Career & Life Advice from Tom Cruise, Don Corleone, & Rocky Balboa
Couple of weeks ago had the pleasure of being the Master of Ceremonies (MC) at our multi-day fiscal year kickoff meeting. Over 140 people from around the world joined us in Florida for the "Mission Possible" themed New Year event.
The orchestration of this event was a great reminder of the quintessential leadership success formula. It is never about you. My mission possible life and career has been inspired by these three success elements.
RFID - From Espionage to IoT Immersive Customer Experiences
Couple of weeks ago had the pleasure of co-hosting a Retailer Performance Council for Tyco Retail Solutions in New York. This post was inspired by now customary welcome toast for our distinguished retail guests and a presentation by Dr. Sanjay Sarma from MIT titled 'The Inversion Factor - How to Thrive in the IoT Economy'.
Consumer Trends Collide with Increased Theft Opportunities
In December 2016, Amazon Go was introduced to the world. The premise of the new 'Just Walk-Out technology' store was to empower consumers to walk-in, pick up any products, and track it all through a virtual shopping cart. "When you're done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we'll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt."
Zones of Influence and Innovation Chains are the Future of Retail
Have been an advocate for some time of the work being done by Read Hayes and the Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) at the University of Florida. The group's primary mission is on scientific approaches to improve LP strategies and interventions in fighting retail crime.
Forty five major retailers, sixty solutions providers, and five manufacturers are currently LPRC members. All these companies have partnered in conducting over 120 real-world loss prevention research projects.
“It’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you finish that makes all the difference.” – Tony D’Onofrio
Maybe I have been luckier than most. Every day I am inspired by the potential possibilities to change the world. Every night, reminders swirl through my mind on how much I love my life.
In a recent internal company video I was asked how I keep my passions alive, what gets me up every day and keeps me going.
Meet the 2017 World Most Admired Technology and Retail Companies
Concurrently with BrandZ issuing their 2017 top 100 global brands report which was analyzed in the last post, Fortune Magazine published their latest list of the world most admired companies.
In a digital highly connected world, branding and differentiated customer experiences will define leadership. What is the correlation between brand value and being most admired? Which companies have already achieved the threshold in being on both lists? What differentiates these companies? Which industry trends are driving increased brand value and being most admired? Are western brands the future of these two lists?
The Top 10 Most Admired vs The Top 10 Global Brands
Lead, by Living Your Personal and Professional Branding Dream
As reflected on my personal website, my endless curiosity journey has focused on three topics: retail, technology, and leadership. The subplot spotlight to all three categories has been a passion for branding.
Every year, I look forward to the latest BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands Report. In a turbulent 2017 year, "brands have continued to deliver. The Top 100 brands increased in value by 8 percent year-on-year to now be worth $3.64 trillion."
A few weeks ago had the pleasure of sharing a great evening with 100+ retail attendees at the world famous Walnut Room in Chicago. Opening in 1907 and currently located in a Macy's, the Walnut Room was the first ever restaurant in a department store. The elegant interior is surrounded with Circassian wood paneling imported from Russia and features Austrian chandeliers.
The celebration was part of our two day ShopperTrak Retail User Summit. My role for this particular evening was to deliver the official welcoming toast to our special guests. Taking my endless curiosity to the next level, decided that this particular moment required a special "Chicago Way" salutation. Verbatim following are the words shared with the audience.
Recently I had the opportunity to participate in the World Department Stores Forum 2017 in Toronto, Canada. Forty five retail CEOs joined 300 attendees in an industry event titled "Digital and Brick-n-Mortar: One Magic Experience".
The host for the 5th Annual Edition was the Canadian luxury department store chain Holt Renfrew. The Forum is co-organized by the Intercontinental Group of Department Stores (IGDS), the largest association for department stores worldwide. IGDS has 41 members from 38 countries on all continents generating $89 billion in total sales in 2016.
The stage for the 24 hour retail discussion was set by Craig Wright, SVP & Chief Economic of the Royal Bank of Canada when he said that the "Last time interest rates stayed low for so long was in 3000 BC." We are living in extra-ordinary age of disruption.
This post summarizes my favorite insights from this year's IGDS event.
Linking Cannes 2017, Retail, and Flourishing Disruptive Technologies
"What a tough industry (retail), the consumer has changed more in terms of their demand preferences in the past three years than they have in the past thirty years." - Home Depot CFO Carol Tome
For the past two weeks, my youngest son was in France attending the latest edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
As part of an extended university project, he participated in a week long "producer's workshop." By the end of the week, he was instructed to throw away all his notes for the era of major studios driving the movie industry is over.
On the journey to learn something new, we travel to Montreux Switzerland. After the creation of a Jazz Festival by Claude Nobs in 1967, the founding of the world-class Mountain Studios inside the local casino in 1975, and favorable tax benefits, this quiet Swiss Lake Geneva (or Lac Léman) town became a destination to create music by legends such as Queen.
The earliest settlement in Montreux dates back to the late Bronze Age. The name Montreux comes from the Latin word monasteriolum, meaning "small monastery". Over hundreds of years, the local language changed this Latin word into Mustruel by 1215, and later into the modern name Montreux.
Deep Purple got the inspiration to the song “Smoke on the water” here. The rock group Queen with lead singer Freddy Mercury recorded 6 albums here. The studio was inside the casino that burned down in 1971 that inspired the Deep Purple memorable song.
For Freddy Mercury, Montreux became his second home; a place where he could escape the spotlight and focus on what he loved most: making music. Today, his legacy lives on through the iconic Freddie Mercury statue overlooking Lake Geneva in this picture.
Being a fan of classic rock, I truly enjoyed my visit to Montreux and blasted “Smoke on the Water” in my ear pods on arrival. This particular pose with Freddy was a personal reminder that life is short and never forget to let your guard down and have fun.
Psychologist Mike Rucker once wrote that "Happiness is a state of mind, but fun is something you can do. It doesn't require education, money or power. All it requires is intentionality. If happiness is a mirage, fun is your backyard oasis."
My oasis is celebrating life, always having a positive attitude, listen to all types of motivating music, and living each single moment as it was my last. At the top of my voice, I will continue to scream that we are all champions of possibilities that must keep on fighting towards our destined end. Rock on my friends.
Confidence in physical retail remains solid this year. More than 55% of survey respondents said they feel confident or very confident about brick-and-mortar performance in 2026, while only around 20% expressed concern. - From Place AI Read more
The Number 1 country continued lead reinforces a broader trend: countries with strong institutions, high trust, and robust social safety nets consistently rank highest in life satisfaction. - From Visual Capitalist
