James E. Dion

James Dion (Jim), founder and president of Chicago-based Dionco Inc., is an internationally known Retail Speaker & Trainer, Retail Consultant, and the Author of the best-sellers Retail Selling Ain’t Brain Surgery, It’s Twice As Hard, Start and Run a Retail Business and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting and Running a Retail Store.

Jim consults, trains and speaks on consumer trends, retail technology, selling and service, retail merchandising and operations, marketing and leadership.

With a BS, MS degree in Psychology from Chicago State University and a Ph.D. (abd) in Industrial Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology combined with over 30 years of progressive retail experience working at Sears, Levi Strauss and Gilmore Department Stores, Jim is one of the most sought after Retail Consultants and Retail Speakers in the US and internationally.

As a Retail Consultant, he has helped hundreds of retailers large and small successfully reposition their retail business, including Ritz-Carlton, Harley-Davidson, Hummer, Samsung Global, Poster Plus, The Hat Shack, and Potomac ABC to name a few.

A PC expert and a Microsoft Developer, Jim has conducted major retail system and POS installs at retailers nationwide. He 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 for CIO Magazine Top 100.

As a Retail Speaker, Jim has delivered hundreds of keynote speeches, seminars and workshops for some of the largest companies in the US and internationally. Companies like Microsoft, Maytag, Vestel (Turkey), IBM, Honey-Baked Ham, Williams-Sonoma, ASICS, JDA, Swarovski, Macy’s and others have all benefited from Jim's insights on retail selling, merchandising, technology, and consumer trends. Jim is also a frequent Retail Speaker for leading associations, including the National Retail Federation, the Association of Golf Merchandisers, Narta (Australia), the National Shoe Retailers Association, the National Sporting Goods Association and many others. He is a faculty member in the MBA program at Harley-Davidson University and works with Harley-Davidson dealers around the world.

A writer for hundreds of national and international trade magazines and a regular contributor at www.allexperts.com, Jim is consistently ranked at the top for his insights and practical advice. He has also appeared on NBC, Fox News, First Business and CNN US and Turkey.