Seven Ideas Stand Out From the Crowd
The online crowdsourcing approach, which included experts
from inside and outside our industry, uncovered dozens of
ideas, which were grouped into seven categories related to
the two megatrends.
Digital World
1. Value chain transparency
New technologies will increase demand for transparency
of companies’ complete value chain, from sourcing to
packaging and distribution. Only those companies that can
show a sustainable value chain will be competitive in the long
run. Value chain transparency is not only a critical enabler for
improved supply chain agility, it also links different domains
that currently are often disconnected, such as B2B, B2C,
C2B and C2C.
In the context of today’s rapidly evolving digital world,
a number of critical questions related to value chain
transparency need to be considered, including how to
leverage the connected – or “smart” – environment for a
new quality of individual customer service, how to ensure
consumers get the “right” information, how to ensure a
consistent experience for consumers and how to share
stewardship of master data.
2. New ways to listen and learn from consumers
In the digital world, companies face major strategic
challenges such as using technology-driven opportunities to
understand consumers more deeply and connect with them
more effectively and more often. The development of new
capabilities like digital-marketing analytics to keep pace with
the digital consumer will be a critical success factor in this
environment. This involves all digital channels that consumers
and shoppers use in their “path to purchase.”
This raises key issues for the industry, including how to build
trust with consumers via standardization of information
relating to product descriptions and ingredients; how to
address increasing consumer expectations; how to work with
consumer forums to solve issues via open platforms; and
how to ensure that accurate data is being delivered by new
intermediaries like app providers.