KEEPING COMPLEXITY MOVING

Deepening fissures in globalisation, hostile trade wars, a drift towards isolationism and populism—all signs of a global paradigm shift impacting the movement of goods. Combined with reduced automation costs, consumer demands for seamless service delivery and renewed attention to sustainability, finance and procurement professionals are re-evaluating their priorities for continued success in the digital age – and transparency is climbing to the top.

LEASEPLAN and CONNECT MEDIA gathered leading finance and procurement executives from all sectors of the national economy for a candid and honest discussion on how businesses are navigating this shifting landscape. Our conversation unearthed a number of shared frustrations, as well as shared opportunities – this is what they had to say.

DIGITAL INNOVATION THROUGH COLLABORATION

We are mining the complexities of the world around us in greater detail than ever before. While this ongoing interrogation has yielded great advances and insight, it is also taking a toll on us as employees. In too many cases, systems and processes designed to bring people together in the workplace are causing undue distraction and disengagement.

The situation, however, is far from helpless. As humans we have a tremendous ability to create – the task before us is to make sure that spirit does not lie dormant. DROPBOX is dedicated to this pursuit, making it their mission to unleash our creative energy by creating an enlightened way of working – not by overengineering a complex problem, but by removing all the noise and all the friction.

As part of this mission, DROPBOX and CONNECT MEDIA gathered senior digital, marketing and business intelligence leaders from the retail sector to hear how they are supporting collaborative spaces, where the frustration lies, and where spaces for creation exist. This conversation unearthed a number of shared frustrations, as well as shared opportunities – this is what they had to say.

DATA DRIVES THE FUTURE OF RETAIL

Customers, the protagonist of our retail narrative, are fundamentally changing. They are shopping in the moment, and that moment has become ubiquitous. Brands are challenging held business assumptions to remain part of the story.

CRITEO along with CONNECT MEDIA gathered a diverse group of leading retail executives to write the next chapter of this narrative. From conversion and attribution to segmentation and dissemination, there is no doubt the data-infused web that is retail can entangle brands. But for every shared struggle there is shared opportunity. Here is what they had to say.