Retail's B-1 Problem
- Marion Heil
- 25. Nov. 2025
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
When a major retailer announces a new CEO, the press release goes out, LinkedIn lights up, and the search firm involved gets a moment of visibility. Everyone notices the top job.
But we seldom talk about the layer beneath it.
In retail, the B-1 level, the direct reports to the CEO, is where the actual business is run. The Chief Buying Officer who manages relationships with hundreds of suppliers. The Head of Category Management who decides what sits on the shelf and what doesn't. The Regional Director who knows why the stores in one cluster are outperforming while another is quietly declining. The E-Commerce lead who is trying to make the economics work in a sector where digital profitability still makes most CFOs nervous.
In retail, the B-1 level, the direct reports to the CEO, is where the actual business is run.
These are not support roles. In retail, they are the engine. And they are often under-addressed in executive search.
Part of this is structural. Boards commission searches at C-level. The B-1 layer is typically handled internally, or by generalist search firms who cover the role as one item on a long list of assignments. The specific expertise required to identify and assess a genuinely excellent category director in food retail, or a buying lead in cosmetics who understands both the commercial and the brand dimension, often simply isn't brought to bear.
Part of it is also cultural. Retail has historically promoted from within at this level, which often produces a certain insularity. The internal candidate is known, trusted, and often very good. But the external market is rarely mapped in any systematic way, which means that when the internal pipeline fails, and it sometimes does, organizations find themselves making rushed decisions with incomplete information.
Retail has historically promoted from within at this level, which often produces a certain insularity.
We are seeing this pattern all the time. A CEO transition at the top triggers a cascade of B-1 changes, and suddenly the board is scrambling to fill four or five critical roles simultaneously, often with no or little prior groundwork.
The smart approach, and I say this as someone who enjoys fixing the scramble version professionally, nevertheless is to treat B-1 succession as a continuous process, not a crisis response.
The smart approach is to treat B-1 succession as a continuous process.
Mapping the external market, understanding who the strong performers are across competitors and adjacent sectors, building that intelligence before it is urgently needed.
In food retail, for example, the best category talent often sits not in the obvious large retailers but in mid-sized regional players who have had to be creative precisely because they couldn't compete on scale. In cosmetics retail, some of the most interesting buying profiles have come through the brand side, people who crossed from manufacturer to retailer and brought a different commercial perspective with them.
The C-level appointment gets the attention. But in retail, it is often the B-1 team that determines whether the strategy actually lands.
That is worth a dedicated conversation. Even if it doesn't make the press release.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marion Heil is the founder and managing director of Board+CEO Advisors, a Vienna-based executive search and board advisory boutique. She advises listed companies, family businesses and investors on C-suite, leaders and supervisory board appointments across DACH and CEE.
