Never mind agile...do the Hokey Cokey

(image source:pexels)

There is a great deal of corporate activity and musical chairs going on in both agency and client land ( both manufacturer and retailer side ) , as players large and small seek to find safer new ways to futureproof their current business models in the face of encroachment by new entrants with their new fangled ways and fancy dance steps :

In summary it seems everyone is trying several approaches to secure space in the new ecosystem whilst scaling up in their historic core areas , thereby covering all the bases.

Management consultancies are said to massing at the gates of Adland as I write these words; meanwhile clients are increasingly said to be bringing parts of the media and creative functions in house.


New,supposedly more ............( insert adjective of choice here : disruptive/ agile / ethical ) start ups are mushrooming in CPG/fmcg ,especially in plant based alternatives to meat ; or in subscription and direct to consumer based businesses such as Dollar Shave Club .


Major branded packaged goods companies are busy buying up or building stakes in these self same new wave/ startups (Danone buys non dairy specialist Whitewave , Nestle buys artisan Blue Bottle coffee, Unilever buys Dollar Shave, Tyson meat buys into plant based meat alternatives , Mars buys into pet health care etc.,) whilst also simultaneously seeking to consolidate with other large and similar businesses.


Meanwhile retailing is undergoing major shifts, with multiple profit warnings ,store closures and insolvency in the UK as traditional bricks and mortar based businesses seek to embrace omnichannel : Walmart buys Flipkart , Tesco and Carrefour cooperate to bulk up their buying clout , JSainsbury buys Asda from Walmart in the UK....just as Internet based competitors move into the bricks and mortar world(Amazon does or will do everything from food to fashion to pharma eventually,Alibaba in China entering partnerships with bricks and mortar stores Bailian and teaming up with 13 Chinese real estate developers and Chinese Hema supermarkets).


The pace of change is dizzying and accelerating ; the mass market middle ground is no longer considered strategically a safe place to be ... meaning going forward businesses need increasingly need to have a laser focus on their brand's true core ,differentiating competencies whilst planning for an amorphous and fluid approach on how they deliver them.