Bernardo Trujillo (1920-1971) was a Colombian-born American marketing executive. He hosted merchandizing seminars as part of cash register company NCR Corporation's marketing strategy, ultimately influencing the development of modern supermarkets, especially in France, where he became known as the "Pope of Supermarketing."

Early life

Born in 1920 in Colombia, he studied law in Bogota. He emigrated to the United States and eventually became a naturalized US citizen.

Career

Trujillo began his career as a Spanish teacher. In 1944, he was hired as a translator by the NCR Corporation in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater D ...

. From 1957 to 1965, as part of NCR's marketing strategy, Trujillo taught

executive education Executive education (ExEd or Exec. Ed) refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and functional managers globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometim ...

merchandizing seminars to about 11,000 students, the MMM seminars on Modern Merchandizing Methods. In his seminars, he emphasized the need to build supermarket with large parking lots and cheap products and defined many key principles of the industry, such as "No Parking, No Business". His classes played a particularly significant role in France. There, his students included

Denis Defforey Denis Defforey (7 July 1925 - 6 February 2006) was a French businessman. He was the co-founder of Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retail ...

and Marcel Fournier, who later founded

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, whic ...

, and

Gérard Mulliez Gérard Paul Louis Marie-Joseph Mulliez (born 13 May 1931) is a French entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Auchan chain of department stores. Early life Gérard Mulliez was born on 13 May 1931 in Roubaix, France. His father, Gérard Mulliez, ...

, who founded Auchan. Other students included

André Essel André Essel (4 September 1918 – 31 March 2005) was the co-founder of Fnac, originally ''Fédération nationale d’achats des cadres, or National Purchasing Federation for Middle Managers'', alongside Max Théret. He was also an anti-fascist a ...

, the co-founder of

Fnac Fnac () is a large French retail chain selling culture, cultural and consumer electronics, electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its head office is in ''Le Flavia'' in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. It is an abbreviati ...

;

Bernard Darty Bernard ('' Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

, the founder of

Darty Groupe Fnac Darty, formerly Kesa Electricals plc, Darty plc and Darty Limited, is a multinational retail company headquartered in Ivry-sur-Seine, France. It was formerly a public limited company (PLC) listed on the London Stock Exchange, until ...

; and

Paul Dubrule Paul Dubrule (born 1934) is a French businessman and politician. He co-founded AccorHotels in 1967. He served as a member of the French Senate from 1999 to 2004, representing Seine-et-Marne. In 2002, he established the Ecole d'Hôtellerie et de ...

, the founder of AccorHotels. Trujillo became known as the "Pope of Supermarketing." Trujillo died in 1971.

References

1920 births 1971 deaths Colombian emigrants to the United States People from Dayton, Ohio Businesspeople from Ohio 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub