Our clients experienced a year of learning, introspection, and refocusing. Many retailers and consumer brands are still trying to understand the evolution of their industries and adapt to changes in consumer expectations and shopping patterns. Some continued to invest while others had to pull back and re-evaluate initiatives across merchandise planning, inventory management, omnichannel fulfillment, and foundational data, among others. Many of our clients asked us to help them reassess their capability roadmaps and adjust priorities. With uncertainty in the market, economy, and globally, numerous decisions and projects were delayed or deferred, which is expected. The beauty of using a capabilities roadmap is that it is based on holistically understanding internal and external impacts and implications of transforming to a desired future state. When those factors change, the roadmap should be adjusted.

In all these scenarios, we are most grateful for the client partnerships Parker Avery continued, as well as new relationships we formed. We truly see our clients as colleagues and friends, and we continue to be excited to jump in the foxhole with them to deliver transformative and meaningful business results.

Our team has strengthened, not just in size, but in skill sets, capabilities, and most importantly culture. We recently posted about the global expansion of our analytics team—and while client interest in our Enterprise Intelligence solution has indeed skyrocketed, at the beginning of 2022, Pune, India was just another place on the map. We are excited to expand our team in people and across geographies (not to mention advanced degrees!).

We have also reinforced our organizational change management services with several Parker Avery team members receiving world-class OCM certification. Formalizing this capability and executing transformative change initiatives with many of our clients has strengthened not only their organizational resilience but also their ability to work towards adapting to retail’s tumultuous landscape.

Further, we continued our partnership with RetailROI with the successful completion of our second JEDI Challenge. We now have supported and mentored a dozen young entrepreneurs and continued to create economic opportunities in the Clarendon parish of Jamaica. If you are going to RetailROI’s Super Saturday event on January 14 before NRF kicks off, we will be giving an overview of this impactful program and how your company can get involved. Retailers can attend Super Saturday for free.

Certainly, we would not be celebrating nearly 17 years as a consulting firm without the tough times handed to us over the last couple of years. While uncomfortable, the pandemic-related challenges forced us to learn, lean on each other, and get creative with our business to solve our clients’ needs, in new and different ways. With this strong culture and resilience, our team is equipped to coach and cheer each other on to keep us moving ahead and delivering results for our clients.

Looking ahead to NRF 2023, we expect to be inundated by new technologies, as always. Parker Avery will continue our focus on meaningful transformation through enablement and resiliency.  As a firm, we are resolute in staying fresh and innovative to ensure we deliver the best guidance, support, and partnership for our clients.  Whether you are looking to better manage your inventory and supply chain, replace legacy systems, embark on analytics, or organize your team to adjust to this new retail world, we would love the opportunity to partner with you. Our commitment is to ensure your people and data are ready and that your business processes set you up for resiliency, innovation, and success.