How technology is changing retail: when digital meets physical
Technology has changed the way we shop. As Amazon boxes pile up on our doorsteps and digitally native brands like Glossier dominate beauty, can marrying digital and retail save bricks and mortar stores? In 2019 onwards, particularly if the UK exits the EU, rising costs will continue to exert pressure on margins and force […]
Dynamic pricing: the future of UK retail?
Constantly reducing costs of technology and widespread connectivity are driving the growing adoption of electronic shelf-edge labels (ESLs) and the opportunity for introducing dynamic pricing into stores now looks a distinct possibility. This is not, however, the first time it has been on the sector’s agenda. When the UK was on the verge of […]
What is a Chief Customer Officer?
Socio-economic change and advances in technology have given rise to an increasingly demanding and empowered global consumer. This new paradigm means that, to be a market-leading consumer brand, companies need to differentiate, compete and innovate Innovation does not apply only to systems and models but also to having a customer-centric organisational design that enables operational excellence. […]
3 habits of successful CEOs… 5am alarms isn’t one
You can find plenty of insightful pieces online about the habits of successful CEOs (they’re all meditating at 5am and only look at their emails twice a day!) but the clever folks at McKinsey & Company actually tracked a big sample of roughly 600 chief executives at S&P 500 companies between 2004 and 2014, providing […]
The end of the tech giants?
Does the recent Facebook data scandal spell the end of an era for the tech giants or have they become too big to reel back? On 17 January, Intelligence Squared chaired a debate (given that Mark Zuckerberg was only recently fending off questions from Congress) regarding the break-up of the tech giants, namely Facebook, Amazon, […]
Why voice-activated shopping won’t shut-up
“Alexa, how will physical retail react to our new-found love?” Last year saw voice-activated retail finally find its feet (and tongue) as Amazon sold close to 10 million Echo speakers according to guesstimates by Digitimes (leading to some estimates of some 40 million voice-activated devices worldwide). Moreover, Narvar, the SaaS platform provider, estimates that currently […]
Social media for business: 6 simple rules
Do you have a social media business strategy? Are you tweeting sporadically or only using LinkedIn to stalk old colleagues? Doing social media the right way means interacting with customers and extending your brand message to a wider audience. With what feels like a new social platform emerging every month, it can seem like a mammoth […]
Design sprint: what is it and do you need one?
How do you move at start-up speed? We recently spoke to Adam Perliss, former Design/UX Director at TIME Digital and founder of design thinking studio Academy NY. If you’re a CEO and aren’t incorporating design sprints (or even know what they are!) into your organisation’s framework, then you are giving up an edge on […]
Advisory boards: how to get the most out of them
In the previous primer on advisory boards, our Founder Orlando looked into the pros and cons of assembling one and the rudimentary principles behind them. Now he shall digs a little deeper into the process of getting the most out of them. I should first make the point that Advisory boards are not the […]
CIOs leading transformation: can’t see the business for the bytes
To stay relevant, a CIO needs to become business-focused rather than just technology-focused. For the last decade IT department spending has remained static at around 1% of sales. This does not, however, reflect the true amount being spent on technology because marketing, e-commerce and other parts of retail organisations are committing increasing amounts of […]
