Leveraging Learning and Leadership at RMCP 2025 Visit 1

Students in the 2025 Retail Management Certification Program (RMCP) recently completed the first site visit of the year in Fishers, Indiana.

Designed specifically for store owners, regional supervisors and managers, the program blends strategic leadership training, hands-on business improvement projects and real-world application to help retailers increase profitability, improve operations and build stronger teams.

This year’s class of students experienced three full days of insightful workshops, interactive experiences and networking with fellow retailers in the independent channel.

Lindsey Evans, senior category manager at Valley Wide Cooperative came to RMCP to learn techniques not only to bring back to her team, but also for her own professional development.

“I came into Valley Wide with a retail background, but I’ve always loved a challenge,” Evans says. “I’ve been working with my VP on different development programs that I can be doing with my team, as well as for myself. RMCP became a great opportunity to go after that. I’m very excited to see what I can bring back with everything I’ve learned through this program so far.”

Day 1

Day 1 of RMCP started off strong with insightful sessions led by Dr. Rob Mathews, focusing on how to leverage human talent to creatively and effectively lead a team to success. Students learned how to use their natural talents and strengths to excel in their managerial roles and communicate effectively with their teams.

Joseph Wang, owner of Holt’s Summit Hardware in Jefferson City, Missouri, comes to RMCP as a new store owner, with three years of experience working at the hardware store he and two of his friends built from scratch immediately post-Covid.

“We struggled to decide how we wanted to approach our team management and we decided very strongly to focus on pulling out everybody’s individual strengths as we pulled the team together,” he says. “This session validated the fact that for us, that was the right decision.”

The workshop portion of the day wrapped up with key information from NHPA’s Cody Goeppner on how to design a world class training program and offered an operational toolbox for students to take back to their stores.

To end the day, the RMCP class swung some clubs at Top Golf while enjoying food, drinks and socializing.

Day 2

On Day 2, students heard from Gary Petz, vice president and co-founder of Discovery Retail Group, on raising the baseline through incremental improvements, store design and store setting. Petz delivered real-world examples of effective store layout strategies that boost sales and optimize the customer experience.

The students took a break from the classroom in the afternoon and participated in an engaging field trip to observe big-box store operations in real-time. During visits to both Home Depot and Menards, students were tasked with evaluating various customer service techniques and store design choices to compare operations of the independent channel’s biggest competitors to their own stores.

The second day ended with a delicious dinner and casual networking at 101 Beer Kitchen.

Day 3

Brian Landis, president of Ancrage Consulting, led the third day of sessions, beginning with a detailed view of a Harvard Business School case study on Home Depot. Students also participated in an inventory management workshop, offering the opportunity to collaborate focusing on the important aspects of supply chain management. 

Visit #1 wrapped up with a roundtable discussion centered around best practices in sales and marketing, and an update on the upcoming business improvement projects students are working on.

Brittany Stanley, store manager of East Texas Hardware Nation’s Best, shared her thoughts about her RMCP Visit #1 experience.

“I was expecting a lot of information to be thrown at us and to be overwhelmed,” she says. “There has been a lot of information, but it’s been delivered in a way that we’ve been able to soak it up. I’ve been pleased seeing how everyone’s been able to connect and see different perspectives. It’s helped round out my perspective of some of the areas of business I didn’t know about before.”

The North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) is looking forward to welcoming retailers and their mentors back to Indianapolis in October for Visit 2 of the program. Before then, students will participate in virtual sessions to continue learning momentum through the program.

Thank you to our scholarship providers Ancra Cargo, Do it Best, True Value, Home Hardware, Midwest Fastener and Wooster.