Disruption of markets is something that creeps up on company leaders. Look at the food and beverage industry – Amazon is gaining ground on grocery retailers, DoorDash is changing the have and have-nots of restaurant brands incremental sales, and Uber is replacing overnight delivery and Courier services. There is one thing in common with this market disruption – Channel Blur. Channel Blurring is here now and will shake out winners and losers across food & beverage channels including grocery chains, manufacturers, emerging food delivery companies, internet retailers and restaurant chains. While the significance of these changes being defined as truly “disruption” is uncertain, it is certain that the market will reward those who have evolved their business model. At stake are things such as who wins at the consumer decision point an hour before dinner time?

Channel blur means that it is not sufficient to consider your competition in one industry. We are a strategy consulting firm so thinking about the simple difference between rivalry among competitors and substitutes as competitors – like Michael Porter put into play in the five forces – is critical. As a CEO and top executive, it is critical to push the boundaries of companies and channels to ensure the future business model attracts your core customers, or that you pivot to where the needs and demand will be.

Fortunately for the proactive, that time is now. Even if you are in Private Equity and have your portfolio companies focused on EBITDA for the next few quarters, answers to these questions will effect valuation positively or negatively.

We focus on answering questions via end-gaming strategy to define growth strategy and business model changes for top executives.

The question to answer is what is the future of food? and how will it impact our growth roadmap?

Having a clear growth roadmap across your businesses, for guidance that is aligned to future scenarios in food & beverage, is where we can help. We will deliver recommendations on prioritization, emphasis in effort and “by-when” dates for existing growth roadmap items as well as changes to the growth roadmap.

We look into areas such as:
Consumer desire for delivery (distribution) driven by trends of convenience and desire for better/fresh food
Impact of channel blur and how to partner, build/buy/test in this new permanent dynamic
Shopping experience models – brick & mortar and online
Impact on digital strategy end-to-end (order taking, distribution and marketing)
Product Innovation impact – because each channel or situation requires assessing the need and having the right product, package/delivery system, form, etc.
Since 2000, the Valen Group is a strategy consulting firm has helped top executives with major food & beverage brands grow their business. We have former top executives leading our consulting teams who have significant experience in major chains and consumer brands, so that we provide actionable, experience-based and fact-based strategic recommendations.

We work with you and your leadership team on marketing strategy, customer strategy, and experience strategy to make your marketing, product innovation, and customer experience work better.

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