“THE FUTURE OF RETAIL WILL BE LED BY SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES WHO HAPPEN TO HAVE A RETAIL BUSINESS.”
— Dan O’Connor at Consumer Goods Forum Summit - Berlin, Germany - 2017
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Front 4 Ventures roots are in highly disciplined, forward thinking research. As the Founder of MVI (now Kantar Retail) and RNG (now Ascential Edge), Daniel O’Connor brings years of context to Front 4 Ventures future focused research. He is a frequent contributor on CNBC Worldwide Exchange, Harvard Business Publishing, Executive Education (UCLA, HBS, Stanford) and Podcasts on important topics such as the Future of Commerce, China Commerce (link), Automation (AI/ML) and Data Management, Micro-branding, Stores of the Future (Fresh Hippo).
Executive Education.. We Enable Tomorrows leaders today
Senior leadership must lead significant change more frequently than ever. Reading the signals of change, organizing responsive strategies and on-boarding their leadership team is the centerpiece of every CEO’s agenda. Front 4 Ventures is often called upon to contribute its thought-ware, learning design and facilitation skills to set the foundation and inspire these teams.
Front 4 Ventures is future focused. Its research is grounded in today with clear vision of where markets and competitive advantage may go. Front 4 Ventures has organized hundreds of five star educational experiences that inspired rising and experienced leaders in the consumer, retail, distribution and technology industries.
Our partnership with The Future Commerce Initiative and its networks and faculty at the Harvard Business School, the MIT Aging Lab, Stanford Business School, Wharton, UCLA Anderson and others assures the best Faculty and content investment for your team.
Future Focused Research Brings the Future to the Present
Future focused research and case development. Front 4 Ventures strives to lead the most vital questions facing Boards, Executives and private equity professionals. There are few research teams that can see around corners as far, as clearly as fast.
Front 4 Ventures memorializes its research in cases and learning agendas. Recent research includes cases developed in conjunction with Harvard University’s Managing the Future of Work Initiative. We have contributed to significant cases defining the future of commerce including
Front 4 Ventures:
•Monitor its’ network of marketplace, retail, AI/automation, last mile and other entrepreneurs for signals of change.
•Support large company Innovation Centers. We bring the ideas and inspiration to a network that includes today over a dozen large scale innovation labs in Europe, Asia and the US.
•Starts, invests and advises entrepreneurs through its venture and growth equity relationships
•Teach what we know and learn as we teach
Content
ENDORSEMENTS:
“There are few research teams that can see around corners as far, as clearly and as fast”
— John Lilly, President and CEO of Pillsbury (retired)
“Dan O’Connor and his teams bring us into the future and back more skillfully than any other insights team ever”
— Roger Bird, SVP Abbott Nutrition.
“We’ve relied on the Front 4 Ventures team to bring the most forward thinking, relevant thinking from around the world and show us how it applies to our businesses across Latin America “
— John Santa Maria, CEO Coca-Cola Femsa
“This team has its hand on the pulse of the China Commerce and retail platforms like no other”
— Sandy Douglas, CEO Staples
“This research you all have created on Retail Automation is months ahead of anything we’ve seen “
— William Kerr, Harvard Business School
Cases & Research:
Next Gen Brand Entrepreneurship & Scale
Hemma, The Future Store at Scale (Sept 2020)
Algorithmic (Automated) Commerce; (Sept 2020)
The Future of Commerce (June 2019)
T-Mall Agile Product Innovation (March 2020)
China Commerce 2020 (March 2020)
Applying Data Science and Analytics at P&G (June 2020)