Retail Mavericks: Recent Episodes
HIVERY
Retail Mavericks is HIVERY's official podcast channel showcasing thoughts and discussions on AI, technology, culture, innovation, and the future of retailing. It features our team of experts, academics, business leaders, and other maverick thinkers. At HIVERY, we are passionate about bringing to life new thinking, ideas and the technology behind them. We believe this can help change attitudes, lives, and ultimately the world.
HIVERY is pioneering hyper-local retailing by combining artificial intelligence, operations research and human-centered design models to help CPGs and retailers generate a return on physical retail space investment. From a societal perspective, HIVERY’s AI-driven recommendations are ultimately about allocating our planet's resources more optimally. We do this by simultaneously optimising and localising product, price, space, and promotions. Our applications use technology which originated in the laboratories of the CSIRO and its data innovation affiliate, Data61.
This podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Milena Salmon; created and directed by Franki Chamaki, HIVERY’s Co-founder and Head of Marketing & Design. Academia-focused episodes feature co-host Dr Alvaro Flores, Mathematician and Data Scientist at HIVERY.
In this episode of Retail Maverick, we bring you a webinar that we hosted with CMA|SIMA. The webinar delves into the transformative power of AI in retail with our expert panelists from HIVERY, Brian Ruhaak, and Cole Decker. Hosted by Mike Wilkening from CMA|SIMA, the webinar "Measuring Assortment Impact with AI: Strategy to Execution" explores how AI simplifies complex decision-making, transforming extensive datasets into actionable, low-risk execution plans. The team discusses how AI enhances strategic assortment and category planning, optimizes retail performance, and drives growth through advanced simulation and real-time KPI updates. Tune in to learn about the role of AI in revolutionizing retail, from strategy formulation to on-shelf execution.
Explore how AI solutions are revolutionizing the world of retail on the latest episode of Retail Maverick. Discover the incredible journey of a multinational grocer as it leverages AI to streamline planogram management, enhance in-store performance, and gain negotiation power with suppliers. Learn how AI-driven decisions are shaping the future of retail strategy and efficiency.
Discover how AI and HIVERY Curate transforms new product innovation in retail on the latest episode of Retail Maverick! Dive into a real-world use case where AI-powered insights enable precision in planning, operational efficiency, and even damage control. Learn how to confidently pitch new products to retail buyers backed by data-driven insights, reducing risk and increasing the likelihood of success. Tune in now for a glimpse into the future of retail!
The world of retail optimization comes to life in a dynamic conversation between Russ Hawkins of Agilence and Milena Salmon, host of HIVERY's Retail Maverick show. This podcast delves into the intricacies of the retail landscape and how retail data is reshaping the industry.
Listeners will gain insights into various facets of retail, from table service restaurants to grocery stores and specialty retail. Russ Hawkins discusses the unique challenges faced by different retail environments and the power of data analysis in addressing them.
Key takeaways from this podcast include:
Understanding Retail Diversity: Russ highlights the diversity within the retail industry, encompassing fast food, table service, grocery, self-ordering kiosks, and the consultative approach of specialty retail. Each sector has distinct data utilization needs.
Data Complexity: Russ explores why achieving effective inventory management is an incredibly complex challenge. It involves adapting to local preferences and aesthetics while optimizing distribution and seamlessly integrating online and physical retail.
Enhancing Customer Experience: Overall, listeners will better understand how data analysis is pivotal in enhancing customer experiences and operational efficiency across the retail spectrum.
This podcast provides a comprehensive understanding of the retail industry and how data can help businesses thrive in a constantly evolving market.
In this Retail Maverick Shorts episode, we delve into assortment management and the impact of deletions and additions to your product lineup. Discover how HIVERY Curate's advanced AI-driven insights empower retailers to make informed decisions, optimize their assortment, and enhance customer satisfaction. Key learnings include predictive analysis, risk mitigation, customer-centric approaches, and leveraging data-driven recommendations for strategic category management.
In this episode of Retail Maverick Shorts, we embark on a journey into the world of retail assortment strategy, guided by the power of "What If" scenarios and cutting-edge AI technology. Our expert host delves deep into how retailers and CPG suppliers can harness the flexibility and insights offered by AI-driven assortment strategies.
Listeners will discover the significance of adapting to ever-changing customer preferences, even within a single metro area, and why this flexibility is essential for retail success, especially when dealing with major retail chains like Walmart and Target. We explore how robust data analytics and AI can fine-tune assortment strategies, enabling retailers to make data-driven decisions.
The podcast delves into the capabilities of "What If" scenarios, showing how they allow retailers to simulate changes in packaging, pricing, and more, helping them make informed decisions before implementing changes. Learn how AI can support various retail teams, from Marketing to Sales, in identifying growth opportunities and optimizing assortments.
Discover the hidden gems in your retail assortment strategy with AI-driven insights. Join us to uncover the superpowers that "What If" scenarios can bring to the world of retail.
This Retail Maverick Shorts podcast episode focuses on Product Line Reviews (PLRs) and the role of AI, particularly HIVERY Curate, in overcoming common challenges.
PLRs, crucial for retailer-supplier collaboration, often suffer from transparency gaps, resource limitations for small suppliers, alignment dilemmas, and withheld information.
AI solutions like HIVERY Curate serve as a solution by using data to foster transparency, enabling real-time simulation of shopper strategies and outcomes. It aids small suppliers by understanding shoppers and highlighting products effectively. Acting as a retail GPS, it guides alignment by suggesting growth paths based on data-backed insights. With AI's assistance, collaborative scenario planning becomes possible, driving informed decisions.
The podcast highlights the transition towards data-driven solutions, where AI tools like HIVERY Curate initiate productive discussions, benefiting retailers, vendors, and shoppers alike.
In this episode, we're unveiling the transformative potential of AI tools like HIVERY Curate in driving growth strategies. Imagine predicting outcomes before taking action through scenario analysis. We will cover six (6) use cases specifically.
With AI, we explore diverse pathways and make informed decisions. Hyper-local assortment optimization takes center stage, crafting store-specific offerings that resonate with local shoppers.
AI transforms data into actionable insights, empowering proactive choices in buyer meetings. Embracing a holistic approach, AI aligns brand strategies with category dynamics, creating a rising tide of success for all. Sales teams are empowered with data-backed confidence, strengthening buyer relationships.
Join us as we unlock growth strategies and navigate the retail landscape with AI-powered precision. Tune in to Retail Maverick Shorts and witness the evolution of retail decision-making.
Discover the transformative Edge Assortments Strategy on Retail Maverick Shorts. In the dynamic realm of retail, AI-powered Edge assortments hold the key to optimizing revenue growth and operational efficiency. These strategic selections, identified through AI's data prowess, lie at the edges of traditional assortment plans, impacting business outcomes significantly. With a focus on just a handful of products within a larger assortment, Edge assortments have the potential to deliver impressive revenue gains, elevate consumer satisfaction, and offer a competitive edge. Join us as we explore AI's role in uncovering these hidden gems, empowering proactive decision-making, and facilitating retailer collaboration. The "trailing analysis" concept also shines light on refining future assortments. Tune in to understand how AI is revolutionizing assortment planning, aligning intuition with data science.
Listeners Will Learn:
- The concept of Edge Assortments Strategy and its significance in the retail landscape.
- How AI-driven analysis can uncover hidden value within the periphery of traditional assortment plans.
- The power of proactive decision-making and collaboration with retailers through scenario exploration.
- The role of "trailing analysis" in fine-tuning future assortments for optimal results.
Discover the captivating world of retail psychology in our latest episode of Retail Maverick Shorts. Unravel the mystery behind "Why shoppers lie" and delve into how cutting-edge AI technology erases the gap between what consumers say and what they do.
Traditional research methods often fall short as shoppers provide incomplete or aspirational responses, creating a challenge for retailers and CPG companies.
Join us as we explore the toothpaste aisle analogy, where stated preferences don't always translate into purchasing decisions. Learn from industry giants like Walmart, who emphasize the critical importance of accurately predicting consumer demand to maintain business success. We'll uncover how AI algorithms, fueled by store-level data, transform decision-making.
By adopting this store-specific approach, businesses can craft tailored assortment plans, unearth growth opportunities, and enhance the shopping experience. Tune in to Retail Maverick Shorts for an enlightening conversation that could reshape your retail strategy
Come and join Milena Salmon, the host of Retail Mavericks, and Penelope Murdoch, the Lead Design Manager at HIVERY, as they delve into the exciting realm of design, AI, and retail transformation. This fascinating conversation covers a range of topics, from taking a holistic approach to design to the shift from digital transformation to AI products. You'll gain valuable insights into the modern retail industry and its evolution.
By listening to this podcast, you will not only gain insight into what it's like working as a designer at HIVERY, but you will also learn:
1. How real-time insights can shape retail, allowing for shelf optimization and operational efficiency.
2. How the importance of a holistic design ensures that products align with the overall service offering and meet users' needs.
3. The unique challenges and opportunities in transitioning from traditional digital design to AI-driven products.
4. The vital role of collaboration, trust, and innovation within teams in fostering creativity and staying competitive.
Welcome to another episode of Retail Maverick Shorts, where we explore key topics in the retail industry.
In this episode, we uncover the importance of optimizing demand transfer at the store level. Traditional approaches relying on national demand transfer curves often overlook the unique dynamics of individual stores.
By leveraging AI and store-level data, retailers can accurately predict demand transfer patterns, minimize cannibalization, and maximize incrementality.
We'll dive into the significance of tailoring assortment strategies to specific stores, using the example of Walmart stores in Miami to illustrate the transformative impact of optimizing demand transfer.
Tune in to uncover why optimizing demand transfer at the store level matters for retail success.
In this episode, we delve into the 'Chameleon Effect' and its impact on consumer behavior across various retail environments. We explore how AI, combined with store-level data, can uncover subtle variations in shopper behavior and enable more effective strategies. This episode promises to shed light on the intricate relationship between stated consumer preferences, actual purchase decisions, and the imperative of retailer-specific strategies in the fast-paced retail landscape
We all know that the right assortment in the right space and in the right stores can drive the most value. Locally relevant planograms, while in theory, it may sound great; in practice, it can be very time-consuming, and complicated to achieve. This is where AI comes in.
Join Dirk Herdes, VP of Retail, and Jackie Wightman, Sales Director from HIVERY in thisCMA | SIMA 45 min hosted webinar to explore how AI is being used to rapidly (minutes not months) determine what is the most efficient cluster count while considering your category goals, merchandising constraints, and impact of demand transference. Fundamentally changing the way consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and retailers collaborate with regard to assortment and space decisions.
You will learn real practical examples:
- How AI is used to help build next-generation clusters using a bottoms-up approach
- How AI is used to quantify the economic opportunity (in volume and revenue) of any cluster count desired
- How AI ciphers new shopper profiles at the store level
- Finally, you will learn where the real power of AI comes in: The ability to take all the above analyses and rapidly iterate with different strategy simulations
Related content you might be interested in:
- Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions
- Guide - How AI Will Fuel Next-Gen Merchandising Decision Support Systems
- Whitepaper - Transferable demand with unparalleled accuracy inspired by GANs
In this episode of Retail Maverick Shorts, we explore a case study where hunches about shopper behavior, when validated with AI and data analytics, resulted in a transformative retail strategy. We discovered the revenue potential of tweaking pack sizes and transitioning products between different temperature zones. Our experiment led to a 13.7% increase in category revenue and a 9.4% surge for our client's brand. The outcome of our exploration underscores the power of intuition combined with AI in devising effective retail strategies, challenging traditional assumptions, and driving significant growth in the retail sector
Join us in this podcast episode of Retail Maverck as we delve into the intricacies of retail competition. Determining the best product prices involves a complex negotiation between manufacturers and retailers, each with unique considerations and limitations. Our latest blog post examines the dynamics of price negotiations, trade incentives, and their effects on consumer behavior. You'll gain insight into the challenges manufacturers face, the difficult choices they must make, and how AI can assist you in navigating this landscape. Find out more about retail strategy and price dynamics in this informative discussion.
Welcome back to another episode of Retail Maverick Shorts! Today's short, we will explore how leading CPG brands have leveraged AI capabilities to inform price pack architecture and optimize their product portfolios across multiple retailers. By leveraging store-level data, AI allows businesses to make informed decisions, enabling them to create locally relevant, efficiently merchandised, and operationally streamlined plans. This powerful tool has allowed CPG brands to optimize their portfolios across various retailers, making informed decisions that drive retail success. AI-driven models such as HIVERY Curate help businesses optimize their assortments and reduce supply chain complexities.
Welcome to Retail Maverick Shorts! In today's episode, we explore how Tyson Foods, a leading multinational food corporation, used AI to uncover an additional $1.5 million opportunity. Faced with the challenge of expanding new product innovations without negatively impacting established national brands in Target stores, Tyson Foods leveraged AI to simulate and compare different strategies. The AI-driven analysis helped rebalance their current portfolio, protecting their national brands in the frozen meat category while maximizing distribution for new products. This case study demonstrates the power of AI in navigating the complexities of category management and adapting to changing market dynamics. Listen in to learn how Tyson Foods achieved faster mutual alignment with Target and executed the optimal assortment strategy using AI.
In this podcast episode, a team discusses their work optimizing a shelf space for a new product line with the help of AI technology. The team applies merchandising constraints, such as "item pairing," to the shelf space to see the potential impact on revenue. The team runs five different scenarios to understand the impact of these constraints on revenue, focusing on item pairing in particular. The team discovered that applying product orientation and front-facing rules did not significantly impact revenue potential. The team highlights the importance of taking an insight-driven approach to analyzing multiple scenarios to create a final assortment strategy that meets necessary constraints while maximizing revenue potential. The team also emphasizes the power of AI technology in allowing for analyzing a greater number of scenarios and discovering new revenue opportunities.
In this episode of Retail Maverick Shorts, we explore the Assortment Planning Conundrum and how AI can help retailers strike the perfect balance between store clusters, store-level operations, and consumer-centric assortments. As customer demands variety and convenience continue to rise, retailers are faced with the challenge of meeting these demands while remaining operationally efficient. Hyper-local retailing is becoming increasingly important, and an AI-driven approach to assortment optimization can help retailers achieve a more effective and efficient balance. By analyzing store-level shopper data, retailers can bring consumer-centric assortments to life while meeting business goals and adhering to store-level and national-level constraints and merchandising rules.
In this Retail Maverick Shorts episode, the focus is on the Space Contribution Index, a critical metric in the field of assortment planning and optimization. The index measures the proportion of linear shelf space a product occupies relative to its sales performance, and achieving the perfect index value for each category at each store is no easy task. However, AI and advanced data analytics techniques can streamline the process by providing a more granular and accurate picture of product assortment optimization, leading to better decision-making and more effective shelf space allocation. This podcast discusses how AI algorithms can help retailers and suppliers build stronger relationships and gain a competitive edge by providing actionable insights at the store level.
In this episode of Retail Maverick Shorts, we explore how AI is transforming the process of category planning and cluster design in grocery stores. With the ability to simulate the impact of retailer requests and optimize clusters at the store level, AI can significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of the reset process. This ultimately results in planograms that better reflect shoppers' needs and preferences, leading to increased sales and a better customer experience.
With a growing list of SKUs, limited shelf space, different store characteristics, constraints, and current supply chain challenges, Merchants and Category Managers are increasingly under pressure to get assortment and planograms right and deliver them quickly.
HIVERY is working with the top 25 to 50 CPG brands and in over 100 retail categories - all this and in just a few years. So, it is safe to say we have learned much over the years working with some amazing companies. This webinar will review the top 5 pain points we always see and how HIVERY Curate's AI offering has solved them in minutes.
Hear fromChadd Murphy, Analytic Consultant, and Lance Lockwood, Category Analyst with HIVERY, along with Jackie Lewis, VP of Content and Member Engagement from CMA | SIMA; as they work us through those Top 5 Pain Points faced by Merchants and Category Managers Face and learn how AI (and HIVERY Curate) can solve them quickly.
Related content you might be interested in* Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Guide - How AI Will Fuel Next-Gen Merchandising Decision Support Systems * Webinar: Leveraging AI towards locally relevant shelves: Why data has a better idea about your store clusters
Simulating Merchandising Decisions with AI - Deliver Relevant, Store-Specific SKU Selections with Progressive Grocer
One of the biggest value drivers for retailers is rapidly deciding and delivering store-specific SKU selection, space allocation, and planograms at scale. However, the industry continues to struggle with harnessing diverse datasets and AI-driven analytics to unlock this opportunity.
Today's retailers have a tremendous opportunity to create a competitive advantage by delivering locally relevant and effectively merchandised shelves with new AI approaches with simple interfaces. Fueling improved financial performance while simultaneously driving significant internal operational efficiencies.
Join Scott Anderson, Chief Revenue Officer, along with Dirk Herdes, VP of Retail, at HIVERY, along with Lynn Petrak,the Senior Editor at Progressive Grocer walkthrough:
- How grocers can quantify the financial outcome of any assortment decisions and rapidly execute the best merchandising strategy at the store-level.
- Why merchandising teams, category management, and shopper insight professionals no longer need to rely on data science teams to deliver optimal store-specific SKU selections and planograms?
- Real examples of hyper-local retail strategies simulated by new approaches AI to support rapid merchandising decisions and execution.
Related content you might be interested in* Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Guide - How AI Will Fuel Next-Gen Merchandising Decision Support Systems * Shelf relevance: a revolutionary approach to assortment planning and execution * Webinar: Leveraging AI towards locally relevant shelves: Why data has a better idea about your store clusters
In this webinar (converted to a podcast) hosted by Category Management Association; IDC’s Jon Duke, Vice President of Research and Retail Insights, and HIVERY's John Showalter, VP of Client Services, discuss the coming merchandising challenges for retailers and CPGs as well as the next generation of software solutions that help solve them. As investment in AI in retail accelerates, and its adoption increases, we are rapidly moving from the future-focused, more-visionary-than-practical approach into a world where next-gen tools deliver practical value.
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services. IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, and services for clients.
Jon Duke, IDC's Vice President of Research and Retail Insights
Jon leads the Intelligent Product Merchandising and Marketing Strategies practice and is responsible for delivering IDC Retail Insights’ authoritative perspective on how retailers can leverage technology solutions to achieve key operational, tactical, and strategic objectives across merchandising and marketing functions. Jon provides global, fact-based, retailer-driven research and analysis that IT buyers and merchant users can use to gain an advantage. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services. IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, and services for clients.
John Showalter, HIVERY’s VP of Client ServicesJohn is a seasoned category management and shopper insights professional with 30+ years of experience. John has held senior roles at Kellogg, Bayer, The Coca-Cola Company, and Red Bull driving business outcomes and capabilities in Category Insights, Shopper Research, and Insights, Space Planning as well as Training and Capabilities. He is a CMA Certified Professional Strategic Advisor and has worked on CMA's Evolution of Category Management in an Omnichannel World project.
Related content you might be interested in * Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Guide - How AI Will Fuel Next-Gen Merchandising Decision Support Systems * Whitepaper - Transferable demand with unparalleled accuracy inspired by GANs
In this webinar (converted to a podcast) hosted by Category Management Association; IDC’s Jon Duke, Vice President of Research and Retail Insights, and HIVERY's John Showalter, VP of Client Services, discuss the coming merchandising challenges for retailers and CPGs as well as the next generation of software solutions that help solve them. As investment in AI in retail accelerates, and its adoption increases, we are rapidly moving from the future-focused, more-visionary-than-practical approach into a world where next-gen tools deliver practical value.
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services. IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, and services for clients.
Jon Duke, IDC's Vice President of Research and Retail Insights
Jon leads the Intelligent Product Merchandising and Marketing Strategies practice and is responsible for delivering IDC Retail Insights’ authoritative perspective on how retailers can leverage technology solutions to achieve key operational, tactical, and strategic objectives across merchandising and marketing functions. Jon provides global, fact-based, retailer-driven research and analysis that IT buyers and merchant users can use to gain an advantage. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services. IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, and services for clients.
John Showalter, HIVERY’s VP of Client ServicesJohn is a seasoned category management and shopper insights professional with 30+ years of experience. John has held senior roles at Kellogg, Bayer, The Coca-Cola Company, and Red Bull driving business outcomes and capabilities in Category Insights, Shopper Research, and Insights, Space Planning as well as Training and Capabilities. He is a CMA Certified Professional Strategic Advisor and has worked on CMA's Evolution of Category Management in an Omnichannel World project.
Related content you might be interested in * Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Guide - How AI Will Fuel Next-Gen Merchandising Decision Support Systems * Whitepaper - Transferable demand with unparalleled accuracy inspired by GANs
Melissa Mann, former Procter & Gamble Senior Category Development Account Executive, talks to Milena Salmon from Retail Mavericks about the idea behind store clustering, the challenges category development teams face, and why providing assortment relevance and efficiency is now becoming extremely difficult as more data, merchandising constraints, and category goals grow.
In this podcast, we will cover:
- What is store clustering?
- Why do retailers and CPGs companies do this?
- What are the challenges with store clustering?
- Four (4) ways AI can help address these challenges and provide store cluster strategies that are locally relevant and effectively merchandised.
Designed for front-line users in sales, marketing, and category management, in this podcast you will learn how Machine Learning (ML) and Operations Research (OR) models are being used to augment traditional tasks from category strategy to planogram creation - all in minutes, not months.
Scott and Zach share some of the best practices on how CPG manufacturers are leveraging next-generation ML and OR models to:
• Simulate where new items will earn distribution in retailers down to the store level;
• Maximize revenue by optimizing your brand portfolio at the store level to create space for new innovation and high performing items;
• Quantify the success of existing brands and new items.
Presented by Scott Anderson, Chief Revenue Officer, and Zach Simpson, Customer Success Director, at HIVERY.
Related content you might be interested in: * Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Guide - Assortment, Simulation, Optimization & AI * Whitepaper - Transferable demand with unparalleled accuracy inspired by GANs
To fully leverage the value contained in data, CPG companies and retailers need to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Machine Learning (ML), into their retail planning and execution processes. We need to transition from a data-driven world to an AI-driven world. A world that can help us augment human judgment as simply as Google Maps does today.
With the proliferation of AI/ML capabilities in our business and lives, we are now able to get closer to understanding the impact of every decision before making that decision. In this fascinating webinar, HIVERY will explore how AI/ML is being used to simulate the impact of human judgment both in our industry and beyond.
You will learn how AI/ML:
- Is used to augment and qualify human decisions
- Can find the right balance of risk and reward for different retail growth strategies; all at store-level
- Can rapidly and iteratively simulate different strategies to achieve your growth plans
Presented by Heather Martin, Vice President of Sales at HIVERY, and Jackie Wightman, Sales Director at HIVERY
Related content you might be interested in * Guide - How AI-Driven Assortment Simulation Will Change Assortment Planning * Report - IDC Research: Next-Gen Merchandising Solutions * Whitepaper - Transferable demand with unparalleled accuracy inspired by GANs
Steven Soderlund is a ten-year practitioner of category management and has worked with brands like Church & Dwight Co. and American Greetings. He is currently an analytical consultant at HIVERY and a board advisor to Category Management Association, or CMA - a professional association with a mission to help shopper insights and category management professionals worldwide to win with shoppers by developing processes and standardized documents for the industry.
In this podcast, we will cover: • How category management (Cat Man) practice has evolved from Cat Man 2.0 to now Cat Man 3.0, and what it means for category analysts, category management and shopper insight professionals; • Impact of the growing channels such as e-commerce and omnichannel on decisions category managers have to make around assortment, and how customer decision tree (CDT)varies between categories, retailers and channels; • Why in the pre-pandemic world the shoppers were relatively predictable but in the post-pandemic world it has changed and now requires a new approach; • Today's predictive retail analytics are not working, what solution can retailers and CPG brands rely on and use to make effective assortment and category decisions? • How do artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions like HIVERY Curate make a difference to assortment planning and category decisions? • Should retailers and CPG brands be concerned about the accuracy of AI-driven assortment recommendations? • How does applied artificial intelligence and machine learning actually make assortment predictions when it comes to such things as SKU innovation or new product development when data does not exist? • Can artificial intelligence and machine learning understand economic concepts like assortment elasticity, cannibalization, incrementality and demand transference?
Meet Michael Haase: Michael is the CEO and Founder of Plant Jammer, Denmark-based company with the mission to educate and inspire 1 billion people to eat sustainably in their homes.
In this podcast you will learn: • How and why Michael started www.plantjammer.com, a dynamic way to engage your retail shoppers with recipes; • How AI is being applied to food recipes to help shoppers and retailers. • Why food recipes on retailers' websites can generate a win-win: a win for shoppers as well as a win for retailers with one line of code; • What effect the demand for recipes can have on retailer's assortment; • and more.
Discover new emerging retail risks and why even the biggest retailers continue to face inventory management challenges.
Meet Brand Elverston: Brand is the Founder/Principal at Elverston Consulting. He is a senior strategic advisor providing upper leadership consultative services in retail technologies. Brand specialises in disruptive, non-traditional technology integration, large scale development and implementation and technology identification. Brand is one-of-a-kind leader in the retail industry. And if you like this podcast, you must get Brand's new book: Proclivity: It’s more intuitive than you think, resist making it hard. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096Z5TWTT/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1623774186&sr=8-1
In this podcast you will learn: • Why "new retail disruptors" are going to be those that can give intelligence around inventory. This is a competitive imperative, it's not an advantage.
• What emerging risks that are invisible at the moment retailers are facing as the new normal takes its effect. For example, with decline in human interaction and traffic in physical stores due to Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) and mobile checkout, discovery opportunities and cross sell opportunities are reduced.
• What new technologies retailers should be investing in and integrating in order to meet new shopping habits of the "frictionless" shoppers. Conventional legacy technologies in store today will not do.
• Why retailers are relying on technology suppliers to bring new innovations? Why some retailers who traditionally have not built their own physical technology are starting to use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms?
• What new, smarter technologies in retail are being developed to help with risk mitigation.
• Why AI/machine learning models really "force multipliers", accelerating everything inside the retail box and more.
Are consumers rational really? How does this impact shopper insights, category management, marketing and future AI models? In this podcast, Dr Gerardo Berbeglia, Associate Professor of Operations, shares his views and predictions.
Meet Dr Gerardo Berbeglia:
Dr Berbeglia specialises in Operations Research, Game Theory, Transport Optimisation, Revenue Management, Pricing Optimisation, Impact of Social Influence In Markets. Gerardo’s research has been published in leading journals and conference proceedings, including Transportation Science, INFORMS Journal on Computing, European Journal of Operational Research, Operations Research Retters, ACM conference on Economics and Computation (EC), Conference on Web and Internet Economics (WINE) and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. His recent research focuses on revenue management and quantitative models that account for social influence in online markets (such as iTunes or Google Play). Gerardo teaches Operations, Optimisation and Decision Making, and Supply Chain Analytics on the MBA programs and Master of Business Analytics program.
In this podcast you will learn: • What Operations Research and Optimisation is about and how most of the models used today assume one thing: consumers are rational!
• How can statistics explain consumer choice? Dr Berbeglia is working on new models to help predict what consumers will choose given certain events or triggers. This research has applications for policy marketers, category management and shopper insights professionals.
• Does social influence impact consumer choice? Dr Berbeglia illustrates, for example, how popularity of media can influence consumer rationality and hence choice.
• What new consumer rationality experiments are being performed by Dr Berbeglia in his labs. One interest is "the compromise effect". The effort that dictates that a consumer will choose a middle option over a given set of choice alternatives as it's easier to justify that choice, it reduces cognitive dissonance and loss aversion.
• Another phenomenon Dr Berbeglia is exploring is the "the decoy effect", the effort going into consumer choice when the third option is presented against existing two options.
• Dr Berbeglia talks about applications and effects of these models from choice of COVID19 vaccine to organ donation to retail and assortment, category and merchandising planning.
• Hear what Dr Berbeglia thinks about how these consumer choice models will be used in machine learning and AI models in the future.
Interesting further reading and watching:
• Compromise effect and consideration set size in consumer decision-making, Jaewon Yoo, Hyunsik Park & Wonjoon Kim https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504851.2017.1340567
• The decoy effect: how you are influenced to choose without really knowing it, Gary Mortimer, Associate Professor in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology https://theconversation.com/the-decoy-effect-how-you-are-influenced-to-choose-without-really-knowing-it-111259
• Dr Dan Ariely classic experiment Pricing the Economist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOhb4LwAaJk
Based in Bentonville, Arkansas, Jeff Ireland ex Coke, Newell Brands and IRI talks about the challenges and future of category management analytics.
With 18 years in category management, Jeff Ireland is an Analytic Consultant at HIVERY. Before HIVERY Jeff was the Senior Manager of the Category Strategy and Analytics Team at The Coca-Cola Company focusing on the creation of revolutionary AI products deployed at Walmart. This was HIVERY Curate. So, Jeff decided to leave Coke to join HIVERY to continue to bring this revolutionary solution to retailers and CPGs.
During Coke, Jeff was the Category Advisor to Walmart in the sports drinks category where he focused on helping provide effective store level space recommendations for Walmart. Jeff also worked at Retail Solutions Inc. as a Senior Product Manager and Senior Analytical Consultant as well as at Newell Brands as a Category Advisor.
In this podcast you will learn: • 2:00 - 7:02: What current challenges are faced by the category management discipline. Key insight is how time consuming and extremely labour intensive the process is as well as variability from team to team and time to time.
• Why the industry has limited to clusters planograms generation and how this generates an average of averages approach. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=2:00
• 7:03 - 10:15: How artificial intelligence/machine learning techniques have been solving for these category management challenges: speed in delivery, speed in category strategy simulation, running unlimited tests and what-if scenarios, and optimising for them. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=7:03
• 10:16 - 14:54: The shifts in category management: from clusters based on averages to clusters based on store-level analysis and insights.
• What "space-assortment aware" means and how it is applied at HIVERY. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=10:15
• 16:12 - 22:25: What the most common constraints or business rules are used by retailers or CPGs before building planograms. For instance, shopper safety and global deletes or additions, forcing in new products or minimising assortment churn. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=16:11
• 22:25 - 24:35: How a machine learning model is used to challenge these constraints or business rules by running different and rapid scenarios. For example, if you removed a particular SKU or brand, it would present the outcome of those scenarios. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=22:25
• 24:36 - 29:57: What the benefits of store-level analysis are for any cluster dimension or count you use. https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/jeff-ireland#t=22:25
Future of retail is here: from in-store flying-blimps, shelf edge messaging, computer vision, robotics, smart checkouts to hyper local assortments.
Ken is the President of Research & Advisory at Coresight Research, which delivers data-driven insights at the intersection of retail and technology. Coresight provides leading retailers, brands, technology companies, and investors with insights, advice, and tools to anticipate change and profit from the disruption reshaping the global retail landscape. Coresight has offices in the US, China, Europe, and India.
Ken is a leading expert on omni-channel retail, subscription e-commerce, retail innovation, and loyalty. He regularly speaks at industry events including Shoptalk, Groceryshop, FMI, and with the media, including CNN, CNBC, BBC, NPR, Inc., and Forbes.
Ken was previously a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company. He led Consumer Markets for Fuel, McKinsey’s startup practice, where his clients included subscription, DTC, marketplace, and retail tech companies. He also served leading retailers, brands, and private equity firms on loyalty, personalization, and the future of retail.
In this podcast you will learn:
• What new retail trends we can expect to stick and which ones are temporary and would go back to what they were pre-COVID. Specifically, Ken shares interesting insights into reimagining how the stores will evolve and what it means for brick and mortar retail.
• The research that is being completed by Coresight around economic benefits of assortment localisation and what it means for both retailers and CPG companies.
• Ken shares his predictions regarding what stores of the future would look like and challenges some of the old assumptions we often hold as true. Some surprising insights.
• Who is experimenting with such things as in-store flying-blimps, shelf edge personalised messaging, computer vision, robotics, smart check out, and hyper local assortments.
• How technologies such as AI and AR are being used by retailers, and how latent demand will change the way we predict shopper demand.
• Interesting startups who are bringing amazing innovation to retail spaces from USA to Israel to Australia.
Can previous consumers and their star rating/feedback really influence our buying decision? Find out the truth.
Felipe Maldonado is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory, Applied Mathematics, and Market Design. In his latest research, he covers the scientific approach to determine how social influence can impact demand and demand predictions. Felipe also provides his insight on how social influence can impact new product innovation and launch a new product into the market.
In September 2019 Felipe graduated with his doctorate degree from the School of Computer Science at ANU. During his 4 years there, Felipe has worked in the Computational Media Lab and was also part of CSIRO/Data61. Since October 2019, Felipe has been working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Munich in the Decision Sciences & Systems at the Department of Informatics.
What you will learn from this podcast: • Decision science in retail. Felipe investigates how consumers make choices in online marketplaces (i.e Amazon)and the key features (e.g. product display, order, and ranking).
• The effects of online social influencer signals and how previous buyers, their star rating and comments influence buying decisions.
• Demand predictions and how it impacts decisions on what to put in stores (regardless online or offline).
• This opens up the question: can social influencers (i.e rating and feedback) be a more effective demand signal (hence, demand prediction tool) than traditional demand signals like seasonality? How can brand managers and category management professionals leverage this model to impact the likelihood of success of new product releases? What strategies can product brand managers and category management professionals leverage when their new products have no social proofing yet? Should product brands and marketers invest more of their funds into contacting external social influencers and get them to review a new product, seed ratings, and influence future online shoppers?
• You can download and read Felipe's research "Modelling consumer behaviour in the presence of network effects" here: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/200952/1/thesis_submission_Felipe_Maldonado.pdf
Dan is a CPG Industry professional with Experience in Headquarter Support, Product Development, Category/Brand Strategies, Retailer Dedicated Sales Support, Account Management, Team Development, and Coaching. In his 10+ years with Nestle USA, he has worked closely with almost every major grocer and mass retailer in the US including Walmart, Target, Albertson’s/Safeway, Publix, HEB, and Meijer.
Dan’s passion lies in his leading and developing the future leaders in the CPG industry on how to think differently and always keep one eye focused on what the next big trend or consumer disruption in the industry will be. He also strives to consistently help retailers elevate their thinking above the day to day category management, and take action on national trends within the confines of their retail brand, and strategy. As a father of 2, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, is a self-proclaimed foodie, sports junkie, and travel aficionado.
What you will learn from this podcast: • What next-generation shoppers are looking for on the supermarket and grocery store shelves. Dan advises on how category management should prepare for this change.
• How can category management professionals get better at predicting in a world of constant change? Dan sheds light on the shopper behavior during the Super Bowl. What happens if there are no games or the game happens at a different scheduled date and time? What alternative product categories will be impacted and need to be considered? How does this impact no social gathering and tailgating at the football game? What other "stay-at-home" products will be demanded instead? How does it impact food spoilage? Dan answers all of these questions.
• How companies prepare for key events, competition moves, and retail reaction. Hint: "war games" scenarios. Is there a way to see the impact of each scenario? As a side note, HIVERY Curate can allow users to easy model these scenarios in the AI engine to present the impact at category, SKU or brand levels or by distribution such as by cluster store or store-specific levels.
• Dan shares useful tactics and insights on how CPG manufactures and retailers can enhance shopper expectations and maintain retailer relationships. Dan talks through a fascinating story about how intelligence on shoppers can transform your sales. Make sure you listen to the "Target store and sales of multi-serve meals" story.
• How CPGs and retailers can address the "The Paradox of Choice" and why sometimes less is actually more.
• How data science can help with better predictions by looking at the relationship with seasonal events such as hurricane season and impact on category assortment.
• How forecasting is currently done. Generally, there are several different business groups involved. It all starts with the account team who are closest to the customer. They factor in key events such as promotions and allow other internal teams (i.e. demand planning and supply chain) to add their view. This can be a very intense and time consuming process but generally works well until an event that has not been planned occurs. Responding to change can be an extreme challenge. As a side note again, HIVERY Curate helps. Rapid scenario planning can be conducted to quickly inform new strategy and articulate it to all stakeholder groups.
• Dan finally covers what he believes the future of category management is. With the increase in online purchasing, Dan talks to us about the need to have an optimized omnichannel strategy. While shopper convenience (i.e. delivery, in-store pick-up, curbside pick-up) and choice are good, it leads to additional costs. Dan shares a few real examples (Walmart, Kroger) and discusses best practices.
In this podcast, Mark explains the science of optimization methods; the science of finding the best alternative from many alternatives. From wars, supply chain distribution to bakers and their bread to real category optimization.
Mark Lawrenson has graduated with honours in mathematical applications and computations from The Australian National University and was previously a researcher at CSIRO/Data61, the world's leading Australian research and data science agency. At HIVERY Mark is the product lead of HIVERY Curate - the world’s first truly hyper-local category management solution. Mark has several patents under his name and has published many research papers, namely "A model-based genetic algorithm framework for constrained optimization problems" where he presents a new hybrid optimization framework that can be used to solve constrained optimization problems differently.
What you will learn from this podcast: • When optimization or applied mathematics was first used to solve real-world problems. We go back to 1947 and George B. Dantzig, when not only the first computer program was written but also new applied mathematics methods were invented, now called linear programming.
• The fascinating world of Applied Mathematics. Mark breaks down everything from Operations Research, Linear Programming (using 1 and 0.5 as inputs), Complete Methods (solving problems optimally), Heuristic Methods (solving problems faster although not always optimally), and Genetic Algorithms (inspired by nature's way of optimizing) to relatively modern methods like Integer Linear Programming (using 0, 1 or 2 as inputs). These methods have previously advanced the military to optimize the distribution of weaponry. Now, these methods are used by commercial industries and have found their way into category management to ensure the right products are in the right, specific shelf space at the right, specific store.
• Mark goes deep into explaining his fascinating research: "A model-based genetic algorithm framework for constrained optimisation problems"; and his new framework that solves real-world problems differently and more efficiently.
• Why HIVERY Curate (formally HIVERY Propel) is different to any other planogram category management optimization solution out there. Mark explains how he has applied and combined optimization techniques (i.e. how much of product X to put on that specific shelf in that specific store) with machine learning methods (what product to put (X or Y or Z) on that specific shelf in that specific store) along with the secret ingredient; the constraints that make HIVERY Curate category recommendations realistic and implementable at a store-level.
• If you are interested in learning about how our world can be run more efficiently, love maths and solving real-world problems. This is a must-listen.
Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-lawrenson/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3067695.3076041 https://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/may25/dantzigobit-052505.html
With 20+ years of retail experience, Zach Simpson is the Director of Customer Success and Sales at HIVERY and the Founder of Relevance Retail, an innovative service and strategy platform simplifying the omni-channel commerce evolution for suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and technology service providers.
What you will learn from this podcast: • Zach's career journey from baseball to Walmart to his own company and HIVERY. Zach shares his insights into the lack of advancement of retail technology during this journey in category management.
• Zach explores the "snowflake" effect of product categories and space; how each store is so different (as a snowflake), yet when it comes to space assortment, the retail industry continues treating each store and their SKU supply the same.
• Why Zach, after over 11 years at Walmart with titles like Frozen Food Senior Buyer, Merchandising Director, and VP of Beverages Merchandising decided to "jump ship" to HIVERY, a young AI startup?
• Zach provides a sneak preview of product innovation at HIVERY; and how customers play a critical role in this process.
•. Zach dives into key problem sets faced by a wide retail segment from wholesale networks to traditional grocery stores in space, assortment, and category scenario planning.
• Lastly, Zach gives career advice and shares his insights into personal and professional development, innovating from within and facilitating change.
The future of retail robotics: from out of stocks, promotional price tags and display compliance to seeing hazards and potentially smelling freshness
Tim Rowland is CEO of Badger Technologies, a product division of Jabil - a $26 billion technology and supply chain solutions global company. Badger Technologies provides actionable data and analytics for retail operations through automation solutions that include a fully autonomous robot to address out-of-stocks, planogram compliance, price integrity, and other operational inefficiencies.
What you will learn from this podcast: • Why getting the right product at the right price and in the right amount is becoming more and more difficult for both CPG manufacturers and retailers. Listen to how Badger Technologies and robotics are solving this through "seeing".
• Tim explores the concept of "hidden products" - products that are not "shown" in the correct manner on shelves - as well as "hidden price promotions". Promotions are often delayed due to the slow process of getting the actual new sales tag on the shelf or the reverse, with sale promotion tags hung for too long and appearing out of date. With robotic technologies like Badger, old challenges can be addressed effectively.
• How robotics can not only assess the status of products on the shelf and price promotion compliance but also help grocery stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets assess floors for spills and hazardous conditions. This helps both shoppers and retail staff encouraging visits and ensuring stores are both clean and safe.
• More interestingly, some larger supermarkets and discount stores are using robotics to assess promotional display compliance in aisles ensuring that every marketing dollar is spent accordingly. Display compliance gives CPG manufacturers an "eye" on what is happening in-store and potentially issues contractual penalties for retailers' non-compliance.
• Tim also covers the challenges in having robots in supermarket stores and implications of human traffic and their advantages: an ability to scan 40,000 individual store products, responding to hazardous conditions, promotional compliance - all in around 3 hours!
• Will robots replace supermarket workers? Tim shares his views on robots and the human labour force; you will be surprised with his insight.
• We close with a fascinating view of future robotics in retail stores. Can robots sense "freshness" and ensure our fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy are about to expire?
Meet Dr Katrijn Gielens,
Her research focuses on the dynamics in digital and brick-and-mortar retailing and relationships between retailers and brand manufacturers. She teaches courses in retailing and channel management.
Her work has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM), Journal of Consumer Research and Marketing Science.
For two papers she received the long-term impact award from the American Marketing Association. She also received a nomination for the Paul E. Green Award and the Shelby D. Hunt/Harold H. Maynard Award. Two other articles received the IJRM Best Article Award. She serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of International Marketing. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Retailing and the International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Dr. Gielens edited “Handbook of Research on Retailing” (Edward-Elgar Publishing, 2018). The book offers insights and advice on the major shifts in the retailing landscape caused by the digital marketing revolution.
She has worked extensively with business practitioners, both retailers and brand manufacturers. Her work has received substantial media attention, both nationally and internationally, and she is often consulted by the media to comment on significant retail events.
She received her PhD in applied economics from Catholic University Leuven. She also received her MS in applied economics and a degree in applied economic science, both summa cum laude, from Catholic University Leuven.
In this podcast episode we explore: • What "convenience" means in retail in the digital era (and pandemic). Gone are the days when convenience was about pre-packaged "TV dinners"; today the scope of convenience is expanded to searching for the right products, getting the right price, and having them delivered to your door - right here, right now.
• The issues around retailing, especially around assortment planning. How can you introduce new products while balancing existing and considering new retail experiences, services and space?
• Great strategies for retailers to consider to navigate these unprecedented times.
• Hyper-personalisation and whether it is legal when it comes to prices.
• What does assortment planning mean? A large assortment range can bring large diverse groups to your store. However, you then face the challenge to decide what assortment and how much of it is needed. You need to curate the store carefully. You don't want your consumers to experience "choice overload" nor out of stocks. Dr. Gielens covers the balancing act of attracting traffic into the store (large assortment to attract) and initiating conversation (right assortment to buy). The key word you will hear in this podcast is "curate". This is why leveraging new technologies such as AI can help retailers put the right assortment in their stores.
• Lastly, Dr. Gielens shared some good resources for further reading.
Meet Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru®
For more than 25 years, Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products, and the changing retail landscape, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies worldwide. Known as The Supermarket Guru®, Lempert is a distinguished author and speaker who alerts customers and business leaders to emerging consumer and corporate trends and empowers them to make educated purchasing and marketing decisions. As one of America’s leading consumer trend-watchers and analysts, Phil Lempert is recognized on television, radio, and in print.
In this podcast, you will learn about: • Emerging trends in the supermarkets: in light COVID-19, what will stay and what will change? How would masks, curbside pickup, online shopping, and home delivery change the supermarket experience? What should retailers and supermarkets focus on to generate the revenue needed to continue to operate? Will large assortment offerings still be around?
• Pre-COVID-19 the average American went 2.2 times a week to buy groceries and spent around 22 mins on every shopping trip. Now the average American goes once a week, in and out as quickly as possible. Given the average American consumer spends $5,400 per year* on unanticipated and impulse purchases, what does the new consumer shopping behavior mean to retailers?
• What technology are retailers and supermarkets investing in today? How will "space" in the post-COVID-19 world begin to be leveraged? Will we see more ghost supermarkets: stores transfer existing spaces only to fulfill online orders?
• How hard is it for CPGs to get their products on supermarket shelves as space and range are being re-examined completely? With the category "resets" happening just twice a year, the future of product availability and variety is at risk. Phil believes while the online assortment range can cater for over 40 thousand products, physical stores will see a reduction to 20 or even 15 thousand products! This means that optimizing space and assortment at a store-specific level is going to be even more critical.
• How can retailers thrive in the new normal? Phil shares powerful insights into what retailers and supermarkets should do to prepare, especially around assortment planning. Spoiler alert! Zip Code assortment specific recommendations. "Gone are the days of the same assortment in all stores."
• Is the category advisory under threat? Will it still be around? Phil believes retailers are no longer relying on CPGs for category planning. Instead, they are turning to science and technology as it becomes smarter and more accessible.
• Finally, Phil covers his predictions on what changes to expect in the supermarket and other retail spaces: from aging truck driver force to product and store consolidation to indoor farming...
Resources: * https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/consumers-cough-up-5400-a-year-on-impulse-purchases.html
Connect with Phil Lempert: https://www.supermarketguru.com Farm, Food, Facts podcast: http://farmfoodfacts.buzzsprout.com Lost in the Supermarket podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/lost-in-the-supermarket/id1043272062?mt=2 Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/watch/WinsightGroceryBusiness/2655684358020751
Josh Flannery is an entrepreneur with a track record of 16+ years and a connector of many kinds. Josh's passion lies in connecting people, organizations, and experiences in an effort to solve the world's problems by unleashing entrepreneurship. This podcast is for anyone interested in learning about entering the Japanese market, becoming an entrepreneur, or drinking sake; yes, sake.
In this podcast, we will cover: • Josh gives amazing insights into what it takes to expand a startup to Japan. The importance of starting off with proof points in your own country, improving your offering, and only then going outside of your home country. It's the same approach HIVERY took when it was founded in 2015. In fact, it was around late 2017 when HIVERY started to get traction in Japan and then opened up an office in late 2018. As Josh put it, "build credibility locally...", then go overseas.
• Josh provides tips on how to leverage credibility via simple tools of 'case studies'. Case studies are real stories about how your solution helps a specific customer in a specific industry overcome their problems by using your solution. It generally covers the challenge a customer faced, your approach to addressing the challenge, and the results. Generally speaking, at HIVERY we like to start with media release followed by case studies. It's a good way to build awareness before moving a potential customer down the pipeline of the buyer's journey when releasing the case study. Josh provides a tip in developing a case study to ensure it's localised to the Japanese market.
• Localisation of products and services is critical to getting traction in an overseas market. Josh talks about the aspect of going 'local'. HIVERY's vending solution, HIVERY Enhance, had to be customised to cater to the Japanese vending machine market, including developing new algorithms to consider the impact of hot and cold beverages.
• According to Josh, there are three important things to consider when entering the Japanese market (and applicable to most Asia-based counties): 1)Learn the market well, 2)Partner where possible, and 3)Customize your offering.
• Josh also shares important tips to young entrepreneurs looking to start new ventures, including 1)How to create a killer pitch, 2)The difference between types of accelerator programs, 3)How much equity should you give up, and more.
• Along the way we will learn more about Josh's career from UNSW innovation programs to NSW Government to Rainmaking Japan. Josh shares his perspective on working with the government. He addresses the reasoning behind a common preconception of the government being "slow"; it is about reducing one thing: risk to all parties.
• Lastly, and more interestingly, we get into the fascinating world of Sake - a Japanese drink that is made by fermenting rice. Josh is actually an expert.
Resources: You can read the book chapter "What Makes a Global Business Model?" co-authored by the host, Milena Salmon (nee Troshkova) here: shorturl.at/vV346
Flora Delaney, a Senior Executive with 25+ years experience in the Retail, Marketing, Consumer Research and Information Services industries and author of RETAIL The Second-Oldest Profession. In this podcast, Flora shares her deep experience in Category Management, Productivity and Merchandising, and the future of retailing including AI and supply chain changes.
In this podcast we will cover: • Who is Flora Delaney, and why is she most sought after by consumer package brands (CPGs) and retailers?
• Seven principles that every CPG and retailer needs to know. This is a powerful framework to allow you to think about different dimensions of retailing.
• The value of curating assortment for stores. This is not just about giving customers what they want. It's about providing a store experience that engages, delights and fosters revisits. As Flora says, "Riches are in the niches." This means giving customers what they want in that specific store in that specific time.
• Flora deep dives into the "war for customers" between CPGs and retailers. Who really "owns" the customer? Who owns the relationship between the two? Will we see CPGs going after customers more directly using online and offline delivery channels? Can they delight and surprise customers?
• How to drive more out of category assortment optimising between the core brands vs surprise & delight brands? While core brands generate store traffic, surprise & delight brands can foster impulse buying (because they are unplanned) and increase shoppers' baskets.
• What is happening with AI in retail and category management? Flora shares her view and why "cluster" assortment segmentation just does not work. Each store is unique and should be treated that way to surprise and delight shoppers.
• Given her background, Flora also explores space management and believes there is a huge opportunity to bring innovation. For nothing has evolved since the era of Y2K and any innovation has been "incrementalism" rather than disruptive and revolutionary. It is one of the reasons why Flora agreed to be on the podcast. She thinks what HIVERY is doing will evolve the industry for the better.
At HIVERY, merchandising, space management and promotion sit at the core of how we help our retailers and CPGs clients. Using artificial intelligence and operation research, we help our customers with unprecedented hyper-local retailing advantages.
The future of trade promotion optimization is here, but can an AI approach, with all the complexity of creating a promotional calendar, really work? Melinda Wienand, a Revenue Management professional, talks about it and offers some thoughtful career advice in the process.
In this podcast we will cover: • How it is important to partner with stakeholders such as sales teams to show them the power of new analytics and its ability to transform the business and relationships.
• New trends in the food and retail industry: personalisation, convenience, and digitalisation. How understanding your customer at a granular level while leveraging data with analytics can help determine product resilience in unprecedented times.
• Learn what led to Mel's decision to look for a better way in trade promotion creation and the birth of HIVERY Promote: 3-year research & development partnership.
• Learn what it's like working in a relatively new field of Revenue Management; juggling time vs stakeholders' needs all the while determining the ideal promotional strategy. Mel shares how she was often limited in time to explore different promotional scenarios to determine the best action to take. She explains, how the moment you agreed on an "ideal scenario", the model's results would become obsolete. In the pursuit of finding a better way, Mel and her team needed to master two fundamental things: 1)ensure the price demand elasticity model kept learning with live data (so it would never become obsolete), and 2) allow the team to run many more scenarios more rapidly.
• What is the difference between the old school way of creating trade promotion calendars vs the new way? With the 'old school way', you would not only need to forecast the "demand elasticity" of a promotional group but also determine the revenue impact of that proposed promotional calendar. Due to the labour-intensive nature of creating each calendar, the team would often see the impact of a promotional calendar through a single lens (i.e supplier or retailer) rather than three lenses simultaneously (supplier, retailer and shopper). Moreover, a team would also need to ensure that the calendar was executable in trade with all the important constraints being considered as well as concisely communicate it to all stakeholders involved. This is very hard to do following the 'old school way' of trade promotional calendar creation process.
• Mel talks about three things that make HIVERY Promote different from other solutions in the market: 1) dynamic price elasticity modeling or often called the "dynamic demand forecasting engine", 2) prescriptive promotional calendar engine that optimises for custom KPIs, and 3) simple-to-use interface.
• While mathematics is important to the business, Mel talks about how our ability to easily explain the results to stakeholders is equally critical. Often times people's concern over AI is not its recommendations BUT the lack of ability to understand why such recommendations were made.
• Finally, Mel kindly provides thoughtful career advice on how people can get into this fascinating and emerging area called "Revenue Management"; hint: background in say sales or finance are key pathways to getting into this field!
What does comedian Eddie Murphy and David Kenney have in common? Check out this episode of Scientific Mavericks podcast to find out.
David Kenney, Partner at Hall Chadwick, is one of Australia’s most reputable and capable strategic business advisors. David’s wealth of experience spanning many critical disciplines of business management and growth has equipped him with the stand-out capability to significantly impact Australia’s start-up as well as mature business owners. In this podcast, he shares some important business advice and gives just a taste of his up and coming new book.
What you will learn:
• What makes a mentor? More importantly, what makes a good mentor? Hint: Better questions and encouraging "third-level" thinking.
• What makes a good mentee and what did David really think of HIVERY founders in his initial chats? What makes HIVERY different given David has 20,000+ conversations in his career?
• David talks about an important step in scaling up a business: building the team and why a collaborative approach with brutal honesty is essential for effective long-term relationships.
• How a "flywheel of feedback", while powerful, can only be achieved through one thing. Find out what that one thing is and how just 5 words can make you think differently.
• Finally, David shares a few important tips for business owners to consider.
In this special edition of Retail Mavericks, we speak with world-renowned artificial intelligence (AI) expert Toby Walsh about all that is AI. We cover a lot of interesting areas from killer robots to ethics to the 4 Ds of AI/robotization and the year 2062.
In this exciting jam-packed section we will explore: • How AI is currently being used in everyday tasks: from voice assistance and recommendations for movies and books to routing and logistics.
• How can businesses, especially retailers and CPGs, find the balance between using AI to maximise sales and giving consumers what they desire vs ethical considerations? For example, if an AI model learns you like sugary drinks from your purchase history, what are the ethical (and health) implications for implementing such recommendations? Should we intervene? How transparent should AI recommendations be? How can we build more desirable feedback loops for both retailers and consumers?
• Learn about The 4 Ds of AI/robotization - Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, and Difficult - and what they mean.
• With the onset of The 4 Ds, we explore what skills employers (and even parents) need to start helping and encouraging their people (kids) to develop in the future? You can learn more about the 10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Toby shares a simple triangle framework starting with: 1. Data skills and data literacy (i.e. Presentation Skills, Data Visualization, Python–Statistical Programming); 2. Emotional intelligence (the key ingredient for working with people); and 3. Creativity.
• We also look at what the education system needs to do to help shape this new thinking and facilitate new skills creation for our younger citizens. Discover what Finland is already doing to educate its citizens, with 10% of their population already educated in AI. Finland's goal is to educate at least 1% of European citizens by 2021. Join over 410,000 other people learning about the basics of AI: https://www.elementsofai.com
• Toby highlights that the more we understand AI, the less we will see it as "black magic", and the better decisions we will make.
• Finally, we share a few insights on how a business should start with thinking about leveraging AI, including whether to buy or build and the importance of investing in your people.
This episode is a part of academia-focused series featuring your usual host Milena Salmon and guest co-host Dr Alvaro Flores, Mathematician and Data Scientist at HIVERY. You can listen to Alvaro's podcast on his PhD and HIVERY transforming promotional calendars here: https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/alvaro-flores
Resources: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/education-for-a-changing-world/resource-library/toby-walsh https://www.elementsofai.com
Toby's TED Talks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c277ynyRPgs&= www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7LMJFhtqyo www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsQApXQGs
Toby's Books: 2062: The World that AI Made (https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/2062) Android Dreams: The Past, Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence (https://www.booktopia.com.au/android-dreams-toby-walsh/book/9781849048712.html)
In this special edition of Retail Mavericks, we speak with world-renowned artificial intelligence expert Toby Walsh about all that is AI. We cover a lot of interesting areas from killer robots to ethics to the 4 Ds of AI/robotization and the year 2062.
In episode 1 of 2, we cover:
• What do killer robots and autonomous cars have in common? • What problems can AI be used to solve? • Ethical engineering: understanding the ethical dimensions of AI, what are they? Why should we care about them? Think about this: there will be a time in the future when AI will make decisions that we humans just cannot understand, so having Transparency & Explainability (one of 8 Core Principles of AI) built into algorithms is going to be important, right? Maybe. • Challenges we face in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Do we need to add another "A" to AI? Why autonomous is the basis of AI's future. • What is the future and relationship between AI and humanity? Are things such as universal basic income and taxing robots the way to go.
This episode is a part of academia-focused series featuring your usual host Milena Salmon and guest co-host Dr Alvaro Flores, Mathematician and Data Scientist at HIVERY. You can listen to Alvaro's podcast on his PhD and HIVERY transforming promotional calendars here: https://soundcloud.com/retail-mavericks/alvaro-flores
In 2015, Professor Walsh helped launch an open letter calling for a ban on autonomous weapons or ‘killer robots’ that was signed by more than 20,000 AI researchers and high profile scientists, entrepreneurs and intellectuals, including Stephen Hawking, Noam Chomsky, Steve Wozniak, and Elon Musk. He has since been invited by Human Rights Watch to talk at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva. You can sign the petition to ban lethal autonomous weapons here: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter-autonomous-weapons/?cn-reloaded=1 https://futureoflife.org/lethal-autonomous-weapons-pledge/?cn-reloaded=1
Resources: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/science/autonomous-weapons-artificial-intelligence.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-82YeUPQh0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV0_raKR2UQ
Toby's TED Talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c277ynyRPgs&= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7LMJFhtqyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsQApXQGsI
In this podcast episode you can learn about:
• Common mistakes when scaling a business from a team of 25 to 30 or more. Roy talks about what to expect and what to look out for, including setting up the right management, right metrics and right sales team.
• As a business leader, find out what you need to do to engage and redirect the company's attention; big hint: Data has a better idea.
• Determine which KPI matter. The often forgotten significance of "unit economics'' - the direct revenues and costs associated with a specific product or business model. This is a basic measure but often missed as companies, new or established, scale getting lost in vanity metrics. Measuring unit economics allows business leaders to make better decisions, from agreeing to "proof of concept" to winning a new customer and comparing it to the opportunity cost of developing your product roadmap.
• Why is it important to get different perspectives, including speaking to other founders, investors, and advisers before making a strategic decision?
• What does it mean to be "decisive"? How the effective management of natural biases and irrational thinking makes better business decisions. First, determine a wide range of options, then assess the validity of the assumptions behind them.
• Lastly, Roy covers the use of "strategic partnerships" and why the earlier you establish them, the better. HIVERY, for instance, had a natural strategic partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and Data61/CSIRO (as investors). Leading to the scaling and expansion of both the number of locations (USA and Japan) as well as a wider range of new products.
In this podcast episode, you can learn about:
• With the onset of new technology, Andrew highlights the need to determine how to best leverage AI within your business; whether you should consider "buy or build" strategy, and how to embrace an agile mindset while managing intellectual property across internal and external teams.
• Andrew discusses how major companies need to adopt new approaches, including having a "new breed" of staff or upskill them to get the most of what AI has to offer.
• What it takes to make a successful commercial deal, especially when it's a totally new product where the product-market fit is still being validated. Here Andrew shares his expertise in understanding the importance of customer-centricity, co-designing together, being transparent around the process and avoid jargon! Andrew highlights there is more to deal with than just the financials, and sometimes strategic fit needs to be considered.
• What is the secret ingredient in finding the right customer for a fruitful partnership, especially when you are co-designing a lot of features together? Andrew shares his thoughts on this interesting topic as well as the sales process we follow to co-design together.
• Is customer feedback worth it? It's important to consider customer feedback but you also need to validate it. It can be a mistake to take all feedback as equal. By really defining the problem with your customer, embracing strong customer empathy; you soon realise that not all feedback is indeed equal.
In this podcast episode, you can learn about:
• How can vending and vending machines help with our lives in a virus pandemic? Shantanu, HIVERY Enhance Director, provides insight into the benefits of vending machines in these totally unprecedented times and why having the right product assortment and stocks is more critical than ever before • HIVERY holds data from some of the world's greatest vending machine fleets across the globe from Australia, Japan, and the USA. Shantanu shares some interesting industry trends: which segments are seeing unexpected sales changes (at work vending machines, colleges and university campuses, amusement parks, nursing homes, and hospitals). • So what can vending operators do? Shantanu highlights some practical strategies to help their business, including re-thinking space-to-sales, routing, and assortment. For HIVERY Enhance customers the good news is that the solution is just a matter of a few clicks. • What other counties are doing different with vending machines? There is one product category specifically that could really reduce panic buying.
If you like to demo of HIVERY Enhance? Visit https://rebrand.ly/hiveryenhancedemo
OR
Check our other podcast and subscribe: https://soundcloud.com/scientific-mavericks
In this podcast episode, you can learn about:
• What does it take to enter the Japanese market? There are many aspects of doing business in Japan that matter. Getting to product-market fit, finding good bilingual/bicultural talent and the need for patience. Entering Japan is about "learning" how to do business in Japan as well as filtering through what product customization is important and what is not.
• What is it like working in Japan and working with Japanese clients? Is it possible to pushback on clients' demands while remaining customer-focused?
• How Japanese customers make key business decisions to partner with Western companies and startups? Often times, we are told it takes a long time to secure a Japanese customer. However, in reality, it's all about building credibility and trust. Once this is established, Japanese customers tend to move very fast and are very loyal to their business partners.
• How the strategy to create a beachhead in Japan is critical to success. It's all about finding product-market-fit first, focusing on one product, one core customer and building credibility and trust.
Inspired? Got the scientific maverick itch? Get in contact with Hidi on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hideaki-yoshimura-182250/)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shantanupasari/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-tanvir-hossain/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvarofloresrios/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlosayam/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/artgo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benhenschke/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-barnes-6162a3124/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbanek/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankichamaki/
In this podcast episode, you can learn about:
• The importance of keeping a healthy body, mind and how good habits during your university life will make you a competent software engineer during your work life;
• Why getting fantastic results at university may not be the best strategy for your future career as a software engineer;
• His inspiration behind Kobe Bryant Mamba mentality in a quest for “infinite curiosity” in self;
• Why you should not compare yourself with others BUT compare yourself with yourself;
• Great list of references for any software engineer to get into the right mindset (some might feel counter-intuitive);
• Why having outstanding technical skills are not enough for you to succeed as a modern-day software engineer.
In this podcast episode you can learn about: • Shan's journey from India to Serbia, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and the USA; and how working and living in different cultures impact one's view of the world;
• how Shan moved from interning to being the director of Vending Analytics, HIVERY's flagship and first product, in 2 years. Vending Analytics is the world's first artificial intelligence solution in vending machine management. It allows users to optimise their entire vending machine fleet and individual inventory (space and assortment) in seconds;
• how HIVERY Enhance (previously known as Vending Analytics) and AI in it actually thinks. Shan shares some real-life examples from shopping malls to hospitals;
• what it is like working at HIVERY, and opportunities to explore interests beyond your current role;
To learn more about Vending Analytics tune in Artem Golubev's podcast on engineering and how it influences leadership: https://tinyurl.com/artemgolubev
To learn more about HIVERY Enhance (previously known as Vending Analytics) or view a few demo, sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/hiveryva
In this podcast episode you can learn about: • what it's really like being a software engineer at a startup vs at a corporate organisation. The good, the bad and the ugly. Hint: passion and adaptability is key;
• what it is like to get a chance to explore beyond your immediate skill set. With Tanvir, it was his chance to explore what it is like to try DevOps for a while and in the process become an AWS certified cloud practitioner!
• why doing side projects is more than just about having "fun". Not does it solely aids in your learning process but it also makes you more "employable". Building for fun builds your credibility!
• what resources to look for as a software engineer to develop your curiosity and skills;
• how to prepare for any role and have the confidence to go for it;
• what it's like working at HIVERY and what support is available to develop your skills and why learning and experimenting is so much encouraged;
• Tanvir's secret way of coding. Hint: developing a customer-centric mindset and visualization is the secret ingredient in any software developers toolkit.
In this podcast episode you can learn about: • how maths and operations management inspired Alvaro to devote his career to data and solving business problems with mathematical models;
• how HIVERY has developed a completely new way of generating calendars, combining machine learning and operations research;
• how optimisation is used in our new retail promotions calendar tool, often referred to as "Trade Promotion Optimisation";
• what Alvaro wanted to solve with his PhD. Hint: It's a new way of thinking about the traditional "customer choice model". Why new thinking? Learn why stocking the products on "most revenue"(i.e. by demand), may not be the right strategy;
• why working at HIVERY and studying simultaneously was the ideal way to both gain commercial experience and apply academia in a practical way;
• what Alvaro is working on - an exciting new podcast that sheds light on innovative scientific research. Stay tuned for the link!
Japanese translation
ハイベリー所属のアルヴァロ・フロレス・リオスはチリ出身のオペレーション・マネージメント専門の数学者・エンジニアだ。近年博士号を取得し、数理計画と最適化のスキルでプロジェクトをリードする。本ポッドキャストでは以下の点を紹介する。
数学とオペレーション・マネージメントがいかにアルヴァロに影響与え、数理モデルによるビジネス上の課題の解決とデータにキャリアを捧げるに至った経緯。 ハイベリーがいかに機械学習とオペレーションズ・リサーチを組み合わせて、カレンダーを生成する新しい手法を開発したか。 開発したリテール販促カレンダーにおいて、機械学習とオペレーションズ・リサーチを組み合わせた最適化がどのように使用されているか。 博士号によってアルヴァロはどんな課題を解決しようとしたのか。ヒント：古典的な「消費者選択モデル」に対する新しい考察。なぜ新しいのか？「売上の多さ（需要の高さ）」をベースにした在庫管理が必ずしも正解ではない理由を紹介する。 ハイベリーでの就労と博士課程の学習という二足のわらじを履いたことが、実際的なビジネス経験の取得と学術的理論の応用に理想的な環境であったと言えるのはなぜか。 アルヴァロが現在取り組んでいる課題：革新的な科学的リサーチにスポットライトを当てる、新しいポッドキャストにご期待ください。試聴はこのリンクから！
In this podcast episode you can learn about: • the latest methods in statistical analysis (ex. nearest neighbor); • the exciting R&D being done at HIVERY in developing the world's first AI trade promotional solution for CPGs and retailers; • how Carlos (and his team) works through a sophisticated AI model design to solve a customer problem where, given the number of different business goals, product SKUs and constraints, there are more possibilities to solve it than literally the number of atoms in the universe; • the importance of relationships between data scientists and software engineers (similar to UI designers and software engineers, listen to Luke's podcast); • tips to transition from software engineering to data science. Key ingredient: Passion. • the balance between study and work at HIVERY
Artem Golubev shares his story on becoming a software development team leader at HIVERY. Artem joined HIVERY as a software developer in late 2017, deciding to combine his interest in Machine Learning with the culture of a start-up. Having navigated the corporate space for many years, Artem decided it was time to pursue his interests further in a more fast-paced and flexible environment, where things are done much quicker with less regard for the status quo. Artem believes this allows one to witness results much quicker. When combined with having access to cutting-edge technology, it creates more opportunities to work with the latest and greatest. Artem also belives that start-ups facilitate an individual's growth due to much broader responsibilities and opportunities to wear multiple hats and learn more.
As the Head of People & Culture, Sarah supports the continued growth and development of the Hivery team, integrates structures in place to scale up globally and to support an autonomous, integrated, flexible working environment.
Ben Henschke develops machine learning and optimisation algorithms that underlie Hivery’s flagship product, currently deployed in three continents. Ben also manages the localisation of Hivery’s major product for the Japanese and Chinese markets. In this interview, Ben shares his insights into transferring to Japan to set up the office and build the technical team for Hivery’s Japanese subsidiary.
From pursuing architecture to building product design and software frameworks, Luke Barnes shares his insights into building Artificial Intelligence User Experience Design.
From mouse traps to dating apps to single origin coffee, Franki Chamaki, Cofounder and COO of HIVERY talks about the creation of the company, his innovative spirit and the need for companies to look at three innovation horizons.