Page 6 - BusinessWest January 22, 2024

“We did business much the same way for decades, but over the past five years, the pace of change has greatly accelerated.
We have to stay current, we have to stay educated, we have to stay knowledgeable, and we have to be able to share that wisdom and knowledge with our teams out in the stores.”
after graduating, he needed a job and, at his mother’s urging, took one working full-time in the deli department at the Big Y on Memo- rial Avenue in West Springfield.
After learning that side of the business, he moved on to other areas of supermarket operations and management, including the assumption of a lead role in creation of the food-services depart- ment that exists today, one that offers pizza, sandwiches, and many other options.
He would go on to open the company’s new store in South Wind- sor, Conn. in 2001, before moving on to other areas, including sales, produce, and fresh offerings, and eventually becoming vice president of Sales and Marketing and then COO in 2019. Since then, along with his uncle, Charlie, he has been a key face of the company and many of its recent initiatives..
Michael said he will bring to his new roles a leadership style he saw in his predecessors and is eager to emulate, one grounded in “listening more than we speak,” as he put it, giving employees at all levels the tools they need to succeed and focusing on teamwork.
As he talked, he made it a point to use ‘we,’ not ‘I’ when talking about leadership.
“We have an eye toward growth and innovation, not just with technology, but across the board,” he said. “We want to develop tools and processes to make our employees’ jobs easier and more effective, and also add to the customer experience.”
As for Bossie, he came to Big Y in 1986 after returning to the region after living in Alaska and working in a supermarket as a part-time service clerk.
He started working nights stocking shelves in the store in Great Barrington, and has since worked in all areas of store operations, including store director and, later, district director until his appoint- ment as director of Operations in 2010.
In 2019, he was named senior vice president of Retail Opera- tions and Customer Experience, where, in addition to his opera- tions oversight, he also leads other retail banners such as Big Y Express gas and convenience and Table & Vine, along with teams for asset protection and continuous improvement.
He joins Michael D’Amour and Theresa Jasmin, the company’s
chief financial officer, who joined Big Y nearly two decades ago and worked in a number of capacities before becoming CFO in 2020, as well as several of Michael’s siblings and cousins, as what would be considered the proverbial next generation of leadership at Big Y.
This new leadership group has come into place through careful consideration and a hard focus on succession planning, something that all ventures, and especially family businesses, need to make a priority, Charlie said.
“We spend an awful lot of time across the organization looking at succession, planning for it, and making sure we’re thoughtful about it — and working at all levels of the team to get ready for this particular point,” he told BusinessWest.
“There are not a lot of companies that can brag about passing the reins on to the next generation,” he went on. “And I’m very excit- ed that we’ve been able to do that. The second generation has been involved in it, we didn’t screw things up too, too badly, and now the third generation can step in and continue the growth that we’ve enjoyed.”
What’s in Store?
As he talked about what comes next, for the new leadership and the company as a whole, those we spoke with said the company has achieved a strong pattern of growth, and the goal will be to continue this ‘little run,’ as Charlie D’Amour called it.
In addition, Michael D’Amour said he wants the company to build on its reputation as a great place to work, efforts that have culminated in awards such as listing by Forbes as a ‘Best-in-state Employer’ in Massachusetts and Connecticut and recognition from Newsweek as one of ‘America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity and Women.’
“We’ve made a lot of progress over the past few years, but we still have a long way to go, and for us this is a never-ending jour- ney,” he said. “It’s a point of focus for us along with innovation and growth. We do a lot to educate and grow our employees — it’s turned out to be a great strength of ours, to be transparent with information as best we can and to help them grow, as employees but also as individuals.”
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6 JANUARY 22, 2024 << FEATURE >> BusinessWest