LIVE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM TRAINING
NEW CLASSES/MODULES
Branding - Driving Sales through Differentiation
NEW!
Learn to identify areas where you can effectively differentiate and position your brand to win, use competitor depositing to help shoppers choose your store over the competition and reposition your brand for success when the marketplace and shopper needs change.
Family Business
NEW!
Learn more about Prospering from the Founding Generation to the NextGen, Continuing to prosper in the Cousin Generation and beyond and Family compensation best practices.
Supermarket Finance
NEW!
Learn more about basic financial statements and key benchmarking data points for independent retailers.
PAST CLASSES/MODULES
Loss Prevention
ENDED
Discover how to look at your operations through the lens of loss prevention to identify and correct weak points in your security chain. The instructor will make it practical and will give you the necessary tools to improve your operational practices.
Sustainability
ENDED
Paying attention to one or two areas such as waste management and energy efficiency, a store can significantly impact the bottom line by reducing expenses and eliminating wasteful use of resources.
Leadership
ENDED
Develop your own unique leadership style, learn to positively engage people and teams, respond to challenges with greater sophistication and confidence, making better decisions, resolving conflicts, improving employee performance, and promoting change.
HR's Best Practices
FACULTY
Bill Alford
Loss Prevention – Module 1
International Lighthouse Group, Inc.
William (Bill) Alford, LPC, President
William (Bill) Alford, LPC, is president of International Lighthouse Group, a retail loss prevention consulting firm specializing in helping retailers increase profits by focusing on the reduction of losses through improved operational practices.
Bill has spent his entire career in the retail supermarket industry having directed loss prevention programs for Harris Teeter Supermarkets, BI-LO Supermarkets and Kash n’ Karry Food Centers. He is a Certified Retail LP professional and a lifetime member of the Loss Prevention Foundation.
His real world approach to the reduction of losses provides immediate returns and increased value to his clients.
Bill writes articles for various trade publications and is a featured speaker at retail trade conferences including presentations in Mexico and China.
Peter Cooke
Sustainability – Module 2
Ecology Action
Peter Cooke, Director of Partnerships and Collaborations Ratio Institute
Peter has developed sustainability programs for dozens of business sectors including starting one of the nation’s first green hotel programs and the nation’s first grocery sustainability program, the Grocery Stewardship Certification (GSC) with more than 1,000 grocery stores from 15 chains participating across the country. Peter has facilitated the process of establishing sustainability strategies for companies such as L.L. Bean, Bowdoin College, Sunday River, and Easter Funding. Peter is ISO 14001 Lead Auditor certified, Commercial Energy Auditor trained, Building Operator Certified, and Hazardous Waste Operations certified.
Paulo Goelzer, Ph.D
Leadership – Module 3
IGA Coca-Cola Institute | Retail Learning Institute
Paulo Goelzer, Ph.D, President
Paulo Goelzer joined IGA in 1994 and focused his attention on international growth, licensee development, and global learning. Today, he is the President of the IGA Coca-Cola Institute, a corporate university that provides the international retail industry with learning & development programs.
The Institute serves more than 8,000 retail businesses, providing learning strategies, online courses, coaching and leadership development. As a consultant he worked with executives and business owners to foster and refine effective organizational culture, design and implement learning programs, corporate universities, and leadership development. He manages the ongoing production of strategic course curricula, including determining budgets, selecting vendors and securing subject matter experts, and acts as the leadership development facilitator and coach for multiple companies and executives.
Paulo began his career in the food industry very early, working in his family’s food business. He was also a Senior Strategy and Consumer Package Goods Industry Consultant for a German/Brazilian consulting company, a researcher and consultant for the Brazilian Wholesaler Association (ABAD) and a marketing director for a CPG company.
He is a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Business at UNISINOS in Brazil an hold a Ph.D., in Organization Development , M.S., Business, and M.A., Economics. He served as Distinguished Visiting Scholar for the PhD program in Organization Development at Benedictine University, and adjunct professor at UNISC -Brasil. Contributed numerous articles on management, organizational culture, learning & development, and leadership. He co-authored the textbook Distribuição de Classe Mundial (IMAM) and a chapter in Advances in Global Leadership (Elsevier Science).
Scott Grove
HR’s Best Practices – Module 4
Bozzuto’s, Inc.
Scott Grove, Vice President
Scott Grove is currently the Vice President of Human Resources at Bozzuto’s, a leading total service wholesale distributor of food and household products to retailer mostly in the North East and Mid-Atlantic. Prior to joining Bozzuto’s Scott held various HR leadership roles including Director of Talent Management for CustomInk based in Fairfax, Virginia, where he was integral in CustomInk being named to Fortune’s top 100 companies to work for, at number 58. Scott also served in leadership roles leading Talent Development Globally for Gensler, the world’s largest architecture firm, and as the Director Human Resources for Jacobs Engineering Group, one of the world’s largest Design, Engineering and Construction firms with over 52,000 employees.
Scott uses his 25+ years of HR experience to drive high impact people strategies in the organization and is seen as a problem solver, visionary and business catalyst in areas such as talent development and organizational effectiveness. Scott’s background in HR includes not only managing diverse teams, but engaging in team building and change management at organizations like Becton Dickinson, Cadbury Schweppes and AlliedBarton Security Services. Scott received his Bachelor’s Degree in Education from the University of Connecticut and currently holds his SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications.
John Ross
Branding – Module 5
IGA, Inc.
John Ross, President/CEO
Mr. John Ross has been the Chief Executive Officer and President at IGA, Inc. since October 2017. Mr. Ross is responsible for IGA’s domestic and global operations. He served as the Chief Marketing Officer, Executive Vice President of Inmar, Inc. and also served as the President of Inmar Analytics. He served as President of Inmar Promotion Network.
Mr. Ross served as President of IPG Emerging Media Lab at The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. He also founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of IPG’s Shopper Sciences, where he led the media brands retail practice, working with retailers and brands across the world on branding, shopper marketing, media strategy and innovation. He has spent a majority of his career in retail, serving in store operations and merchandising, e-commerce and marketing. His early career was in retail in-store operations, merchandising, e-commerce and marketing.
Before joining IPG, he spent 11 years with Home Depot in various marketing roles, including e-commerce, branding, global marketing and advertising. He worked to launch Home Depot into international markets; developed marketing plans to launch the chain into new categories like major appliances; supported the development of proprietary brands, many of which, like Hampton Bay and Ryobi, have become industry leading brands; and during his tenure, saw the chain more than double in size. He has dedicated his career to listening to shoppers, understanding their evolving needs and delivering differentiated experiences that inspire loyalty both in-store and online. He has extensive shopper analytics expertise and executive management experience. He has championed the rise of the technology-empowered shopper and advanced the role data analytics play in marketing and retail.
With more than 30 years of retail, data science and marketing experience, he has been a contributor to the company’s initiatives to use technology and data to improve the delivery of information, goods and services that make a difference in the lives of shoppers and those who serve them across the globe. Foremost in his accomplishments was pioneering new customer scoring and analytics tools to parse shopper data and manage loyalty for retail clients in categories ranging from specialty pharmacy and health to traditional grocery, convenience, discount and mass merchandising. He serves as a Member of Strategic Advisory Board at Inmar, Inc. Mr. Ross is the Author of the book “Fire in the Zoo”, covering retail marketing science, shopper marketing and the value of data-driven listening. He co-authored the Google shopper marketing book, “The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT),” and founded both IPG’s Shopper Sciences and the “Neural Shopping Matrix” path-to-purchase research methodology. Mr. Ross holds an MBA from Tulane University.
Rob Sligh
Family Business – Module 6
The Family Business Consulting Group
Rob Sligh, Consultant
Rob is a consultant for The Family Business Consulting Group, helping enterprising families with business ownership and leadership succession, creating and improving family business fiduciary and advisory boards, planning and facilitating family and family council meetings, and guiding strategic planning processes.
Prior to joining FBCG, Rob spent 33 years in multi-generational family business leadership. Initially in brand management at SC Johnson for several years, he went on to become Chairman & CEO and of Sligh Furniture and Clocks, a 4th generation manufacturing and marketing company with a majority-outside board of directors.
Rob has served on twenty family business fiduciary or advisory boards and non-profit boards. On many of those, he served as Chairman of the Board and / or Chairman of the Compensation, Finance or Nominating Committee.
Rob is adept and graceful in helping families and leaders through feedback, development and compensation processes, with sensitivity to fairness for all constituencies. He is experienced in planning and facilitating family and business leader meetings that built trust and create the space for productive sharing and solution finding.
Rob is active in the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Private Directors Association and Young Presidents Organization.
Specialties
- Business and Family Governance
- Peer Groups
- Strategy and Feedback
- Compensation
- Leadership Development and Succession
- Ownership Succession
Education
- MBA degree, Boston College
- BSBA degree, University of Denver
Rob can be reached at sligh@thefbcg.com or by phone at 616-834-3299. www.thefbcg.com
Robert Graybill
Supermarket Finance – Module 7
FMS
Robert Graybill, President
Robert Graybill, CPA, joined FMS in 2000, with over 18 years of experience in the retail grocery industry. FMS provides Benchmarking, decision support, and best practices to over 1800 stores across the United States and the Caribbean. Currently, Mr. Graybill works with retailers around the country helping them to interpret their financial results and transform them into operational plans for improvement.
Mr. Graybill spent 9 years working with A&P serving in various positions including, Director of Pricing, Group Accounting Manager, Inventory Control Manager and store operations. Prior to joining A&P Mr. Graybill worked for a local independent grocer in the Baltimore market. He has authored FMI’s Annual Financial Review for the past four years and served as a speaker at the NGA Financial Symposiums. He has also served as a speaker at NGA’s annual conferences, FMI’s International Food Show, and various state associations food shows. Mr. Graybill holds a bachelors degree from the University of Baltimore and holds an MBA from the Executive Program at Loyola College of Maryland.
TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL, NOW VIRTUALLY!
Join the 2021 International Supermarket Management Class, attend virtual instructor-led classes safely and still share the experience with your classmates.
Do you want to foster a culture that delivers efficiency, great service, and innovation? Then, this program is for you! Here is your opportunity, attend the virtual ISMC.
Join industry experts for this unique virtual class. This is the premier learning event for supermarket owners, managers, and supervisors. In this new format choose your class modules, attend weekly sessions from the comfort of your preferred location: at home, the office, or even from your backyard.