Founded in 1894, Bata is a company with an amazing legacy which is now looking into the future. Roger Graell, their Chief Digital Officer, joins the show to speak about how he's creating a channeless consumer-centric experience and being a catalyst for change for a company of 5,000 stores and 4 sales channels.

Tune in to learn about:

• The objectives he sets when approaching a Digital Business
• His 3 key business pillars: dot com, developing marketplaces and in-store digitalization
• Career background at the likes of lastminute.com and Mango
• Building Omni capabilities like using stores as operational hubs
• The importance of consistency
• His contact with new technologies

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian

Walmart is celebrating 30 years in Canada this spring. Leanne Gibson, who heads up their Retail Media Division, Walmart Connect, in Canada, joins Daniel at P2PI's Retail Media Summit in Toronto.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ywXadPFadlg

In this conversation, you'll hear about:

• Walmart Canada´s focus in Retail Media: growing the search business, measurement and in-store
• How the Canadian digital advertising Market compares to the US
• AI and Tech investments: being an adaptive retailer
• Developing a strategic relationship with FMCGs based on outcomes

2024 Update: Vijay Talwar is now the Chief Commercial and Digital Officer at Travel Retail Leader Avolta.

The FMCG Guys, Daniel and Efrain, are joined in this episode by Vijay Talwar, a proven business leader at Foot Locker, Nike, and Blue Nile, who was named the CEO of eCommerce player Wish shortly after recording this episode.

Vijay shared several learnings from his prestigious career, reflecting on how his personality has impacted his leadership style, what he learned in his years leading a non-profit foundation in India, and how finding your purpose can serve as a great catalyst to driving organizational and individual transformation.

Advance is Loblaw's Platform for Loyalty, Data & Analytics and Retail Media. Loblaw's is one of Canada's Grocers, with 2,400 stores and 190,000 employees across several banners. Their VP Sales, Marketing & Client Success Ryan Webber joins Daniel live from Path to Purchase Institute's Retail Media Summit Canada in Toronto, where he was the opening speaker.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/S9Ly_AXbsok

Topics covered:

• Canada's largest grocer's approach to Media
• In and out of store media
• Cases where they are applying AI
• Lower and upper funnel value in Retail Media
• How to generate awareness in a person's most critical point of making a purchase decision
• Key Learnings from the Inaugural Retail Media Summit Canada

Tulika Pandey is the eCommerce and Shopper Marketing Lead, Canada at WK Kellogg (The Cereal spin off of Kellogg's).

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLyDIF8bFgE

She joins Daniel live from the Retail Media Summit Canada (organized by the Path to Purchase Institute) to speak about how she leads a sales strategy agenda in an omni-channel world through:

• Her unique role managing both Shopper and eCommerce
• What's next in Retail Media
• In-store Media: her thoughts and how relevant it is for FMCG brands.
• Advice around skipping hurdle
• Putting the consumer at the center and approaching the full-funnel in consequence

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian

Cyndi Loza is the Managing Director, Member Content at Path to Purchase Institute (P2PI), a member organization and publication that serves commerce marketers in Consumer Goods & Retail.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DBmiJOQQ_4Q

She joins Daniel live from the first edition of Retail Media Summit Canada in Toronto, to go over:

• Current trends in Retail Media
• How P2PI is helping Retailers and Brands come to a common understanding of the current environment
• What makes Canada unique
• The event and looking at the future

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian

Zakir Karim, VP Functional Nutrition South Asia at Unilever, based in Mumbai, is a Portuguese national with a fascinating background. He started his career in his native Portugal, where he grew within the ranks of the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate. Later on, he went international (Netherlands, France, now India) and developed a taste and speciality for business turnarounds.

He joins the pod to speak about:

• His learnings in India (so far!) and how it compares to Europe
• The impressive and not-so-well-known dimension and footprint of Hindustan Unilever
• A unique family background and his career beginnings
• Developing a speciality in business turnarounds
• What does turning around a business look like? Developing a framework
• The impact of Digital on being a GM

What comes to mind when you think of Cannabis? Rico Uesluek, CEO of Marry Jane, one of Europe's largest producers, joined Daniel to speak about the state of the category and where it's headed to. With a background in Coca-Cola and Logitech, he will challenge many of your preconceptions through:

• His transition from small business to large blue-chip to CEO in the up-and-coming Cannabis industry
• The state of affairs of Cannabis in Europe
• What categories and channels Marry Jane operates in
• How they are building a company in cannabis with FMCG best practices

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian

Olivier Proust is a Suppy Chain leader that's specialized in transforming Operations of mid-sized multinationals. Currenlty responsible for Conair's (the owner of Babyliss) Supply Chain for EMEA, he joins Daniel and Efrain to explore the secrets behind change and why enjoys working in this size of Consumer Goods companies.

In this conversation, you'll hear about:

• Being French yet starting a career Canada and making it back to Europe later in his career
• Why he prefers working with mid-sized companies instead of the large FMCGs
• The main areas of disruption in today's supply chain
• His experience managing end-to-end Supply Chain Transformations
• How he inspires, leads and attracts talent

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian

Does Digital Transformation have to be hard? Is there a way to dodge some of the common headaches and understand the reality versus the myths?

Watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKP3JMn8nzU&t=2057s Meet Tomasz Kozlowski, the VP of Global Sales at SoftServe Business Systems. He's not just any expert; he's a mythbuster who's spent the last 15 years helping FMCG companies find clarity in the complicated world of tech. In this episode, co-hosted by Daniel and The CPG Guys' Peter VS Bond we review the most common digital transformation myths, such as:

• Digital Transformation is all about Technology
• It will solve all my sales problems
• It's only for the Modern Trade Channel
• Only large corporations can drive this change
• Immediate ROI is guaranteed
• We are tech advanced because we have a lot of systems
• Data is the basis for Digital Transformation
• ChatGPT will help you solve serious problems

Are you ready?

More:

• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fmcgguys/
• Audio Mixing by Rodrigo Chávez
• Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian