Sneak Peek Inside the Boardroom

By: Heather Garlich, Senior Director of Media and Public Relations, Food Marketing Institute

Part II of a two-part post. See Part I.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing the architects of a new collaborative piece of intellectual property that shares insights from some of the leading experts in food retail on a selection of the most critical issues executives must confront in boardrooms across the country and around the world. This is part II of my interview with Mark Baum, senior vice president & chief collaboration officer at FMI, and Mike Matheis, global industry association lead, Oliver Wyman, on how Boardroom was created and its importance to the food retail community.

Which topic in Boardroom are you most excited about and/or what is it about this issue that most interests you?

Baum: I love all of these topics! But for me, most interesting and perhaps important are the articles around healthcare and the emergence of the consumer healthcare market place. Growth is the number one challenge – and opportunity - in our business today, and I can’t think of a more important area – healthcare retail.  It is literally a multi-trillion dollar opportunity, and food retailers are poised to claim a big part of that market place.  We believe healthcare will “go retail”, and FMI members have many if not all of the assets to make this happen. And if they are interested in approaching this marketplace, we’ve outlined how it can work for them in Boardroom by giving them a really clear look at what is required, how they can utilize their existing assets, and what will be required to have world-class capabilities.. This is such an extraordinary growth opportunity – that to me it trumps all others.

Matheis: While all the topics are interesting, particularly because they are the topics FMI members told us were most important to them, if I had to zero in on one or two, I would pick those topics where insights are coming from outside FMI’s current membership. Topics like fulfilling customer demand by leveraging click and collect in this case, France, or another topic that will appear in next year’s edition on the Rise of the Discounters, sighting lessons learned in this case, specifically from Germany and the United Kingdom.  These articles in particular help FMI and Oliver Wyman deliver the Boardroom promise:  “offer unique insights to help senior food retail executives shape strategies for success and improve performance throughout their organizations.” 

What do you hope readers of Boardroom will take away from it?

Matheis: Hopefully, they will see that the content and insights are truly delivering on the most important issues of the day, and continuously updated by their CEO and chief merchant peers.  The other take away I am hoping for is that if retail executives who are relatively uninvolved with FMI read these articles and understand these issues are presented at Board meetings and SME forums, maybe this will give them the incentive to be a more active participant in these key FMI Communities going forward.

Baum: I hope that when they read Boardroom, they gain some immediate benefit. Immediate action they can take within their companies. I also hope it is thought provoking and allows them to share this important information with their executive teams. In addition to our desire that it stimulates greater engagement, we want them to seek to seek more information and get smarter on these issues. They should know there are tremendous resources at FMI and OW to address these issues and grow their business in general.

Garlich: Thank you both for your time. Any parting words? 

Baum: Yes, at FMI we are so proud and pleased about our relationship with OW and are thrilled to be able to bring these resources to our FMI members, their trading partners, suppliers and their service providers.

Matheis: I couldn’t agree more. We are proud to partner with FMI on this journal and are excited about continuing to build this partnership.

*This post is the first of a six-part Q&A series between FMI executives and Oliver Wyman partners on the inaugural issue of our joint journal Boardroom.