In the words of the famous British philosopher Alan Watts, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”.  As retailers increasingly become technology companies, is the art of retailing dead, to be replaced by sophisticated code and global technology titans? Or, are the traditional skills of retailers now supercharged offering a bright new future? These are some of the opposing positions that the retail world has been grappling with for some time now. And as you might expect, a nuanced answer seems to be emerging.

We live in an era of rapid change. Retailing on the high street seems never to have been so challenging. Ushered in by ecommerce over a decade ago, nimble new entrants have not only taken significant market share from incumbent players but, powered by digitally savvy new shoppers, some are quickly establishing themselves as market leaders. They are disrupting every part of retail’s value chain.     

IBM estimates that within a decade only 40% of the corporates we know today will remain. So there is no time to lose and you, my esteemed colleagues, are the front line troops.

But in many respects, we are just at the beginning...