CREATIVE INSIGHTS INC.

The other people on our team

Tuija Seipell, Barclay West Communications Inc.

James E. Dion

President of Dionco Inc.

Co-author of Start and Run a Retail Business

James E. Dion is the president of Dionco Inc., Chicago. Jim has an extensive background in retail selling, marketing, training, buying, information technology and catalogue, as well as over 12 years in consulting as a founding partner with the J. C. Williams Group.

Jim started his retail career in 1964 in a men’s wear store in Chicago. He was appointed store manager in 1971. From 1972 to 1974 he was night manager of the Sheraton Chicago Hotel in downtown Chicago.

From 1975 to 1981 he was employed by Sears Canada where he started in Retail Management in Richmond Hill, Ontario and moved to the Toronto Catalogue Center in an operating position. He was promoted to Buyer, Jeanswear and was responsible for buying and marketing for retail and catalogue. In 1981 he left Sears to become National Sales Training Manager for Levi Strauss Canada. During his time with Levi Strauss he developed one of the most advanced Sales Training Programs in the industry.

From 1985 to 1988 he was Executive Vice President of Gilmore’s Department stores in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He repositioned a 106-year-old chain in a highly competitive retail environment. He has taught at Laurier University, Ryerson College and the International Academy of Fashion Merchandising and Design in Chicago.

Jim is a frequent speaker for the National Retail Federation in Washington, DC on Technology, Inventory Control, Negotiation Techniques and Store Management, as well as International Retail Associations. He co‑authored “Start and Run a Profitable Retail Business” for Self‑Counsel Press.

Jim consults with numerous retailers in North America. He is a recognized expert in the North American PC market, a Microsoft Developer and has experience with over twenty major retail system installs and hundreds of POS installs. Jim also studies and evaluates new retail POS, EDI, merchandising systems and relationship marketing software. He has been a judge for the Microsoft Retail Developer Awards as well as a judge for CIO Magazine Top 100. Jim has presented over 150 technology workshops across the country for the National Retail Federation, Microsoft, IBM and Northern Telecom.

He graduated from Chicago State University in Chicago, Illinois BS, MS in 1971 and Illinois Institute of Technology Ph.D. (abd) in Industrial Psychology and Marketing in 1975.

ANOTHER GREAT BOOK BY JIM DION

Retail Selling Ain’t Brain Surgery, It’s Twice As Hard

Retail Selling Ain’t Brain Surgery, It’s Twice As Hard is a hands‑on book for Retail Sales Associates of any age or experience who want to gain a deeper insight into what they do. The new Retail Sales Associate will benefit from many of the exercises and the seasoned Retail Sales Associate will benefit from new insights into Customer behavior. Mr. Dion introduces Professional Retail Sales Associates to new strategies on:

• avoiding vending machine selling

• keeping your distance

• customer behavior

• in‑your‑face customers

• customers for life

• less than righteous returns

• maximizing the last moment with your customers

• the real secret service

• practicing to improve your skills

Read about the workshop based on this book here.

Buy this book through amazon.com

Tuija Seipell

President of Barclay West Communications Inc.

Tuija Seipell is president of Barclay West Communications Inc., a company she founded in 1989. She is a writer, editor, corporate communicator and publicist with clients across North America and in Europe.

Tuija is a regular contributor to trade publications and magazines, and her corporate clients range from individual artists to multinational companies. She also completes market studies and research projects in the retail and trade-show industries.

Tuija’s experience in international business adds a strategic business perspective to all of her work – as do her degrees in both international trade and languages. She has the skills of a writer and researcher, and also understands the communication needs of different kinds of organizations and their various publics.

This lets her work with clients in numerous sectors including retail, design, marketing, arts, architecture, tourism, film, building, construction, veterinary medicine, hospitality, biotechnology and foreign trade.

Tuija writes and edits magazine articles, newsletters, brochures, media releases, workshop materials, annual reports, manuals, guides, proposals, business plans, Website content and books. She has written articles based on interviews with many well-known authors and speakers, including:

• Peter Glen, author of It’s Not My Department and 10 Years of Peter Glen

• Pat McCarthy, author of The Nordstrom Way

• Dr. David Foot, author of Boom, Bust & Echo

• Joan Pajunen, co-author of The Butterfly Customer

• James E. Dion, author of Retail Selling Ain’t Brain Surgery, It’s Twice as Hard and co-author of Start and Run a Retail Business

• Richard Worzel, author of The Next 20 Years of Your Life: A Personal Guide into 2017

• Jamling Norgay, Everest climber, son of Tenzing Norgay and author of Touching My Father’s Soul

• Dr. Martha Rogers, co-author of One-to-one Manager series of books

• Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

• Joan E. Gadsby, author of Addiction by Prescription

• Roy Henry Vickers, OBC, First Nations artist and author of several books.

Before establishing Barclay West Communications, Tuija worked as a marketing executive, translator, general manager of a retail chain, trade show producer, event organizer, researcher and writer. She now sees all of these as various aspects of communication and considers them just real-life preparation for her communications business.

She has degrees in international business and languages, both obtained in her native Finland. She is fluent in four languages and “gets by” in another four. After completing her formal studies, she worked for five years for a Finnish manufacturer and exporter. She participated in the company’s export marketing across Europe and in the former Soviet Union, first as an international business liaison and interpreter, and later as one of the company’s marketing executives.

In 1982, her further studies in international business brought her to Canada for one year to work as the Assistant to the Trade Commissioner of Finland in Toronto. During that year, she accepted the position of general manager of a Canadian importer, wholesaler and retail chain specializing in European fashion and furniture.

She next managed the Toronto office of a Montreal-based trade show producer, with responsibility for exhibit-space sales and the production of trade exhibitions for the retail and franchise industries in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

In 1989, she moved to Vancouver and founded Barclay West Communications.

Some of the sessions presented by both Jim Dion and

Ted Topping