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Tell us the situation, the scope, and the timing. Include the format, the number of locations, and what has already been tried. Response within two business days.
Common questions
What does a retail turnaround engagement involve?
It runs in five stages: diagnosis on the floor, rebuilding reporting around the real operating drivers, redesigning the weekly operating cadence, automating repeatable work, and handing the operation back to the internal team. Diagnosis comes first and is never skipped.
How is Cornerstone different from a management consulting firm?
Cornerstone is an operating practice, not a consultancy. Engagements are led by an operator who has run stores, districts, and regions across four retail formats. We do not place executive candidates.
Do you only take on turnarounds?
No. Engagements start in one of three situations: an operation that is already healthy and ready for a step change, a team that wants automation to get its week back, or a business ready to reset and climb. The performance and growth work is often the highest return, because every dollar goes into gain rather than repair.
Do you work with single-location or smaller businesses?
Yes. Advisory engagements focus on multi-location operations, most often in retail and consumer-facing formats, but Cornerstone Systems and the automation work serve businesses of any size, from a single location up.
What does AI in operations actually mean here?
Automating the work a leader repeats every week (performance communication, financial review, investigation documentation), while keeping judgment and any decision affecting a person's job with a human. Measure first, workflow second, software last. The starting point is the operating problem, not the technology.
What systems does Cornerstone work in?
Kronos, Power BI, Workday, SAP, Salesforce, and hard Excel modeling, plus the reporting, mobile, and automation layers built on top of them. The starting position is always the stack a business already owns, because switching on capability already paid for is usually faster than buying something new.
Which retail formats does Cornerstone cover?
Four: big box grocery, grocery, convenience, and automotive aftermarket. Leadership tenure in all four, including a 670-store convenience region and enterprise field operations across a national grocery brand.
Where is Cornerstone based and who does it serve?
Tampa, Florida, serving multi-location businesses, private equity sponsors, family offices, and boards across the United States.