Women Redefining Agility & Leadership in Modern Retail

Minu Alexander is an accomplished leader has over 20 decades of experience in leading growth, innovation, and operational excellence of global retail and consumer brands. Her compassionate, adaptable and outcomes-based leadership enables teams and companies to succeed in the constantly changing market.

In an insightful interaction with Global Woman Leader Magazine, Minu shares her perspectives on driving agile omnichannel increase, fostering inclusive leadership, and empowering women to steer with authenticity and adaptableness in fast-evolving retail environments. The insights below are based on her experience and lessons she has gained in agile, people-centered leadership.

With your full P&L accountability across online and offline formats, how did you develop agile leadership skills to balance omnichannel growth in fast-changing retail environments?

Balancing omnichannel growth in today’s rapidly evolving retail environment is not a destination—it’s a journey. As a leader, it is imperative to bring your team along on this journey, embedding adaptability and innovation into the very fabric of your culture.

At the heart of our success has been a commitment to fostering adaptability, enabling data-driven decision-making, and encouraging seamless cross-functional collaboration. Prioritising real-time customer insights has empowered us to swiftly recalibrate strategies across channels, while nurturing a culture that embraces experimentation and rapid iteration. 

And by aligning KPIs across digital and physical operations, we’ve ensured unified goals and consistent execution.

This approach has allowed us to remain agile, resilient, and profitable—even amidst constant market shifts.

In what ways has leading e-commerce alongside physical retail operations shaped your approach to agility, and how can women leaders prepare to lead in phygital ecosystems?

Leading both e-commerce and physical retail operations has deeply shaped my approach to agility by reinforcing the need for real-time responsiveness, cross-functional alignment, and a unified customer experience across all touchpoints. Managing the complexities of inventory, fulfillment, and customer engagement in a phygital ecosystem taught me to embrace frequent planning, leverage data analytics for quick decision-making, and empower teams to act autonomously within a shared strategic vision. For women leaders preparing to thrive in such environments, it’s essential to cultivate digital fluency, build inclusive teams that reflect diverse customer needs, and lead with both creativity and decisiveness, balancing innovation with operational discipline to drive seamless omnichannel growth.

Can you share an example where agile decision-making helped you overcome a critical challenge in omnichannel execution, and what can women leaders learn from that experience?

In 2023, H&M MENA faced a significant challenge in balancing stock availability across online and offline channels. The issue was impacting customer experience, particularly in top-performing stores where size availability and assortment relevance were falling short. Rather than relying on traditional forecasting cycles, we led a swift pivot using real-time analytics tools to decode customer behavior across channels.

This agile approach enabled the team to:

Reallocate inventory dynamically based on live demand signals.

Tailor assortments per store, improving size availability and relevance.

Enhance stock turn and markdown efficiency, boosting profitability

The results were measurable, we saw considerable improvement in size availability, stock turn and average member-spend.

This experience offers powerful lessons for women in leadership:

Trust the data, but move fast: The decision to act on real-time insights rather than wait for quarterly reviews exemplifies the power of agile leadership.

Empower cross-functional teams: Success came from enabling teams to collaborate across merchandising, planning, and store operations—breaking silos to solve problems holistically.

Balance intuition with analytics: While data guided the decisions, the deep understanding of customer behavior and market nuances ensured the strategy was both responsive and relevant.

How do you foster agile thinking within diverse cross-functional teams like supply chain, marketing, and merchandising? What advice would you give women building similar leadership teams?

Fostering agile thinking within diverse cross-functional teams like supply chain, marketing, and merchandising starts with creating a shared vision and empowering each function to contribute to rapid, customer-centric decision-making. I prioritize transparency and real-time communication, often using short feedback loops and collaborative planning sessions to ensure alignment and adaptability.

By encouraging experimentation and learning from quick iterations, teams become more responsive and resilient.

For women building similar leadership teams, my advice is to lead with clarity and empathy—set bold goals but also create a safe space for diverse voices to challenge assumptions and co-create solutions. Building trust across functions is key to unlocking agility and innovation in complex, fast-moving environments.

From your experience in eight MENA countries, how does cultural context affect agile omnichannel leadership, and how can women leaders adapt effectively across geographies?

From my experience, cultural context plays a pivotal role in shaping agile leadership. Each market brings unique consumer behaviors, regulatory environments, and team dynamics, which require tailored approaches to communication, decision-making, and execution. Agility in this context means being culturally attuned, understanding local nuances while maintaining a unified brand and operational strategy. For women leaders, adapting effectively across geographies involves cultivating cultural intelligence, building inclusive and locally empowered teams, and staying flexible in leadership style. It’s about balancing consistency with customization, and leading with empathy, curiosity, and a deep respect for regional diversity.  And the most important aspect is ‘Keeping it simple’ so everyone understands your vision, and are motivated to work towards a common goal.

LAST WORD: Advice for Aspiring Women Leaders Who Want to Lead Agile Omnichannel Transformations

My key advice for aspiring women leaders aiming to drive agile omnichannel transformations is to lead with clarity, courage, and connection. Balancing performance and engagement require a strong vision that aligns teams across digital and physical channels, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to shifting customer behaviors and market dynamics. Build diverse, empowered teams that can move fast and learn faster, and foster a culture where experimentation is encouraged and insights are shared openly. Most importantly, stay grounded in empathy—understanding what motivates your people and what matters to your customers will help you lead with authenticity and impact across every touchpoint.