A recent study was conducted by PwC titled Global Consumer Insights Survey (GCIS). This was to gauge the consumer insights on the retail business as a whole, done across twenty-six countries and the territory of Hong Kong. It was widely predicted that traditional brick-and-mortar retail would face difficulties, but that is not exactly the case. Contrary to popular notions, shopping at physical stores actually increased for the fourth consecutive year of this marketing research assignment. Retailers will increasingly need to leverage artificial intelligence to improve their performance. They will also need to foster greater emotional connect with customers. Five key new trends have emerged with regards to smartphones and social media coverage. Smartphones are now used for routine shopping purposes as a gateway. Social media is now the top platform for digital marketing, especially with the rise of Instagram and Snapchat. Cyber security measures will need to be further stepped up as increasingly customers are feeling wary. Brand loyalty has actually increased for the top digital players.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/feature/Competing-for-Shoppers-Habits?gko=3c9e9

Uploaded Date:18 July 2018

Healthcare budgets are strained all over the world in general now, as costs are escalating are roughly twice the GDP growth rates of countries. There isn’t even any observable improvement in overall patient health or satisfaction levels. In fact, a lot of research even points out that a substantial portion of so-called healthcare costs are on avoidable tests and complications. To this end, some industry leaders have responded by starting with the value-based healthcare format. Higher levels of cooperation will be required for executing this. Specialists of inter-disciplinary teams will need to be created. Cost-effective solutions will be devised by close collaboration with drug companies and medical device manufacturers. There exist some maxims that are part of this value-based healthcare mechanism. Outcomes will need be compared. The individual approach will be foregone in favor of team-base ones. Instead of treating symptoms, behaviors are treated in this approach. To analyze the best results, business intelligence will be derived out of the enormous quantities of data generated. NDR is one source of top-notch data. Key ‘integrator’ roles will also need to be defined and recruited accordingly.

Source:https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/smart-simplicity-health-care-value-problem-how-fix-it.aspx?linkId=51220671

Uploaded Date:10 July 2018

McKinsey took upon itself to understand the key disruptions manufacturing companies will face over the next five years. These five years are expected to see more disruptions than those witnessed last twenty years. The study was conducted across several key sectors such as automotive, defense, power equipment, machinery and industrial technologies. More than three-hundred top executives belonging to startups, think-tanks, government, incumbents, industry associations and distributers were tapped for this study. One key insight that emerged is that industry incumbents are coming to terms with five major disruptive elements such as – cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and electrification. Data warehousing is now very big business as it is being monetized through models such as pay-per-use. Disruption is making several industries unrecognizable as has happened with the exponential rise of the drone market expected to top US$23 billion by 2024. Challenges will also emerge in talent recruitment and retention as several jobs will be lost, many others remodeled. With a lot of activities set to get automated, a lot of the present jobs will get redundant, but new skills will be in demand. Incumbents are grappling with ideas to still remain relevant in the market. Companies need to behave more courageous and inclusive but must also understand that the transformation needs to be more than mere technology alone.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/how-industrial-companies-can-respond-to-disruptive-forces?cid=other-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1804&kui=qutxEeSPeump0zdVqik26Q

Uploaded Date:10 July 2018

While strong leadership is much admired, a consequence is that in large corporations, the leaders struggle to shake of their involvement with the legacy businesses. This leads to stifling of innovations, with the entire focus on running operations. Nimble-footed startups and digital natives take this advantage and forge ahead. Business innovation has in the digital age become essential to survival, and not merely an option to grow. Some incumbents have embraced this idea, as a result of which a tenth of them are rising at double-digit growth figures yearly. Visa, Mastercard, Hilton and O’Reilly are some such examples. So far, they have avoided the fates of Kodak or Blockbuster. A vital company is one that has the ability to keep developing future growth options. The leadership team must have the ability to constantly rethink strategic goals. Building the right capabilities involves proper structure to be in place, the use of appropriate technology and talent recruitment in a proper direction. These companies will be called ambidextrous when their present performance coincides with vitality so the present and future can both be taken care of. To increase the vitality, for a start the company must assess the current situation. Then, it must curate a portfolio of future options. The capabilities targeted must be adaptive to move with the times.

Source:https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/vital-companies-think-act-thrive.aspx

Uploaded Date:04 July 2018

While marketing was earlier a lot dependent on gut feelings and an instinct about the market, today, automation tools allow for greater precision in ad spend. However, excess pondering on the Return on Investment leads to these marketing channels on really understanding the customer’s needs and preferences. A report was prepared based on a survey of five hundred companies by management consulting firm Bain to see what differentiated the top twenty-five percent of these companies in their marketing efforts. They are three-and-a-half times more likely to involve employees that are aware of the customer’s end-to-end journey. Their marketing strategy is nearly twice as likely to be aligned to customer rather than channel needs. A similar level of enhanced importance is accorded to customer lifetime value. Marketing leaders with a difference hone their skills in three different ways. Firstly, target segmentation is based on overall customer value. Business intelligence tools must be used to glean deeper insights about customer experiences and priorities. Data must be used to develop hypothesis on customer choices. The marketers must get to know who the customers are and their individual worth to the firm. So once the high-value customers have been segregated, techniques need be employed to connect with them.

Source:http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/customer-lifetime-value.aspx

Uploaded Date:04 July 2018

There are varying reasons as to why certain companies’ marketing efforts and bearing dividends and others’ not. For some years now, marketers have been using data-induced business analytics to understand the customer base really well. But the information gauged through this science is not always being used the right way, with companies improvising with time. Keurig is an example where earlier the marketing team would blindly send mass mails. But now their digital marketing has been structured to reflect customer moods and tastes. Marketers need to spot the right signals, deduce the sequence and work on speed of service delivery. There are certain aspects that leaders do way better than laggards, such as the integration between separate tech platforms. The same study by Bain also confirmed that more than half the leaders surveyed refreshed their metrics frequently, with the corresponding figure at less than a third for laggards. The budget-decisions likewise are made with the help of metrics by leaders, more so than laggards.

Source:http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/its-about-time-why-your-marketing-may-be-falling-short.aspx

Uploaded Date:22 June 2018

Traditionally, supply chain management was at the heart of any company’s operations. Legacy technologies have often inhibited the end-to-end solutions however. Now the entire field of supply chain management is undergoing massive change thanks to automation and the resultant enormous chunks of data warehousing currently being done across the industry. This is further fueling the use of robotics, artificial intelligence and predictive business analytics allowing real-time data to be processed. All this is taking over the supply chain. Leading companies are going further, using even more penetrative technology such as sensor data for machine maintenance and blockchains to instill increased collaboration within networks. Mining giant Rio Tinto even claims that digitization is ensuring complete mine-to-port integration. The safety of workers, especially in remote regions is improving as a result. All these trends are pointing out towards a complete overhaul of the skills in place at global corporations. There is a severe need for reskilling so that the workforce is able to leverage present trends such as data governance, analytics and robotics.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/06/the-death-of-supply-chain-management?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_activesubs&utm_content=signinnudge&referral=00563&deliveryName=DM7693

Uploaded Date:22 June 2018