Speakers & Keynotes

Doug Rauch was instrumental in growing Trader Joe’s from a nine-store chain in Southern California into a nationally-acclaimed grocery powerhouse with more than 340 stores in 30 states. His retail success story is one of legendary scale: he spent 31 years with Trader Joe’s, serving the final 14 as a company president. Rauch developed the company’s prized buying philosophy, created its unique private label food program, and wrote and executed the business plan for expanding Trader Joe’s nationally. He also championed the development and execution of Trader Joe’s University and the prized customer experience orientation.

His story is one that no local or regional retailer can afford to miss!

Through his experience at the popular grocer and Daily Table (where he developed an innovative way to provide both grab-n-go meals and basic groceries at pennies on the dollar), Rauch has learned to be a master of innovation. Through great stories and eye-opening case studies, he shares how to create a self-sustaining culture of innovation, build a brand in a competitive marketplace, and lead with a purpose.

Keynote Session: The Retail Force Multipliers of Innovation, Culture, and Purpose

How did Doug help take a company that started as a 7/11 knockoff and transform it into the hottest grocery retailer in America? He focused on three retail force multipliers: innovation, employee culture, and purpose.

In this illuminative presentation, Doug will tackle popular misconceptions about retail success. He’ll reveal how local and regional retailers can harness their tremendous advantages in the rapid innovation cycle. Attendees will discover how, by focusing on retail force multipliers, they can reach their maximum potential to transform businesses, lives, and communities.

Derek Daly mastered high-performance thinking during his 17 years as a professional racing driver. And high performance thinking is what his Ignite 2019 presentation, “Culture of EXTRAordinary: How to shift from Good2Great2Extraordinary,” is all about. How can it be applied in retail to take your team to the next level? Derek went through three different eras during his professional racing career that he defines as “good to great to extraordinary.”

In the 80s, “good” was good enough. Good teams could hire good people, do a good job, and win. But technology disrupted the sport in the 90s, and “good” was no longer enough to stay ahead of the pack, racing teams had to be “great.” Only great teams who adapted and consistently took advantage of new technologies and data, to increase performance, could produce sustained success. In the 21st Century, things shifted once more from “great” to “extraordinary.” Regulations tightened down on the industry and racing teams found themselves needing to outmaneuver obstacles both on and off the track in order to win.

Where does extraordinary live? What does a culture of extraordinary look like? Imagine your team learning how to think and act differently as they push themselves to the edges and boundaries of what might be possible in retail. Derek uses powerful, real-life sports analogies in a unique, compelling and often hilarious manner, that leaves audiences in awe. His presentation has even been made before the United States Department of Defense!

Keynote Session: Culture of EXTRAordinary: How to shift from Good2Great2Extraordinary

Derek Daly raced through three different eras, “good, great, and extraordinary.” In the 80s, “good” was enough. Good teams could hire good people, do a good job, and win. But, not unlike retail today, technology disrupted the game. Racers had to overcome disruption to become “great.” Things shifted again as regulations tightened down on racers. They found themselves needing to be “extraordinary” to outmaneuver obstacles both on and off the track.

Derek’s riveting keynote has been delivered to a wide range of professional industries and even the United States Department of Defense. He will use powerful, real-life sports analogies to drive his message home. Retailers who attend this keynote will be inspired to adopt the attitude, the focus, and the dedication that is required to take their operation to an extraordinary level.

For more than 10 years, Harold Lloyd served as President and CEO of a 14-unit retail organization. He is regarded as a market leader, dedicated to superior customer relations in retail. Harold has spent more than three decades working very closely with small and large businesses, providing qualified executive-level guidance. He has created 30 top-rated seminars focused on developing better teams and leaders within retail. He has also written four books on the same subject matter.

Harold created and facilitates eight different share groups where retail executives come together to develop strategies for success and share input. Harold is known to inspire and challenge his audience to unlock their potential—in turn, he’s helped retailers propel store profits and improve operational efficiency. Since Ignite 2017, Harold has worked with several CATAPULT® retailers through in-store visits and consultations.

Harold’s relationship with ECRS and CATAPULT retailers goes to show that Ignite isn’t just a three-day event, it’s an experience with an impact that will last a lifetime.

Pete Catoe is Founder and CEO of ECRS. In 1989, as a young entrepreneur, he began a journey that would lead to what ECRS is today – an award-winning, innovative retail automation company with thousands of installations throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean.

An entrepreneur by nature and an executive in practice, Pete believes great companies are built one idea, one customer, and one employee at a time. When it comes to his business philosophy, Pete believes strongly that a unified platform is the future of retail technology, that retail platforms should be free of bulky technology stacks and messy integrations, and that retailers should strive to make a customer’s experience easy, seamless, and identical no matter where the transaction point may be. If you were to ask him, he’s “in the business of making his retail customers more competitive and their customers happier.”

Bill Alford is President of ILH Group, a retail consulting firm that focuses on best practice education and best practice implementation in asset protection, loss prevention, security and safety.

Bill is a trusted advisor to the supermarket industry and specializes in helping independent supermarket operators and retail owners enhance profits by reducing opportunity for losses and waste while improving operational excellence.

As the president of the ILH Group, Bill served as the Loss Prevention Consultant to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and has worked with many other retail trade groups and organizations such as National Grocers Association (NGA), Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) and FMS Solutions. Bill facilitates and co-facilitates several asset protection share groups including ECRS’ very own CATAPULT Share Group comprised of ECRS customers.