Kearney's 100-Year Perspective on the Future of Retail | CGF 2026

Hello, everyone, this is omnitalk Retail.

I am Chris Walton and I am coming to you live once again from the Consumer Goods Forums Global Summit in Vienna, Austria.

And we are of course recording this interview from CGF's leadership studio, which is sponsored by Vuzion.

Now joining me is Rhiannon Thomas, who is the global lead for consumer retail and luxury practice at Kearney.

Rhiannon, welcome to omnitok.

Thank you.

Well, it's lovely to be here and I've been enjoying the cgf, so.

Yeah.

Have you been here before?

Yes, actually, I think it's my fifth.

Five times.

You get a.

Five time.

You probably get a jacket for that here, probably.

Or a reusable bag or something like that, you know.

Probably.

Well, tell us, tell us about yourself and your role and congrats to, to Carney for like the 100 year anniversary.

Right.

You guys have been around for 100 years.

Yeah, exactly.

No, it's a big thing for us and it's really a big year for us and we're really putting a lot into making sure we're bringing a different side to ourselves as well to, to the Consumer Goods Forum.

So I lead the consumer goods retail and luxury practice, as you said.

I'm based in London.

I don't spend that much time in London.

Really.

Yes.

That's part.

Well, you're a consultant, so you don't spend that much time anywhere, right?

Yeah.

Right.

Part and parcel of the role.

But I grew up in France, so I already had a bit of a like international kind of growing up.

And yeah, I've been in the industry for two decades now.

Only focus on the consumer space.

And I love it.

Really?

What do you love about it?

It's just super tangible.

Yes.

You really kind of get into like the nitty gritty of things.

If you want to get it to work properly, you have to get into the details.

And it's true too.

And there's a lot of change happening at the moment.

Yes.

So keeps us consultants on our toes because we're there to make sure our clients can adapt to that change.

Yes.

Yeah.

Retail is detail.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I love the tangibility part too.

You're right.

And that's what I.

That's what drew me to it too, is like it's the one job where you can probably pick up and talk to anyone in the world about it and they'll have some idea of what you do.

Yeah.

The only problem is sometimes that has issues because everyone's got an opinion.

Yes.

Right.

Yes.

You're gonna Hear everything, especially from Aunt Edna, you know, if you're not careful.

But I heard someone told me actually prior to starting this interview that your expertise is value creation.

Is that true?

That's true.

Basically the, I mean, Carney overall is known for impact and that's what typically our clients hire us for is if they want kind of real, tangible, bottom line kind of value in their.

Okay, so I've.

Yeah, and I focus on large scale value creation programs across different sectors and it's.

Yeah, it's really fascinating at the moment because what we've seen is the value creation levers are completely changing from what they used to be.

And it's really keeping us on our toes and our clients on their toes.

But you can see that the industry needs to create value in quite different ways from what used to be the case.

And that's what we're putting into play.

This is really interesting.

So paint that perspective for our audience.

I'm curious, so what did you used to see and what are the trends that you're seeing towards value creation now?

Yeah, so what we're seeing is that first of all the category expertise and specialization is really mattering.

So what does that mean?

And you've seen the trends across lots of companies is that you want to make sure that you're optimizing within a given category.

And that's why we're seeing all these portfolio changes and companies divesting part of their portfolio is because it doesn't make sense to have it grouped together anymore.

And it makes much more sense to like focus on a frozen value chain or on an ambient value chain or you know, on personal care.

Right.

And that makes a lot more sense because those categories are evolving in very different ways.

They've got different channels, different consumer needs, etc.

And yeah, and so the back office savings just aren't what they used to be.

To scale is less relevant now.

It's becoming much more about really kind of being clear about what's driving value in an individual category.

So that's making a big difference.

Okay, got it.

What else?

Is there anything else?

Yeah, so I mean linked to that, we're seeing that cross functional and end to end value creation is making a big difference.

Now that can sound like a bit of a buzzword.

Yeah, but what, what it means is that instead of being really clear on what value you can drive in procurement, what value you can drive in marketing, what value you can drive in your manufacturing, it's really about connecting the dots across those areas and making the trade offs.

So for example, have you got, you've got products on your manufacturing lines that are really hard to produce, creating a lot of complexity.

You need to stop the line, start the line, et cetera.

And you really need to challenge is that really creating value for the consumer or not?

And working through with marketing, for example, how you can make it in a way that's not going to create so many issues in the value chain and at Carney.

That's also why we've invested a lot in product design and we've got design labs now across the globe where we really challenge in a cross functional way that design of the product because we find it's a really big unlock for, for value creation.

It's interesting.

That's probably been my number one.

I mean, I think I've done now 15 interviews with different folks at this conference and I think that's probably my number one takeaway is just that the need for what you just said is so much more palpable than it ever was before.

And the other interesting thing about it too is, and I'm curious to get your take on this is, is technology, particularly AI, making that easier or how do you view that and how is AI impacting the value creation?

Yeah, so from an AI perspective, what we're seeing is the ones that are doing well and companies that are doing well in IT are not just optimizing what they have today.

I've heard that too.

They're optimizing.

Well, optimizing.

They're really rethinking the processes and sometimes even focus more on the outcomes than the process itself.

Thinking in a process, you're making assumptions.

So if you really want zero bases, I'm focused on this outcome, cost reduction or growth or both.

And how do I deliver that in the best way possible.

And then working with startup ecosystems to make sure you've got the very best at each element of that outcome because it's changing so quickly that you need to be able to plug and play the right capabilities over time.

And I think what we're realizing is that the companies that are doing thinking in that way are driving both top line and bottom line at the same time through their use of AI.

We've had like a client asked us to completely reinvent how they do merchandising.

Take a blank sheet of paper, work.

It out from scratch, better you than me.

It's super powerful when you get that.

It probably is actually because it doesn't constrain the thinking.

And we really brought in the best of the startup world to kind of crack that problem.

So it helps, but I think you need to think about it in the right way, otherwise you end up creating, I think, more complexity out of it.

Yeah.

How do you do that?

Because what I'm hearing from you, if I kind of read between the lines, is you're saying like companies, it would behoove companies to kind of exercise their innovation muscles, so to speak.

Like, what is the best way for them to do that?

Because you probably need to do that before you get to the outcome goals of AI and trying to reinvent merchandising, so to speak.

Like, you can't start from ground zero.

You gotta figure out the innovation muscle side of it first.

Yeah.

So we have seen that there's been a.

It's no secret that most of the value created in consumer has been through pricing and not as much through volume growth.

Right.

And there needs to be a real shift in terms of how you think of innovation linked to that.

And it's both thinking about true innovation from what's really going to change consumer value.

So what is at the heart of the consumer need we're trying to solve, but also how do I renovate in a faster way?

And we are seeing that some of our clients, it takes 18 months to get a basic renovation on the shelf.

And so they are asking the question, okay, how can I do that in three months?

And it is linked to the topic of end to end because you need to be clear on what assets you have available to be able to do that quickly.

Where does it make a difference in.

If I add, I don't know, if I change the bottle size to be too big, does that make a big difference in terms of my manufacturing line?

Because that's how you crack the three months versus 18.

18 Months.

And it's fascinating to work on getting products to shelf in that speed and time.

Yeah, I mean, you got me excited with the merchandising.

I would love that job to come in and redesign somebody's merchandising process.

Oh my God, that'd be fabulous.

Was found it super fun.

Yeah.

They probably were super energized and inspired by that work.

Oh my God, that'd be so great.

Man.

I can't even stop thinking about it.

All right, so let's get you out of here on this.

We're in.

We're almost at the conclusion of day two.

Day two of cgf, like you said, your fifth year here.

I'm curious, what was validated for you?

What preconceived notions did you have going in that were validated for you over the last couple days.

And maybe also what surprised you?

So I was expecting a lot on AI and I think that was kind of validated.

There's a lot of discussion on it and actually very tangible cases come coming out of companies using it in a way that's really driving.

As I was saying, top line and bottom line, not just, you know, taking resources out, which is what everyone's kind of concerned about in terms of its application.

Right.

The power is getting both top line and bottom line.

So we are seeing that.

Okay.

And that' lots of great, great cases.

I think where I'm a little surprised is that the conversation hasn't shifted yet towards what does that mean from a complete operating model perspective?

Because if you stick at use cases, you can see them in isolation, but when you stitch it all together, it completely changes how a consumer goods company or retailer needs to be set up and operating.

And I'm hoping we start to see more of the conversation and more of the dialogue going in that direction.

Right, so that's a good canary in the coal mine.

Right, like, that's kind of what you're saying there, right?

Like, is like, yeah, you're seeing.

So if I play that back, you basically said that, you know, you've, you.

It's been valid, the impact AI has been having.

You're seeing that palpably in terms of how people are talking about it.

But that next level of, okay, how do we actually operate day to day in the long run, when some of us are imagining agents versus people going forward, what does that look like?

And that's still, that's still a discussion that we all need to have as.

An industry moving beyond the use cases to the operating model and how you need to set it up to scale as well.

Because an individual use case is, well, it's not easy, but it's like the starting point is how do you scale it across the organization?

Right, right.

Yeah.

And think about all the collateral impacts that come, that arise from the efforts to do that.

All right, well, thank you, Rhiannon.

Thank you.

That was really fabulous, really fun.

Yeah, it was great.

Great to meet you and thanks for stopping by and spending time with us.

Thanks to CGF and VUSION for allowing us to bring you great interviews with folks like Rhiannon all week long, all conference long, and as always, be careful out.