Corporate Innovation in Retail

Back in 2018 at the Retail:Tech conference at Rishon LeTsiyon, near Tel Aviv in Israel, I was invited to share my views regarding corporate innovation in Retail While I was working for the Mulliez Familly Office (France), sitting in my office in San Francisco. There was no recording but I recently found an old article published on People & Computers .

Old times, good times.

By that time, the trend was about that Retail is dead.

You should be looking looking outside the box, which I did, as always.?"It is not true that trade in physical stores is dead. It is a fact that Amazon also thought so, and in the end changed its mind?and purchased?the?Whole Foods Market?supermarket chain ," I noted.

"Innovation in large organizations is a necessity, and it is better that it be within the organization. Innovation labs are a good idea, but you should know that they are not so good for the start-up companies that join them."

I had many stories of frustrations and fails in startup acquisition. At least it's often a big waste of energy and capital.

"As for large companies, one of the reasons for the failure of innovation in them is that companies tend to include the innovation activity in the profit and loss report, which causes impatience in waiting for the results of research and development.?I think this is a mistake.?Spending on innovation should be recorded on the balance sheet as an investment".

My observation here which is more to be seen as a metaphor (you don't mess up with US GAAP),somehow taken literally, was more on expectations timing, which always have to be on a middle or long term, whatever the amount invested has been. I'm speaking about experience. And guess what? Retailers don't always have the time, and I understand that. But technology is a difficult thing to handle if it's not part of your DNA.

I listed another thing that I still think is wrong to do: to establish a start-up accelerator.?What I did recommend to organizations: "Introduce innovation in your operations center so that you are as close as possible to the customer, work in small groups, move from management to execution and be curious about new technologies".

I recently saw a quote from Sam Walton, known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively: “There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Same thing goes with innovation in Retail. Listen what your customer would say about your plans and invest with his views in mind.

Speaking about Walmart, I remember a company called Kosmix, the root of what would become Walmart Lab and the beginning of a long list of acquisitions that were supposed to infuse innovation at the Betonville giant, but not lasting for too long.

You can read the full article here in Hebrew, and my first in this language (which I'm quite proud of: https://www.pc.co.il/featured/278236/