This collection of articles offers unique and timely insights to help senior food industry executives shape strategies and improve performance throughout their organizations.
The food industry is no stranger to change and disruption. Over the past 25 years, existential threats to the industry now feel like business as usual, with food industry leaders consistently refining their operating models and enhancing their ability to serve customers. Change must be embraced to survive in today’s world.
And yet, something feels different about the current trends as new technologies reshape how consumers shop. The rapid pace of technological innovation means that the number of new players in the retail value chain has greatly expanded. The erratic nature of this latest change is layered on top of the persistent changes that retailers have always faced. The result is even more uncertainty. For retailers focused on processes for making their businesses successful each day, it can sometimes be difficult to spend the time planning for tomorrow.
In this edition of Boardroom, we start with a forward-looking piece on The Future of Retail, delving into how consumer preferences will further disrupt the retail industry and the opportunities that exist with this shift towards an information age. Then we present Emerging New Consumerism, discussing how consumer tastes continue to evolve and what it will take for FMI’s membership to meet those demands. Workforce and Artificial intelligence explore how members can make use of their most important assets to deliver on those demands. The New Marketplace reviews the requirements of changing consumer demands, as retailers must adapt the physical store to better suit customers who will increasingly avail themselves of the plethora of channels for food purchases. Finally, Food Production investigates what these changes, coupled with the increased globalization and localization of the supply chain, mean for how the industry provides high quality and safe products in a sustainable way.
We hope you find the insights shared in this year’s Boardroom helpful as you make and execute your plans throughout 2019 and beyond. FMI will be sharing additional expertise on these issues and will continue to support the membership in addressing these and other ongoing changes through advocacy and member collaboration. We welcome your participation and feedback to ensure that we have done everything we can to help each member succeed in an era of constant change and disruption.
