Episodes

For years, commerce teams have been trained to look backward. What sold, what worked, what changed. What happens when intelligence starts telling us what to do next instead of simply explaining what already happened? There are hundreds of decisions being made every day around pricing, assortment, promotions, content, and inventory. Which of those decisions should we actually be comfortable handing over to AI, and where does human judgment still matter most? Here’s where it gets interesting: wh...

1. How are you and your team at Dentsu helping brands adjust to the collapsed funnel, where discovery, consideration, and conversion can happen in the same session?2. Where does agentic AI fit into that shift, and how should brands be thinking about agentic commerce, media, workflows, and team structures?3. As you build the commerce organization at Dentsu, how do you structure teams so budgets can move fluidly toward what is working instead of staying locked into channels or trade calendars?4. H...

You’ve built your career across platforms, agencies, publishers, and now retail media. Looking back, what were the pivotal moments that shaped the way you think about data, measurement, and commercialization today? Albertsons Media Collective’s iROAS research found that campaign outcomes could vary depending solely on methodology, with the campaigns shifting from positive to negative based on how performance was measured. What did those findings reveal about the current state of retail media me...

When product experience becomes an enterprise priority, where does the transformation typically begin? What needs to change internally—from ownership to processes to ways of working—before the technology can really deliver value? For executives making the case for investment, how should they measure the business impact of product experience? Which metrics best connect these capabilities to revenue, margin, market share, or other outcomes the C-suite cares about? Many large organizations are de...

Before launching K2O, you spent seven years helping scale MaryRuth’s. What did that experience teach you that emerging CPG brands often learn too late?K2O sits at the intersection of celebrity, wellness, beauty and functional hydration. How do you turn that initial excitement into an enduring brand with staying power?Celebrity can generate awareness quickly, but repeat purchase ultimately determines whether the brand succeeds. How are you translating Kylie’s audience into loyal K2O customers, an...

You’ve had a front row seat from Mars and L’Oréal to now leading Barrows Connected Store what were the key moments that really shaped your career and point of view? You’ve said stores are becoming high performance media channels but most in store experiences still feel cluttered and ineffective. Are retailers getting this fundamentally wrong today? Was there a specific moment when you saw the convergence of digital media and physical retail and realized this was the space to build in? As you ...

1. Retail media has become a strategic priority for both retailers and brands, but not every organization is realizing the returns they expected. From your experience, what separates the companies that consistently outperform from those that struggle to generate meaningful business impact? 2. As retail media budgets continue to grow, executives are looking beyond campaign performance and asking how these investments influence the broader business. How should leadership teams evaluate retail med...

Tell us about your journey. What led you to co-found BetterBasket, and what did you see in the grocery industry that made you believe there was an opportunity to build something different? Grocery has always been a business of tight margins and complex decisions. Where do you see AI having the biggest impact today across pricing, promotions, and assortment—and where are grocers still leaving opportunity on the table? BetterBasket brings together AI optimization and competitive data. How does b...

Once a brand can identify the specific visual, messaging, and creative attributes associated with conversion, what becomes possible that simply wasn’t possible with traditional content analytics? How much can content intelligence tell us about why a consumer chooses one product over another—not just whether a piece of content performed—and where are brands beginning to uncover insights they didn’t know to look for? One of the interesting opportunities is applying these insights before content ...

You’ve led marketing efforts across startups and large CPGs before taking the helm at Archer. What have been some of the most defining moments in your journey that shaped how you lead and build brands today? Archer is carving out a space as a “better-for-you” meat snack brand in a competitive category. How do you balance staying true to your brand’s roots while continuously innovating to attract new consumers? You’ve emphasized the importance of analytics and understanding consumer behavior. C...

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 ...

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...

Consumer expectations around convenience have changed dramatically, especially since the pandemic. From your perspective, how has last-mile delivery evolved from a tactical fulfillment layer into something much more strategically important for brands and retailers? Many organizations still treat delivery commerce as incremental volume rather than a fundamentally different consumer behavior model. Where do you think leaders are underestimating the long-term implications? One of the biggest tens...

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 min...

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 t...

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 onl...

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 inter...

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 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 weekl...

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...

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 c...

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 s...

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 executiv...

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 scra...