Our team is able to draw upon a great depth of experience to most efficiently and effectively solve problems and arrive at new solutions: Ryan Grogman on how Retail Consulting Partners is empowering retail transformation

“Our sole focus is on the retail industry.”

Retail Consulting Partners, or RCP, is an innovative retail management consulting firm dedicated to providing superior service and enduring value to its clients. RCP offers the comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help organizations solve the complex issues facing the retail industry today. Through its proven methodologies and extensive ecosystem of solution providers, the firm effectively and efficiently identifies, selects, and implements the right retail technology solutions.

RCP is headquartered in Boston, MA.

The Silicon Review reached out to Ryan Grogman, Managing Partner at RCP, and here’s what he had to say.

Interview Highlights

Q. What circumstances or events led to the creation of RCP? Please brief us about the history so far.

In 2019, the retail advisory firm Boston Retail Partners (BRP) was dissolved as an entity by its former parent company owner. As a result, several executives of BRP’s leadership team founded RCP to continue building on the mission and delivery success of the former firm. Since its inception, RCP has been able to not only successfully maintain past client relationships, but also significantly grow our customer base with multiple new clients seeking RCP’s consultancy services.

Q. As an independent and forward-thinking retail management consulting firm, what are RCP’s key focus areas?

We combine our consultants’ deep retail business knowledge and cross-functional capabilities to deliver innovative and superior design approaches for our client’s strategy, technology, and process solutions. Our key focus areas primarily revolve around three different engagement models: (1) Strategy & Roadmap Development; (2) Solution Selection; and (3) Solution Implementation. Secondary focus areas are around Mergers & Acquisition Due Diligence and Vendor Product Evaluation.

Q. Can you introduce us to the types of business and technology challenges that your customers engage with you around?

Our retail clients most often engage RCP to help address challenges in the areas of customer experience or product/supply chain. When it comes to the customer experience, these types of engagements typically deal with business processes and technology solutions involving: Point of Sale (POS); e-Commerce; mobile apps; customer payments; self-service retail; and Order Management Systems (OMS). Projects dealing with product/supply chain challenges most often involve process and technology systems such as Merchandising; Planning; Forecasting; Allocation; Pricing/Promotion; Inventory Management; and Warehouse Management.

Q. What sets RCP apart from the competitors in the consulting space?

We believe three main differentiators help set us apart from other firms operating in this space. The first is our sole focus on the retail industry. We do not have multiple industries we serve and we don’t try to be all things to all different types of businesses. Every project we undertake involves the broader retail industry, which includes all of the various retail segments: specialty; apparel; wholesale; discount; convenience; entertainment; and hospitality. Our proven methodologies are tailored specifically to retail and our deep implementation experience   allows us to minimize our clients’ investment risks. The second RCP key differentiator is our people. Every member of our firm has spent time working for a retail organization which provides our consultants with the unique benefit of understanding the challenges and change management impacts of the solutions and strategies that we lay out from a retailer perspective. The third key differentiator would be our thought leadership and marketplace knowledge. Retailer priorities and direction change in line with consumer behavior patterns and marketplace capabilities, and RCP maintains a key awareness of both of these areas through our annual thought leadership surveys, white papers, consumer research efforts, and vendor marketplace assessments. This knowledge helps to establish our credibility with our customers and allows them to place their trust in our recommendations.

Q. Tell us more about the RCP team. What value do they bring to the firm?

As a consulting organization, our primary product is our people, and we are incredibly fortunate to have assembled a team of experienced, intelligent, and energetic associates who look forward to the challenges that each new project provides. We seek out individuals who want to address new opportunities and solve different problems on a weekly and daily basis, and each member of our team brings a flexible approach to their client engagements. As noted earlier, all of our consultants have retail experience, and this knowledge across their time in the industry coupled with the dozens of retailers they have worked with while at RCP instills a high level of confidence in our delivery. There is no one-size-fits-all recommendation across our clients, but our team is able to draw upon a great depth of experience to most efficiently and effectively solve problems and arrive at new solutions.

Tell us, what’s next for Retail Consulting Partners.

We have been incredibly fortunate to achieve the kind of growth we have in just over three years, and we look forward to maintaining that growth through the expansion of our client roster and our consulting team. The world of retail and retail executives is much smaller than people realize, and we know that if we continue to focus on delivery excellence, we will have satisfied customers who will seek out our firm for future engagements. This is evidenced by the fact that 82% of our revenue comes from repeat business from prior clients. Areas where we see a lot of involvement from a retail industry perspective in the coming years include order management optimization, increased and expanded customer self-service; and even greater expansion of retail mobility.

Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up?

The retail and hospitality industry is ever-evolving and dynamic. We believe strongly in our model to: stay focused on what we do best, only hire experienced and quality associates, be a trusted advisor, and always give 100% to what is in the best interest of our clients. These principles have served us well and as we grow, we will continue to hold tightly to these core values.

Leadership | RCP

Ryan Grogman: Ryan is a respected advisor in the retail technology industry. His diverse background includes several senior positions both as a retail executive as well as a consultant. Ryan has worked with a variety of retailers across home entertainment, luxury goods, apparel, specialty hardware, book publishing, tires, and batteries, consumer goods, and wholesale goods. He specializes in developing technology strategies that align with corporate and customer objectives, along with technology selection and implementation projects for in-store, mobile, order management, and e-commerce solutions.

John Eagles: John has experience in both retail and restaurant as an executive and consultant. John has held executive positions at Bradlees Department Stores, Ames Department Stores, Papa Gino’s Pizzeria, and D’Angelo’s Grilled Sandwiches. He specializes in strategy, merchandising, ERP, POS, and mobile solutions. John has consulted on a wide range of retail and restaurant enterprise applications, from selection through implementation.

“We have been incredibly fortunate to achieve the kind of growth we have in just over three years, and we look forward to maintaining that growth through the expansion of our client roster and our consulting team.”