June 8, 2022
In this episode, The Parker Avery Group continues our focus on core retail functions and we cover merchandise financial planning (MFP). Senior Director of Marketing, Tricia Gustin is joined by Senior Managers LouAnn Villasor and Russ Smith, both of whom have deep experience in merchandise financial planning business processes and system implementation across a wide variety of retailers. In this discussion, we focus on MFP challenges, innovations, and key capabilities.
To learn more about Parker Avery's retail experience, clients, and services, please visit https://parkeravery.com
Featured on the Best 60 Retail Podcasts
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay.
May 11, 2022
This week, Parker Avery’s Chief Analytics Officer and Managing Partner, Sam Iosevich, and Senior Director of Marketing, Tricia Gustin, welcome Steve Gordon into the firm. Steve is an apparel, grocery, and CPG industry veteran with over three decades of experience as a retail industry insider, business development professional, and consultant. He joins The Parker Avery Group as the firm's Chief Customer Officer. Learn about Steve and Sam's long career history together and the key tenets they share about company culture, clients, and teams.
Featured on the Best 60 Retail Podcasts
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay.
May 5, 2022
In this episode, guest Michelle Bogan joins our discussion. Michelle's firm, Equity at Work, provides consulting to companies focused on developing DEI strategies to align business objectives, employee experiences, and company values. Equity at Work also supports company leaders in driving the appropriate changes. This episode also features Kathi Toll and Carrie Habel, who both lead Parker Avery’s Organizational Change Management Academy and OCM projects for the firm's clients, as well as Tricia Gustin, the firm's marketing leader. The discussion focuses on:
- Michelle's extensive retail background
- How and why she started her firm Equity at Work
- The parallels between omnichannel retail and DEI efforts
- How organizational change management can support DEI efforts
Michelle also provides her advice for companies embarking on or struggling with navigating diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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![Core Merchandising Deep Dive]()
April 20, 2022
In this episode of Talk Retail to Me, we kick off a series that will focus on specific business areas across retail and CPG. Over the next few months, we’re going to take a deep dive into all areas of merchandising, planning, supply chain, forecasting, omnichannel, and more.
For each of these business areas, Parker Avery's team of experts gets into basics and details, covering questions like:
- What does this area encompass?
- What key capabilities are the most important?
- What retailers or consumer brand companies excel at it?
- What common mistakes or challenges do you see?
- What innovations can improve a company’s capabilities in this area?
This week we focus on core merchandising, featuring:
To learn more about Parker Avery's retail and CPG experience and our array of consulting services, we invite you to visit: https://parkeravery.com/.
Featured on the Best 60 Retail Podcasts
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay.
![Changing the Paradigm of Retail Inventory Management]()
March 16, 2022
This episode of Talk Retail to Me features Les McNeill, the Chief Technology Officer and founder of Impulselogic, Inc., along with Parker Avery store operations experts, Senior Director Rob Oglesby, and Tricia Gustin, Senior Director of Marketing. The trio of experts talks about the causes of in-store inventory management issues as well how changes to the overall store inventory paradigm and business processes, along with strategic use of new technologies, can help drive better results not just in stores, but throughout the supply chain and even upstream into merchandising and assortment planning decisions.
To support this paradigm change, Impulselogic provides advanced predictive analytics powered by artificial intelligence to create the optimal product flow through the store. The system, along with business process alignment and execution consistency, helps to ensure product availability for both in-store and online customers, reduce waste, improve labor efficiency, and increase profits.
To learn more about Parker Avery's array of retail consulting services and expertise, we invite you to visit: https://parkeravery.com/services/.
To learn more about Impulselogic, Inc., please visit: https://www.impulselogic.com/
Featured on the Best 60 Retail Podcasts
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
![Introducing Dave Seeley and the Principle of Simple Retail Execution]()
February 23, 2022
This week, Tricia Gustin is joined by Parker Avery's President and Managing Partner, Clay Parnell, along with Dave Seeley, who recently joined The Parker Avery Group as a Senior Manager. Dave brings a tremendous amount of retail industry experience, across operations, merchandising, and IT. In this episode, we discuss Dave's extensive retail industry background, his continued interest in integrating AI and advanced analytics with the business of retail, and why his principle of keeping retail execution simple is paramount for success in any initiative. The trio of experts also provides an insider's view of The Parker Avery Group's culture, how it strengthened during the pandemic, and why the firm is busier now more than ever.
To learn more about Parker Avery's array of retail consulting services and expertise, we invite you to visit: https://parkeravery.com/services/.
Featured on the Best 60 Retail Podcasts
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
![Giving Back and Moving Forward: The JEDI Challenge]()
February 16, 2022
This week, we took a departure from our usual industry focus and talked about an initiative that’s near and dear to The Parker Avery Group's culture—our partnership with RetailROI and the JEDI Challenge. We began this relationship early in 2021 with a sponsorship of RetailROI’s SuperFriday event, which led to another sponsorship of their March Gladness event. Those two events began a series of conversations among Parker Avery’s team about what more could we could do to help, beyond sponsorships, ultimately leading us to create an entrepreneur program for young Jamaicans.
In this episode, we discuss the JEDI Challenge with Greg Buzek, President and Secretary of RetailROI, along with key principals from the Fergus Simpson Foundation, Janeth Brown, Carol and Lawrence Madden. We dive into what our young entrepreneurs have been up to since the JEDI Challenge ended late last year, as well as our plans going forward.
For more information about RetailROI: https://www.retailroi.org/
To participate in March Gladness: https://www.retailroi.org/march
For more information about the Fergus Simpson Foundation: https://fergussimpsonfoundation.org/
To learn more about the JEDI Challenge: https://parkeravery.com/industry-experience/the-parker-avery-group-develops-entrepreneur-program-in-jamaica/
To get involved in JEDI 2.0 (slated for summer 2022): contact tricia.gustin@parkeravery.comgivin
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
December 10, 2021
Just in time for the holiday shopping frenzy, retail experts Kathi Toll, Heidi Csencsits, Carrie Habel, and Tricia Gustin discuss the recent launch of Homegoods' e-commerce platform, and the implications of this strategy on store operations, roles and responsibilities, merchandising, customer perception, inventory management, and more. Enjoy this entertaining and casual conversation that not only veers off into other retail segments, but also highlights the deep industry expertise and the consumer perspectives of these professionals.
To learn more about Parker Avery's retail and consumer goods consulting services and expertise, we invite you to visit: https://parkeravery.com/services/
Introduction music: On My Way by Kevin MacLeod | Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4163-on-my-way | License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | Cover image by Jorge Guillen from Pixabay
