The CPG View

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  The Commerce Strategy Playbook: Navigating the Next Era of Retail Growth (Bryan Gildenberg, Founder & CEO, Confluence Commerce). 18.08.2026 29хв

  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?
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  Leading Through the Noise: The People, Decisions & Clarity That Drive Performance (Jason Baumgarten, Partner at Spencer Stuart ) 13.08.2026 27хв

  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? 
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  The eCommerce Inflection Point: Where Retail Growth Is Really Coming From (Jack O'Leary, Director, eCommerce Strategic Insights at NielsenIQ) 11.08.2026 20хв

   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? 
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  Amazon Vendor Negotiations: Protecting Profitability & Driving Growth (Martin Heubel, Strategy & Amazon Consultant at Consulterce) 06.08.2026 23хв

  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?
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  Commerce Intelligence & AI: Turning Data Into Competitive Advantage (Karthik Bettadapura , CEO & Co-Founder at DataWeave) 04.08.2026 21хв

  Commerce has become significantly more transparent over the last decade, especially around pricing, assortment, promotions, and competitive behavior. From your perspective, how has that changed the way brands and retailers operate?Many organizations are collecting massive amounts of commerce data, but still struggle to act on it fast enough. Where do you think the biggest execution gaps exist today?One thing executives are increasingly worried about is competitive volatility, where pricing changes, assortment shifts, or marketplace dynamics can impact performance almost immediately. How should leadership teams rethink responsiveness in this environment?AI and predictive analytics are becoming deeply embedded in commerce operations. Where do you think machine intelligence creates the most meaningful operational advantage today?Looking forward, do you believe commerce analytics becomes a centralized strategic intelligence function, or increasingly embedded directly into everyday operational workflows across organizations?
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  Winning Together: Building Retail Media That Works for Everyone (Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President, Head of Retail Media at Ace Hardware Corporation) 30.07.2026 21хв

  You’ve built your career at the intersection of sales, marketing, and retail transformation. what were the pivotal moments that led you to step into the Corporate Vice President, Head of Retail Media role at Ace Hardware?You’ve said you get energy from working with brilliant people and cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships. What is it about retail media that makes it such an exciting space for collaboration right now?Many organizations struggle to truly connect marketing strategy to sales execution. How do you design go-to-market strategies that genuinely unleash the power of marketing behind sales teams to drive measurable results?Ace Hardware has an incredibly strong brand and retailer network. What’s unique about building a retail media capability inside that ecosystem compared to other retail environments?Retail media works best when it creates value for retailers, brands, and customers simultaneously. What does a truly mutually beneficial partnership look like in practice and how do you structure teams and incentives to support that? 
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  Winning the AI Shelf: Why Product Experience Is the New Competitive Advantage (Simon Angove, Chief Executive Officer at Syndigo) 28.07.2026 20хв

  Product content used to be viewed as a relatively tactical function. Today, it increasingly feels like core commerce infrastructure. From your perspective, what changed?Many brands still underestimate how much poor product content impacts conversion, discoverability, and retail relationships. What are the biggest operational gaps you continue to see across organizations?AI-generated content is creating enormous new possibilities, but also a lot of noise and inconsistency. How should executives think about balancing scale, governance, and product experience quality?One thing becoming clear is that the digital shelf is no longer just about PDP optimization. It increasingly influences search visibility, retail algorithms, advertising efficiency, and even supply chain performance. How interconnected has this ecosystem become?Looking ahead, where do you think product experience infrastructure evolves over the next several years, especially as AI agents and machine-driven shopping behaviors become more common?
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  Building What's Next: Leadership in the Age of Retail Media (Elizabeth Neubauer-Donovan, EVP, Head of Commerce & Retail Media Networks + Growth Monetization at Acxiom) 23.07.2026 19хв

  You’ve consistently been at the forefront of first-party data and omnichannel monetization/ What was an early moment in your career when you realized data would fundamentally reshape how media is bought and sold?Now as SVP, Global Head of Commerce & Retail Media Networks at Acxiom under Omnicom Group, what excites you most about operating at a global scale versus building a single network from the ground up?You’re known for building multi-functional teams and scalable organizations from scratch. What part of that building process energizes you the most the strategy, the talent development, the revenue acceleration, or the technology innovation?When you look back at that journey, what gave you the conviction that hospitality could become a powerful media channel?You spend a lot of time thinking about leadership and potential. What are you personally most excited about unlocking next in the industry and in yourself? 
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  Winning the Next Chapter of Retail Media Networks: Relevance, Loyalty & Execution (Sherry Smith, President, Retail Media at Criteo) 21.07.2026 20хв

  Retail media has evolved incredibly quickly over the last few years, but the conversation has also become far more financially scrutinized. From your perspective, what phase is the industry actually entering now?A lot of retailers rushed to launch retail media networks, but many are now discovering that building ad inventory is very different from building a scalable media business. What are the biggest structural mistakes you see retailers making today?Brands continue shifting budget into retail media, but many executives are starting to question incrementality, duplication, and measurement consistency across networks. What are brands asking for now that they were not asking for even 18 months ago?One of the biggest tensions in retail media right now is the relationship between trade spend and media spend. How do you think CFOs and commercial leaders should be reevaluating the role retail media plays inside the broader P&L?As Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart continue to scale, what does the future look like for mid-sized and regional retail media networks? Do you see consolidation coming, or are there areas where smaller RMNs can still build defensible advantages?
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  Content & Conversion Intelligence: The New Competitive Advantage ( Jehan Hamedi, Founder & Executive Chairman of Vizit) 13.07.2026 35хв

  Content has traditionally been treated as a creative output, but increasingly it is being measured like a performance variable. From your perspective, what has fundamentally changed?Many brands produce enormous amounts of creative content but still struggle to understand what actually drives conversion. Where do you think organizations are getting disconnected from the consumer?One thing that stands out right now is the growing pressure to produce more content, across more platforms, at much higher speed. How should executives think about balancing creative quality, consistency, and operational scale?AI-generated content is accelerating rapidly, but it also raises questions around differentiation, authenticity, and performance saturation. What do you think separates effective AI-enabled content strategies from ineffective ones?Looking ahead, do you think content intelligence becomes as measurable and operationalized as pricing or media optimization, and how does that change the role of creative organizations inside brands?
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  The Consumer Connections Playbook: Measurement, Media & Modern Marketing (Vinny Rinaldi, Vice President, Consumer Connections at The Hershey Company) 09.07.2026 17хв

  Vinny, the 'Trifecta' measurement strategy isn't a new concept, yet most brands still can't bridge the gap between brand and commerce. In your experience, what is the most essential first step to breaking down those organizational silos and finally unifying measurement?"How are you thinking about short vs. long term ROI when it comes to investing in brand vs commerce media networks? Especially as it relates to onsite and offsite digital media buys with RMNs. What’s your way to assess incrementality and how hard a dollar is truly working for Hershey’s bottom line?Vinny, you truly put the business first, always thinking about what’s best for Hershey. Can you share a bit about how you’ve thought about the economics regardless of funding source and the depth of your relationship with the Chief Sales Officer?As you think about the future, the rise of more sophisticated commerce media network offering, there is a temptation by many brands to think about 1;1 closed loop measurement. However your philosophy is quite different - embracing the need to triangulate decisions using ROI, signal-based data, and 'control vs. exposed' groups. How have you been able to convince your organization there’s a better way forward…and really modernize measurement with agentic AI Hershey is consistently at the cutting edge of measurement. How does this sophistication influence your media and commerce partnerships?
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  The New Marketplace Playbook: Winning in the Age of AI, Agentic Commerce & Social Discovery (John LeBaron, Chief Revenue Officer at Pattern) 08.07.2026 33хв

  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.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.
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  Scaling Digital Commerce at PepsiCo: Strategy, Transformation & Leadership (Avinava Banerjee, Head eCommerce Strategy & Tranformation GCC at PepsiCo) 02.07.2026 25хв

  Can you tell us about your journey? What first drew you into eCommerce and analytics and how did those early experiences shape the way you approach digital transformation today?You’ve worked across so many countries and markets. What have you noticed about consumer behavior? Does it really change a lot or are there surprising similarities everywhere?At PepsiCo, you lead eCommerce Strategy and Transformation for the GCC. What has been the most exciting part of driving digital change for a global brand in that region?How do you approach connecting eCommerce with other parts of the business at PepsiCo, like marketing, supply chain, and overall business strategy, especially in a fast moving consumer goods environment?Looking forward, what excites you the most about the future of eCommerce and digital transformation at PepsiCo and beyond
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  Marketing Beyond ROAS: Building Brands in an AI-Driven World (Tom Goodwin: Co-Founder, Digital & AI Transformation Agency at All We Have Is Now) 25.06.2026 23хв

  To what degree is advertising slowly turning into short term, performance driven marketing, and are brands sacrificing long term equity for immediate return on investment?Retail media has brought advertising directly to the point of purchase. Does this represent the ultimate evolution of marketing efficiency, or the narrowing of brand building into pure conversion mechanics?Agentic commerce and large language model driven discovery are beginning to reshape how consumers find and buy products. How fundamentally will these technologies change the structure of commerce?If artificial intelligence systems increasingly mediate discovery and decision making, will brands need to optimize more for algorithms than for human emotion, and what does that mean for differentiation?Are we at an inflection point where technology is redefining the balance of power between brands, platforms, and consumers, and who stands to gain the most in this next phase of commerce?
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  Fail Fast, Move Faster: Competing in the AI Commerce Gold Rush (Destaney Wishon, CEO and Co-Founder of BTR Media) 18.06.2026 19хв

  You’ve built BTR Media into a 9-figure business with a 95%+ client retention rate — without chasing growth for growth’s sake. What has been the hardest part of scaling while staying true to your people-first and relationship-first philosophy?You describe BTR as the “Ritz-Carlton of Amazon Advertising.” What does that look like in practice, both for your clients and your team?You’re passionate about helping others overcome limiting beliefs. What’s one limiting belief you personally had to break through as a founder, and how did it change the way you lead today?The future of retail media: With retail media growing across Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart, where do you see the biggest white space opportunities for brands to stand out in the next 2–3 years?What are you most excited about right now — for yourself, your clients, and for the retail media industry as a whole?What’s one message you’d like to leave our listeners with today? 
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  Cutting Through the Noise: The Consumer-Centric Commerce Playbook (Matthew Zielinski, Chief Digital Officer at Citizens Pet Products) 09.06.2026 24хв

  You focus on building strategies that start with understanding the consumer. How has putting the consumer at the center of your decisions shaped your most successful digital initiatives?Brands today operate across retail, pure-play eCommerce, and DTC channels. What are the biggest challenges in creating a seamless experience, and how do you approach solving them?With your experience in performance marketing and advanced measurement, how do you blend data insights with creative strategy to drive meaningful growth?From launching high-converting storefronts to testing new digital platforms, what have been the most important lessons in scaling digital initiatives effectively?If viewers remember one key insight or piece of advice from this conversation, what would you want it to be?
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  The Future of Retail Media Networks, Measurement and AI-Driven Optimization (Regina Ye, Co-Founder and CEO at Topsort) 04.06.2026 20хв

  You've had quite an unconventional path into retail media — you came in from the vendor side, not from ad tech or media agencies. Can you walk us through that journey and what ultimately led you to building Topsort? A lot of retailers are now a few years into their first retail media network and starting to ask hard questions about whether the technology they built on is actually going to take them where they need to go. What are you seeing out there, and what does it really cost a retailer to get that foundation wrong?One thing that stands out about Topsort is the emphasis on experimentation — real A/B testing — at the infrastructure level. Why does that matter so much, and when you add AI-driven optimization into the mix, what do you think a retail media network starts to look like that's genuinely different from what most people are running today?From the brand side, there's a lot of budget flowing into retail media right now but also a lot of frustration. What are CPG brands asking for that most networks still can't deliver — and how should brand leaders be thinking about holding their retail partners accountable in a way that's different from how they evaluated trade spend?With Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart continuing to mature as networks, there's a real question about whether mid-market and regional retailers can stay competitive for brand dollars. What's your honest view on where this market goes — and where do you think independent RMNs actually have a structural advantage?
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  Community Over Audience: The New Rules of Personal Branding (Kait LeDonne, Personal Branding Expert and Professional Speaker) 28.05.2026 30хв

  Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of personal branding and how professionals can stand out in today’s noisy digital world?What’s one message or takeaway you’d love every listener to walk away with after this conversation?You’ve talked about becoming your industry’s go-to expert—what were the key steps in your own journey that helped you earn credibility and authority?Many professionals struggle to clarify and monetize their message. What advice do you have for turning expertise into a clear personal brand that attracts dream clients?You’ve seen experts across industries—health, food, fitness—turn niche knowledge into massive followings and businesses. What are the patterns you’ve noticed that others can model to build a personal brand that grows consistently over time?
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  The Data Behind Desire: How Luxury Beauty is Rewriting the Rules of Growth (Alexis Amann, Chief Data Officer at Luxurynsight) 21.05.2026 26хв

   Tell us about your journey—from finance and strategic planning at AXA to leading data strategy for some of the world’s most iconic beauty and luxury brands. What drew you into this world, and how has your background shaped your approach?You work at the intersection of data and creativity—especially in industries that have traditionally been emotionally driven. How do you balance the power of analytics with the intuition that drives beauty and luxury?You’ve worked with some of the biggest names—Chanel, Dior, L’Oréal, and more. Can you share an example where data-driven insights led to a surprising or game-changing commercial outcome for a client?What are some of the biggest opportunities or shifts you’re seeing in the beauty and luxury industry over the next few years? Where should brands be leaning in—or rethinking old habits?What are you most excited about for the future of beauty, luxury, and data? Whether it’s technology, consumer behavior, or new ways of working—what’s lighting you up right now?  
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  From Sleeping on Floors to Global Ecommerce Leadership (Colin Lewis,  Co-Founder of Retail Media Works & Retail Media Columnist at Internet Retailing ) 14.05.2026 24хв

  You’ve worked across B2C and B2B, brand and performance, and multiple global markets. Looking back, what moments or decisions most shaped the marketer you are today?You were running a €100m eCommerce operation as early as 2006, well before most brands truly understood digital. What did getting “early reps” in eCommerce teach you that still gives you an edge today?Retail media has become one of the fastest-growing forces in marketing, and you’ve been writing and speaking about it for years. What do you think most brands are still getting wrong about retail media right now?You’ve worked across continents cultures and channels. What’s the biggest marketing myth that sounds smart in boardrooms but completely falls apart in the real world?Looking ahead, what excites you most about the next phase of marketing and where do you believe ambitious marketers should be investing their time and skills over the next few years?