When most leaders talk about “customer focus,” they’re describing a strategy. When Chemist Warehouse Chairman Jack Gance discusses it, he’s revealing a foundational philosophy that transformed Australian retail forever.
“If a deal isn’t fair for both parties, it’s not a deal worth doing,” Jack shared during our recent conversation on The Wisdom Of… Show. This deceptively simple principle has guided him through five decades of building one of Australia’s most recognized retail empires—a company now valued at $32 billion following its recent merger with Sigma Healthcare.
What makes Jack’s approach so distinctive isn’t just what Chemist Warehouse does differently—it’s the entirely different lens through which they view business itself.
The Anti-Disruption Philosophy That Disrupted an Industry
While most innovators proudly wear the “disruptor” label, Jack pushed back on this characterization early in our conversation.
“We didn’t set out to be disruptors,” he explained. “What we set out to do was provide our customers with the best possible products, lowest price, biggest range. If our competitors decided not to match or follow what we’re doing…I can’t help it.”
This focus on customer value rather than competitive positioning reveals a profound truth: The most revolutionary companies often don’t aim to revolutionize anything—they simply pursue customer value with such intensity that market transformation becomes the inevitable byproduct.
The evidence? When Chemist Warehouse enters a new market, they don’t simply steal competitors’ business—they dramatically expand the entire market.
“When we look at an area where we entered, there might be six pharmacies each doing about $1.1 million turnover—that’s $6.6 million total. We would enter that area and we would enter at six or eight or nine or ten million turnover pretty well from get-go,” Jack shared.
This expansion doesn’t come from stealing competitors’ customers, but from creating entirely new purchasing behaviors: “We would only get about $600,000 from them. The rest of it we got from supermarkets, from specialty stores. But more importantly, what we did was we were able to increase the market by people buying more.”
The Founder Culture That Defied Dilution
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Chemist Warehouse’s success is how they’ve maintained their founding culture across 600+ stores and multiple generations of leadership.
When I asked Jack about this seemingly impossible feat of cultural preservation, he revealed their counterintuitive approach: “We have about 600 pharmacy trainees every year that go through our system… and about a quarter of these 600 become pharmacists in our system.”
Rather than importing external talent, Chemist Warehouse grows its own, ensuring cultural continuity through immersion. But the culture itself is equally distinctive:
“If you go to any one of our stores, I think you’ll find it’s the same culture everywhere. There’s enthusiasm…nobody has airs and graces. Nothing’s below anybody to do. Everybody is able to sweep the floor or put stuff on the shelves or clean up a broken bottle. There’s no airs and graces. It’s a can-do environment.”
This democratization of responsibility creates an authenticity that resonates with customers—who can instantly feel the difference between genuine engagement and corporate mandate.
The Leadership Test That Actually Works
In a world of complex leadership frameworks and endless executive development programs, Jack offered a brilliantly simple test for customer-centric leadership:
“Imagine you are the customer and you’ve just had this interaction with yourself. Is this a good interaction? Is this what you would’ve expected? Just think of it from how you would’ve felt if you were on the other side of what you are giving.”
This perspective shift—from provider to recipient—contains more wisdom than most customer experience strategies. It forces leaders to feel the impact of their decisions rather than just intellectualizing them.
The Paradox of Decision-Making
Perhaps most fascinating was Jack’s insight into why unanimous founder decisions have been crucial to their success—even when it potentially slows them down:
“We’ve never had to vote on anything. It’s basically, I might have an idea, I’ll talk to Sam or Mario, or both. If they’re in agreement, it’ll be put in place. If they don’t agree and they can’t convince me, or I can’t convince them, we just won’t go ahead.”
When I asked if this unanimous decision requirement ever cost them opportunities, Jack’s answer was perfect: “Probably had lost opportunity to lose money.”
This highlights a counterintuitive truth: Sometimes the most valuable decisions are the ones you don’t make. The collective wisdom of aligned founders acts as a natural filter against poor choices, while their unified commitment ensures successful execution of the ones they do make.
The Wisdom in Simplicity
What struck me throughout our conversation was how Jack continually returned to fundamentals. While others rush toward complex strategies and technologies, he remains anchored in timeless principles:
“The number one focus is on the customer. The number two focus is probably on the supplier…or the pharmacy or the staff. We are the last one. If everyone’s satisfied, we are the last people that should be satisfied.”
In a business environment obsessed with disruption and transformation, Jack Gance reminds us that the most sustainable success often comes from staying relentlessly focused on foundational principles—and executing them with extraordinary consistency over decades.
Building an empire isn’t about the dramatic moves that grab headlines. It’s about the daily commitment to serving customers, partners, and team members with authentic value. As Jack put it: “It’s gotta be a win-win for everybody. I really believe that it’s not a win-win. It’s a win-win-win-win-win all the way down.”
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