Constitution

How It Is Set Up, Run, Rules, Regulations

Membership

The KPMG/SPSL Retail Think Tank will consist of any uneven number between 7 and 11 members, at any one time. The optimum number will be nine. Members will be by invitation of KPMG and SPSL only (subject to veto by either party) and represent, non-exhaustively, key areas of the retail industry, but not current retailers. Please note that it is a deliberate policy of the Retail Think Tank that no single member is employed by or speaks on behalf of any individual retail business per se, thereby reinforcing the credibility / independence of the Retail Think Tank membership. Meetings will also be attended by Simon Griffiths from KPMG's Media Relations department and Theo Chalmers from Verve PR who acts on behalf of SPSL. They will be responsible for news releases and white papers.

Members' Responsibilities

Members will be expected to attend all the meetings whenever possible. Members will also be required to appoint a suitable 'deputy' in the event that they are not available for any meeting of the Retail Think Tank. It is their responsibility to fill their chair if they cannot attend in order to maintain the representative odd-number of members and the high quality of input.

All references by spokespeople to the work of the Retail Think Tank should be made "on behalf of KPMG/SPSL Retail Think Tank".

Members will also be expected to make available to the Retail Think Tank any useful retail-related data to which they have access and more particularly which reflects the discipline and specialist skill/knowledge set for which they have been invited to join the Think Tank.

Outputs

The Retail Think Tank will issue regular news releases (via KPMG/Verve Public Relations) and white papers addressing specific issues affecting the retail industry:

• An initial news release will summarise the general conclusions of the Retail Think Tank with individual quotes as necessary. In particular it will issue last quarter/next quarter position statements on the state of the retail industry in the UK, running along similar lines to the MPC meetings at The Bank of England;


• A 'white paper' which will follow a week or so later driving down in more depth into any of the key issues or specific topics debated.

Funding

The Retail Think Tank will be solely funded by KPMG/SPSL.

Copyright

All the intellectual property within the Retail Think Tank and its outputs will be jointly owned by KPMG and SPSL. Members shall, of course, retain copyright over their own data which they bring to the meetings but shall allow use of properly credited extracts, as required in outputs.

Public Face

The public face of the Retail Think Tank will generally be expressed by news releases/white papers. Media enquiries will be handled jointly by Simon Griffiths (KPMG) and Theo Chalmers (Verve Public Relations). No member may express publicly any views purporting to be on behalf of the Retail Think Tank without the permission of KPMG/SPSL jointly.

Where a Retail Think Tank spokesperson is required by the media or at seminars etc that spokesperson shall be offered by reference to the most appropriate member as determined by Helen Dickinson and Dr. Tim Denison. Members will refrain from discussing publicly any confidential information learned during the Retail Think Tank meetings.

Individual members of the Retail Think Tank may, with formal, prior permission of the Retail Think Tank, issue their own news releases disassociating themselves from the majority view, if desired, or ask for their minority views to be represented in news releases. The decision on what shall be or not be in the final outputs shall rest with KPMG/SPSL jointly.

Members will be able to identify themselves in their personal outputs as being a member/founder member/former member (as appropriate) of the Retail Think Tank.

Philosophy

The KPMG/SPSL Retail Think Tank will attempt to think one or two steps ahead of the game, to look at the challenges facing retail and suggest ways in which those challenges may be met. The Retail Think Tank will not be sensationalist for the sake of sensation, nor will it be afraid to speak its collective mind. The Retail Think Tank will not aim to ruffle feathers but will not flinch from expressing its democratically-arrived-at opinion.

The Retail Think Tank will aim to become the authoritative, credible and most trusted window on what is really happening in retail and the areas where retail must adopt, adapt and survive. The retail Think Tank will aim to become the first port of call for journalist and commentators interested in retail, for retail analysts, for students of retail and for those involved in investment in retail.

Format

The Format for each Retail Think Tank meeting is in three-parts:

• The first part is to determine a specified diagnostic measurement of the state of the sector by reviewing a series of inputs, broadly to capture the 'health' of the retail sector and be able to comment on its performance in the previous quarter and looking forward to the next quarter;
• The second part is discussion of a significant topic in retail at the time;
• The third part comprises a discussion of a likely upcoming issue or trend that may impact the sector over the coming months.

The definition of retail as considered by the RTT is:
"The retail of products through any channel but excluding services and large consumer goods."