NARDA Begins Interviewing For Training Program
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 2/25/2002
ORLANDO, Fla.— The North American Retail Dealers Association (NARDA) has begun to interview 150 candidates for its NARDA 21st Century Retail Vision training program.
Only 20 dealers will be selected by April and will qualify to attend the first seminar, to be held in May, according to Elly Valas, executive director of NARDA.
Valas, who discussed the program at her booth during the Nationwide TV & Appliance PrimeTime meeting (See p. 1), here, said, "Retailers who are accepted will receive specialized training and one-on-one consulting to develop a three-year growth plan." The dealers will receive "customized support to implement the growth plan" and mystery shoppers will do before-and-after evaluations of the retailers to measure their progress.
Some of the curriculum in the program includes:
- Customer Experience: Surveys to determine public perception of the business in the marketplace.
- Human Resource Development: All the factors in recruiting, training and motivating employees.
- Benchmarking: How to use it to identify best practices internally and externally that produce superior performance.
- Market Intelligence: How to battle your competition and analyze your market position, among other factors.
The program was created because both consumer electronics and major appliance suppliers "are eager to increase the market share of independent dealers," according to a NARDA description of the course. But the problem is a familiar one, namely there aren't enough top, well-trained operations to do the job.
The program development was sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association, GE Appliances, Miele, Whirlpool and Yamaha Electronics.
The following are among the developers of the program: Stan Adler, president of Adler Associates, who is credited by NARDA as the principal designer of the program; Sandra Cloud, owner and president of Management Associates; John Shields, recently retired chairman/CEO of Trader Joe's, the nationwide food chain; John Stiernberg, principle consultant of Stiernberg Consulting; and Elly Valas of NARDA.
The registration for the program is $5,000 per company, which includes registration for three, two-day meetings for two individuals, program materials and personal consultation.
For more information on the program contact Elly Valas at evalas@narda.com.
