis on "service, service, service." That is a central theme in employee training, and "that's what separates us from our competitors."
Newsome, a 1962 Â鶹¹û¶³ business graduate, said the company "has not changed our approach in 30 years because what we are doing is working."
Hibbett Sports is based in Birmingham but is a "small market operator," he explained, placing stores primarily in areas with population between 30,000 and 100,000. Quoting the late Birmingham business leader A. G. Gaston, Newsome said Hibbett "finds a need and fills it. We go where we're needed."
The company provides product and services that are unique to a market and place their stories primarily in strip shopping centers. Newsome referred to the "de-malling" of America, saying that people now want the quick convenience of strip centers rather than spending all day at a mall as they did decades ago.
Newsome even called Wal-Mart "one of our best allies." He said Hibbett Sports looks for strip centers adjacent to Wal-Mart stores because "they bring customers to the parking lot and then they see our store."
Newsome also noted that Hibbett Sports does not "waste money." Among cost-saving measures, the company ships product in company-owned trucks, re-uses cardboard boxes for shipping and sets store thermostats at 68 degrees in winter and 74 degrees in summer.
The Business Before Hours was sponsored by Â鶹¹û¶³'s Brock School of Business and the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce as part of a weeklong series of events celebrating the recent naming of the Brock School for retired Birmingham banker and Â鶹¹û¶³ philanthropist Harry B. Brock Jr.