Dr. Marcus D. Kroth

Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine - this is only reported in Germany when it costs companies like Coca-Cola and Starbucks money to take part in the genocide! Keep boycotting!!! It works!!! The Frankfurter Rundschau reports: Large American companies are currently experiencing declining sales in many countries due to their proximity to Israel - and their international reputation is suffering. Coca-Cola is particularly affected. To improve its image, Coca-Cola came up with a special marketing idea. However, this backfired badly. In advertising, the Coca-Cola franchise in Bangladesh tried to convince the audience that its products had nothing to do with Israel. The spot shows a store owner trying to convince a skeptical customer that Coca-Cola is not an Israeli product but is consumed worldwide. It was particularly emphasized that there was even a Coca-Cola factory in Palestine. This information was apparently intended to allay consumers' concerns about the company. The reference to an alleged Coca-Cola factory in Palestine quickly turned out to be false. In fact, it is an Israeli bottling company in East Jerusalem, a region illegally occupied under international law. The ad's misleading message sparked immediate backlash and generated even more anger toward Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola quickly responded to criticism and pulled the commercial. Scott Leith, vice president of global strategic communications at Coca-Cola, told The Washington Post that the campaign was an “unfortunate mistake.” The company failed to achieve the goal of regaining consumer trust and publicly apologized for the misleading advertising. (Note: they are only apologizing for advertising, not for supporting Israel's genocide in Palestine). Major US corporations under pressure because of boycott Other large corporations are criticized for their proximity to Israel and are being boycotted by a large number of people. Customers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia in particular are increasingly avoiding restaurants and cafés such as McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks. So the boycott is loud and clear enough. Sales have visibly fallen in many countries. Decline in sales at Starbucks: Boycott campaigns are damaging the company Starbucks reported a two percent decline in global sales and net profit fell by 15 percent, causing its share price to fall significantly. That marks the first such decline in nearly three years. In addition, boycott campaigns are affecting the company internationally. Sales have also fallen noticeably in Southeast Asia in recent months.

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Recently, I had the opportunity to talk to Daniel Nerlich, founder of CONSULTANT career lounge. We talked about INVERTO | A BCG Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), about the challenges the economy is facing and discussed why procurement and supply chain teams are so integral to make our clients businesses stronger.   Thank you for the interesting conversation, Daniel Nerlich!   Please read the whole interview here: https://lnkd.in/eFcdcY_3 Let me have your thoughts!   #Procurement #SupplyChain #Wearehiring #BCG #INVERTO

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Tanja Kewes and Handelsblatt reporting today on our 2024 analysis of German DAX Supervisory Boards. The 14th edition of this study by Russell Reynolds Associates shows that while in its first year female representation was at 7% now 40% have been achieved. It goes without saying that an ideal board composition needs to take many other aspects into account, but all considered, DAX Supervisory Boards improved over the years - still leaving some potential to be unlocked.

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Wow - thanks Simon Walter, Magdalena Maier and Charlotte Niklahs for the program you've put together for the #management hive of #pakcon24! 🔥 How to set up a 10x innovation culture by Nina Michahelles, Sarina Hergarten, Alexander Böhm, Nils Wagner How to build and scale high-performing companies by Friederike Reuter, Stefan Roebel, Martin Sondenheimer, Magdalena Maier Strategy is broken by Sebastian Herzog, Isabelle Schnellbuegel, Paul Becker, Simon Walter AI: The Biggest Opportunity for the German Mittelstand? by Dr. Alexander Mrozek, Dr. Sebastian Walter, Anna Franziska Michel, Dr. Alexandra Deichsel Why Digital Transformations often fail - particularly in Germany by Miriam van Straelen, Marc Schiekofer, Cecilie Hohlbein Hegelund, Moritz Trutschel Venture Clienting - Success Factors of Startup - Corporate Collaborations by Arno Baltruschat, Dr. Sophie Chung, Stefan Schmautz, Anne Decker Last ticket drop: https://lnkd.in/duPQg3Wc

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The results are out: German consumers voted on their top retailers - and once again dm-drogerie markt Deutschland ranks as clear #1! Dirk Rossmann GmbH regained the 2nd rank, winning against Amazon in this year's rating. And Douglas is back in the top 5 for the first time since 8 years. What is at the front of consumers' minds? 💎 While value for money remains important, there are clear trade-up opportunities with product and service quality becoming more important again. There is polarization of spend in the market. 🎉 Shopping experience is important - especially for Gen Z. 'Fun to shop at' is one of their key shopping criteria. Douglas, Best Secret and Nike are particularly strong here. 🖥 AI will be key. Half of all consumers are using some sort of AI application during their shopping journey already. Yet, German retailers are far behind the US/ other markets in how they use and benefit from AI - leaving lots of room to improve (and thus win) along the customer journey. Want to know more? Download the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dvu6uUx2 And/ or speak to us! OC&C Strategy Consultants #PropositionIndex #Consumer #Retail #Winning

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The "New Shopping Experience" ? (You may translate the article with the support of your Browser). My Experience: Using in a supermarket the self-scanning option. Despite the fact that a pack of 12 bottles of still-water is not recognized like a pack and I had to scan a bottle and then add the quantity 12 - the scanning went fine. Unpleasant: Instead of going to the PoS, Pay and Leave I had to wait for an employee of the supermarket to control the content of my shopping basket. Result: Self-scanning does not deliver any added value (safing time, getting a price-reduction for doing the work of a cashier, ...). So - next time I will use again the traditional way, going to the cash-point and let the cashier doing his work he is usally faster than me in scanning and payment operation.

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🚨 Alarm bells are ringing for German companies: It's time to digitalise to stay ahead 🚨 A BCG study shows that one in five companies in Europe urgently needs to restructure - and Germany is at the forefront with Austria. With rising costs and a constantly changing market environment, companies need to act now to keep pace digitally. Because the world of work is changing. Read the article on how to start digitilising your business processes with app development, in order to stay ahead by our Head of Product, Martin Fischer Read here: https://okt.to/enI5qh #lowcode #ai #techtransformation

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„Doing the right thing even if no-one is looking“ - that is a good definition of #integrity. How to improve your skills to be able to do so is one of many questions to be answered for a good corporate culture. It was a pleasure to share my experience and thoughts about it with some distance in this podcast. Thanks #BCG and Dr. Katharina Hefter for the opportunity. Spotify Link to the podcast below in the comments. #compliance #corporateculture #leadership #crisismanagement

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Shaping Europe’s #DeepTech future together! 🌍🤝 One of the highlights at this year’s #FallingWalls Science Summit was our #BCG x SPRIND - Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen Executive Table, bringing together leaders from diverse innovation agencies, corporates, and venture capitalists across Europe. Never before have we gathered such a diverse group to shape our deep tech future.  This fruitful discussion marked a powerful step toward a pan-European deep tech strategy, focusing on three crucial changes needed for us to lead in global innovation:  ➡ Change scientific dogma: Almost half of the world's PhDs are awarded in Europe, yet success for scientists is still measured mainly by publications. To empower real-world impact, founding a company should be a natural next step post-PhD. Shifting this mindset can inspire a new generation of science-driven entrepreneurs. ➡ Strengthen business transfer: With German universities investing only 0.1% of their budgets into business transfer, we see an urgent need to rethink these priorities. University transfer centers should move from profit centers to service providers, supporting deep tech startups through long-term investment, encouraging both risk-taking and sustainable growth. ➡ Build a shared ecosystem: While Europe has made strides in early-stage funding, there’s a gap in later-stage investments, especially compared to the US. Encouraging companies and governments to become startup clients and fostering venture clienting are essential steps to create a sustainable ecosystem that helps deep tech startups scale effectively. At BCG, we are proud to have collaborated with SPRIN-D to build these bridges and foster the essential discussions. Thank you to all participants for joining the table and exchanging your ideas.  #Innovation Markus Lorenz Rafael Laguna de la Vera Antonia Jenkinson, ACCA, FCSI Anna Bergstrand António Grilo

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📣 LATEST RESEARCH: Making omnichannel strategies work for you Many brands pushed to adopt direct-to-consumer (D2C) distribution over the last decade. But faced with numerous challenges many are turning back to multi-brand and offline channels. In their report for Roland Berger, Faris Momani, Theresa Werkhausen, Nicolas Wüthrich, and Lukas Stoner surveyed 1 800 consumers in three major markets – the US, Germany and Japan – to explore shopping patterns and expectations of different channels of lifestyle, fashion, and sporting goods. Some key insights: 💡 Multi-brand stores remain an important consumer touchpoint 💡 But, omnichannel interactions remain crucial as consumers access multiple channels (for different purposes) before purchasing 💡 Channel preferences differ by age - younger consumers are more likely to consult various channels 💡 Consumers have clear expectations of different channels These insights highlight that brands must adopt an omnichannel approach that leverages both multi-brand and D2C channels: ✅️ Companies should evaluate their presence in each channel – and develop an individual strategy for each ✅️ To avoid conflicts between channels, brands must define the assortment and price strategy for each channel, while also seeking out cross-channel synergies ✅️ Finally, companies must invest to deliver a seamless, consistent, and personalised customer experience across all channels Download the full study here: https://lnkd.in/dhjTwBjw #strategy #leadership #research #fashion #retail #omnichannel #customerintimacy #customers #customerfocused #multichannel #branding #sales #marketing Vlerick Business School Kurt Verweire Carine Peeters Martin Weiss Brett Hamilton Kerstin Fehre Esha Mendiratta Robyn Hanssens (she/her)

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Mister Spex Comeback? That was the headline of the latest article from DER AKTIONÄR, highlighting our story and, more importantly, our recent developments like the SpexFocus program, which we rolled out just a month ago, and our new rebranding: Mister Spex – Optician for Life. We’re in the midst of implementing changes and meticulously executing our plans and I can’t help but shamelessly quote the author Michael Schröder: “Hinter den Kulissen tut sich was” // "Behind the scenes, something is happening." With that, let me be cheesy and close by saying: "Stay tuned!" and "Gute Chancen gibt es immer wieder" Mister Spex Stephan Schulz-Gohritz #investorrelations #deraktionär #smallcaps #opticianforlife

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Dear LinkedIn Community! I am flattered by the wealth of reactions to my recent Strategy& post on "The AI Dilemma - high ambitions clash with reality" which I wrote with You-Ri Julia Schü and Dr. Maik Hesse. Thank you! AI is on top of many minds, and we are living in truly exciting times, but need to be aware that any new technology and especially those that are 'hyped' needs to be looked at and introduced with a healthy amount of constructive criticism. A structured approach to setting the right priorities for a company's AI journey is hence of crucial importance. Find here in this post a mini-preview (or rather 'post-view' 😉) of the full article which is linked here in case you have missed it: https://lnkd.in/dAe6e7zb #Strategy& #AI #StrategyToExecution

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#Amazon is a key economic factor in Germany—this is primarily due to more than 47,000 merchants who use the marketplace. For over 25 years, Amazon has been active in Germany and has become an important factor for the German economy during this time. In 2023 alone, Amazon contributed an estimated eight billion euros to Germany’s GDP, according to the economic consultancy firm Keystone (though the total GDP was 4.5 trillion euros). Since 2010, this contribution has amounted to more than 50 billion euros overall. With investments totaling 77 billion euros and the creation of 40,000 jobs, the figures highlight the significance of the corporation in Germany today. Amazon’s logistics centers, in particular, are now an indispensable part of the country, and they receive the majority of the company’s investments. However, one of the biggest cornerstones of Amazon’s success is the small and medium-sized businesses that earn with and through Amazon.

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What an amazing #K5 #FutureofRetail Conference. Thank you Verena Schlüpmann Sven Rittau!   How to summarize two days full of amazing keynotes, insights and conversations? Here is what I took away:   1. Clear USPs - relevance equals survival Why should consumers buy from ME? Stefan Wenzel warns of the apple’s 'rotten core' that cannot be masked by fancy features. Yet, only 10% of retailers are focussing on truely differentiating experiences according to Karo Junker de Neui. #Lyko founder Rickard Lyko coins the provocative statement 'we are aiming to lower our conversion rate year on year' [what?!]. In fact they emphasize outstanding experiences and meaningful engagement beyond mere transactions.   2. Subtraction mindset - cutting complexity with AI According to Ruppert Bodmeier today’s eCommerce tends to favour additive thinking - more products, more categories, more storage. However, new models like #FactorytoConsumer or #SocialCommerce are all about subtraction. Accelerated by exponential AI progress, reimagined models of engagement are becoming the new normal. This is not going to be a one-off 'technology tsunami' but water levels that are rising at all shores and incremental changes to outdated processes won’t do the trick.   3. Asia on the rise - new forms of radical consumer centricity Shein's Christina Fontana notes that western e-commerce is focussed on fixed objectives. You buy what we produce. Emerging players like #temu or #Shein disrupt existing paradigms with demand-led models based on real-time consumer trends, micro batches, and fully digitized supply chains. Gerrit Heinemann emphasizes the immense scale of the top 10 Asian players surpassing #Amazon's 2023 GMV by 5x.   4. Serious fun - blurring the lines between e-commerce and entertainment E-commerce transforms into entertainment, and vice versa. Stefan Wenzel notes people in the US spend 56 minutes per day on #TikTok vs just 11 on Amazon. Time spent interacting with traditional eCommerce formats is declining and giving rise to #ConversationalCommerce and #SocialCommerce formats. Or simply put, if you are not where your customers are, you will become irrelevant. #GenZ streetwear brand #6pm impressively showcases the power of social community, authenticity, ecosystem expansion and collaborations with big brands.   5. #B2B's evolution - reflecting B2C paradigm shifts Speaking of temu above… today, already 20% of the platform’s transactions are B2B according to Gerrit Heinemann. Kai Hudetz also underlines the rise of marketplaces in B2B, increasing market consolidation and the importance of offering value-add services as 82% of B2B buyers seek more than just products.   ************************************************************************** What were your learnings and highlights from this year‘s #K5?

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🤝 🏆 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: The operating context is rapidly changing. CPGs and Retailers are elevating collaboration to the next level to unlock accretive value. Take a look at how 𝗞𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆'𝘀 𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 (𝗧𝗦𝗩) enables collaboration: https://lnkd.in/gf5TGMqi Co-authors: Mirko Warschun, Alex Solis, Aman Husain Kaiser, Sebastian Drescher, Amy McCaughey Kearney #CPG #ConsumerRetail #TotalSystemValue

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A new enlightening episode of the Handelsblatt Disrupt podcast with Sebastian Matthes interviewing Yuval Noah Harari (The podcast is in English). Fits in perfectly with the crazy state of the world between AI everywhere, Musk's robots and Trump's divisive politics. The two discuss where we go from here - interesting thoughts, but not much cause for optimism. Here are a few quotes from Harari: „I read many times in history books about societies that destroy themselves, about societies that are taken over by these mass delusions and mass psychosis. But then to find myself living, actually living inside such a process, this is really terrifying.“ „It's very, very simple. If you have order and you attack this order and you don't put anything in its place, what you get is chaos. It's as simple as that. And we now have chaos agents in more and more areas around the world.“ „The few AI superpowers, they will have the ability to conquer and exploit the rest of the world in a different way. You know, in the 19th century, to dominate a colony, you needed to send in the soldiers. Now, to dominate a colony, you need to take out the data. If you control the digital infrastructure of a country and if you collect all the information on the people in that country and you also control their attention, you control that country. Imagine a situation in 20 years when somebody in China or in the US has the entire personal records, medical records, every joke people ever told, every medical test they did, every Love affair they had throughout their lives, of every journalist, every politician, every judge. (..) This country would be independent in theory, but in reality, just a data colony.“ „When you flood humans with too much information, they collapse. When you flood AI with a lot of information, it becomes better. So there are people in different places around the world today that say, this is now the golden age of totalitarianism. One hub, one center will decide everything.“ Sounds fun, doesn't it? 😳 Link down in the comments...

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From Google to Schwarz Gruppe (Nerkarsulm) And who exactly is that Schwarz group? The Schwarz Group (retail brand kaufland, Lidl) has poached a top manager from the competition to expand its digital business: Bernd Wagner, currently Managing Director of Google Cloud in Germany, will soon be joining the family-owned company. Wagner is to take over a new board department in the digital division Schwarz Digits. In this position, he will be responsible for all sales activities as well as for the Stackit cloud platform. Google Cloud confirmed that Wagner is leaving the company to pursue an "external career opportunity". The retail group Schwarz Gruppe, initially set up its cloud platform for internal purposes, for example as the basis for Lidl's customer app. It only began marketing it to external customers in 2022. The portfolio includes the cloud platform Stackit, the IT security solution XM Cyber and services with artificial intelligence from the start-up Aleph Alpha. Although the business with storage space, computing power, databases and other systems from the cloud has been growing strongly for years, it is highly competitive. In addition to the three major American providers Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and Google Cloud, which dominate around two thirds of the market, several European providers are also active, such as Ionos. #Google #Schwarzgruppe #Schwarzdigit #Lidl #StackIT #CMCyber #AI #Alephalpha #AWS #Microsoft #Googlecloud #Ionos #storage #computingpower #database #Berndwagner

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💡 Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to act as a catalyst for a wide variety of transaction types. Particularly, generative #AI possesses the power to disrupt entities ranging from corporate giants to startups, impacting sectors and even entire industries. Although generative AI is still in its infancy, its influence on business and society is already becoming significant. AI can drive substantial cost efficiencies, create new revenue streams, open new customer channels, and both enhance and commoditize value propositions. The forthcoming AI wave will compel companies to reassess their strategies, business models, markets, and competitors. This movement is likely to generate a spectrum of transactions, from traditional mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to partnerships, alliances, and innovative relationships previously unseen. Read the complete report below.

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🔥 Get exclusive access to the Product Discovery Cheat Sheet 🔥 with 26 Product Discovery Methods that will enable you to "build the RIGHT THING" and not just "build the THING RIGHT" for your users. At konversionsKRAFT AG, we collected the most relevant methods that we have used in order to help our clients build and grow their digital products - you can use this board to evaluate your status quo and select the matching methods based on where you stand. To get access, follow these simple steps: 1️⃣ Connect with me and Anastasia Shvedova 2️⃣ Like this post ❤️  3️⃣ Comment on this post ("Brilliant, I want access!") 🚨 Disclaimer: this is the first version of the Product Discovery Cheat Sheet and we are looking forward to your questions and feedback while you are using it. Please feel free to approach us any time with your thoughts! #productdiscovery #discoverycheatsheet #productexperimentation #cromethods #testing #experimentation #growthmarketingsummit #growthmindedsuperheros #productmanagement

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