The Voice of Retail (ENCORE) Radical Innovation, Leadership and Winning Every Race with Craig Baxter, Group President of Techtronic Industries Canada Inc. (Milwaukee, Ryobi, and Hoover)
In this compelling encore episode of The Voice of Retail, I reconnect with Craig Baxter, Group President of Techtronic Industries Canada Inc., a division of the $13.7 billion global manufacturing giant known for its market-leading brands including Milwaukee, RYOBI, Hoover, and Dirt Devil. Our conversation spans decades of experience, lessons learned, and the cutting-edge strategies Craig and his team are deploying to dominate the power tools and home improvement space.
Craig shares his fascinating career journey—from launching his marketing career at Kraft General Foods, to disrupting the power tools industry during his tenure at Black & Decker, and now leading explosive growth at TTI. We explore the epic rise of the Milwaukee brand, which went from an underdog in a five-horse race to the global leader in cordless power tools. Craig details how a bold bet on lithium-ion battery technology gave Milwaukee an edge, along with deep end-user insights and relentless product innovation.
We also dive into TTI’s unique go-to-market strategy. Craig explains why the company eschews direct-to-consumer sales in favor of exclusive partnerships—like the long-standing relationship with Home Depot that anchors RYOBI’s retail presence. TTI’s model emphasizes focused distribution, a people-intensive field marketing approach, and high-touch engagement with tradespeople, from contractors to electricians.
In the leadership segment, Craig opens up about what it takes to build and lead high-performing teams. He advocates for setting audacious goals, inspiring rather than managing, and creating an environment where great people can thrive. He also warns against weak leadership practices like cheerleading poor performance or tolerating mediocrity. Craig’s philosophy: talk last, listen deeply, and never underestimate the power of human capital.
Whether you’re a retail strategist, brand marketer, aspiring leader, or power tool enthusiast, this episode offers valuable lessons on market disruption, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership.
About Craig
Sixteen years ago, I was given the opportunity to become the president of TTi Canada; a world class leader in design, manufacturing, and marketing of power tools and accessories, outdoor product equipment and floor care for consumers, professional and industrial users in the home improvement, repair, and construction industries.
Since then, I have had the privilege of working alongside a team of outstanding performers who share the same belief in setting audacious goals and holding ourselves accountable to deliver those goals while continuing to cultivate a best in class working environment.
Along with our unrelenting strategic focus on powerful brands, innovative products, operational excellence, and exceptional people, we strive to continuously build upon a corporate culture where our employees can realize more and more of their abundant potential.
What inspires me, is seeing people striving to do great work and growing into the best version of themselves. By continuously improving our culture through all of our success we have further leveraged our biggest differentiator as a company, and that is something I am very proud of.
“Show class, have pride, and display character. And if you do, winning takes care of itself” – Bear Bryant
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.