NRF Loss Prevention Convention & EXPO Blog

1) What will be different about this year’s show from last year?

Well, let’s start with this blog.

I’m excited about the way we are approaching topics and messaging to attendees.  We always have new content and speakers, but this will be one of our best! We are looking at key issues from multiple perspectives.

As an example, Workplace Violence/Active Shooters will be addressed in three sessions covering prevention, crisis response and business continuity. Organized retail crime, fraud and e-fencing have been separated into different sessions with new experts on each topic.

Many of the speakers are nationally recognized experts on their topic from both the public and private sectors.  A majority of the sessions will leave people with actionable information to use back home. Finally, some experiments are cooking in the lab with new formats in the NRF Fusion Center, NRF Investigator’s Network meetings, Secure Store and timing of the EXPO hours.

2) What’s required of LP professionals now that wasn’t really a priority five years ago?

Successful LP professionals all agree that the LP function is very different today in many respects.  We are addressing LP on so many different levels, I could write a book. (Hmmm, let me think about that for a while.)

Data intrusion incidents at several well-known retailers have created concerns across the public and private sectors about the security of consumer data. Programs such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and Sarbanes-Oxley have forced some LP departments to expand their scope of responsibilities, but many have proactively been staying on top of these emerging trends.

All of these discussions challenge the way we obtain backgrounds, control refund fraud information and manage our business operations. Five years ago a majority of retail LP departments traditionally did not engage in legislative affairs or press relations and more recently we have seen much work directly or through our committees to improve the industry.

Of course all of this is being done while we continue to build on our existing programs to address issues such as employee theft, merchandise protection, crisis management and fraud. The NRF Loss Prevention Legislative Committee met in mid-May to discuss how to educate retailers about the legislative process and law makers about the many issues loss prevention professionals face each day.

We have a fantastic team and we had a good time on Capitol Hill and meeting with Congress. Organized retail crime has always been a factor.  Activity and the enhanced understanding of the criminal enterprises out there have necessitated the need for almost every sector to address the problem in their own way.

They are stealing anything they can resell from pills to puppies. Data about the business is so readily available, LP departments across the country are developing new ways to mine the information and improve performance and shrinkage results. Next time you think you have all of the systems tapped, call my buddy Don Burkett at Sears Holdings and I bet he has a few new ideas for you.

3) What are you most looking forward to for this year’s show?

The people.  Seeing old friends and meeting the great professionals I work with throughout the year.  Our attendance numbers are ahead of last year so there will be plenty of new faces, contacts to be shared and friendships to be made.

The sessions will be fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing the EXPO Hall, but our industry (in my opinion) is filled with the very best.

4) Do you have any advice for newcomers on how to make the most of their experience at the conference?

• Bring a stack of business cards and hand them out. Please make sure I get one too!
• Attend sessions with an open mind and try a few new topics. If attending with colleagues from the same company, divide and conquer. Personally, I am a better listener without people whispering in my ear when someone else is talking.
• Invite your local co-workers.Since retailers can attend the EXPO Hall and Fusion Center at no charge, why not invite your local colleagues to meet you at the Convention Center?I took advantage of being in Orlando and invited my good friend Jesse Stanley from Walt Disney World to come visit. (I know what you’re thinking…I wish a WDW trip is in my cards that week too.)
• Thank the speakers, moderators, roundtable facilitators and Advisory Council members for their volunteer efforts.  NRF really appreciates their hard work each year! If you think you have a better idea or would like to participate next year, I am always looking to get people connected.
• Get involved. The conference is a great place to learn about the NRF LP efforts and find committees you might be interested in joining. Some are NRF Member only groups and others are role specific. A good example might be the NRF Investigator’s Network (NRF-IN). Open to any retail LP or law enforcement professional, we have grown this human intelligence network to over 1,200 professionals nationwide.
• P.S. This year we are experimenting with regional breakout sessions.  Since we have thousands of LP professionals in once place, it can be difficult to find your regional colleagues.During the NRF-IN sessions, you will meet retail colleagues and law enforcement professionals in your area.  (Of course if you want to build contacts in another region, I’m sure attendees will take advantage of the opportunity.)

5) What are the three biggest pet peeves of a LP professional?

Being a cynical person, this is a tough one.  Not necessarily in this order…

1. Discounting the opinions of the LP department because they are just the “security guy” (OR LADY).
2. Calling for assistance or advice long after the fact.
3. 3:00am alarm calls

Loss Prevention is a business partner and should be included on important company decisions.  Since many LP groups partner with large cross-functional teams and solve problems for a living, they can be a true asset in avoiding a poorly implemented operational change.

6) You worked in retail loss prevention for many years before coming to NRF. Tell us about the stupidest criminal you encountered.

I assume you mean besides the shoplifters that ran or fought after we had PD on the scene?  Think those are stories better told after a few beers IRL (In Real Life).

If you’re a returning attendee to the LP conference, what advice do you have for first-timers?  If this is your first show, what else do you want to know?

 

1) You have been in the crisis response business for many years. Since you began this career, what has changed? What has remained the same?

Business crises were traditionally “other people’s business.” When the NASA Challenger exploded, or dozens were killed at a Luby’s Cafeteria, it was a rare event that captured headlines but rarely led to fundamental business changes. Today every leader in LP or risk management has to wonder: “could it happen to us?”

It’s pretty daunting– threats on blogs, gang-related issues, competitive intelligence, natural disasters– the range of issues that an LP leader has to anticipate and manage makes the petty thief seem minuscule. The good news is that crisis management has become a science.

We now have decades of learning, of science, of forensics and sometimes, solutions.If you’ve missed the boat, this is the time to learn from the mistakes of others…as well as the smart decisions many have made when “it” hit the fan.

2) In your book, “Crisis Leadership Now,” you offer several concrete solutions on how people can manage disruptive events. Can you provide an overview of a few of those tips?

The first eight hours define a crisis– smart companies mobilize the team, separate fact from fiction, attend to victims and witnesses, notify insurers and distribute crisp, believable and human messages to associates, customers, distributors. If you think it may go away, or that PR or HR or the Law Department is managing it, you may be wrong.

Assume half of the “brainpower” at headquarters is on a plane or away– many people may be expecting LP to play a pivotal role even though they’ve never told you that. Get in there. Show your value. It may be an unprecedented opportunity to help your company recover and shine during a debacle.

3) Can you point to a crisis (in retail or any other industry) that was handled particularly well? Which crisis was it—and how was it handled?

Nike is one of my favorite clients, and a few years ago my phone rang when we were notified that a new jet carrying their new CEO couldn’t get its landing gear down. We knew the networks were about to cover this “emergency” because it was a powerful news story on a slow news day– several execs, plane can’t land, what happens to Nike’s leadership…is there a succession plan? What happens to the stock price? Who informs his family? I was never so proud.

The crisis plan that I wrote for Nike worked. People came together. We reached out to the news media with sensitivity. We notified the family. Stand-by statements, just in case, were readied. In the end, a disaster was avoided…but anticipating and moving into crisis mode even when a situation was potentially a crisis convinced skeptics– we need to be ahead of this.

4) What are you most looking forward to about NRF’s Loss Prevention conference?

Some people think that violence is overplayed and that maybe NRF is paying too much attention to it. I suspect the people at Lane Bryant would disagree. I’ve managed more than 1600 incidents in my career for great companies, and not once– not once– did any executive ever wake up and think that there would be a lethal killing in one of their stores, that day. It’s numbing. It’s disabling.

I’m pretty sick of ex-cops who run around the country trying to tell you how workplace violence is spiraling out of control, that you need metal detectors at every entrance, and that they were personally “Johnny on the spot” on 9/11. The reality is that workplace killings have been statistically flat in this country for years. Threats, however, and assaults, are skyrocketing.

Blogs are making it worse. Immature younger workers with no role models are making it worse. Bullying is out of control. HR is crimped by bad laws. Security and LP has to bow to the Law department to ask for permission at every turn. We need to get back to basics. I can’t wait to speak from my heart at the podium and tell it like it is.

Let’s get away from scare tactics and talk about the reality of what’s happening in retail today. No more Dragnet. My colleague from the FBI, Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole, is one of the most respected behavioral analysts in the world. From both of us you’ll get the real deal.

5) It’s possible to plan for a crisis in the workplace, but how can loss prevention professionals and/or HR actually prevent it?

Be wary of anyone who tells you that every crisis can be prevented.It’s not true, period. You can’t prevent a hurricane or earthquake, but you can prepare for one and minimize impact on associates and customers.

You can’t always prevent someone from walking into your store or mall and shooting– even the CIA had a killer enter its headquarters years ago with lethal effect. But we can, with smart surveillance, benchmarking and training, learn how to deter. That’s what we will discuss at NRF.

6) What is the one thing that most companies do incorrectly when handling a crisis?

Underestimating the incident. It’s only a few people impacted. The media will probably not care. There are no witnesses. No one would ever take a photograph of that victim and sell it to the Associated Press. Nancy Grace couldn’t possibly be interested in what happens in our stores.

7) What role do the media play in all of this?

It’s one thing to deal with the local reporter from a network affiliate because your employees will see the story and ask their supervisors: “what’s going on?”

But when the assignment editor calls from The NBC Nightly News, you’re worried about your Board of Directors, your stock price and how this story will extend into CNBC the next morning. The time to have media training, a shadow web site and stand-by statements is now, in advance. Nail it.

Walk us through a crisis you handled that was particularly memorable.

One of my retail clients was told by HR on a Tuesday morning that three women came forward on Monday with restraining orders against one of their associates because of dangerous behavior that had escalated over the weekend; there were phone calls, text messages, visits, flowers, drunken encounters– and they learned that their perpetrator had several prior arrests for A&B. All three women showed restraining orders, that they secured independent of each other– they didn’t know about the other victims– on Monday.

Surprisingly, the courts hadn’t linked the case and neither had the police since it’s a fairly large city. They were dealing with a dangerous, bipolar person with substance abuse that was escalating, and he was targeting these three women because they had all been promoted in recent weeks. We needed to act quickly as the case focused on duty to care, duty to warn and duty to act. If the retailer had not received training in Threat Assessment, case management and sensitive discussions, the results could have been catastrophic.

We’re in a new world. As much as we are technology centric, don’t assume computer networks will always click and tell you that there’s a bad dude in your midst. In LP leadership, you’re expected to connect the dots, move swiftly, work with law enforcement and prevent a bad situation from becoming a crisis.