Next Retail Group (NRG) is a relatively new and fast growing company with an international customer base. Its principals are far from new to the Retail Industry, however. Dan Hopping and Hollis Posey have over 75 years experience between them in retail store operations and information technology.  Dan and Hollis have been both leaders of and an integral part of the large scale development and deployment of store automation with the world’s leading retailers from the inception of the first POS systems in the early ‘70’s right through to the present day. And it’s their intent to leverage that experience for the next generation of retail automation centered on the store.

Much has changed in society, business and technology since the first computerized POS systems were installed. The first POS systems were met with public and retailer skepticism and were severely strained by the rigorous demands of store operation. But commitment, effort and perseverance to store automation paid off handsomely for all constituencies. We now have more convenience for consumers and greater choices, scales and efficiencies for retailers and their partners.

The UPC, GTIN, automated item identification, the PC and its offspring, open systems software, and the web have all done their part in turn to revolutionize retailing and bring us to the current state of affairs. No one today is skeptical of computer automation nor are they accepting of slow or clumsy operations. Society, business, and technology have all colluded to produce high service demands and an expectation of rapid improvements that will be fueled by further advances in information technology.

Rapid change is an accepted and expected fact of life today – despite a general human antipathy to change among all but the young. Businesses as well as individuals have little choice but to join the fray given the dynamics of today’s global opportunities and competition. Bystanders will be left behind in short enough order.

Enter the empowered consumer and the embattled retailer. While business choices are myriad, the challenges are daunting. Technology and social change is accelerating while executives, operators and implementers are expected to somehow just deal gracefully and invisibly with it on reduced budgets. Are we feeling the least bit stressed yet?

Next Retail Group was founded to address the current state of affairs in retailing. We now have turbulence at the confluence of ever more demanding consumers, organizational inertia,  assets deployed over long time frames and large scales. NRG expects the pace of change of the last decade to accelerate and has positioned itself to assist retailers to successfully navigate the ensuing turbulence.

NRG has the experience, the insight, and the foresight needed to offer a broad range of consulting services from strategic intelligence to project analysis. Our experience and knowledge base is supplemented by tools, techniques, and methodologies that are appropriate for any size company at any life cycle phase. Our clients include retailers, trading partners, and related associations.

We can find new efficiencies for organizations in stable environments, generate improvements and extensions for the competitively pressed, and create new designs where appropriate. We have resources and expertise to bring to bear in the “hard” arts - technology, hardware, software, infrastructure, project oversight – as well as the “softer” ones such as organizational and process structure and assessment, human factors and store performance.

We are accustomed to accounting for a broad range of practical constraints – whether financial, organizational, or technical. Finally, we have a partner network that can assist or take on large scale projects in all segments of retail.

Our Services include:
            Consulting services on the Store, the consumer and the enterprise
            Analyst services for hard and soft technologies           
            Keynote Presentations
            ‘Store of the Future’ Projects
            Helping retailers remain relevant with the changing consumer
            Front end optimization, ergonomics and Human Factors
            Analysis of Retail Trends and their implications
           
In summary, Next Retail Group has witnessed and been part of a lot of change and a lot of progress in retail over the last thirty–plus years. We expect to see more change in the next five to eight years than we have seen in the last twenty years. We can help businesses deal with the changing future.

Watch for our book, Intercepting the Future, due out soon on how to recognize early trends, what to expect and how to engage.