How long have we been debating certification in the loss prevention industry? Five, ten, twenty years? I know I entered the discussion at least ten years ago when I put together a proposal to craft a retail loss prevention certification program as a spin off of the certified protection professional (CPP) program sponsored by ASIS International. That proposal died…wrong players, wrong time.

When the right people and the right time came together five years ago to launch this magazine, those of us involved in this venture knew…at least hoped…that certification was one step closer to reality.

A Mission to Educate
LossPrevention is a high-quality, contemporary magazine dedicated to providing in-depth, timely articles of high interest to loss prevention professionals and retail management. Covering wide-ranging topics from investigations to technology to management skills, LossPrevention focuses on best practices and educational content critical to the growth of the LP professional from the store level to the executive suite.

The two-sentence mission statement above has been central to the operation of this venture from the beginning. The second sentence could just as easily be part of a mission statement for certification.

An Industry Initiative
The magazine has partnered with the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) to launch certification. When I asked one of the magazine’s editorial board members who also happens to sit on the LP advisory committee of the National Retail Federation (NRF) his thoughts on the certification announcement, he expressed hesitancy to support the program because of the involvement of a competitive association. That, quite frankly, does not make sense to me.

An initiative like certification is not competitive. It is and should be a universal educational initiative encompassing the entire industry, because the results of certification will surely benefit the entire industry.

Beyond Competition
It is reality that there will be some competition between associations who strive to represent the retail industry. But just as LP executives from Lowe’s and Home Depot or Wal-Mart and Kmart or The Gap and Limited Brands can put aside the competition between their companies to work together on loss prevention issues, the same should be true of the associations representing those companies.

We…meaning the magazine and RILA…extend a sincere invitation to all parties who truly profess to work for the betterment of the loss prevention industry to support LP certification. That goes for the NRF, the Food Marketing Institute representing grocery retailers, the National Food Service Security Council representing restaurants, and any and all others.

The individual I mentioned above from the NRF LP advisory committee also expressed his wish that we could somehow put aside the rivalry between the associations. We agree. What more worthwhile project deserves the support of everyone in the industry than does certification.

Forget the Politics
While there may be a handful of executives who feel conflicted about endorsing certification, I would wager that the multitudes who will benefit the most from certification, the store-level professionals and rising LP managers, could care less what association sponsors certification.

To those executives, I respectfully suggest that you listen to your people and not bend to politics. Certification is a way they can elevate their careers. How can you not endorse that?

It’s a program whose time has come. This is one bandwagon anyone and everyone should feel good about jumping on.