On the special occasion of the 12^th edition of the Asia Retail Congress – hosted at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, India – Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European Retail Academy (ERA, Germany), has been honored by the “Retail Leadership Award”.

The theme of this year’s Asia Retail Congress was “What next..?” and this 12^th edition of the Asia Retail Congress attracted retailers and professionals of the retail industry from 40 countries. Prof. Dr Bernd Hallier approached the topic of the “Global House of Harmony: a new equilibrium between Economics, Ecology and Ethics”.

European Retail Academy let us know that India’s retail leader is the Future Group with 1.691 million US $ and 332 outlets ranking in front of Reliance Retail 1.583 (1,798), Titan 1.535 (888), Godrej & Boyce 1.156 (850) , Aditya Birla 927 (1675), Tata 723 (198), Shopper’s Stop 624 (77), Tribhovandas 616 (39), Lifestyle 454 (359 and LG Electronics 368 (225).

Allow us to remember that Professor Bernd Hallier began many years ago a fruitful collaboration with the prestigious Professor Klaus Toepfer (former Federal German Minister for Environment, former director of the United Nations Environment Program UNEP and initiator of the Kyoto Protocol), and with Dr. Angela Merkel (today Chancellor of the Federal Republic, and who pushed “environment” to become a high political issue during the EU-Presidency of Germany, in 2007). Within the context of the pivotal moment represented by the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21 or CMP 11, Le Bourget, Paris, November 30 to December 11) for the global effort to tackle climate change, the Romanian-American University (RAU) underlined on December 9, 2015 the continuous pushing of the European Retail Academy (ERA) for a “Global House of Harmony”. It is also worth remembering that Professor Bernd Hallier, a distinguished Member of the Editorial Board of „Holistic Marketing Management” Journal of the RAU’s Management-Marketing School, has participated as a special RAU Guest, at the end of May and  beginning of June 2011, to a series of Round Tables and Public Lectures (The intertwine of Culture and Trade; Introduction of the European Retail Academy; Branding: the successful example of EuroShop; Evolution Tornado Retail; the Global House of Harmony;  Lifelong-Learning; Environmental Retail Management). And on June 25, 2015, RAU Rector Ovidiu Folcuţ received a new visit from Professor Bernd Hallier (accompanied on this last visit by his daughter Marie-Christin Hallier), the agenda of this new productive meeting including significant items of discussion.