Dannon, Philips, P&G Share Business and IT Strategies
October 29, 2008 -- Last week, consumer goods business and IT executives gathered at The Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla., for the 10th annual Consumer Goods Fall Conference. There, they explored how they could optimize brand performance through trading partner collaboration via abundant networking opportunities and insightful presentations from their peers. Here is snapshot of some of the event's many highlights:
> In his opening keynote presentation, Groupe Danone CIO North America E. Jeffrey Hutchinson provided attendees with a real-world case study on how Groupe Danone's North American IS/IT organization is specifically enabling business initiatives by leveraging leading unified communications and unified collaboration tools. Under this approach, coined Dan 2.0, the company expects to have one half of its top 15,000 employees fully utilizing social networking tools by 2010. "By 2011, we expect all 15,000 top employees to be fully leveraging these technologies," said Hutchinson, adding that these improvements are expected to positively impact market share, sales and internal operational and employee efficiency.
> Industry studies show that 70 percent to 80 percent of customer purchases are influenced by factors in the store. For Virgin Entertainment Group, focusing on these influences has a direct impact on sales and revenue, especially in an industry that is challenged by the proliferation of outlets selling DVDs and CDs and the increase of digital distribution. In a session titled "The Store as the Customer Touch Point," Virgin Entertainment Group CIO Robert Fort revealed how eight customer touch points, including traffic counters, digital signage, listening stations and data warehousing, are being leveraged to keep its store environment dynamically alive for its customers. The investment in technology has transformed Virgin into a real-time information, continuously-flowing communications culture.
> As an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and the changing retail landscape, Supermarket Guru and Grocery Industry Analyst Phil Lempert identified and explained impending trends based on generational differences and talked about how your company can take advantage of the opportunities that the future is rapidly bringing. "The American consumer is different than ever before and we need to understand the subsets," he affirmed. He also touched upon how technology can help, including a demonstration of "Phil's Supermarket" in Second Life.
> Lora Cecere, vice president, consumer products, AMR Research, along with a panel of executives from McCormick & Co., Church & Dwight, J.M. Smucker and E.J. Gallo Winery, explored the results of the 2008 Tech Trends Study, a joint CGT/AMR Research survey that reviews the current state of various technologies in the consumer goods industry. Panelists brought the survey findings to life with candid revelations on where their companies stand in regard to spending, demand signal repositories, downstream data, NPDI and more.
> "How do we find supply chain talent if we aren't using a common way of talking about the supply chain and the skills?" was the question posed to conference attendees by Global Supply Chain Professional Development Committee members Jake Barr of P&G and Nick Little of Michigan State University. Together, they revealed findings from a study conducted with AMR Research on the acquisition of supply chain talent and identified the critical skill sets needed; where skills can be found today; and how to address existing gaps. Click here for more details.
> Today's market is inundated with "cool" fads, requiring ahead-of-the-curve knowledge for successful product development and marketing. Michael Tchong, founder for Ubercool and last day keynote speaker, toured the consumer landscape, while contextualizing a host of trends that a casual observer might miss. "Comedians are the best trend analysts," said Tchong, proving his point by providing the audience with comical trend anecdotes. Some included sayings such as "Even evolution is accelerating," "Time is more valuable than money on all income levels," and "The car has become the accessory to the ipod." By organizing consumer lifestyle waves in major "ubertrends," Tchong provided a glimpse into the future. To learn more, go to www.ubercool.com.
> Simon Ellis, practice director, Supply Chain Strategies Office for Manufacturing Insights, an IDC Company, moderated a lively panel highlighting the annual Shared Strategy Study, conducted with CGT and RIS News. Panelists from the National Grocers Association, Kraft Foods, Brown-Forman Corporation and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company examined the state of collaboration between retailers and manufacturers in the consumer goods industry. Some talking points included getting the consumer back into the grocery store in a tough economy and sustainability as a business opportunity.
> "There are 200 categories of food that can go in your grocery baskets," said Paul Chaudury, former vice president of Innovation at Sara Lee. "We cannot compete with all 200." No matter what your company does, there is a need for growth, and growth comes from innovation in everything you do. The new theme for innovation is about involving all of your suppliers and retailers and creating new partnerships for new opportunity. Chaudury explained how collaborating internally and externally is critical for success, and how to apply it to your business.