Customer Value Creation

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. For some FMCG brands, no price cuts, no problem. The brands growing 3-5X faster than competitors have stopped competing on price entirely. This is the framework of how top CPGs win online. The data is clear; 1️⃣ Digital-first brands like L'Oréal, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble are achieving 3–5X higher unit growth 2️⃣ Their edge: Value communication, optimized digital shelf, and content that converts 3️⃣ They’re using pack strategy and personalization, not blanket discounts, to drive volume ++ 𝟰 𝗧𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗖𝗠𝗢𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝟮 ++ 1. I strongly recommend, stop leading with "20% off" and start with "Here's why this matters to your life." This way you can master value communication over price communication. - Create content that educates, inspires, and justifies your price point - Use storytelling that connects product benefits to real consumer moments - Build trust through transparent ingredient stories and sustainability narratives 2. Your Amazon listing is your new Times Square storefront. Is your digital shelf better then your flagship store by the way? - Invest in premium product imagery and A+ content - Use data-driven SEO to dominate category searches - Leverage customer reviews as social proof, not just feedback 3. Create value through innovation, not desperation. And it happens faster when you deploy strategic assortment & smart pack architecture. - Develop premium formats and limited editions that command higher prices - Use pack sizes strategically to hit different price points without discounting - Test subscription models and bundles that increase customer lifetime value 4. Use technology to deliver the right message to the right consumer. Is there anybody left not leveraging AI for personalization at scale? I didn't think so. :) - Implement dynamic pricing based on demand signals, not competitor panic - Create personalized product recommendations across all digital touchpoints - Use predictive analytics to anticipate consumer needs before they discount-shop 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Brands that compete on value creation, not price destruction, are the ones dominating market share growth. If you’re still defaulting to promotions, this is your wake-up call. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁 : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿👇 About ecommert We partner with CPG businesses and leading technology companies of all sizes to accelerate growth through AI-driven digital commerce solutions. #CPG #FMCG #ecommerce #AI #retailmedia PepsiCo Mondelēz International Mars The HEINEKEN Company Colgate-Palmolive Reckitt Henkel Kenvue Unilever adidas Nike The Coca-Cola Company

Look at this fascinating chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracking price changes from 2000 to 2022. It’s striking how certain goods and services have soared in cost—like hospital services, college tuition, and textbooks—while items such as TVs, toys, and software have become dramatically more affordable. This divergence often results from how easily technology can boost productivity. Consumer electronics, for example, benefit from rapid innovation and economies of scale. By contrast, labor-intensive sectors like healthcare and education have been harder to automate, causing costs to balloon over time. Artificial intelligence stands to change this dynamic. Machine learning and other AI tools can: 1. Automate Repetitive Tasks: From diagnostic screenings in healthcare to administrative work in higher education, AI has the potential to free up human time for high-impact tasks. 2. Enhance Efficiency: Data-driven insights can reduce waste, optimize operations, and drive down expenses—particularly in service-heavy industries. 3. Expand Access: AI-powered solutions (telehealth, online courses, intelligent tutoring systems) might increase supply and improve affordability for services that have traditionally been expensive and difficult to scale. Implications for Leaders and Professionals: • Opportunity to Innovate: As AI adoption grows in cost-heavy sectors, organizations that embrace it strategically can deliver higher-quality services at lower prices. • Skill Shifts: Tasks in project management, data analysis, and AI oversight will become even more critical to ensuring that technology actually improves outcomes rather than just cutting costs. • Future Competition: Startups and incumbents alike will be racing to apply AI in these traditionally high-cost areas, creating a competitive edge for first movers. Ultimately, charts like this remind us of how unevenly technology affects costs—and how AI offers new ways to tackle price inflation in essential services. If we harness it responsibly, we just might help bend those red lines back downward…

Most Amazon optimisation still focuses on: → rankings → keywords → feature lists → bid adjustments But the longer I work with brands, the more I believe this: Amazon performance is fundamentally a consumer psychology problem. Particularly in emotional categories like pet care. Because customers are not simply buying: “daily multivitamins” or “premium ingredients.” They’re buying: → reassurance → trust → confidence they’re doing the right thing for their dog And in increasingly competitive categories, where CPCs continue rising and products become commoditised, conversion efficiency becomes one of the most important commercial growth levers available. That’s why our optimisation process at Zeal starts with: “The Why Behind The Buy.” Understanding: • emotional purchase drivers • trust signals • customer anxieties • decision barriers • premium positioning psychology Because the goal is not simply improving listings. It’s building PDP ecosystems designed to strengthen trust, differentiation and conversion efficiency. The strongest Amazon brands in the next 3 years won’t just win visibility. They’ll win consumer conviction. And if your PDP isn’t engineered to convert customer intent into purchase confidence… …increasing advertising investment simply becomes a more expensive way to leak demand.

The effects of powerful new healthcare technologies may be smaller than we expect if we fail to consider system constraints. A new study in JAMA examined system-level spillover effects during the NHS-Galleri Trial, in which 142,000 British adults were randomized to receive an annual DNA-based cancer screening blood test. Compared with patients in regions not participating in the trial, those living in the eight participating regions experienced modest increases in diagnostic delays. The average delay was just two days, which is likely an acceptable tradeoff. But the study illustrates that when an intervention increases demand for a constrained resource, access for others may decline, and services may become strained. This comes to mind whenever I hear discussions about AI in healthcare. In his landmark 1984 book, The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt argued that complex systems are ultimately limited by their bottlenecks. Improvements upstream do not necessarily improve overall performance if downstream capacity remains constrained. If an AI tool encourages more patients with headaches to seek neurology care, they may still face waits of weeks to months if neurology capacity is limited (as it almost always is). Increased demand may simply increase the wait. Similarly, an algorithm that identifies patients who would benefit from palliative care consultation will not generate more consults if the palliative care team is already operating at capacity. One encouraging finding from the NHS study is that the delays largely disappeared by year three, suggesting that healthcare systems can adapt. But adaptation takes time, and technology is often better at exposing bottlenecks than eliminating them.

Ever wonder why we tend to solve problems the hard way? 🤔 The key is in how we connect the dots. A cancer hospital was facing a major challenge. Patients, often anxious, needed timely care without added delays. Doctors relied on quick access to medical images to make this possible. For most hospitals, loading images within three seconds is the standard. But cancer patients often have extensive imaging records, making this target a significant challenge. This created escalating pressure in an environment that's already stretched to its limits The hospital consulted several firms. They all suggested the same thing: a costly network upgrade that would disrupt daily operations and inconvenience patients even more. The proposed solution was out of the question, the hospital needed something affordable that wouldn’t disrupt patient care. A consulting firm graciously recommended me for the task. I saw the problem from a different angle. IT experts looked at the network. But as a Health Informatician, I focus on using data and technology to design health services that support optimal care delivery. Instead of waiting for doctors to request images, why not load them in advance? By preparing the images during the patient’s wait time, we created a seamless workflow without costly upgrades. The results were immediate and impactful. 😊 The hospital easily met the three-second target, and patients noticed the improvement with shorter wait times. The cost savings were substantial, all without any disruption to care. "Adam, you literally performed magic!” shared the hospital’s clinical operations lead. Sometimes, the simplest solutions make the biggest difference. The key was understanding how health services connect and using technology to support these connections. These days, as a digital health transformation coach, I continue to co-design sustainable, human-centered innovations that improve how information is used to advance health outcomes. Ever found a simple solution to a complex challenge? I’d love to hear your insights and share approaches that make an impact. #HealthcareInnovation #LeadershipLessons #DigitalTransformation

The role of a Service Delivery Manager is no longer limited to managing SLAs, escalations, or operational governance. Today’s Operations Manager must become a technology-driven business enabler — connecting people, processes, automation, and data to deliver measurable future outcomes. Modern service delivery is evolving from: 🔹 Reactive support → Predictive operations 🔹 Manual coordination → AI-powered orchestration 🔹 Reporting metrics → Driving business value 🔹 Managing vendors → Building strategic partnerships 🔹 Stability-focused delivery → Innovation-led transformation A future-ready Service Delivery Manager focuses on: ✔️ Intelligent Operations through AI & Automation ✔️ Data-driven decision making with real-time insights ✔️ Seamless stakeholder collaboration across business units ✔️ Predictive incident & risk management ✔️ Continuous service improvement powered by analytics ✔️ Technology adoption aligned to customer experience and business growth The strongest Operations Managers are those who can bridge operational excellence with digital transformation. Technology adoption is not just about implementing tools — it is about creating scalable, resilient, and future-focused service ecosystems that deliver long-term business impact. The future of service delivery belongs to leaders who can: ➡️ Simplify complexity ➡️ Enable transformation ➡️ Drive operational intelligence ➡️ Deliver business outcomes at speed “Operational excellence powered by technology is no longer optional — it is the foundation of future-ready leadership.” #ServiceDeliveryManager #OperationsManager #DigitalTransformation #TechnologyAdoption #OperationalExcellence #AI #Automation #ServiceManagement #Leadership #FutureOfWork #ITSM #SIAM #BusinessTransformation #Innovation #ManagedServices

If conversations around digital transformation in healthcare focus solely on technology, We risk alienating some of our at-risk populations. For some people, like the elderly, or blue-collar workers, the benefits of AI and other tools may not be immediately clear. Some may even hesitate to seek care if they cannot secure a face-to-face consultation. This is why communication matters. We need to shift our focus from the technology powering digital transformation, to what that technology is enabling: Access and equity. Technology is expanding access by making healthcare services available and affordable even in the most remote regions of the Kingdom. It is also making care more equitable by tailoring support to the specific needs of different communities. For instance, if a segment of the population is managing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or the physical toll of manual labor, digital tools are designed to respond and support accordingly. Digitizing healthcare shouldn't become a tech parade that shows off our capabilities. It should be about how those capabilities translate into real-life benefits for our populations.

What if the problem isn’t your keywords, but your audience? Last week, I talked about how sellers obsess over Search Query Performance and introduced the Market Basket Analysis. And yes, both are powerful, no doubt. But the truth is that perfect keywords don’t matter if you’re speaking to the wrong customer. However, there’s a deeper layer that we’re still not utilizing enough. The Demographics report. Most sellers don’t realize this even exists or that you can now filter it by individual ASIN. If you’re Brand Registered and have internal access as a Brand Representative, you can see: • Sales broken down by age, gender, income, education, and marital status • Unique customers per demographic segment • Ordered units and product sales by audience group • Filters to include/exclude anonymized data ("Information Not Available" buckets) And while it only includes ASINs with 100 or more unique customers within a given timeframe, it’s enough to change how you operate. Here’s how to turn that data into action: 👉 Identify your top-selling ASINs Start with products that meet the customer threshold. Filter the report by ASIN to get clean, specific insights. 👉 Study the patterns Are your best customers younger than expected? More male than female? Higher income than assumed? These signals should shape your pricing, visuals, and messaging. 👉 Map what you learn to listing content Tailor your bullets, images, and A+ content not just for keywords, but for the context and intent of your actual buyer. 👉 Think in Rufus logic Amazon’s AI isn’t just parsing search terms; it’s evaluating how relevant your listing is to who’s searching. And that means audience context matters more than ever. All this makes so much sense to focus on, because Amazon isn’t just surfacing listings based on keyword alignment anymore. Rufus is optimizing for context. That means: who the shopper is, what they’ve bought before, and what matters to them in that moment. And the sellers who can speak directly to the audience's intent, not just the generic product category, are the ones that will win visibility. If you’ve only been optimizing titles and bullets in isolation, this is your cue to zoom out. Because the future of listing performance is understanding your audience and adapting to their context. #AmazonSellers #BrandAnalytics #AudienceTargeting

Why ITIL and IT Service Management Matter Over the past 5 years, I’ve seen firsthand how ITIL and IT Service Management (ITSM) practices can transform the way organizations deliver value—not just within IT, but across the entire business. For me, the true power of ITIL lies in its ability to align IT services with business needs. It’s not just about process frameworks or checklists; it’s about creating a culture of continuous improvement, where IT becomes a proactive enabler of strategic goals rather than a reactive function. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Here’s what I see as the core value of ITIL and ITSM: • Consistency and Predictability: Standardized processes ensure services are delivered reliably, reducing downtime and improving user satisfaction. • Business-IT Alignment: By focusing on value creation, ITIL helps ensure IT investments directly support business objectives. • Efficiency Through Structure: ITSM practices eliminate redundancy and waste, optimizing resources and improving service delivery. • Continuous Improvement: The feedback loops built into ITIL encourage learning and adaptation, which is vital in today’s fast-changing technology landscape. • Enhanced Collaboration: ITIL fosters better communication between IT and other departments, breaking silos and enabling a unified approach to challenges. But what resonates most with me is how ITIL emphasizes the customer experience. It pushes us to think beyond technical resolutions and ask, How does this impact the end user? How does it enable them to achieve their goals? In a world where technology is the backbone of most businesses, ITIL and ITSM practices provide the foundation for scalable, sustainable, and customer-focused IT operations. It’s not just about delivering services—it’s about delivering value. I’d love to hear from others: How have ITIL or ITSM principles shaped your approach to IT operations?

Recently I laid out four challenges I think are shaping the next decade for nonprofit health systems: margin compression, a growing supply/demand mismatch, the risk of burning out our workforce trying to solve the first two, and doing all of this without losing what makes health care worth trusting in the first place. This is that last piece. 4. Solving for #1-3 without losing our soul — Everything we’ve talked about in this series points toward more technology, deployed more deliberately, across more of how care gets delivered. The risk in that is real: if we’re not careful, we solve the margin problem, the capacity problem, and even the burnout problem, and end up with a health system that’s efficient but has lost its soul — the trusting, human relationship that’s supposed to be the entire point. So here’s the question I keep coming back to: can we actually deliver human-centered care through increased use of technology? It sounds like a contradiction. I think it’s possible — but only if we’re precise about what technology is for. The principle is the same one from the last post, applied to patients instead of our teams: technology should take on the low-level tasks and the routine, non-emotionally-charged questions that don’t require a human relationship to answer well. Handled thoughtfully, that doesn’t take away from the patient experience — it protects the one resource that’s becoming more scarce every year we operate under the pressures in this series: a clinician’s undivided time and attention. Reserve that time for the moments that actually require connection, and technology becomes something that makes more human care possible, not less. We’ve seen this work as an access story, not just an efficiency one. Remote monitoring, virtual cardiac rehab, virtual primary care — these extend a care team’s reach to patients who’d otherwise go without that connection at all, whether because of distance, schedules, or the sheer limits of a fixed number of appointment slots in a day. Used well, technology doesn’t replace the relationship. It makes the relationship reachable for more people. The mistake — and I think this happens more in rhetoric than in practice — is treating technology as a universal fix, something you deploy and the problem is solved. It isn’t. The difference between technology that protects trust and technology that erodes it comes down to the same thing we talked about last time: design and implementation, applied with just as much intention on behalf of the patient as we ask for on behalf of our teams. At least for now, and I’d argue for good reason, health care in its most precious moments is still a human business. If this series has a single thread running through it, it’s that everything we build — to fix the margin, to close the capacity gap, to protect our workforce — has to be built in service of that fact, not around it.