The CPG View

  As online marketplaces mature, where do you see the next major battleground for brands—customer acquisition, profitability, loyalty, data, or something else entirely?With Walmart, TikTok Shop, Temu, and other platforms gaining attention, how should brands determine which marketplaces deserve investment and when does expanding to more platforms actually become a distraction?As AI increasingly influences how consumers discover and purchase products, how will that change marketplace strategy? What should brands be doing now to ensure their products remain visible in an AI-driven shopping environment?Marketplace growth can look impressive at the top line while becoming increasingly expensive underneath. What should executives be looking at to determine whether their marketplace business is actually creating profitable, incremental growth?Looking toward 2027, what is one marketplace capability or investment you believe CPG leaders are underestimating today—and what should they start doing differently now to prepare? a title from these questions

What are the fundamentals that brands need to get right first in order to create sustainable growth?

Why does penetration matter so much, and what are companies getting wrong when they focus too heavily on pricing or short-term growth levers?

How should brands rethink category definitions and their value propositions around consumer needs rather than the way the industry has historically defined them?

How should leaders think about the balance between price and volume and getting back to true volume growth?
What does that mean for national brands, and how important will meaningful differentiation and innovation be in creating long-term sustainable value?

Would you mind introducing yourself and the company you’re with?

Before you became the “Amazonaholic” and recovering thought leader, who were you? What did the early days of Ryan look like?

You built and sold Quiverr after driving over $1 billion in Amazon sales for brands like Drunk Elephant and Sun Bum. Looking back, what was the turning point that took Quiverr from a small idea to a successful business?

After selling Quiverr and becoming part of a much larger organization, how did your mindset shift as a founder? How did you adjust when the company you built was no longer entirely yours?

You’ve worked with more than 70 brands and have been in eCommerce and Amazon for a long time. What are one or two lessons from your journey that every founder or brand builder should take to heart—or something you wish more people would slow down and understand?

What has changed most in commerce media, and what should brands and retailers be paying attention to right now?

With the pace of change accelerating so quickly, how should brands and retailers think about staying ahead?

As consumers increasingly use LLMs and conversational AI for product discovery, how should brands think about ranking and showing up organically—not just through paid media?

What are one or two things you’re seeing brands and retailers get wrong right now?

How should brands think about authoritative product content as AI and LLMs increasingly influence what consumers see and believe about their products?

Can you walk us through your journey to becoming VP of Digital Commerce at Danone and share one or two pivotal experiences or decisions that shaped your path?

In your role leading digital commerce at a large CPG company, how do you define success? Is there a guiding principle or philosophy you rely on when making strategic decisions?

The digital commerce landscape is changing rapidly. What trend, innovation, or change in consumer behavior is having the biggest influence on how you approach online sales and engagement?

What is one challenge you’ve faced during your digital commerce career, and what lesson could you share with people listening who may be on a similar path?

You have spent years analyzing the intersection of retail, commerce, and organizational strategy. From your perspective, what are the biggest assumptions about modern commerce that leadership teams still have wrong?

A lot of organizations continue trying to optimize individual channels while the market increasingly behaves as one interconnected commerce ecosystem. What do you think executives are underestimating about that shift?

Many leadership teams talk about omnichannel maturity, but internally they are still operating through fragmented incentives, reporting structures, and budget ownership. What organizational tensions are becoming most visible right now?

One thing we are hearing more often is that commerce infrastructure decisions are now strategic decisions, not just technology decisions. How should executives think differently about platform architecture, data ownership, and ecosystem dependency?

If you look out over the next three to five years, what do you think separates the organizations that compound advantage from the ones that slowly become operationally irrelevant?

Let’s start with your journey. You’ve gone from strategy consulting to now leading Spencer Stuart’s CEO and Board Practice globally. Looking back, what moments or experiences really shaped how you think about leadership and the role it plays in organizations?

Today, you’re working right at the intersection of leadership, governance, and long-term performance, often with boards and CEOs during some pretty high stakes moments. When you look at situations like CEO transitions or changes in board, what tends to separate the organizations that handle those moments well from the ones that struggle?

You often talk about helping leaders find clarity when the pressure is on. When things feel noisy or uncertain, how do you help CEOs and boards slow things down, focus on what really matters, and make decisions they can truly stand behind?

You have a unique vantage point across industries and geographies. As you connect the dots across all that experience, what patterns are you seeing in how leadership and board dynamics are evolving today? And where do you think leaders still tend to underestimate their impact?

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about when it comes to the future of leadership and the role Spencer Stuart can play in helping shape what comes next?

What Changed?

What leaders must understand now 4 the shifts in market structure, regulation, or competitive dynamics that demand attention this week?

What Leaders Are Getting Wrong?
Default assumptions under pressure. The conventional wisdom that no longer holds and the blind spots that create exposure?

Operator Moves?
What to change in the next days. Concrete, tactical adjustments grounded in what operators are actually doing?

Planning Implications?
How plans should adjust. Connecting weekly signals to annual planning cycles and budget architecture?

Executive Close?
One operator takeaway. One board takeaway. Clarity that travels from the briefing into the boardroom?

AVNs are often treated as annual tactical negotiations. Why do you believe they should be approached as a long-term strategic lever instead, and what are the most common profitability leaks you see during these negotiations?

How far in advance should vendors realistically begin preparing for AVNs, and what does best-in-class preparation actually look like?

Where do vendors unknowingly give up leverage in negotiations with Amazon, and how can they shift from defensive positioning to negotiating from strength?

What signals should leadership teams watch for that indicate structural margin erosion is coming in their Amazon relationship?

Looking back at your work advising more than 200 global brands, what moments in your journey most shaped the way you think about Amazon negotiations today, and what excites you most about the opportunity for brands to rethink profitability and power within the 1P model?