Caroline Hipple is the chief architect of the Pathway to Profit, crystallizing the profound formula for success. Experiencing the power of the culture at This End Up Furniture Company, she developed her management and leadership skills, advancing from a part-time sales associate to executive vice president of sales, merchandising and marketing.

As one of the few women who have led major home furnishings retail chains, Caroline is known throughout our business for her unique leadership style, which combines solid business strategy and positive workplace culture with an innate sense of style and insight into the home decorating needs of the consumer. At a time when stakes are high for all retailers in our industry, and professionals across our industry are searching for solutions, Caroline comes to the table today with a roadmap that can help transform a company and its profits by empowering people.

Her opportunity to implement her success formula came with her acceptance of the president’s role at Storehouse, an underperforming company staffed by discouraged people. She grew the business to a 72-store, $160 million retail chain, with innovative merchandising, committed associates, loyal customers, and a profitable bottom line. Modeling the process outlined in the Pathway the company successfully merged two retail chains, then achieved 30 consecutive months of double-digit same-store-sales increases, the measure of success for retail.

She created Storehouse’s first multi-channel sales distribution strategy, complementing the stores through a catalog and transactional web site. By following the Pathway the company earned recognition as the Entrepreneur of the year by Catalog Success magazine, American Furniture Retailer of the Year by Home Magazine and the prestigious ARTS award for the most outstanding National Furniture Store. WithIt (Women in the Home Furnishings Industry Today) selected Caroline for the WOW Education Award in recognition of her leadership in the growth and development of managers and associates at Storehouse.

Caroline is now “Chief Energy Officer” as a principal partner for HB2 Resources, an organization that helps businesses find smart solutions to the challenges in brand recognition, merchandising issues,transformation architecture and multi-channel, multifunctional alignment. She is frequently invited to speak on the topics of consumer marketing and merchandising trends and corporate culture.

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