If you live in the right part of the country (UK) you can now call on a whole raft of app-based systems that promise to bring you groceries within 10 to 15 minutes.

Agile start-ups with names such as Weezy, Gorillas and Dija are promising instant deliveries with no substitutions. Kiran has tried all three, but likes Dija best because he finds its app is easier to navigate.

"I'm amazed it hasn't been done earlier by some of the big supermarket chains," says satisfied customer Kiran Wylie.

"To be able to deliver supermarket-quality food within 10 minutes is very enticing."

I love this article (link below) that provides some really great examples of innovation that came from service elements driven by gaps in the consumer offer by supermarkets, but not the retail companies involved in the grocery sector or market.

Historically the reason to hire a CMO was usually because you’ve got a big strategic problem to solve, you need to drive growth and become more innovative. 

Or, if your company has lost it's 'why' they will help reposition the brand ensuring it remains relevant to a changing market.

"Once, the marketing manager role encompassed research, strategic planning and the full suite of tactics to take a product to market. Today, we are increasingly the communications department. And little more". Marketing Week

Findings suggest that CMOs will have to significantly adapt to hold onto their positions, which is now opening up opportunities for the CMOs of yesterday to embrace the role of "CGO" (Chief Growth Officer) and look beyond typical brand advertising and digital communications.

Legacy systems are not just about technology - people that have been in a business for a few years have in-built legacy mindsets.

These mindsets always take an inside out approach which inevitably becomes the blocker to any real transformation or change.

This isn't business enablement, this isn't consumer centric, this really isn't transformation - it creates an echo chamber environment that is opportunity averse.

What do I mean by 'legacy thinking', well in simple terms I often see internal barriers created by an internalised thought process around incrementally layering things on top of legacy systems and legacy processes, all in the hope it can make you more agile, reduce your cost, and possibly make you seem innovative in your customers mind. 

The speed of change in multi-channel retail is exceptionally fluid and dynamic today.

Few leaders have the in-house talent to build the bleeding-edge technologies that many digital initiatives require. 

To fill this gap, CEOs are increasingly looking to startups to help fuel innovation.

Today we see lots of companies that were once suppliers to retail looking to develop a D2C (direct to consumer) proposition in order they can reduce the supply chain cost, mitigate risk, and get them closer to the consumer. 

And at last we're also starting to see some of the huge global companies like 'Unilever' bolting on 'innovation labs' in order to tap into that innovation whilst helping to bring new products/services to market.

Ninety-five percent of large organizations with a structural innovation program invest in tech incubators, while 90 percent work with startups or niche vendors directly, according to Gartner research. And 84 percent of organizations acquire startups to bolster innovation.

Sometimes working with a start-up can get you where you want to go a lot quicker.

They're not constrained by your 'legacy mindset' they are not looking to take an incremental step to 'innovate' they might already have some great ideas, and in exchange for a mutually beneficial commercial relationship can get you where you want to be.

Here's something else to ponder;

Social commerce will turn us all into shoppable product demos

and our life into a catalogue of stylized products. It will also introduce new revenue streams, business models, marketing strategies and regulatory hurdles. Social currency is the fuel of the modern retail economy, and community is its killer app.