A ladle of ... strong intuition

Andreas, to ensure success in the restaurant and wholesale business, focusing on upcoming trends and innovation is key. How do you approach that and what are past lessons-learned?

Broadly, we live in the age of copious information. More sources, more facts, more opinions – information has become ubiquitous, dime-a-dozen, if you will. That’s why I find relationship building and trusted sources key to capturing quality insights. Who introduced me to a particular expert? How well does my source know the subject matter? Do they come from the industry, bringing deep insights rather than base knowledge?

While, say, “Mr. & Ms. Google” are a great no-cost way to tap into the first wave of trends and insights, I prefer adding direct expert conversations with individuals living and breathing the subject matter at hand.

These insider conversations often start relatively casually. Meeting at conferences, sharing knowledge prior or after a panel or roundtable. From that come new e-introductions, follow-up calls and insightful meetings. Many times, I see how others share very similar pain points with us. To learn more about how they try to solve for them gives us an edge.

You travel between the US and Europe to spot transformative ideas and technologies. What is top-of-mind right now?

At meta level, global supply chains are undergoing fundamental change. Part driven by efficiencies from innovation, part affected by socio-political and geo-economic forces, this affects everyone including METRO and all our customers. Conversely, innovation holds tremendous promise in our goal to get better faster at serving our customers’ unique needs.

One example – on both sides of the Atlantic, I see how more people travel more often, quick to changing places. Each bring interest in local cuisine while also influencing new local restaurant concepts and menus previously less known. And a new generation of experience-centric guests looks for new cool restaurants but is also quick to move on. So, from supply chain transformation to the future of consumer pallets, all of this changes what and how our restaurant customers come to shop for in our stores, how we stock our shelves, and what technology we’re using to best serve an increasingly diverse and dynamic set of menus and tastes.

This is why, from multichannel enablement to data-driven restaurant OS systems, we’re looking at the complete range of digital innovation options – across our own supply chain all the way into customer premise.