Taken as a whole, there is not much our members don’t know about current and emerging issues in the industry. The FMCG Institute aims to synthesise and share this fragmented knowledge, helping our members become more effective in the marketplace.
SENIOR EXECUTIVE FORUMS
FMCG Institute members come from a diverse range of companies/categories and each brings a unique perspective and wealth of knowledge from their own experiences working in the industry. Member representatives meet at regular intervals over the course of the year for either a half or full day meeting, chaired by Marc Childs, plus one of our senior international consultants. Marc is widely respected for his ability to stimulate solution-based discussion on challenging strategic issues facing FMCG companies. Meetings are usually made up of around eight member participants. We find this makes for meaningful, in-depth discussion and a diverse range of inputs. Senior anti-trust legal counsel is also present to help open up discussion with confidence.
Agendas are based on requests by members in advance of each meeting and are therefore highly relevant to the real challenges faced in the industry. These consist of two main elements:
“Hot topics”, which typically take up the first half of each meeting and involve current industry issues. These topics are set in the month before each forum, so they include up to-the-minute issues.
One “deep dive” topic per meeting. These are programmed in advance for the year ahead allowing time for Institute staff to conduct in-depth research and preparation, including benchmarking/surveys among member companies and input/participation by selected subject matter expert(s).
Some of our current forums include:
Australian CEO Forum
Australian Sales Directors Forum
Australian Customer Marketing Forum
Australian Food Service/HORECA Forum
Australian Pharmacy Channel Forum
Australian HR Forum
Canadian Sales VP Forum
NZ Country Managers Forum
South African Commercial Forum
UK CEO Forum
UK Sales Directors Forum
USA Chief Customer Officer Forum
DEEP DIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS
The Institute’s industry deep dives are multidimensional. The topics are identified by our members worldwide as key areas of interest and scheduled for the year in advance. By allowing this lead time, members are able to open up conversations within their respective organisations, to work in parallel with the deep dive. The white papers that follow therefore can have a significant impact on internal strategic discussions and future directions.
Top-line findings on “deep dive” topics are provided to members ahead of their respective scheduled meetings. This includes the Institute’s own in-depth research, interviews with selected experts plus surveys among members. This process culminates in a substantial white paper, issued to members subsequent to the respective forum meetings, and incorporating the input and perspectives from those meetings.
Past topics included:
Mapping the changing market structures in the next five years
Anticipating and adaption to the “digital” era
Building organisational resilience
Omnichannel and path-to-purchase
Masterclasses & Training
Each year, FMCG Institute members are invited to give expressions of interest in attending a global masterclass. For this masterclass, we bring together a select group of delegates from our worldwide membership, for an in-depth look at an issue identified as being of critical importance to company performance in the FMCG industry. Over three days, we are joined by other leading industry experts to deliver a rich interactive programme that challenges participants and stimulates new ideas for the future. This master class is filmed and subsequently made available to Institute members as a downloadable video training package. The 2018/2019 topic was Rethinking Trading Strategy.
Note: The FMCG Institute is currently offering repeat sessions of the Rethinking Trading Strategy masterclass in multiple markets around the world. Find out more.