Three Survival Strategies For Legacy CPGs In The Age Of Digital Disruption

Far and wide across the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail economy, digital disruption is forcing legacy brands to radically reevaluate how they view production, distribution and consumption in the digital age. With distribution and sales models dating back 100 years or more, incumbents have been slow to adapt to the rise of the “digital native” consumer — a younger, more nuanced and tech-savvy demographic.

Unable to successfully employ the “mass-mass-mass” strategies of years past (mass production, mass distribution, mass advertising), the industry has fallen on tough times: Retailers  and supermarkets  are filing for bankruptcy at record rates. CPG legacy brands are reporting significant loses  at the hands of fast-growing startups . Amazon and Walmart, in addition to their intensely bitter price wars , have transitioned from clients to competitors with their own private labels . Consumer preferences  are continuing to shift as technology evolves.

If legacy brands want to survive, they must transform and adapt.

Adaptability Is Key To Survival In The Age Of Digital Darwinism

Charles Darwin said in On the Origin of the Species that it’s not the strongest or most intelligent of the species that survives, but the one that’s most adaptable to change. While we’re a long way off from 1859, the idea is just as relevant as it ever was. We are a species whose habitat is now ruled by technology, and it is chancing at a rapid pace.

Connectivity, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things are rapidly changing our world and environment, and according to Moore’s Law, the pace of change will only grow. IBM said in a recent report that 90 percent of the world’s data has been generated in the past two years. Much as we couldn’t have envisioned 2018 in the year 2000, we can’t quite know what our habitat will be like in 2025 or 2035.

Organizations of the Future - Part 4 - The Vision for the Restaurant of the Future

In part 1 we defined Digital Darwinism and the Coefficient of Adaptability , in part 2 we discussed the MTP , part 3 we deep dived into scenario planning, plausible futures and new entrants , and now we’re going to bring it together an envision the future of the restaurant.

Invest in the future of personalized nutrition, which resides in the future of the quantified self and future of food processing, manufacturing, and fulfillment.

Imagine a future where you could know everything about your body, including natural composition, but also real-time need state. Here’s a list of a few fast-moving trends that will enable that, all riding Moore’s law by doubling their price-performance every 9 to 18 months.

Organizations of the Future - Part 3 - Scenario Planning for the Restaurant of the Future

In part 1 we defined Digital Darwinism and the Coefficient of Adaptability , and in part 2 we discussed the MTP . Now let’s deep dive into scenario planning.

Scenario Planning

Scenario Planning is the process of anticipating possible futures by generating actionable insights through the creation a small set of scenarios for an organization’s future environment that are:

• Relevant to critical business decisions
• Distinct
• Individually realistic and believable
• Together cover the breadth of relevant uncertainties Scenarios are visions of alternative plausible futures.

Organizations of the Future - Part 2 - The MTP

In part 1 we defined Digital Darwinism and the Coefficient of Adaptability . Now let’s deep dive into the MTP.

One of the most critical aspects of any successful company is to have great Mission, Vision, and Culture. There are many good articles about this, like [Execution Eats Strategy], [Culture Trumps Strategy], but today’s let’s talk about having a great vision.

A vision statement is a declaration of an organization’s objectives, ideally based on economic foresight, intended to guide its internal decision-making.

An MTP stands for a massive transformative purpose. If you ever read the book Built To Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Poras, it’s like a BHAG with purpose. It’s the higher, aspirational purpose of the organization.

Organizations of the Future - Part 1 - Digital Darwinism and the Coefficient of Adaptability

The following is the first part of a multi-part series covering organizations of the future, covering vision, strategy, organization design, operational model, and culture.

The latest digital buzz is Digital Transformation, defined as the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way.