Cornell University’s Dan Hooker - Omnicommerce Leadership

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0:50That's salesforce.com slash consumer goods. Hi, I'm Dan Hooker, faculty at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, and you're listening to the CPG Guys podcast. Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Sri Raja Goplin and Peter V.S. Vaughan, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to this special episode of the CPG Guys podcast. I'm, of course, Sri, your West Coast co-host and also co-founder of ThinkBlue Consulting, your trusted partner in your omni-channel journey, where you can get in touch with me at Sri at thinkblueconsulting.co.

1:38So please do listen to my younger daughter, Laura Raj, the band Cats Eye, who announced a full tour in the fall that's going all the way to Western Europe and, of course, across the United States. And my older daughter, Rhea Raj's music is now a Mac Cosmetics girl. You all found out about that. And she has announced on her socials that she will be a face of the Toyota electric vehicle later this fall. So you can check that out as well. And who am I joined by today? Mr. Bond himself. and of course, Mr. Bond, when he's not doing the CPG guys, is moonlighting as the head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, Commerce Acceleration Division of Omnicom.

2:16And he, of course, is the co-founder of the CPG guys. We just got back from Ithaca. We just got back from Cooperstown. Tell us all about it, Peter. Well, the first thing I want to tell you before I get to that, Sri, is late last week, I was having a dream and the devil came to me in my dream and he said to me if you're willing to let the red socks sweep the dodgers i'll let you sign scobal and now the the phenomenal detroit tigers pitcher is a tiger no more he is part of the dodgers rotation the spoils keep getting better shrie but he actually called me to tell me you know we got swept by the dodgers and he said like you care you just got tired he said that's why i called you.

3:01That's all I cared about. But Sri, first of all, let's talk about Cooperstown. To watch your face in Cooperstown, walking through the hall, going to the memorabilia stores, the museum store in particular, I could just see the inner kid in you just exude that kind of unbridled happiness. So right there alone, it was worth the price of admission. But to follow that up with such a phenomenal five days in Ithaca with just a crackerjack group of professionals and our friends, one of whom we're going to interview today from Cornell, who put this whole program together. Sharia could not be happier with the 2026 Omnicommerce Leadership Program.

3:48It was a huge success by all measures. While I can't give away the NPS of how the program scored, what I can give away is a visit to Cooperstown was the NPS of 100 for me. That's my NPS for that visit. So Peter, it was a pleasure going to both places with you. And what we're going to do on this program before I get started is I want to thank all of you that listen to us, all our sponsors. Without you, there is no podcast. So thank you. Make sure you're subscribing to a podcast on your preferred listening platforms where you can get our latest episodes and even go back and consume some of the 610 plus episodes we've already published.

4:25And now it's time for a guest. It's Professor Dan Hooker. Drum rolls, please. Mr. Bond, faculty at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. The CPG guys recently partnered with him on an executive education program at Ithaca. Our focus after last year's program was omni-commerce plus media, and we introduced the role of AI in this space. We also discussed the value of joint value creation. So join us in welcoming to the CPG Guys live from Ithaca, Professor Dan Hooker himself. Dan, how you doing, man? Thanks for joining us. Hey, guys. I'm doing great. Hey, Peter. Hey, Sri. Doing great.

5:01How are you? We're doing awesome. We just came back from Ithaca, so we're doing awesome. It's an honor to have you. And I must say it's an honor that you chose to partner with the CPG Guys with us. Peter and I being able to partner with an Ivy League university, it's special and we hold that deeply, deeply in our hearts. Before we dive into the hard-hitting strategy. Not just an Ivy League, Shreed. This is the Ivy League. The Ivy League, if I'm missing so myself. This is the Ivy League. There are others, but this is the. At some point, Peter, we're going to have to come back and talk about all the firsts Cornell has done.

5:33So before we dive into the hard-hitting strategy here and get into the depths of what this program covered, I want to remind the audience, please check the digital liner notes of this episode. You're going to find links to Dan's LinkedIn profile, the actual program page itself. And while you're on Spotify, Apple, whatever listening platform, Peter loves the number five. So why don't you smash the button that says the five-star rating for the CPG? Guys, look, I'm not even asking you to leave a comment, just to review number five. So Dan, welcome. I'm going to jump right into the conversation. Having over 70 senior retail CPG tech executives converge on Ithaca to immerse themselves in omnicommerce re-engineering was, needless to say, monumental.

6:14From your seat at Cornell, what was the underlying industry friction or capability deficit that brought these leaders together and how did combining academic framework with street travel execution resonate with this special cohort that showed up? Well, thanks guys for having me today. And wow, what an amazing program we had last week. What a wonderful group of leaders in retail consumer packaged goods and all the service providers that were there. I would say there's tension from the moment we arrived having all the different parts of the business in the room in one room at the same time. A third of the participants were retailers.

6:49The second third were from consumer packaged goods and brands. And that final third came from the service providers and the tech companies that are the engine behind the business. They're all in the same room, no media, just raw. We like to say unvarnished conversations. So there was friction from the start. And as we know, there's friction in the industry right now. You know, the consumer has the power. They have information at their fingertips. She's shopping differently, where she shops, how she shops, when she shops. And of course, and a big feature of this program was the impact of AI. I mean, AI, everything, AI, AI, AI.

7:27Man, we hit it pretty hard during the program. and this program included both faculty and practitioners. So we really dove into the nuts and bolts of how the business operates by sharing experiences from both sides of the equation or all three partners. So that was really a rich experience for everyone. People were able to ask questions, have discussion. In fact, it wasn't even really presentation. was more a discussion, a five-day discussion on how to remove the friction from the industry. So together, it was just phenomenal. The participants got to ask the questions live in class. And then, of course, the conversations that happened after class and the breaks at dinner and during all the networking events were amazing.

8:16And I would love to share specific examples of some of the great takeaways from the program. But thanks, guys, for partnering. It was such a great program. Dan, welcome to the podcast again. It's good to have you back. You're well on your way to earning the five-timer CPG guy, the varsity jacket, which is so deeply coveted by people who come on this podcast. I have to agree with you, Dan. I think about the powerhouse of partners that we were able to bring to represent in that room. Infrastructure platforms like Kevil and Iterate.ai, performance retail media tech like Packview and Fetch, delivery and merchant giants including Walmart, Connect, Instacart, DoorDash, and Chipped.

9:03From your perspective, how did having these distinct capability leaders present in the classroom really help this audience of executives bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world tech stack execution? You know, here at Cornell, I consider myself a practitioner and not just a pure academic. And, you know, when I teach my classes, I like to think of the real world application, especially for our students going out into the real world. So when Walmart Connect, as you said, Instacart, Ship, DoorDash and the infrastructure players like Kevill and Packview are all in the same room, the abstract disappears and we start focusing on reality.

9:44We quit debating theory and talking about practice, looking or diving into the actual plumbing or the infrastructure of the industry. That was a great part of the program. Let me just give you a couple examples of how that came to life. Walmart Connect and Clorox got up on stage and they talked about a way that they partnered together to create or reduce the friction for their mutual shopper and deliver great benefits for both their companies and their brands, as well as a consumer. The questions changed from the theory around what's possible to how did you actually do that and why do you do that?

10:18And our participants in the program got to really engage and interact. Another example, Joe McCorkle from Kevil, Austin Leonard at Dollar General, they showed us how DG, retail media, is leveraging Kevil's tech stack to create the future of media in the Dollar Channel. And like I said earlier before, the follow-up discussions that happened outside of the classroom in the networking sessions was priceless. So just a great combination of faculty presenting the theory, the academic view of what's happening, and then practitioners actually showing it, how it comes to life. And we were able to just really learn from each other, roll our sleeves up, dive in, and have those important conversations.

10:57No media in the room. I mean, I know you guys were in the room, but we were able to just have the real, honest conversations. And there was such a great level of trust that this group had in the very early hours of the program that just took down those barriers, those walls, and allowed us to have that honest dialogue that's so rich. So Dan, wait a minute. Are you saying we are promoted to media when our B2B influencers anymore? Aren't you an AI company now, guys? There we go. Yeah, you know, we are working on replacing one of our hosts with an AI bot. You won't say who. But then through the week, we kind of tackled everything from full funnel retail media, joint value creation dynamics to prop base agentic AI commerce.

11:41When you look back at the week's lectures, breakout sessions, debates, what was an aha moment you're taking away or a mindset shift you saw wash over the room? Yeah, I have two for you, and it's pretty easy. The two biggest aha moments for me was, and let me just describe the program a little bit. During the program, we divided each of the participants up into teams. And the teams were given a challenge to help deliver a retail media and shopping or digital marketing strategy to help meet the shopper journey from the lens of a retailer, a consumer packaged goods, or some combination thereof. And they used Iterate's technology platform.

12:21We created agents and the teams deployed agents to deliver on that objective. So the big aha moment from that right away was that if you and I'm talking you like someone working in the industry is not actually utilizing AI, you're going to get left behind. Now, that doesn't mean just let the agents run amok. You have to put some tight guardrails around them. We know this, the idea of tokenization and the cost has to be managed. But that was a big aha moment. So if you're not using AI today to help you speed your business up, then you're going to get left behind. And secondly, and equally important was a relation that I just talked a little bit about was that the agents need directions from real humans.

13:07Can't just let them loose. The humans need to be involved. Otherwise, they will still hallucinate. I know they're going to get better, but that agents are here to use and to be part of our business. but we have to stay involved and the humans have to be part of the equation, a big part. So it's a combination of both. That was my big kind of takeaway aha moment from applying the practices that we had in the program. Well, so much for the AI podcast host, Peter. Yeah, Dan, before I ask my question, I want to comment on something you said at the beginning of your response, which was the community that it fostered and the level of trust.

13:46You know, we established a WhatsApp group and a LinkedIn group as well coming out of this. And the chatter has been consistent since we left Ithaca. And I'm also not going to rat someone else, but some rat someone out. But there was someone in the group who actually so trusted me that this person said, I need you to help me find a spouse. I'm not going to rat them out. I don't know if I'm exactly the target dating service. but anyhow we're going to keep that quiet i think it's very funny but in all seriousness dan one of the main themes we always emphasize certainly on the cpt guys podcast is breaking down internal corporate fiefdoms which is what we tried to do here right bring brand marketers sales leads digital self-manager and supply chain teams onto the same page how did the curriculum really help these executives rethink joint business planning and cross-functional alignment so they can go back to their organizations and actually drive unified category growth?

14:52Because that is where the rubber move will meet the road, right? Right, yeah. It's a great question. And if you think about, this isn't something that we shied away from. And if you were to ask leaders in the industry today about JVP or JVC, they all do them. But at the end of the day, It usually just becomes an exercise in creating a lot of work that you have a meeting and then the work just gets parked on the side of the desk or filed away somewhere in a computer. And not much happens in most or many cases. And part of the program was to change that thinking and think about joint value creation and working together, breaking down those silos.

15:31instead of two sales team negotiating a number while marketing, merchandising operations, supply chain find out later or have their own version of JVP. This curriculum forced the leaders to think about, and I hate to use this word, the fiefdom, and that changing your organization around a strategy of creating value for both your partners. Full funnel commerce is the shift that's going to make most organizations successful. and we encourage participants to stop thinking about optimizing their own function and start thinking about the entire shopper journey from end to end. Of course, the AI tools and agents are a tool or a ways to help get there faster and more efficiently.

16:18But this program forced those conversations to happen. We provide tools to actually make it productive through the AI tool suite that we developed in the program. And then the outcome would be, you know, a plan that we all are comfortable with that can lead to growth for both organizations. So yeah, it was really good. And back to your point, Peter, like, you know, evident in the WhatsApp group or the LinkedIn group, I mean, this group just connected. I mean, they were sharing, they're still sharing stuff from what they experienced in the program. In fact, you know, one of the retailers just sent a picture of his family on the beach because he wanted to tease us that we're all at work and, And, you know, he was putting his feet in the sand and watching the waves come in.

16:58And so what a wonderful experience. Thank you so much, Dan. So now let's close this out for our global practitioner audience. Let's send them home with the key takeaway. And I'm going to ask you, Dan, if you had to issue a single Monday morning reality check as everyone goes back to work, to their leadership, what is the number one capability or strategic pivot? They have no choice but to execute this order to ensure they aren't left behind as commerce, media, and AI. Just continue to mushroom and accelerate every hour. Yeah, everything's happening really fast. I would say put the customer back at the center of every decision.

17:36We've heard this before. We say it all the time, but put the customer back into the center of all your decisions. Not the P &L, not the org chart, but her, the shopper. And that's the filter for everything. If you put that customer in the center, everything else will come together. And secondly, experiment with AI aggressively. Test and learn, but do it with the right guardrails in place. So yes, you're moving fast, but you're not actually blowing things up. And here's the one thing that most leaders might miss, or if they haven't, they need to think about this too, is giving your teams or your people genuine permission to take risks, fail, learn, and adapt.

18:14So if people are afraid to experiment, you don't really just have an AI strategy. You have a slide about one. You're just talking about it, not actually executing something that will really help accelerate your business and make you much faster and more efficient. So that would be my key takeaway for Monday morning that not only participants got out of the program, but a way to think about the future of retail. Dan, thank you so much for joining us on the CPG Guys to recap our recently concluded executive education program at Cornell University. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Always a pleasure.

18:49I look forward to next year. Now I will turn it over to Peter to introduce and discuss all of our collaborative partners on the program and get each of their viewpoints on what they experienced.

19:04Hi, this is PVSP with the CPG Guys. I am live in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University today with Luke Berlustri from Packview. We are at the Omnicommerce Media and AI Executive Education Program that Sri and I are so proud to be co-producing with Cornell ExecEd. So Luke, what prompted Packview to be a collaborator and partner on this particular program? On the onset, easy yes. When you look at the opportunity to get everyone in the ecosystem in one room talking about the future of not only our industry, but really the transformation that's occurring in commerce today, it was an easy yes for us.

19:44And we feel really passionate that this is the time to be bold. And so when you get this opportunity to sit with retailers, brands, support partners, these are the rooms that create that full of new action for the future. Luke, coming into today's event, were there any things you were hoping to bring issues you're hoping to address or were there any expectations you had about what you would get out of this program? Yeah, I think, you know, like selfishly, AI has been a big part of both my life and my team's life, but also the PACView organization. And getting structure around how we think about that, how we deploy that and how we really make that a, you know, a huge part of our future was always an opportunity.

20:32And so there's been tremendous speakers, but also just the work we're doing together as teams around how do you structure it so that it doesn't get out of control and you really start to gain the value. And so that was a big thing for me. Another one is, you know, just the opportunity to understand where everyone sits at kind of the current moment in our space has been really fulfilling to understand that, you know, everyone does see we're kind of at a special moment. And 30 years ago, you would have never had a room like this sitting together. And the silos that have been created because of that past life are now ready to be broken down.

21:14And collectively, as a, you know, an ecosystem, we can really drive forward together. So now that you've been here, we're on day four. Are there things that you found to be particularly valuable that really surprised you? You kind of alluded to the silos are being broken down. But what are you getting the most value out of? Is it what's happening in the room? Is it what's happening during the event? What's really driving your excitement about this program? Well, always love going back to school after 20, 20-some years. And so it's been neat to kind of— But you don't have to rush a football here.

21:46Yeah, I don't have to do any football. stuff, which is obviously an inside joke that is not going to leave the room here at Cordell. I think it's a bit of both, right? Like just, you know, 10 minutes ago, I had a side conversation with somebody that if we were at a conference, it would have been just a quick hi and bye. And you're starting to really understand not people just for their titles or the roles of their organizations, but really as humans. And I think when we break down those, even those human silos, those barriers, we can we can start to move forward together. So I think that's critical.

22:20Now, the content has just been, I think, from start to finish, really engaging, really interesting. The conversations that have popped up out of it continue to keep not only me interested, but the room interested in it. And now, you know, we can collectively take all of these learnings and go back into our specific organizations and really start to implement change. And I think doing it is one kind of voice is great. Now, the other is networking outside of the classroom is you cannot put a value on that. And I talked a little bit about the human side, but also just how can we help each other? Like we are not in competition against each other.

23:03Our job is all to serve a better consumer. And when you start to have conversations that are kind of in fate of what the consumer is really undergoing, it completely changes the conversation. And so competition that existed 30 years ago about one brand doesn't want to sit in a room with another brand or a retailer, another retailer, those are gone. And it's really about how do we create a better environment for all of us to exist. So if you were talking to someone at a retailer, is it only for someone in the retail media or e-commerce department, or should this be something that other departments at the retailer should avail themselves of.

23:40E-commerce is not a channel. It's the evolution of commerce. And omni-commerce is the way the world's gonna work. It's the way it is working now. And so every part of the organization, it's up to them to go create that change. And I think the more people that get educated about the moment, the better it's gonna be overall. And so I look at conversation that I had just 10 years ago with somebody around, what are you focused on? and their focus was very pure to the point they were worried about replenishment of their in-store business. You can no longer kind of live in that world. Everybody in the organization is impacted by what's going on digitally.

24:19So Luke, looking into the future, do you think this is something that you and Pack Fuel will want to participate in future years? I was already talking to Dan about potentially coming out and speaking at a Cornell class, but I think anyone that has the opportunity to either support this as a sponsor like PatView or as an individual, you would be making a huge mistake not to be a part of this in the future. Luke, thanks for taking time out of your day to talk about this. Absolutely.

24:48Hi, this is PBSB, co-founder of the CPG Guys. I am live in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University today with Christy LaMontagne from SHIPT. We are at the Omnicommerce Media and AI Executive Education Program that Sheree and I are so proud to be co-producing with Cornell Executive Education. So Christy, what prompted SHIP to be a collaborator and a partner of this program? I have a special connection because alongside Peter, I was a student in year one, and I really saw the value immediately. And at SHIP, we're all about curated experiences and bringing great things to life. So the value is so immediate.

25:25My mission has been figuring out paths to bring not just my peers, but partners along as well as this program continues to evolve. So what have you observed and what have you learned from this program so far now that we're in day four? How much it's evolved and stayed current. So what we talked about in year one is much different than what we're talking about today. It consistently pivots to address what's happening in our industry. And I think this program does such a great job of bringing both retailers and CPGs and businesses that help support that together. in a way that we're not just creating relationships, but we're helping really set the foundation for what's happening in our industry and how we continue to pivot and grow.

26:07So as we think to 2027, should we expect to see you and SHIFT involved in this program? Absolutely. And likely more partners, both from a retail front and a brand perspective, too. So super excited to continue to help grow this program. Yeah, I think what's really interesting is not only are you here, but you encouraged and brought along some of your partners to participate. But why was that an important component of this for Shipt? I think allowing and creating opportunities to help retailers and brands be a part of that vision. And different, like this year, we've brought together Hy-Vee, a great longtime partner in the Midwest, alongside Wakefern in the Northeast.

26:44And very different partners in terms of where they're at. But it's great to have brands here as well. So I'm excited to incorporate some of our brand partners in the next iteration as well. As you think about both the retailer and brands, are there archetypes within those organizations, different departments that you think would benefit well from attending this program beyond just the obvious e-commerce or retail media? I think where I'm really leaning in on now is retail media. Last year, we sponsored Heather from Giant Eagle and her at similar timing, her role evolved, not just from an e-com perspective, but from a retail media network as well.

27:25So I think continuing to kind of marry similar titles or existing roles, both in e-commerce as well as retail media, sets the tone for what future positions or roles could look like as well and things that we probably aren't even forecasting yet. All right. Christy, thanks so much for participating and thank you for speaking with us today. Of course. Thanks for having me.

28:08Media. So Joe, thank you for joining me on the CPG Guys. How you doing, man? Doing great. Thanks for having me, Sri. Great to be here with you guys. You bet, man. So, you know, as you came here to Cornell University, what prompted you to want to be a collaborative partner, not just an attendee? Yeah, it was a great program. I heard about it last year to begin with. And first of all, it started with the CPG Guys, you know, your network credibility, also Cornell as a trusted the academic anchor. Those guys, the CPG guys that trusted, would take an introduction anytime. We're very much hands-on building at Kevil.

28:43We're committed to shaping the future of retail media. And in our CEO, James's 2026 manifesto, this is a cornerstone of that. So we're all on board to build it together. And you guys in the AI business too, aren't you? Tell us a little bit about what that is. Sure. I've been in machine learning for like 17 years. So that's one of the very first pieces of this AI puzzle. But Kevil, really, we're looking at the suggestions. Everybody talks a good game about AI, but not everybody can actually use AI for reporting or decisioning. We do both at Kevil. So very much looking forward to also our agentic AI.

29:21And because we have a platform that's been around and tried and tested, we built this before anybody even thought about it at Kevil. and it actually helps you become very visible to all those agentic AI bots that are out there shopping on someone else's behalf. You're either seen or you're not seen. And our infrastructure allows your products to be seen and be part of that ecosystem. And now that you've been here, part of this program, you've been here four days, what have you seen so far? Are you enjoying it? What are you learning? Any big ahas? Yeah, for me, it's been a lot of ahas. I mean, we've had a good mix of academic professors weighing in on what they're seeing, especially with Agenda KI and what's in the market.

30:01We got a great mix, a split mix of 28 retailers, 28 brands and 10 tech providers. I think that's quite a great representation. And for me, I also want to learn from brands. I sell to retailers and I sell to marketplaces, but brands play a big part. And I even have a committee that I'm building with the brands to really get their input on how they see retail media and commerce media evolving and what they need. you know, the committee that you refer to, maybe the CPG guy should have a role in it. Just saying, Joe. I think so. You may be invited shortly. One last thing, Joe. So now that you've had a chance to be here at Cornell, you've been a collaboration partner, sounds like you've been able to leverage the moment, you know, learn yourself.

30:44If I asked you, would you come back in 2027, which by the way, it's already in the works, would you? Absolutely. That's a must for us. I've already asked to put it in our budget and make sure that I'm available. So we will all be available and looking forward to more members of our team coming also so you can learn from them and they can learn from the broader community as well. Yeah. More than the budget, where my head is, is we got to bring in that AI element from you guys as a platform for retail media. I think there's so much more in the industry that discussion needs to happen. So, Joe, I want to thank you for joining me here at Cornell University.

31:18It's been a pleasure, man, working with Kevin. We look forward to many more partnerships with you. Thanks, Sri. Great to be here. Thanks again.

31:28Hi, Shree with the CPG Guys, and I'm here with Jag Wadhwani from Fetch Rewards. And we're here live at the Cornell Omnicommerce Plus Media Plus AI Executive Education Program at Ithaca. Jag, I got a question for you, man. What prompted you all to want to be collaborators on this program? Shree, first of all, thanks for having me. What we learned after doing a pilot it with you last year and sending a few of our folks is that this is really the cheat code. This is the way that we can learn about things from the smartest brains in the industry and bring the learnings back into our organization. What about learnings in the three, four days you've been here through the course of this exec ed program?

32:14Any big ahas, any watchouts, any big things you're taking away? Well, in addition to our favorite topic, AI, and you all have done an amazing job at really helping us understand how to harness the power of agents, which I believe is the evolution beyond prompting. The most valuable has been the nuggets, the nuggets of information that come out of these conversations, hearing from the brand side, the manufacturer side, and the retailer side on how they're thinking about things. And these things just don't get published. So it's really a privilege to be in the room with you. Generally, Jag, how are you keeping up with AI on your own?

32:54You know, where are your learning platforms? Are you leading a bunch of articles? Have you started building agents, using agents, things of that nature? Absolutely. We have such a privilege at Fetch to be founder-led and to be encouraged to experiment with AI, innovate, and really build things that are going to keep us ahead of the industry. As you think about rewards and the role of AI, do you think there'll be dramatic change there? Are you seeing anything already? Because, you know, scanning a receipt with AI may be infinitely easier than without AI. And this is just me being naive. I don't know any better.

33:30Absolutely. The biggest thing that we have seen today is actually more about harnessing the data that we have and the speed to market that we can use our data to inform our partners. What used to take us several days and working with our analytics team is actually immediate now through just using our own LLMs. And your own observation working with a variety of brands like you do, have you seen that there are areas where AI is getting more prevalent in media, omni-commerce, etc., or is it still early days? I believe it's still early days. What we're hearing is that most of our partners today are really utilizing it for internal data and analysis.

34:11But what's up and coming is actually less on the business side and more on the creative side. And how dynamic creative and how AI generated creative is going to help CPGs move a lot faster. I got one last one for you based on your experience here. Would you come back next year? One hundred percent. You guys put on a great, great program. We're really excited to bring more of our people and our partners next year. Thanks, Jags, for joining me on the CPG, guys. Thank you.

34:42So you're here with the CPG guys. I'm thrilled that Katie DeLeo is here from DoorDash. Thank you so much for being a collaborator with Cornell University and the CPG guys on this Omnicommerce plus media executive education program. I have a couple of questions for you, Katie. Awesome. Thanks for having us. We're really happy to be part of this. There's no way we'd have missed having DoorDash here. The first question I have for you is, when I reached out, what prompted you to say, yes, you wanted to be part of this? Like, than my charm, of course. That is compelling. A couple of things. I think one, in a world where there are so many conferences and industry events, I think this program is really unique in its format.

35:23It's really about discussion. It's about learning. It's about hands-on experience. The networking is fantastic in terms of building a community. I love that it's not just across CPG partners, but it's also with retailers and it's recognizing that those two things are getting closer and closer. So you mentioned the community. What if we found a way to sustain this conversation in the share group? Would it be attractive? A hundred percent. For the industry in general? Absolutely. Because I think, again, there are a lot of events that we all attend to. And CPG is a small world. I mean, it's fun seeing people I literally worked with 10 years ago.

35:57Lots of partners we work with today. But I think a lot of them tend to be, I'm going to be at X conference in the X month, but having something where it's ongoing dialogue. It's the continuity that goes away at a conference. It's like one and done. And then next year, the same thing all over again. Right. All right. The next one I have for you is, you know, you've been attending various parts of this program. You were also a presenter. So tell us what you saw, what was exciting, what sort of conversations were meaningful, what wasn't, things of that nature. Yeah. My favorite session was the one that you helped lead, actually, on JVP to JVC, really kind of underscoring the pivot from a transaction or a deal and more to a true partnership and a collaboration, which is given how fast retail media and omni-channel commerce is moving and how much learning there is to be shared across retailer and CPG, I think really reframing the relationship in that regard is meaningful.

36:53Of course, Parag and I through Think Blue Consulting, which is also a partner here with Cornell University, were trying to bring the concept to market of JBP saw yesterday because it's only transactional financials. JVC is you put the consumer at the center, which kind of takes me to Jesus Delgado's presentation, The Ex-Merchant. He started his whole conversation by saying it's got to be customer, which is in your and my eyes, consumer. So what do you think about that? Because that's what JVC is anchored on. Both parties, retail and CPG sit together at the table to see how they can jointly grow trips and baskets by focusing on the customer?

37:28Yeah, 100%. I actually grew up in CPG. So I started my career at Unilever. And I think sort of the thing I took away from that is I'm very consumer-centric. It sort of drives a lot of the decisions, you know, we make at DoorDash, and no one knows the consumer better than a CPG. And so in a world where we are all fighting for the consumer's attention, there's a real opportunity for platforms like us to learn from brand to know at best. And I love the reframing of it, that we're focused on the same person or thing and that there's mutual sharing to be had. Let me close this out by asking you a simple question on AI.

38:04AI as a word is in every single conference you and I attend in the industry. It's in conversations by CPG, by retailers. What's y 'all's big perspective on AI? it's here i think figuring out how both at the individual the brand the platform level figuring out how to use it in a way that has been kind of embedded in your day-to-day is still a challenge to be done um and i think we as platforms owe that sort of education and the how-to and some of the learnings we're starting to see from my consumer behavior back out to partners so that they can learn and figure out how to adapt their ways of working.

38:49That was the whole reason, Katie, we decided to actually have a project here for everybody attending this program on AI and building an AI agent for JVP to JVC. So I hope you enjoyed that part of it as well. I love it. I think the hands-on element is really unique to this program and very, another kind of plus for this structure is you're able to take the content and it's very tailored to in the moment and nothing is more in the moment than AI. Awesome. Katie, I want to thank you for making time to record this segment with me. I want to thank you for being a partner and collaborator with Cornell University and us on the CPG guys.

39:22We hope to have you back next year. Yeah, it was a pleasure. I look forward to it. Thank you.

39:30Ready to go.

39:35Shree with the CPG guys, and I'm sitting here live at Cornell University's campus at Ithaca, New York. And joining me today is Parag Shah from thinklulabs.ai. And we have Brian Satyanathan from iterate.ai. How are you both doing on campus your life? Doing great. It's a fantastic event. And thanks for having us here, Shree. Parag, great to be on Ivy League campus always, right? And that's how I feel, man. Yep. And be an instructor at Cornell. I wouldn't have thought about the wildest dreams. You and me. Being a student is an amazing experience. Exactly. Exactly. I've gotten more pings for my family in India that I'm a teacher at Cornell than stood it.

40:17The happiest one in the house is not my kids or my wife. It's my mom. I can't imagine. So, Brian, let's kick this off by asking you the first question over here. You know, when we called and said there was an opportunity to come out to Cornell, be part of this program, what prompted you to say, yes, I want to be a collaboration partner, create some content, speak and attend? There are a number of reasons. First, we were very excited that we got that invite to collaborate together. at Cornell. A major part of our business is in retail. So we have lots of retail customers. And the whole opportunity to talk to retail and CPG leaders was very exciting for us, because I think that we are going through a rapid transformation.

40:56I mean, it started with digital and now AI is like accelerating it at a numerous pace. And we've learned a lot over the years. And this will be a great opportunity to have that, share our thoughts, have learnings, and also learn from these leaders as well and create a collaborative environment. And what's better than any place? It's Cornell, right? Because it's a premier institute. Ivy League. Ivy League, right? So we're very excited about it. And I think it fits really naturally well with the type of things that we are already doing. Awesome. Parag, I'll start the next one with you now that you had a chance to be both a teacher here as well as an attendee.

41:33What were some high-level observations you saw in this program that excited you? Yeah, Sri, as you know, I've been in the industry for 25 years and fortunate that I have seen two transformations, right, in a little over one generation, right, like digital transformation. And now we're in the middle of an AI transformation, right, which is just an exciting moment to be. And the timing of this program couldn't have been better because we are at an intersection of a major, major technology shift, but more importantly, sharper behavior shift, right? And as we are looking at it, so the three biggest thing I walked away are three C's, right?

42:10Content. The content was absolutely fascinating. The speakers were top-notch. The knowledge that was shared around with the group was just absolutely amazing. And I'm walking away with so much more intelligence as well as capability on what the future is. And I know talking to fellow attendees, they have the similar feeling. The second thing was community, right? Seeing retailers, CPG companies, brands, service providers, technologists, academics, they all coming together to really focus on the common cause to help the shopper live better was an absolutely amazing thing. And the third one was collaboration, right?

42:49Seeing this community come together, collaborating to solve the common problems across the board, right? That was just absolutely fascinating. And the key highlight was the agentic project that we worked on where students were actually working with agents and developing real-time solutions for shopper challenges. Absolutely magnificent to see that. And I can't thank Iterate to really give the platform and make it available to us. Well, Senedi, Brian, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. What were the aha moments over here for you? Any big takeaways that excite you? A number of them. First thing, the collaboration and the engagement was amazing.

43:26Every session had at least three to five follow-up questions and discussions around it. Very deep engagement. And also they are applying that to their industry. And that application, I think, was really interesting. And during lunch, I spoke to a number of people. And one of the things that kind of came out is that they all have some kind of agentic experiences in the past in their organization. But then they never got to have a firsthand experience because of, you know, IT security and various things. So they got to use an agency platform and apply it for their own business. And it was really interesting to see.

43:58In fact, a couple of the folks were actually coming and talking to one of our colleagues who's running that test. I'm still working on it, but I got a question on this. It was really good to see that engagement and the continued, even after the session was over, people are still continuing to engage deeply on it. Yeah. No doubt about it. So let me close this out, Brian, by asking you, would you come back again next year? Was it worth the time? Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. I look forward to seeing you again next year. Parag, Brian, I want to thank you both for joining me on the CPG Guys. Actually, Sri, it's great to have iterate on this platform, right?

44:28Like students are going to benefit from it so much. That is awesome. Thank you again for joining me. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you.

44:41Hi, this is PBSB. I am with the CPG Guys. I'm live here in Ithaca, New York at Cornell University. Today I'm with my dear friend, Christina Maranucci, co-host and co-founder of the SheCommerce podcast. We are at the Omnicommerce Media and AI Executive Education Program. Christina, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. So what prompted you to actually show up in Ithaca, New York in the middle of summer to appear at this program? Well, first you asked, so I obliged. But also, Cornell holds a special place in my heart. One, it's Cornell. Two, I met my dear friend and podcast co-host Jackie here two years ago, and I participated in the program as well.

45:24And that was such an enlightening week that we spent here and met so many great people in my network. So definitely wanted to come back and share back some of the learnings that we've had over the podcast journey. So in your session this morning, you spoke with two industry leaders. Can you talk to us a little bit about what that conversation entailed? and ultimately how you felt it landed with the audience. Yeah. We talked about the invisible factors that are affecting women in commerce. And we talked about it from the lens of, you know, businesses being transformed by so many things that you've spent the majority of the week talking about, AI, retail media, technology, all the things.

46:06But it's also deeply personal. And there are differences between men and women in the workforce. And we really wanted to normalize some of those conversations and drive awareness and visibility to how those opportunities and issues affect us differently so that we can be better managers, we can deliver better results and drive the business together. And I think it was really enlightening. I heard a lot of great feedback after it about how much people appreciated that and how we really navigated some sensitive topics with empathy and with transparency. and the two women that we had on, Claire and Jennifer, were just wonderful in terms of what they were able to share and showing that vulnerability, but also relating some of these things that are typically more female-dominated conversations to also say how our male counterparts also experienced some of these life issues or that invisible load or co-parenting, etc.

47:02So I think it was very inclusive and really related back to the leadership required in some of those situations to bring out the best in people. Yeah, I absolutely agree, Christina. I think what made it particularly effective was you showed up on day four. They had three days to build personal relationships. And what that meant was there was a measure of empathy that had been engendered as part of that process. And so that I think the audience was incredibly receptive to what you were talking about. So here's my big question. We're going to do this again in 2027. Can we even keep you away, let alone invite you to attend?

47:41I'm already here. That's it. She's pushing us aside. Just I need more than 30 minutes for these important topics. Do you think we need to bring Jackie over next time? Absolutely. Yes. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. The only question is whether we're going to be doing it up here in Ithaca or we're heading back to New York. So I'm assuming that either venue. Either venue. Christina, thank you as always.

48:09Hi, it's Sri with the CPG Guys, and I'm here today with Priyash Shane from Instacart. Priyash was with me live at the recently concluded Cornell University Omni Channel plus Omnicommerce plus media program. He was one of the collaborative presenters. He was also one of the attendees and got to attend the full program. So I thought I'll ask him a few questions about how this program was. So Priyash, welcome to the CPG guys. How are you doing? Good, good, Sri. How are you? So when I approached Instacart and Instacart connected me to you, what prompted you to want to collaborate with Cornell University, the CPG guys on this program?

48:47Firstly, I wanted to thank Cornell and the CPG guys for giving us this opportunity and partnering with us. I think a couple of reasons as to why or what piqued my interest in this program. One was just like the diversity of attendees. We had folks from retailers, from RMS, from brand partners and agencies, obviously, as well as a myriad of like infrastructure platforms, AI platforms. So just the diversity in the room and getting to hear opinions from all sides of like the table, if you will, was immensely helpful for us to figure out how we position ourselves and like how and what we learned from other stakeholders.

49:30in the ecosystem. So I think that was one of the key reasons. Obviously, in addition to that, I think the format with Cornell University and the program was set up in such a way that it was more of like a workshop style program rather than like your typical conference. So just being much more informal, hands-on. We also had a Capcom-esque project during the program. So that was super interesting. And I think that was another factor that really like motivated us to participate and collaborate on this. And Priyash, not only were you a presenter about the state of measurement in our industry from a media standpoint, retail media standpoint, you're also an attendee in the program.

50:09You said a little bit about, you know, what was exciting for you to collaborate. Now that you went through the whole five days, any big ahas, takeaways to share? Yeah, I would say like a couple, honestly. The first is obviously the elephant in the room, AI. It was great actually hearing about AI, how every player in the ecosystem is thinking about and applying AI and the consumer behavioral shift with AI in a different way. And I think none of us have figured it out yet completely. However, we're all kind of learning on the fly. And it's really exciting, an exciting spot to be in the industry to kind of see where this goes and like where this shapes up and how AI influences consumer purchase decisions.

50:53On that particular topic, Priyash, how are you thinking about measurement in AI? Because it could be a friend or foe. Right now, like I said earlier, we feel like it's a little bit early in terms of how we leverage AI. We obviously leverage AI in all of our internal processes on the operational efficiency side. I think where it plays a role specifically in terms of adding to measurement is still something that we're in the early stages of exploring. Kind of expanding on what I was saying earlier, some of my other takeaways were on the measurement topic, definitely. I think the hunger for measurement was actually thoughtable across the room.

51:31I think everyone saw how many questions and interesting discussions that we had as a follow-up to some of the measurement sessions that Instacart did as a part of the program. So there's a real appetite in the industry for coming together. And we're working with IAB to collaborate on that and develop better standards for measurement in commerce media. And third thing, and this is the biggest one, is that in 2026, like commerce media is just no longer a channel, like a specific bucket. It's actually, I would say it's media with just better and high fidelity signals that you can apply across the board.

52:06So some of the interesting takeaways, and these were some of the consistent themes that I heard across the board from a lot of our speakers and participants alike. You bet, Priyash. So if I asked you, if we did this again next year, another version of this, would you come back? Of course. I think this was a great learning session for us, as well as sharing some of the mechanisms and methodologies that we adopt at Instacart with the group there. And I think it was a great collaborative session and definitely happy to participate next time when we do it. Priyash, I want to say thank you for joining me on the CPG Guys.

52:40Hope to see you soon again, man. Awesome. Thanks, Sree.

52:47Let me remind our listeners, you can find all our content by simply going to a web browser and typing cpgguys.com as the URL. If you or someone you know has something to contribute to this ongoing discussion on the CPG Guys, please drop us a line at contact.cpgguys.com. To our audience, thank you for the clicks, likes, comments, direct messages, meeting us at trade shows, coming to our events, recording episodes with us and our sponsors. We're always grateful for everything you do for us. The show doesn't exist without all of you. You work with us all year. And we are grateful to have you as our audience and partners.

53:18Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Pleasure doing this episode with you. Give me your big takeaway from this executive education program at Cornell that we were partners on. Sri, only together can we solve the problem, putting the customer at the center of our decisions. It means that everyone has to have a venue to express their concerns, their priorities, and together we solve those problems. We covered a lot of really valuable material and it's people at the end of the day that are going to make this all work. So that's my big takeaway, Sri. Peter, that was awesome. Thank you so much to our audience.

54:01That's all we have for you today. We look forward to you joining us on the next episode of the CPG Guys.

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