I have been a player in the shopping center, retail industry for 26 years. My role with every company that I have been involved with is to assist them in rethinking their strategies. This first step leads to a more efficient execution of these strategies that increase not only profitability but brand awareness. Today more than ever there is an overwhelming need to create new platforms that drive a brand to review their entire portfolio for any opportunity to add value. It goes to the heart of what happens when growth slows down and the excesses of the past come home to roost and drain resources. My expertise runs the full gambit of the shopping center, retail industry and affords me a unique position from which to review and make recommendations. My efforts have taken me to every region in the United States and Canada, and thus I have the national exposure to key into regional differences when planning brand expansion outside the home base. My educational background resulted in an MFA and headed me into the world of art resulting in gallery partnerships and directing large exhibitions both domestically and internationally. Interestingly enough my background and efforts in fine art have served me well in my long career in retail. I recently started my own company in order to better assist companies that I believe are still not being well served in organizing and executing strategies for success that ensure they will be around in the next ten - twenty years. I speak frequently to groups in order to assit them in understanding why a brand is an organic representation of a company and how an emotional connection can be made and nurtured. Retail has been and I believe always will be an integral part of how we satisfy a need for expressing our personal views relative to ourselves and the world around us.
"You must do the things you think you cannot do". Eleanor Roosevelt
http://www.fastcompany.com/user/marsha-getto-aikens-0
Principal, Regroup, LLC
Private, Sole Proprietor employees, Retail industry