LPRC - CrimeScience Episode 33 – How RILA is Supporting LP/AP ft. Lisa LaBruno

Episode Date: October 23, 2019

In this episode of CrimeScience, co-hosts Dr. Read Hayes (LPRC) and Tom Meehan (CONTROLTEK) talk with Lisa LaBruno (RILA) about RILA’s history, their efforts in key retail disciplines, evolving retail challenges, and more. The post CrimeScience Episode 33 – How RILA is Supporting LP/AP ft. Lisa LaBruno appeared first on Loss Prevention Research Council.

Hi everyone, welcome to Crime Science. In this podcast, we aim to explore the science of crime and the practical application of the science for loss prevention and asset protection practitioners, as well as other professionals. Co-host Dr. Reid Hayes of the Loss Prevention Research Council and Tom Meehan of ControlTech discuss a wide range of topics with industry experts, thought leaders, solution providers, and many more. In this episode, we'll talk with Lisa Labruna of Rela, or the Retail Industry Leaders Association. We'll discuss her role as Rela's Executive Vice President of Retail Operations and Innovation, Rela's history, their efforts in key retail disciplines, evolving retail challenges, and much more. We would like to thank Bosch for making this episode possible. Use Bosch Camera's onboard intelligent video analytics to quickly locate important recorded incidents or events. Bosch's forensic search saves you time and money by All right. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Crime Science, the podcast. of Crime Science the Podcast. Today we're joined by, as always, my esteemed colleague Tom Meehan,

strategy leader at Control Tech and longtime LPAP practitioner, and also Lisa Labruno, Esquire of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, or RELA. And Lisa has an ever-growing portfolio of responsibility at RELA for obvious reasons and a pretty neat background as an attorney, both in the public and private sectors. So I wanted to welcome today Lisa to Crime Science, and we really appreciate you taking the time to get on here because I know you're right in the middle of a busy planning session for multiple conferences and so on. But what right now are you mostly working on, Lisa? What's the most important thing that Rita's doing right now? Oh, hey, Reed. Thanks for that generous introduction. really happy to participate well I think I have to first take a step back because to your point about my expanding portfolio asset protection is not the only thing on my plate although I can certainly focus the

discussion on AP I also oversee supply chain, e-comm, and our innovation activities at RELA. But from an AP perspective, we will be kicking off conference planning in a couple of weeks for the annual AP conference. So focusing a lot on the plans for that meeting. We've also got our AP Leaders Council meeting coming up next month in Hilton Head in conjunction with the annual meetings of LP Magazine and LP Foundation. So working to develop a compelling agenda that will attract the pyramid heads to attend. Other than the meetings, from a topical perspective, I'm sure it's no surprise to hear that we're focusing a lot lately on active shooter training, open carry of firearms in stores. You know, what's interesting about AP and about this role

at RILA is as much as I love to have the, you know, short, mid, long-term initiatives, which, you know, I can drive at a manageable pace, the AP industry can tend to be ad hoc at times, depending on the pressing issues of the day. So two weeks ago, I would not have guessed that open carry would be a significant topic of discussion this week, but as a result of events that we're all aware of, it's become sort of the topic of the day. So I would say, you know, sort of those short-term initiatives, it's a lot about active shooter training, but from a more mid-term, long-term initiatives, I'm hyper focused on self-checkout. We recently hosted a workshop

at Target in Minneapolis where we had over 70 attendees representing across functional groups. So first time for me that I actually hosted a meeting, an AP meeting, that included folks from front end, ops, customer service, innovation, all of whom were keenly interested in having discussions around self-checkout. An outcome from that is a research project that we'll be doing with Professor Beck at University of Leicester. So getting ready to launch that in a couple of weeks, we will be sharing with the public the second iteration of our total retail loss research total retail loss 2.0 which we also did in partnership with Professor Beck organized retail crime is a very substantial topic and initiative that we've been working on specifically

working directly with the online marketplaces to garner their support in doing more to stem the tide of organized retail crime, particularly the sale of stolen product online. You know, where do I end, Reed? It's sort of the topics run the gamut, lots of pressing issues, some more near-term, others more mid to long-term, but it's a busy community for sure. No, I mean, I think that was actually the perfect answer because you started out talking about, yes, your portfolio has grown, but I think you and all of us would agree that's

a really good thing because asset protection, LP, is not an island unto itself where this community exists completely and totally support the total enterprise. And there's no way you're doing that unless you do integrate. And when you talked about the SCO, the self-checkout, the same thing. It was this holistic, multidisciplinary event as the research that you're going to be doing and so on. So I think it just makes total sense. But also, like you said, we're very topical. And so we see the spikes in these active assailant, active killer shooter. And so that should be top of mind right then. But then we maintain that flow. ORC doesn't seem to be going away. It's a great way to make a living to some

people for whatever reason, but you certainly can go into air conditioned climate controlled environments and steal and return and do other things that, uh, and avoid some of the risk of street crime. So it remains attractive. So now that was a great, a great answer. And I appreciate all that and how busy you are and everything that you and real are doing. And, that was a great, a great answer. And I appreciate all that and how busy you are and everything that you and RELA are doing. And, and by the way, to the listeners, I wanted to bring up how much we appreciate the partnership, the, the here at the University of Florida, and then my other role, the Loss Prevention Research Council, we exist to support everybody that needs support through in-depth research and bringing that science to

practice. And so Rila, Lisa, you and your team have been great partners, allowing us to come and participate in your excellent conference and interact and to do projects with you guys over the years. So all of this is very much appreciated. Let me go to Tom. Tom, what is your opening positive salvo to Ms. Labruno? So, Lisa, thank you for joining us. And I think your first answer was really perfect and timely of just how the evolution and all the things are going on. My question is really just if you give the listeners a little bit of history about your past. I'm often gets a joke about when people say, how do I know you? I can say, well, you were my attorney 20 years ago, but can you give everybody kind of a background and what you did and where you came from? Yeah, sure. So Tom, just to protect your wonderful reputation, I was your attorney in a corporate sense at

the Home Depot and certainly not in a personal sense. But yeah, when I graduated law school, I went immediately to private practice. So worked in a really large firm. You know, it's sort of what we call here in New Jersey a law firm sweatshop, where the young lawyers were working seven days a week, you know, 12, 14-hour days, learning a lot, but really eager to get into the courtroom and just had a real passion for criminal law. As a young lawyer in the firm, one of my first criminal cases was representing a defendant on death row. Now, when I say representing, I was a first-year associate. So I was, you know, the researcher for the managing partner who was handling the case. And I had a passion for

criminal law before that, but that case really solidified it for me. And I left the firm to go to the prosecutor's office and stayed there for several years, was an assistant prosecutor in Hudson County, New Jersey, which is just across the river from Manhattan. So a very urban area, lots of crime, wonderful place for a prosecutor, a young prosecutor to learn all about trial work, but quickly realized that my passion for criminal law was outweighed by my need to make a living, which I could not do in the prosecutor's office, at least not the way I wanted to. And so I left there, became in-house counsel at the Archdiocese of Newark, which is the largest Catholic organization in the state of New Jersey.

And soon after I arrived was when the priest sex scandal really broke, and very quickly realized that that was not the kind of work that I wanted to be involved in, but still had that passion for crim law. And the job at Home Depot came up and they were looking for a former prosecutor to support the asset protection group and corporate security group enterprise wide. And my interview, it's a timely conversation, guys.

Today is September 11th. And my interview was September 12th of 2001, so the day after 9-11. And the interview was canceled, obviously, because the airports were closed. And it was rescheduled, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go. But ultimately, I went, and it ended up being really one of the best decisions I've made from a professional perspective. After 9-11, I was anxious to get out of the New York, New Jersey metropolitan area and moved to Atlanta and worked at the Home Depot Store Support Center.

And I stayed at Home Depot for 10 years. It was the most amazing job. I loved every aspect of it. Loved working with the AP group loved Home Depot as a company and really loved the work the ability to train folks and just to be vested in one company and all of their employees so it for me it struck a wonderful balance of being able to pursue my love of criminal law, but also make a decent living and have a really good work-life balance, which has always been critically important to me.

And so, that really sort of set the stage for me in terms of working in the retail industry. And so when I left Home Depot, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity at RELA to work in the AP space, not just for one retailer, but across the industry. So again, you know, I've been really fortunate to have a unique career path. 30 years ago when I graduated law school, I would have never charted out this path. I didn't even know that these positions existed back then. And so I'm real fortunate that I've had the opportunity to pursue this path. And I think that the greatest thing to come out of it is all of the wonderful people that I've met in the prosecutor's office, at Home Depot, and now at RELA across the industry.

It's just an awesome group. I love the AP industry. And in fact, I love retail. So it's been good to me. Excellent. I wonder if you maybe could talk about the you know the Rela AP support story Lisa you know how you know you inherited some sort of LPAP infrastructure where you know the association wanted to support their members and industry at large in lobbying, in education, and in all kind of problem solving. And then what's going on since you got there? I mean, how have things changed and why?

Maybe just a little bit around that would be great. Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, Reed, to your early comments, just how AP has evolved over the last several years. You know, I'm at RELA now almost 10 years, and the evolution has just been extraordinary. been extraordinary. When I started, there was just a lot of focus on the criminal part of the job, which continues to be important and a key offering and a key focus. I think the greatest evolution has really occurred on the non-AP side, so more the operational focus, engaging really smart academics like you and others, recognizing the contribution that academia plays in all of this work. I just, you know, it's changed from the perspective of the cross-functionality that asset protection has become. I mean, 10 years ago, I don't think we ever would have

contemplated a research agenda or meetings that engaged the enterprise, and that went beyond just the AP silo. I mean, even with our research projects, you know, we're sharing those findings with finance, with the finance groups within our member organizations, the merchandising groups, the ops groups. the merchandising groups, the ops groups. And so I think really the evolution is more about the integration of asset protection across the enterprise, and RILA's work reflects that thinking. I also think that one significant, I wouldn't say change, it wasn't a change, short of a development was really the Asset Protection Leaders Council. When I came, that group didn't exist.

And to the extent, you know, there was some presence of senior leaders, it wasn't really an organized, coordinated group. And the APLC really drives all of the work that we do. And so, you know, we tap into what I deem to be the thought leaders in the industry, and that is the AP pyramid heads who comprise RILA's membership, and tapping into that resource to identify what the key focus areas need to be, what initiatives we should be driving, and who should be involved. And, you know, I really rely on them to help set the agenda. Excellent. I appreciate that, Lisa. That's amazing, the differences, how the industry, the ecosystem,

the community has evolved, and then how you all have not only tried to evolve with but actually stay ahead of that, but tapping into your members, tapping into what do they need, what are they in that way with that council to drive what you guys need to do to support them. Tom, let me go over to you. Sure. What advice, Lisa, do you have for newer LP practitioners? I know that's a loaded question, but if there's some quick tips or advice that you could give, I know that our listeners would appreciate it.

Yeah, I mean, if I were counseling a new AP practitioner, I would say, you know, think broadly. Integrate yourself across your company. Don't stay siloed in asset protection. Try not to – try to go beyond the historical focus of AP on crime. Again, a key area, it's always going to be a key area, but we've got to continue to broaden the relevancy and the reach of asset protection. So purely from a substantive perspective, Tom, my key advice would be think broadly as it relates to AP. But then also really more from a professional perspective,

you know, I would say network, benchmark with your peers. You know, all of the answers do not reside within you individually, within your team, or know, all of the answers do not reside within you individually, within your team, or frankly, within your organization. And we get better by collaborating across the industry. And the only way new practitioners can collaborate is to get out, to attend events, out, to attend events, to network, share your own experiences, successes, and frankly, failures as well, and sort of be part of a collaborative industry. I would also say for new folks, uh, LPQ, uh, is, is a must, right? So, so that is one way, um, that they can immediately, uh, immerse themselves in the broader, uh, sort of AP conversation. So Lisa, good, good stuff. Um, and I think that's always such sound advice you know think about

all of us get outside of our own head get outside of our own organization talk but most importantly listen to any and everybody you can that makes sense to within your organization and within outside of your organization. But we're all here for the same thing, and that's to, in this case, enable the enterprise. And all the fancy plans that our C-suite team have in mind, how do we help that happen, given all the quicksand and the strange actors that are running around out there? Let me ask you something, if I could.

And one thing I would just say to listeners today is that Tom Meehan called in from China, and so that's where he's been connecting from. But he does have to run right now to a meeting, so we appreciate him being on. So Lisa, you're stuck with just Reed Hayes. But I want to go back. You mentioned SCO and sort of total loss and so forth. But you're there. You're between New Jersey and D.C. and then all over the place. But you're plugged in with so many leaders and so many disciplines within retail and outside. What are you hearing? What are you keying in on as far as the light speed evolution of retail but what are the some of the challenges that are the most important you've mentioned sco and the

organized retail crime problem that we've got and of course active assailants what else what are some evolving challenges lisa uh well what i think just um keeping, Reed, in this dynamic environment. I think e-comm is, you know, continues to be a pressing issue for our AP community and just understanding all of the losses that can occur from the e-comm model and how AP can help mitigate those losses. So I do think that e-comm is another key focus area. I think that innovative technology is another key focus area, not only challenging our legacy solution provider partners who have been wonderful for so many years, but challenging them to

continue to be innovative in the solutions that they're developing. You know, you made an earlier reference to Rila, you know, always trying to be ahead of the curve. I think solution providers need to continue to think in that same way. You know, they're closely connected to the retailers and they should know what the issues are that are on the horizon and developing cutting edge technology designed to address those issues that are right around the corner. I think retailers are very keen to have their partners really focused on that.

But also in the innovation space, I think retailers are growing increasingly more interested in connecting to startups, so new companies that they've not otherwise had exposure to, hearing about their solutions, experiencing new technology from new companies who might have different perspectives. And that's even startups who are not currently working or attached to the retail industry. So I do think that innovation is a key focus for the AP folks as well. One more point on self-checkout. I think what retailers are deploying to help mitigate losses.

What is the effectiveness of those various interventions? So we all sort of acknowledge that self-checkout exposes retailers to certain losses, right? I mean, the research is clear on that, the experience makes that very clear. So from that premise, then sort of the next part of the conversation is, okay, what interventions that retailers have rolled out, what's been the success of those interventions.

So that's another top focus of some of the conversations that we're having. Okay. No, that's a good adder. And like you say, we say in criminology, it's not what you do, but how you do it. It's dosing, you know, what do you do? How do you do it? How often? You know, and so forth. And so I agree. It's okay if I put this intervention in, first of all, what's the logic model? Why am I doing this? How do I expect it to affect the situation? And then, all right, what are my options in doing this? And then what else could I do with that? And so on. And so I think that's huge. And then finally, what you're saying, it sounds like is, okay, great. Did that get us anything? I mean, was it, did it do anything? And if it did,

was it cost effective and so forth? So that's good. Good stuff. Yeah. Just another example read of why collaboration is important and how we can all learn from each other, right? So, you know, this research hopefully will be valuable to all retailers regardless of where they are in their self-checkout journey. journey. But for the folks who are the retailers who are sort of just dipping their toe into the self-checkout environment, you know, this research will help them assess the effectiveness of various interventions so that they don't have to recreate the wheel. I mean if this research reveals, for example, that a particular intervention has been ineffective across retailers who are heavy users of self-checkout, well maybe that will save this retailer who's new to the environment, some time, money, and resource, right? So just one small example of how industry collaboration can be so valuable. No, good stuff. Yeah. Why learn

the hard way? Whether you're already in or you're thinking about getting into the pool there. Excellent. Tell us about the upcoming, you know, your next RITA AP conference. When is it? Where is it? What are some of the highlights? And, you know, what do our listeners need to know about RELA's next AP conference? Yeah, so I'm laughing because I'm actually having to go up on the RELA website just to confirm what the dates are because we've got

so many meetings and conferences coming up that I want to make sure that I get the right dates. One thing I do know is that the conference is in Dallas. I'm pretty sure it's May 3rd through the 6th in Dallas, but I'll confirm that before we hang up. Yeah, actually it's May 3rd through the 6th in Dallas. In terms of what we're going to focus on, well specifically that remains to be seen because we bring the steering committee in in two weeks into Washington DC. So the steering committee is comprised of senior level retail executives and our solution provider sponsors and the important academics like you who participate on the

steering committee. And we'll sit around the table and we'll have a brainstorming exercise that spans a few hours and you know all too well, Reed, how this works. And from that brainstorming exercise, we will identify the key topics that are essential to the conference program. So I can't speak to specifics. I mean, I have ideas of what will be on the program, just based on the conversations that we've been having recently with the AP community. But like we talked about earlier, this is a really dynamic industry. And what's important and pressing today might be on the back burner come May. So the challenge is always to have timely and relevant content, which in such a dynamic

environment, such as Retail AP, can be a challenge at times. You know, I would say generally it's going to be a compelling educational program like it is year after year and I've said this to the committee every year at the planning meeting read which you've heard me say we have built a reputation based on the educational content at the conference it is what we are most proud of what we strive to do year after year is to deliver the best educational content that the industry has to offer. And I think we accomplish that year after year.

So the only assurance I can give today, many months out of the conference is we will deliver on that again through breakout sessions, general sessions, committee meetings, not to mention the expo experience and all of the cool activities that we have scheduled in there, as well as the many networking opportunities. Excellent. And it really, you know, Lisa, I think one thing, having been involved with that committee for so many years, it feels like a family. I think from you all's standpoint, it probably feels like not even a herd of cats, but just a group of cats that you're trying to bring together and squeeze out that content. But I will tell you also, by the way, my team, even this morning, they are drafting some proposed sessions based on new, exciting research that would be unique to see if the committee ends up thinking that something there is useful. So I have one last thing as we run on and let you get back to the really important part of helping drive RILA in the industry.

And how do you pronounce it? I want to make sure that I'm pronouncing it because you and I know we hear the acronym for Retail Industry Leaders Association pronounced different ways. What's the preferred way in the halls of your headquarters? A compelling question, Reed, to end the conversation. So it's Rila. And for anybody who's heard Brand Elberston say Ryla for 30 years, that is a mispronunciation. It's Rila. Well, you know, Brand has contributed so much over the years to our industry, but probably proper pronunciation of all words, and I'm guilty too, is maybe not the strongest. So on that note, we really appreciate your time today, Lisa, joining us from Rila. And have a good one. And to all our

listeners, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Crime Science. And I want to thank Tom, Safe Travels in the Orient and China, and then also thank our producer Kevin Tran today. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Crime Science Podcast presented by the Loss Prevention Research Council and sponsored by Bosch Security. If you enjoyed today's episode, you can find more Crime Science episodes and valuable information at lpresearch.org. The content provided in the Crime Science Podcast is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal, financial, or other advice. Views expressed by guests of the Crime Science Podcast are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions or positions of the Office of Prevention Research Council.