Media
One of the things I wanted to improve through 2017 was the amount I was writing. I’ve always been more into collaborating with others, or presenting, than writing — life is a journey though, and I’m committed to getting better.
I wanted a quick place to store many of the interviews I’ve done, articles written, or media appeared in — so what better than to stick it here.
My aim has been to publish at least an article a month, I’m not sure I’m going to make it — I’m sure in any case the challenge will give me some focus.
Future of Food
The Stomach Wars are on (2017) — Technology has changed many industries over the past 10 years, and over the past 12 months the pace of change in food retailing has been accelerating. Recently we partnered with Raconteur to publish this piece in the Sunday Times (UK). Have a read of it here.
Feeding the future (2017) — During July I was lucky enough to be able to speak at a number of events in the UK to senior folk in the Co-op, Tesco, Waitrose, McDonalds and Jamie Oliver Media about the future of food retailing.
Changing consumer habits, and technology businesses are changing the traditional store-focused grocery model, with some changes placing pressure on profits and customer relationships faster than others. This is my take on explaining what is happening, and how to think about responding.
Read the summary on ThoughtWorks Insights here.
Winning the stomach wars e-book (2017) — As part of our focus on food through 2017 I have worked with a number of people across the food and technology industry to publish an eBook. If you’re interested in the future of food, take a look here.
Retailing
Higlights from the NRF Big Show (2017) — I regularly travel overseas to spend time with our global clients, teams, and to gather the latest consumer insight. This was an article I penned with Retailbiz on the highlights from this years event. See the article on Retailbiz here.
Retail is about people (2017) — Through my career I’ve been very lucky to have been mentored by some great retailers, including Greg Foran, CEO of Walmart US. Many retailers seem to have forgotten the importance on using technology to allow their best people to focus on being great merchants. I’m a big believer in continuous investment in your people — Read the article in Inside Retail here.
For Australian retailers looking to become modern global retailers, the biggest trend I can offer you out of NRF is to take a look at your best people — and challenge whether you are enabling them to focus their time and energy in being great merchants for your customers. Or are out of date tools, processes, data or technology stopping them from driving product and offer differentiation.
Digital Strategy & Platforms
Platforms for Growth (2016) — Through 2016, I had the pleasure of collaborating with my wonderful colleagues to translate digital strategy into technology architecture and building product management capability in retail. This is a snapshot of a series of events Giles Alexander and I spoke at. See the article on ThoughtWorks Insights here.
Becoming a platform-enabled retailer (2017) — Understanding how technology is driving change in the retail value chain, and consumer behaviour is an important part of establishing the right strategy to modernise your business model. I spend a lot of time coaching people to understand how traditional models are being unbundled, and the impact on profitability and strategic options. This was a bit of an attempt to put this into words — See the article on Thoughtworks Insights here.
The Modern Retailer’s Holy Grail (2016) — I collaborated for a piece with Inside Retail on the considerations required of a modern digital retailer. I’ve always found that a brand needs to be clear on their point of differentiation, and the connection they have to their customers, before thinking about channel strategy — great technology and digital tools amplify what you stand for, they don’t create it.
Modern ways of working help brands to continue to innovate their business model, create seamless experiences that drive customer loyalty, bring data together to enable their teams and to give value back to their customers, and optimise the deployment of capital (inventory) — but they don’t give great consumer brands purpose.
“The only reason you need to call it ‘digital strategy’ is that your business strategy has fallen out of fit with the way your customers are using technology and the way technology can enable new experiences around your brand,”
— See the article by Inside Retail here.
“The best retailers globally actually get that there’s not just a single cookie cutter strategy to open a website, start a social media channel and work on your e-influence. It has to be something that fundamentally reinforces what the brand is about.”
Loyalty
Woolworths loyalty program to cost $500 million a year, says Deutsche Bank (2015) — I’m often asked for expert insight into customer experience, retail strategy, loyalty, and technology. — See the article by the SMH here.
Which supermarket loyalty points get you a better deal: Coles or Woolworths? (2015) — See the article by the AFR here.
Customer loyalty comes at a price (2015) — See the article by the SMH here.
Building customer loyalty and not reward programs (2015) — I’ve spent a large part of my career using strategy, operations management, and technology to drive customer experience as a retailer, but it’s important to never lose site of the fact that margin originates from your customers and your team members being emotionally connected to your brand and your product. With some talented colleagues we’ve helped a number of retailers build out modern loyalty strategies, and this is a distilation of those efforts — See the article in ThoughtWorks Insights here.
Mobile
Dick Smith Launches Mobile Site (2011) — Back in 2011 while I was leading the digital business for Dick Smith we were one of the first to build a mobile capability for our customers, one that was built around the unique experiences customers were looking for — See the article by PowerRetail here.
Absolute Customer Delight — Winning Online Retailer of the Year (2011) —Before I left Dick Smith the team and I launched the first Click & Collect capability in Australia, operating across around 300 stores. We were all quite proud to be recognised as the best Multichannel Retailer, and the Online Retailer of the year — See the article by PowerRetail here, or the Case Study here.
Big W introduces in-app transactions and lay-by (2012) — See the article by the Daily Telegraph here, or Cnet here.
“There is a good percentage of customers who choose to shop online at toy sales but it is also used to help their shopping experience in-store”
