Corporate Governance

Booz & Company recently conducted the bi-annual refresh of its Customer Planning and Trade Spend study, revealing that a majority of consumer goods companies believe they spend too many resources on trade promotion management and are unhappy with the quality of the tools/systems available to manage investments. Executives from Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods and McCormick & Company discuss the pain points, best practices and tips for better efficiency in customer planning and trade spend.

We have heard the argument by some consumer goods manufacturers that direct-to-consumer e-commerce will upset their retailer. This is changing. The Apparel & Footwear sector moved beyond this argument, and other sectors are soon to change the dynamic as well. Whether they open their own stores, follow China's model of a store-within-a-store, sell via Amazon or direct-to-consumer via web sites, change is upon us.