Starship Advisors

Target recently announced enhanced discounts for?their upcoming Circle Week to accelerate progress on its $15B growth goal and better compete with Walmart and Amazon. I shared my thoughts with The Minnesota Star Tribune’s?Carson Hartzog.? “Target’s new membership program could be stronger and more differentiated,” said Toopan Bagchi, a former Target executive who is now the founder and managing director at Starship Advisors. “There’s a real opportunity to seamlessly integrate more partnerships into a robust, compelling loyalty offering. Target should curate the right partnerships with the strongest brand fit and appeal for their guests.” What benefits and partners would you like to see Target add to its membership program? #Retail? #ConsumerGoods?#Strategy?#Innovation #Loyalty #Pricing ? https://lnkd.in/gVYCNQin

This one hits close to home, having led a similar disruptive innovation team that was also eventually disbanded. Earlier this week, General Mills announced the cutting of their G-Works innovation team and the pausing of future investment by venturing arm 301 INC. While little consolation to the 40 impacted team members, I hope they know their work made a difference and inspired others. For years, I followed these "disruptive growth" teams closely, both as a competitor at Quaker, and later as a leading case study for clients establishing their own venturing and incubation arms. Perhaps its not surprising, as similar groups like The Coca-Cola Company's Venturing & Emerging Businesses folded or were spun off like PepsiCo's Naked Emerging Brands group. I shared my reflections with The Minnesota Star Tribune's Brooks Johnson: “Toopan Bagchi, a PepsiCo and Quaker Oats veteran who now runs Starship Advisors, observed the cyclical nature of innovation.?'I think what you find at large companies, the internal innovation is always challenged,' he noted. 'It never gets big enough to move the needle fast enough.' Bagchi also emphasized the importance of a robust foundation, stating, 'You need a healthy core, and it makes sense to focus there first. The rest is icing on the cake.'” What's your take on General Mills cutting back on "disruptive growth?" #ConsumerGoods #Retail #Innovation #Strategy #Leadership #Talent https://lnkd.in/e6k8BaUr

Grateful for the opportunity to share my perspective on Target's recent challenges with Carson Hartzog of The Minnesota Star Tribune.? ? “Walmart continues to narrow the space between it and Target every day in terms of assortment and experience,” said retail strategist Toopan Bagchi, who was a top manager for both Walmart and Target. “They [Walmart] still hold the high ground on value, which is significant in an economy where consumers are watching their wallets, but they’re making smart moves.” ? What should Target do?to regain its assortment and experience edge on Walmart?? ? #Retail #ConsumerGoods #Strategy #Innovation #PrivateLabel #PrivateBrands #Omnichannel #Digital

Turbocharge Strategic Planning with GenAI "??????????????????, ????????????, ????????????, ????????????????" - (????????????????????????) ???????? ???????? As strategic planning kicks off at many organizations, it's the perfect opportunity to leverage GenAI to accelerate and enhance the process.?If you're unsure of where to start, we recommend 5 steps to identify the highest impact use cases, select the most cost-effective solutions (including non-GenAI), and develop the most effective prompts and processes to take full advantage: 1. High impact use cases: prioritize the most tedious or repetitive tasks and opportunities for richer, deeper outputs 2. Build vs. buy: identify potential solutions including traditional, "off the shelf," and customized 3. Test and learn: compare and contrast outputs - including status quo - for a range of scenarios and select the highest value solution 4. Prompt engineering: follow best practices and iterate for this critical step to get the most value for your investment 5. Adopt & iterate: document consistent procedures and effective prompts, provide training and change management, and reevaluate as the space evolves rapidly #Strategy #StrategicPlanning #Innovation #Transformation #Technology #GenAI Perplexity,?ChatGPT, IBM's Watson,?Claude AI,?Microsoft Copilot, and?DeepSeek AI

NRF 2025 Recap: Top 5 Retail Imperatives Coming out of the Big Show, we see 5 critical areas for leaders to prioritize (see slides for details): 1. Accelerating AI Experimentation 2. Bringing the Best of Digital to Physical 3. Investing in Talent to Harness Technology 4. Building Resilient Supply Chains 5. Developing Circular Business Models In the coming weeks, we'll deep dive into each topic with additional examples and recommended next steps to lead through this transformation vs. being disrupted by it. Unsure of where to get started or curious to learn more? Comment or send us a message to schedule time! Case examples from Amazon, Macy's, H&M, Walmart, Target, Tractor Supply Company, and IKEA #retail #consumergoods #strategy #innovation #transformation #NRF2025 #EX #CX

NRF ‘25 Day 3 Highlights: And That’s a Wrap! Had a chance to reconnect with Omni Talk Retail's best in the business podcast hosts Anne Mezzenga and Chris Walton! 1. Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon expressed optimism for the US economy and global consumer but stressed the need to strike a balance on proposed policies on immigration and tariffs.? In his view, economic growth will require increased legal immigration, and a lot of US manufacturing relies on components made abroad, including Mexico.? ? 2. Walmart EVP of Stores Cedric Clark and VusionGroup?North America CEO Philippe Bottine discussed Walmart’s significant investment in Digital Shelf Labels (DSLs), powered by rails that can serve as a platform to install additional functionality like computer vision.? The immediate impact is a significant improvement in store associate experience as the tedious task of price changes shifts from a multiple day exercise for multiple associates to something 1 associate can execute in hours.? These DSLs?are equipped with lights to guide associates picking orders and stocking shelves.? In time, cameras may be added to track inventory and ensure planogram integrity.? ? 3. Quorso CEO & Founder Julian Mills and Tractor Supply Company VP of Store Productivity Michael Diedrich shared how rolling out Quorso’s unified intelligence platform to Store Managers and District Managers is significantly simplifying their work by consolidating information from 30+ apps on manager devices, and identifying store-level opportunities by department, category, and even SKU, prioritizing them based on expected value, and pushing out targeted “missions” or team-wide “flows.”? After the pilot exceeded expectations, TSC rolled it out across their fleet, driving significant impact on sales and customer experience, with stores asking for even more missions. All in all, a great event featuring insightful speakers and innovative exhibitors. Exciting days ahead as?retailers continue to experiment, learn, and roll out technology to transform customer and employee experience, operations, and supply chains! ? #NRF2025 #Retail #ConsumerTrends #EmployeeExperience #EX #CustomerExperience #CX #Technology #Innovation #Transformation?

NRF Day 2 Highlights: Let’s Dive In!??? Had a great time catching up and walking the floor with former PepsiCo colleague, VP of Omni at Tapestry, Trang To (and catching her insightful panel), and reconnecting with Manfred Mueller, Chief Strategy Officer at Identiv IOT, an innovator in specialty RFID, HF, NFC, and BLE solutions. 1. Target’s Rick Gomez:?Shared how resilient, resourceful, and intentional the US consumer is, navigating challenges like the LA fires, stretching their budgets, and leaning in on compelling deals on Circle Week and products like the Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Book. Rick added how Target is for everyone through its portfolio of Owned Brands for every life stage, and how the power of "Tarzhay" delivers affordability (through price cuts and owned brands), ease and convenience (through drive up and delivery), and inspires and delights (through exclusive brand partnerships and collaborations, including its recent "Cuddle Collab" with "furfluencer" pets). 2. Walmart’s Jerome Del Porto, IKEA’s Mardi Ditze, CEP, and Target’s Agata Ramallo Garcia:?Stressed the critical importance of circular business models as a strategic imperative and mindset to embed throughout the organization.?They shared examples of how enabling products to be repaired, resold, or recycled, creates value, drives productivity, and reduces waste, including IKEA's repair services, Target recycling 3 million car seats, and Walmart's "reverse ATM" for cell phones, which evaluates a device and offers cash on the spot. 3. Tapestry’s Trang To, H&M’s Ellen Svanstr?m, and Qurate Retail Group’s Karen Etzkorn:?Elaborated on "the next big tech game-changer" including experimentation and learning with GenAI, RFID & low-cost sensors, and computer vision.?GenAI is being used to empower store associates, create product descriptions, and improve search.?Trang shared how Tapestry has seen a 40% reduction in code development and has rolled out platforms at Coach and Kate Spade to aggregate feedback into themes for action.?Ellen shared how H&M is rolling out RFID and low-cost sensors to capture insights and data, including where to locate items in store.?Karen shared how Qurate is using AI to identify their most effective QVC and HSN broadcast content to create snippets for social media.?Lastly, the panel stressed the importance of ecosystem partnerships and culture to make big, bold moves. Wrapped up the day at Retail's Big Concert featuring Jersey Shore's finest DJ Pauly D and the one and only Flo Rida. #NRF2025 #Retail #ConsumerInsights #PrivateBrands #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #Technology #GenAI #AI #Innovation #Transformation

NRF Day 1 Highlights: Let's gooooooooooo!!!! 1. Target's Brian Cornell and Abubakarr Bangura:?Discussed Target's culture of care, growth, and winning together.?As technology continues to advance, people still matter and its imperative to invest in talent to take full advantage. 2. Macy's Tony Spring, Olivier Bron, and Maly Bernstein:?Shared updates on their Bold New Chapter strategy, focusing on luxury formats Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury for growth, right-sizing Macy's fleet, and combining technology and team members to build stronger, personalized customer relationships. 3. Amazon's Doug Herrington:?Discussed Amazon's culture of being willing to fail and how Gen AI is transforming the business: from their Rufus shopping assistant, to review summaries, to fit recommendations based on shopping patterns and customer feedback, helping sellers create listings, and improved customer service touchpoints. Wrapped up with an amazing dinner with an old friend, Stuart B., from TORY BURCH. #NRF2025 #GrowthStrategy #Retail #ConsumerGoods #Strategy #Innovation #Transformation

??Celebrating our growing team and expanding capabilities!?? I'm excited to share that over the past year, the Starship Advisors team has been steadily growing, helping us deliver breakthrough impact for clients through: ?? A broader set of capabilities and diversity of perspectives ? Speed and scale to support a portfolio of critical initiatives ?? Having a lot more fun along the way Strategy is a team sport, as I learned at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and McKinsey & Company, and cultivated on teams at PepsiCo, Walmart, and Target, which is why I have so much gratitude to be on this journey with this one. How can we bring the power of our team to help you solve your most challenging problems? #strategy #teamwork #talent #gratitude