Incoming CBA Chairman George Thomsen on the organization, the industry and their futures

When George Thomsen takes over as chairman of CBA next month, it will mark a major new season for the retailers’ trade association.

The first church bookstore representative to head the group’s board, Thomsen inherits the leadership of a downsized organization with a new top executive.

Since he was appointed to the board in 2008, becoming chairman-elect last year, Thomsen has seen the departure of longtime President and CEO Bill Anderson, the sale of the organization’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the adoption of a new management model with Curtis Riskey appointed as executive director.

In addition, CBA has continued to reshape its International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in  light of suppliers’ cutting back on their investment in the show and its ongoing evolution from an order-writing event to one more about networking, relationship building and industry dialogue.

Still overseeing Harvest Bookstore at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif.—an award-winning church store—and serving as a consultant to other retailers, Thomsen talked with Christian Retailing about his appointment, prior to this year’s ICRS.

CHRISTIAN RETAILING: What has been the most encouraging thing for you in the past few months?

GEORGE THOMSEN: I have been very encouraged by the offers of prayer and support for CBA from many of our industry leaders and partners. I can only begin to tell you how much this has meant and been appreciated by CBA, the board and me personally. There is a new spirit of realistic optimism and hope as well as a desire and willingness to work together.

It would not be unfair to say that CBA needed to change to facilitate this and in many ways I think it has. Times are tougher, and many of us are feeling the same pain points. Tough times also humble us and bring us to our knees. We need to recognize this and find ways to help each other for the good of the entire industry. This is Christ honoring and Christian obedience in action.

What has been the most disappointing thing for you?

Without a doubt I would say it has been an attitude of negativity by some in our industry in the face of these past few months. While most have been supportive and encouraging, it does hurt to hear unfounded rumors, gossip, comments and speculation by an uninformed and vocal few.

The last two years we have heard negative rumors about pre-registration for ICRS that were not anywhere near close to being true. These rumors were circulated by several in our industry. When CBA sold its building, someone blogged, “Is the ship slowly sinking?” Why can’t it be that,  “CBA has exercised good stewardship in divesting itself of a huge financial burden that threatened its very existence”? It is unfortunate in a Christian industry that we have gossip and rumors.

I appreciate the fact that Stephen Strang (owner of Christian Retailing publisher Strang Communications) did the biblical thing and brought an unfounded rumor to my attention rather than passing it on. Earlier in the year, I called Stephen when I heard an untrue rumor about Christian Retailing. I wish this was the default way that everyone in our industry would handle these things.

What were some of the biggest challenges CBA has faced in recent times?

We have had several significant ones. Like most organizations, the difficulty of the times has dictated that we have to live on less. We have had to watch our budgets very closely. The board and staff take our stewardship role very seriously. The staff has done a wonderful job in keeping expenses at a minimum. Also, finding a new leader for our organization was challenging.

We were blessed that in Curtis Riskey we had an outstanding person in-house and that God had been preparing him for this call over the last two years. The challenge for us now under reorganization is to figure out what is vital, what is dispensable and how to more effectively manage the organization with a smaller staff. Part of our stewardship duties resulted in the sale of our building.

What factors went into the decision to sell the building?

While the building has been a blessing to CBA and those other Christian ministries that lived there, we could no longer justify owning it. It had gotten to a point where the building owned us and was taking us away from our core competencies. It did not fit what we were about. We no longer needed the amount of space we once did. And, in a down commercial real estate market, it was difficult to lease out the space we did not need.

Also, the responsibilities of being a landlord took energy away from the vital tasks of CBA. We did not want management of the building to keep us from delivering value to our members. The board clearly felt that good stewardship required selling the building. We were very blessed to find a suitable buyer in this market.

We are also thankful that we and the other Christian ministries continue to reside in the same building. The sale of the building has helped to strengthen CBA financially.

How will the new leadership and structure at CBA benefit members?

There are several ways that I think this will happen. First, our new executive director, Curtis Riskey, is a retailer himself and has a passion for helping Christian retail succeed. Hence, there is no lack of understanding or disconnect between what goes on in the offices in Colorado Springs and the realities of business life in Christian stores.

Secondly, our new structure is less costly and more efficient. Resources are now more available for the business and mission of the association. And that business is about helping retailers succeed. As chairman of the board, I will have a more active role in speaking to our industry. This is something I felt should happen even prior to my chairmanship. The chairman speaks for the board and members need to hear from the members they have elected to lead their organization.

What is CBA planning to do to rally the industry and renew some sense of optimism for the future?

I think optimism is important and can be a good thing, yet it is possible to be optimistic to a fault and we don’t want to fall off that side of the horse, either. I prefer to think in terms of being “realistically optimistic.”

Hopefully CBA can be a catalyst to dialogue and change in our industry culture. For that to happen, we need to be willing to work together and to develop synergy. We need to get people together and talk about what we can do to make the industry work better and to be sure that we are not working at cross-purposes. You have heard me float the idea of an industry summit, and that is still something I would like to see happen.

We also need to revisit our past and remember why it was we got into this industry/ministry. We did not do it to get rich, and we knew that it would not be easy. I think that we have become less satisfied now because the boon years are in our recent past and memory. We have tasted that success and expect that it will always be that way.

What changes would you like to see in our industry?

We are a Christian industry and I am thankful for the many godly men and women who serve the industry, yet we don’t always behave in God-honoring ways. I would like to see that change.

Whatever we do or whatever successes we have, it is not worth it if we compromise along the way in order to achieve it. We must not be pragmatists to the point that the ends justify the means if the means are not pleasing to God. We must be sure that what we write, what we publish, what we sing, what we produce is biblical and honoring to the Lord.

We need to honor our commitments, whether they are contractual or financial. We need to be straightforward in our dealings with each other. We need to resolve our differences out of court. We need to pay our bills. We need to govern our speech so that what we say is true and edifying to those who hear. We must not engage in industry gossip or rumors. We need to love each other more and quibble less. We need to pray more and rely less on our own strengths.

When we honor God, He will honor us.

You have been quoted as saying that “CBA has a strong board.” Can you elaborate on that?

I think the CBA board, while certainly not perfect, has several strong qualities. First, we respect each other. We value and hear each other out in the boardroom. We do not always agree, but at the end of discussion, we still love and value each other. We care about what is right, not who is right.

The board does not shy away from difficult discussions and decisions. We recognize that diversity and differing opinions can actually be healthy and a benefit to an organization and we even seek that out. We also have a good mix of different skill sets and backgrounds. The current board is blessed with more financial acumen than perhaps any board in CBA’s history. This has particularly served us well as we have had to make adjustments in these difficult economic times.

We have a mix of entrepreneurs, managers, implementers, visionaries, those with multi-board experience and some with association experience. We have people who love and care greatly about the industry and what happens to it.

What do you believe are the three most important issues facing the Christian products world in general and Christian retailers in particular?

I am not sure that it is easy to separate the Christian products world from Christian retailers. There is a symbiotic relationship. Certainly channel management is a significant concern. It is understandable that suppliers want greater distribution of their products. That has to be at the heart of most of their mission statements.

And yet, Christian retail remains uniquely important and relevant. We need to find programs like channel exclusives, differentiated channel strategies and consumer awareness of Christian retail. Consumer awareness is important because there are more people today asking the question, “How come there is not a Christian store in my community?”

Consumers need to understand that this is part of the fallout of the change in how they purchase product. Yet, they still recognize the intrinsic value a Christian store brings to a community. We have to get that word out. We also need to help retailers become forward-thinking and adaptable to the changing realities in the world of retail—whether it is embracing technology, dealing with consumer purchasing habits or identifying and developing strategy around Christian retail’s unique value proposition.

Our industry has been behind the curve of the electronic/digital revolution. In many cases we are shutting the barn door after the horse is long gone down the road. In the future, we need to be more proactive and on the cutting edge.

Is there a future for indies in Christian retailing? Isn’t the future for chains and churches?

I believe there is. We are seeing indies that are not only surviving, but thriving in the ABA (general market) and in CBA as well. However, it is not easy and it takes hard work. It requires the right mind-set, toughness and resolve.

Stores have to not only do the basics well, but (also) have to go beyond the fundamentals. They have to find what they can do better than anyone else and be sure that they play to those strengths. People still want connection, they want to be known and want to share their passion for whatever it is they enjoy with other people.

I read an article in my local paper this past weekend about an indie store in my town that is doing well and the importance of developing a sense of community in the store.

With Christian suppliers now strong in other channels, does CBA have as much influence with them as it used to?

Christian retailers have something that other channels don’t have and can never have.

We are a channel that cares more about and knows more about their products than do the secular retailers. We got into this industry because we believed we were called to it and wanted to serve the Lord. We are committed to the product because we care about it and value it for what it can do in a person’s life.

There is great transformational value in Christian books and Bibles. We are evangelists for the product. Secular retailers, whether brick and mortar or click and mortar, are only committed to the point that it rings a cash register. Once the desire drops off, the product is off of their shelves.

With regard to the amount of influence we have with suppliers, I am not sure how you measure that. I suspect in some ways we have less influence than we once had, but I do believe that we should have significant influence with them. If we can work together and find ways to leverage our collective strength, we can increase our influence with suppliers.

This is an area in which we need to do a better job.

Does digital publishing signal the demise of brick-and-mortar bookstores, as some are predicting?

I hope this is not the case and don’t think it will be. It will surely have an effect and retailers need to face up to the implications of that.

However, I don’t think the effect will be as decimating for the book as it was for music. There is a tangible experiential aspect of enjoying a physical book that is difficult to replicate with an e-book. That is why publishers have gone to the effort of craftsmanship in what they publish. Cover design, cover construction, font, graphics, paper and even smell are things that many people appreciate when they hold an actual book in their hand. “Book people” savor these things.

Yet the reality is that not everyone considers these things as important, certainly not as important as the content. The unknown is how widespread the impact of the digital revolution will be on retailing as we have known it. There will continue to be booksellers, and the ones who are successful will be those who are innovative and adapt to the market realities.

What will happen to ICRS in the future? Will there be some kind of combined show next year?

While there has been a downturn in ICRS in this economy, this year it did comparatively better than other trade shows. Our total attendance was down around 2%, while most shows have been down 16% this year. What we also experienced in 2009 was that those who came to ICRS came to do business, and so far what I have heard this year, this was also the case.

Sometimes numbers can be misleading. An example would be a store that in previous years brought the entire family, now may only be bringing two people. So while fewer badges are issued in that case, the decrease in the number of buyers is much smaller. I think we also are seeing that the stronger retailers are the ones who are still out there and coming to the show. I heard from several exhibitors that last year they felt that people were uncertain about what might happen and that this year people are essentially saying, “OK, now we know what it is and we can deal with it.”

While our total attendance was off a small amount, we saw pockets of growth. The total number of exhibitors was up, and once again international attendance increased. Exhibitors are making adjustments also and have found that they can still have a productive show with less exhibit space, a smaller staff and without expensive custom exhibitory.

I don’t know the exact future of the show, but we are optimistic and have dates booked several years out. Yes, we have talked with some other organizations about co-locating or merging shows. There is a definite interest in this and it is a real possibility. Whatever we do, we must continue to do whatever it takes to see that ICRS delivers value to those who attend. Curtis Riskey, Scott Graham and the team in Colorado Springs are working hard to find ways to increase exhibitor return on investment.

• Prev
• Next