Industry focus

As of January 2025, DORA, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, has come into force, with EU banks, insurers and other financial institutions required to align their operations with this regulation. When done right, DORA’s key themes – operational resilience, cybersecurity, and business continuity – can go beyond mitigating risk and be turned into drivers for competitive advantage and customer value creation. In this article, we explore actionable steps to turn DORA compliance into a business opportunity.

In the latest episode of our CEO Stories series, co-founder Alexandra Jankovich interviews Eneco's CEO, As Tempelman, about the company's journey towards sustainability. They explore Eneco’s commitment to environmental responsibility, the critical role of digital innovation in driving this transformation, and the company’s vision for a greener future.

Retail Media has rapidly emerged as a cornerstone of modern marketing strategy. With its potential to unlock new revenue streams, optimize media spend, and enhance brand equity, it’s no wonder that retailers and brands alike are investing heavily in this channel. In this article, through insights from recent client projects and a conversation with Bas van Kesteren, Global Head of eCommerce at Sanofi Consumer Health Care, we’ll share actionable strategies for maximizing Retail Media’s potential.

The pension sector, traditionally characterized by stability and gradual change, is showing early signs of a significant shift as innovative business models and emerging technologies are poised to gradually reshape the landscape. This article explores how providers can prioritize customer needs, implement incremental improvements, strategically balance various initiatives, and empower their people to lead the way.

Recently, we've conducted AI risk assessments on prospective targets for our Private Equity partners to determine: “Is this company at risk of being disrupted?” This question has always been a part of Due Diligence in PE transactions, reminiscent of concerns from the 2010s during the mobile and eCommerce wave.

Many companies have just finished their Double Materiality Assessment (DMA), a major accomplishment. But the work isn't over! Now's the time to turn your DMA from a report into a roadmap for real sustainability progress. In this article, we'll cover setting ambitious goals, translating them into actionable initiatives, prioritizing your starting point, establishing compliant disclosures, and building a trustworthy communication strategy.

Making data-driven investment decisions? What if online reviews could reveal hidden truths that impact your choices? This article explores how AI analysis can uncover these trends, providing a more complete picture before you invest and steering you towards more informed investment moves.

We've all heard the buzz – retail media networks (RMNs) are exploding in popularity. But what exactly makes them so attractive to advertisers compared to traditional advertising channels? Often, the advantages include superior audience targeting and the ability to precisely measure campaign effectiveness. But how exactly do RMNs achieve these benefits?

As the consumer packaged goods (CPG) landscape evolves, one thing has become abundantly clear: Retail Media is no longer just a choice, but a necessity for CPG players looking to thrive.

While 97% of consumers claim a willingness to adopt sustainable lifestyles, only 13% actively change their behavior. In this article, we will dive deeper into the underlying dynamics of this gap and provide a perspective on what you can do as a business to bridge this gap.

For every geography, every industry and every company – there is an individual path which leads towards sustainability transition. The key is to create your own unique tutorial – by dedicating a ringfenced part of your business to becoming the place where you can test and learn.

Ask business leaders what is keeping them from sleeping at night, and there is one response that often pops up: the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). For a long time, the CSRD seemed like a distant mountain on the horizon, a challenge to be tackled someday in the future. But that "someday" has now arrived, and the mountain seems even larger and more daunting up close.

So, you've stumbled upon the intriguing world of widgets in an industry you didn't even know existed until yesterday. As you navigate, there’s chatter about the expansive online market size and rapid growth. But how do you sift through the noise and locate the facts, especially when traditional market reports seem absent?

Understanding the competitive landscape is an essential part of any commercial due diligence. Luckily it’s no longer a daunting task if you know the right tools, and how to use them. These tools not only pinpoint who you're competing against, but also provide clues into their strengths and potential vulnerabilities.

Let’s set the scene: you receive an investment opportunity - the numbers seem solid, the business model sound. But the proposition is largely online and you have no idea how to assess this. Before diving in, you want to get a first high-level picture of the business; just some quick sanity-checks to understand the basic dynamics.

For many decades, banks, insurance companies and mortgage lenders enjoyed dominant positions in high-margin markets, protected by strict regulation, strong customer lock-in and high capital requirements. However, even they have not been immune to disruption.

Over the last decade, the traditional strengths of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies have been slowly eroded. Companies no longer need to own factories to produce goods, Amazon sells anyone’s products, the power of mass-marketing through traditional media is dwindling, talent favours startups, and innovation happens increasingly outside corporate R&D centres.

By the early 2010s, global ecommerce sales had already grown to a significant size. Front-running disruptors such as Amazon and Zalando were aggressively tearing down consumer adoption barriers, for example by offering free shipping and free returns, and it was becoming increasingly apparent to incumbent retailers that the shift to online could no longer be ignored.

Around the start of the century, travel was ripe for disruption. Booking a holiday meant a trip to the travel agent, involving long queues, poor information and high cancellation fees. Fast forward to 2020 and the industry has changed dramatically: booking takes place overwhelmingly on digital platforms, and suppliers like big agencies and hotel chains, stripped of the advantages of high street footprint and brand recognition, have lost market share to a slew of independent high-quality operators, all instantly available at the tap of a phone screen.

At ABP’s annual conference, which centered ‘data-driven pension’, Alexandra and Henriëtte highlighted #data and #AI as gamechangers to make customer propositions better, faster and cheaper. #Customercentric automation of decision-making should be at every Board’s agenda. Learn more about the rapidly changing pension market in the article below.

By the mid-2010s, consumer adoption of digital was widespread, but in industrial B2B markets it was still in its infancy. However, strongly influenced by their consumer experiences, business customers were starting to ask why their B2B interactions were so slow, opaque, and dated in feel in comparison. At the same time, advanced analytics took a leap, which started to enable the more complex tailored solutions that are required in the B2B marketplace. New and front-running players embraced digital and gained significant traction, which applied urgent pressure on traditional players.