10 Things You Didn’t Know about Albertsons CEO Robert Miller

Robert Miller isn’t the most famous businessperson out there. However, he is nonetheless an influential figure in the business world, seeing as how he is responsible for running Albertsons, which can claim to be one of the biggest chains in the United States. As a result, interested individuals might want to read up on him to learn more about his achievements as well as how he accomplishes the tasks entrusted to him. Here are 10 things that you may or may not have known about Robert Miller:

1. Born in Louisville, Mississippi

Miller was born in a place called Louisville, which can be found in the state of Mississippi. Said city happens to be the county seat of Winston County, with which it shares a namesake. This is because both the city and the county are named after a man named Louis Winston, who was an officer in the militia who went on to become a judge on the state’s Supreme Court.

2. Got Polio

It is interesting to note that Miller is old enough that he grew up in a time when the polio vaccine wasn’t in widespread use because it wasn’t invented until the 1950s. Due to this, he was one of the numerous children in those times who contracted polio. This put him in the hospital for a full year’s time, which was in addition to a handicap to his right leg.

3. Played Sports in High School

Nonetheless, Miller continued to play sports in spite of his handicap. As a result, he winded up becoming the captain of his high school football team, which was followed by a short stint on his college football team as well. However, that stint caused him to realize that he wasn’t big enough and fast enough to make it further in football.

4. He Chose His First Job Because of Sports

Miller started working at a young age. In fact, it is interesting to note that he chose his first job because of the flexibility of its schedule, which was important because he wanted to be able to find time for football practice in spite of those commitments.

5. He Sorted Bottles

For those who are curious, Miller’s first job involved sorting bottles, which involved making sure that returned bottles would be put in the right crates for the right soda pop manufacturers. This sounds simple enough, but the reality of things was rather unpleasant. For example, Miller has mentioned using the same shirt for the job again and again over the course of six months because whenever he brought a clean shirt, it would be ruined by the end of the day.

6. Didn’t Plan Out His Promotions

There are some people who start planning out their futures from the start. However, Miller wasn’t one of them. Supposedly, he says that he was so focused on doing his job that he never expected the promotions that he continued to get in those early days.

7. Oversaw the Reunion of Albertsons

In 2006, Albertsons was separated into three components because of financial issues. Miller was chosen to run one of the three components, which was owned by Cerberus Capital Management. As a result, he was able to preside over the 2013 reunion with a component that had been sold to Supervalu, which is in addition to the acquisition of Safeway.

8. Believes in Taking Care of Employees

Miller believes in treating his employees well. His reasoning for this is simple and straightforward. In short, if he treats his employees well, they will treat their customers well, who in turn, will treat Albertsons well.

9. Believes in a Decentralized Model

On a related note, Miller believes in a decentralized model in which people are entrusted with more responsibilities over their particular part of the grocery chain. This is important because local people tend to have a better idea of what local customers want, meaning that too much centralization can be detrimental.

10. Believes that Albertsons Got Sidetracked

Ultimately, Miller believes that Albertsons ran into serious problems in the mid 2000s because its leadership got distracted from the fundamentals of their business success in preference for focusing on secondary concerns. As a result, what had once been a financially strong company turned into something of a mess that took a lot of effort to put back into working order.

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