A CIO, a Software Developer, and an Armadillo Walk into a Bar
(Yes, this really happened, and we witnessed it last week at Oracle Retail Cross Talk 2022.) Last held in person in 2019, Oracle's annual conference is a unique executive [...]
Retail Demand Planning Before, During, and After Crisis
Yogi Berra is often quoted as saying, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Steve Jobs echoed the same sentiment as a preface to his optimistic extrapolations predicting the future of technology. In [...]
Solving Today’s Retail Inventory Challenges with Strategy and Process
Next week, Clay Parnell and I will join several hundred retail colleagues, representing over 70 brands at Oracle Retail Cross Talk in Dallas, Texas. We are excited to once again connect with people face-to-face instead [...]
The JEDI Journey Continues: Three Days That Changed Our World
How do you sum up three life-changing days in a developing country where the gross national income hovers below $5,000 USD? This question has been nagging me since our small team [...]
Three Takeaways from the Women in Retail Leadership Summit
Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the 2022 Women in Retail Leadership (WIRL) Summit. This annual event brings together some of the smartest and most fun, highly talented ladies [...]
Understanding Consumer Demand: The Retail and CPG North Star
I was recently involved in an interesting conversation with my colleagues regarding why we do what we do. This dialog was inspired by Simon Sinek’s book and Ted Talk on the same subject: before [...]
Aim10x Global 2022 Recap
Last week, several members of The Parker Avery Group attended the aim10x Global 2022 event. This was Parker Avery’s second year as a partner in o9 Solution’s three-day virtual event, and the team enjoyed [...]
Retail Reality: Navigating Through Madness
The appeal of the upcoming NCAA March Madness tournament is always “the unexpected.” The sleepers. The Cinderella teams. The upsets. The highs and the lows. Retailers deal with similar unexpected challenges all the time, [...]
Make No Mistake: Avoiding Data Governance Issues
Any retailer embarking on a new system implementation must have an intense focus on avoiding data governance issues. Especially in a transaction-rich environment like retail, the downstream impacts of not strategically managing data can [...]
You Don’t Have to See the Whole Staircase
This post was originally published in May 2020, and has been modified slightly. Looking back over the events of the past two years I’m certain we can all agree it’s been a roller coaster [...]
Three Key Retail Trends for 2022
As retailers continue to navigate the disruptive factors that have forever altered the way they do business, ongoing and emerging challenges continue to drive transformational change. Massive shifts in consumer behavior have propelled [...]
Holidays, Family, and Gratitude
To begin, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the horrific tornadoes that devastated Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Illinois. While tumultuous for many, this past year [...]
Unimaginable Gratitude: The JEDI Challenge
As we approach Thanksgiving week and the 2021 holiday season, The Parker Avery Group wrapped up what may be the most important project in our firm’s almost 15 years. It wasn’t for a multibillion-dollar [...]
Retail Employee Engagement: Three Key Factors
With the holiday shopping surge fast approaching, supply chain issues a top concern, and the stark realization that retailers are still struggling to fill holes in their store labor schedules, it is paramount that [...]
Delivering Success: A Best-of-Breed Approach to Change Management
Back in our July newsletter, we proclaimed that “software is not your solution.” We received some interesting feedback from our technology partners and colleagues, but we meant it. It is our steadfast belief that [...]
The Bright Future of Brick-and-Mortar Retail: Four Key Drivers
Amazon’s continued move into brick-and-mortar (aka physical) retail can be seen as further proof that the terminal demise of the physical store has been slightly—if not largely—exaggerated. Rather, brick-and-mortar retail is evolving to meet new [...]
The Demand Intelligence Advantage
Driven by deep retail and CPG industry expertise, Demand Intelligence is Parker Avery’s software-as-a-service demand planning platform powered by the latest in advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. But it seems like every software company in the industry [...]
Groceryshop 2021: Omnichannel, Wellness, Sustainability, and Supply Chain
Last week, we had the privilege of presenting at the Groceryshop conference in Las Vegas. This four-day event was filled with great content and insights from grocery and CPG industry leaders, as well as [...]
Launching a Best-in-Class Analytics Solution
When I joined Parker Avery in 2014, we started discussing bringing in analytics capabilities to complement the firm’s already best-in-class services around merchandising, omnichannel, and supply chain for retail and CPG brands. Parker Avery’s expertise [...]
Project Planning: Four Considerations for Data Readiness
One of the most overlooked aspects that can have significant impact on project estimations and timelines is client data readiness. If proper analysis of data availability and cleanliness is not factored into the overall [...]
True Business Transformation Needs Change Management
A few weeks ago, Parker Avery blogged about the key distinction between software and solutions. We suggested that despite the proclamations of most technology vendors, software alone will not solve business challenges. Solutions will. [...]
Organizational Culture: Leaning on Strength
Most will agree, this is a tough time of year on multiple fronts. It’s almost the end of summer, and many are returning from what may have been their first family vacation in well [...]
Software is Not Your Solution
Through many conversations with Parker Avery clients and technology partners, as well as in industry articles about the latest innovations and technologies, the words solution, system, and software are used interchangeably. Despite what most technology vendors [...]
How COVID Changed the Role of the CIO
Recently Parker Avery's CEO Robert Kaufman was interviewed by a media analyst about how COVID changed the role of the CIO. We all know the global pandemic brought about severe changes in most industries. [...]
Considerations for Remote Software Selection Projects
A few weeks ago, Partner Amanda Astrologo and Senior Manager Julie Cheney were featured on Parker Avery’s “Talk Retail to Me” podcast, where they discussed remote software selection projects. The two retail experts provided [...]