business
Hosted by Ken Pilot · business · EN · 114 episodes
The Retail Pilot is a series of interviews conducted by Ken Pilot with “Leaders and Legends” of the Retail industry. Ken will focus the conversation on his guests’ career journeys and their greatest career accomplishments and disappointments; gather insight into their leadership styles; learn who inspired them as they progressed through their careers; identify brands they admire; discover challenges they have faced; and talk about where they think Retail is headed and how they are leveraging technology to get there.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
34%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchThe Retail Pilot is a series of interviews conducted by Ken Pilot with “Leaders and Legends” of the Retail industry.
The Retail Pilot is hosted by Ken Pilot. The show has published 114 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Jan Rogers Kniffen on the Q4 2026 Retail Forecast, Agentic AI & Who Wins This Holiday Season" (20 October 2026, 58 minutes), "Nitin Mangtani, EVP & GM of Salesforce Commerce Cloud: Inside the Future of Unified Commerce" (15 September 2026, 62 minutes), and "Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData: Inside Retail's Winners, Losers & the Back Half of 2026" (4 August 2026, 64 minutes).
The Retail Pilot publishes roughly every two weeks, with episodes averaging 53 minutes across 114 episodes.
Booking probability for The Retail Pilot is 34%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. The Retail Pilot requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. The Retail Pilot's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for The Retail Pilot are Pet, Art & Other Specialty Retail. The Retail Pilot has a business audience and around 160 subscribers on YouTube.
Ken Pilot hosts The Retail Pilot, a business show with 114 episodes published.
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The Retail Pilot
Jan Rogers Kniffen has been calling the retail recession for four years. It still hasn’t happened. “This is the recession that’s been six months off for the last four years,” he tells Ken. “It’s been the longest coming...
The Retail Pilot
Nitin Mangtani has pivoted a company more than once. He built PredictSpring in a garage in 2013 as a white label mobile app platform, watched it work with brands like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, then made the hardest...
The Retail Pilot
There's a common assumption in retail right now that the top of the market is the only thing growing. Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData Retail and one of the industry's most-followed analysts, doesn't buy...
The Retail Pilot
When Joe Kudla launched Vuori out of a Southern California garage in 2013, he was betting against his own track record. He'd already tried the apparel business twice and failed both times. He had a comfortable life, a...
The Retail Pilot
When James Reinhart walked into a Cambridge consignment store with a bag of business school clothes in 2008 – a J.Crew cashmere sweater, a Brooks Brothers coat – and was told they had no resale value, he didn't accept...
The Retail Pilot
Walmart just named Denise Incandela a Sam Walton Entrepreneur of the Year — one of the highest honors inside the company, and one rarely given to merchants. It's a fitting recognition for the EVP of Fashion leading one...
The Retail Pilot
When Tanya Golesic took the helm of Mackage in July 2021, she inherited a Canadian brand with extraordinary product and almost no story. "The minute you put the product on, you wouldn't want to take the product off,"...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode of The Retail Pilot, Ken sits down with Pete Nordstrom – Co-CEO of the 125-year-old fashion retailer – to unpack the eight-year journey to go private, the strategic partnership with Liverpool that made...
The Retail Pilot
Retail icon Mickey Drexler doesn't do retirement. At 80, the man who built Gap into a $14 billion empire, founded Old Navy, and revitalized J.Crew is running Alex Mill like a scrappy startup, and loving it. "I love what...
The Retail Pilot
Most performance apparel brands tell you they're building a lifestyle. Nate Checketts actually means it. As CEO and co-founder of Rhone, he's built a company where mental fitness isn't marketing—it's the foundation. "We...
The Retail Pilot
Retail earnings season just wrapped, and the headlines are telling one story while the data tells another. Consumer sentiment is dismal. Tariffs are squeezing margins. Geopolitical uncertainty looms. Yet average retail...
The Retail Pilot
The department store industry just witnessed one of its most dramatic collapses. When Saks Global filed for bankruptcy in early 2026, it marked the end of an ambitious—but fatally flawed—attempt to merge two luxury...
The Retail Pilot
What does it take to lead eight iconic fashion brands generating over $6 billion in revenue? Lizanne Kindler's journey began at age 11 in a Washington D.C. department store, where her aunt—then president of the...
The Retail Pilot
Amy Errett didn’t just enter the hair‑color category — she rewired it. In a space dominated by legacy brands, fragmented salons, and decades of “the way it’s always been done,” she built Madison Reed into a high‑growth...
The Retail Pilot
NRF President and CEO Matt Shay joins The Retail Pilot to break down what is really happening inside retail as the holiday season reaches its peak. From consumer resilience and record setting holiday sales forecasts to...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode of The Retail Pilot , we sit down with Gene Pressman, a third-generation leader behind the iconic Barneys New York, to unpack how a single store became a cultural force. From redefining American fashion...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode, Ken Pilot speaks with Lew Frankfort, CEO of Coach, who helped guide the company from a $6 million leather goods business to a global brand generating more than $5 billion in annual sales. Over 35 years...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode of The Retail Pilot , I sit down with David Lafitte, CEO of Tecovas, the Austin-based Western footwear and apparel brand reshaping what it means to build a premium lifestyle business. From radical...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode of The Retail Pilot , Ken Pilot sits down with visionary entrepreneur Gregg Renfrew , founder of BeautyCounter and now Counter , to explore what it truly means to disrupt an industry—twice. After...
The Retail Pilot
In this episode of The Retail Pilot Podcast , host Ken Pilot welcomes David Lauren, Chief Branding and Innovation Officer at Ralph Lauren. Together, they dive deep into the brand’s 25-year evolution under David’s...
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