Whole Foods: what’s really in the purchase for Amazon?

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by Charles Moore, President, Premier Products Amazon’s Whole Foods purchase seems counterintuitive. Why would the highest valued company in the world—with a business model that puts retailers like Whole Foods out of business—want to acquire them? Sure, it would make Amazon the second largest retailer of the long term double digit growth trend in organic […]

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Think You Can Ignore Cybersecurity Advances? You Can’t

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by Darrell Jones, Head of Global Information Security, Herbalife In recent years, we’ve seen more and more large corporations and entities become targets for cybersecurity attacks: Fedex, Amazon, Target, Netflix, and even several countries among countless others have been affected. Threat of cyberattack has led companies to make major changes in the way they store […]

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The Reinvention of Retail: Brick and Mortar will Be Cool Again

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by Gym Tan, Head of China Business Development, The Gymboree Corporation    We’ve all seen the headlines: “Retail Woes Deepen,” “Department stores are dying,” “Online shopping taking over physical stores,” and so on. The reality is that many brands are indeed closing hundreds of stores. Yet, on the flip side, some retailers are growing—Zara has a […]

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The Future of AI in Marketing

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by Warren Raisch, Executive Strategist, IBM Watson Customer Engagement Division The power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more available for marketers to tap into, helping win, serve and retain their most valuable customers. Leading technology vendors are beginning to build in AI and cognitive capabilities to enhance man-machine interfaces with voice and natural language […]

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Snap’s IPO isn’t Everything, Its Advertising Is

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Mass marketing won’t cut it as targeting on social media continues to grow by Ben Legg, CEO of AdParlor  As the buzz around Snap’s IPO dies down, it is crucial to look beyond its launch and to its advertising. Is Snap a “Third Player” alongside Google and Facebook, or is it another one of the […]

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Is This the End of Bricks and Mortar Stores? It’s Complicated

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Trends shaping the future of retail real estate in the age of multi-platform shopping by Christopher A. Bruck, Former SVP of Leasing at GGP, Inc.  The growth of multi-platform shopping has forced retailers to reevaluate their digital and in-person business models. Recently, retailers, including department stores Macy’s , Kmart, and Sears announced plans to close […]

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Asking The Right Questions

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Originally published in Private Debt Investor © 2015 Private Debt Investor, PEI Media As direct lending attracts more potential customers, lenders are tapping vertical industry experts to help them efficiently assess opportunities. Michael Ferrari, head of new client development at Guidepoint, explores the trend. Direct lending continues to be identified as one of the most […]

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Making Sense of the Fast-Moving Taxi App Market

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  CLIENT SITUATION A consulting director working at a Beijing-based tech advisory firm needed to get up to speed quickly on the taxi-hailing app market in Southeast Asia. His client, a firm considering an investment in the sector, wanted to understand the market opportunity and the competitive landscape.   GUIDEPOINT SOLUTION Within 48 hours, Guidepoint […]

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Bringing Biotech Thought Leadership to Life

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  CLIENT SITUATION In biotechnology, developing a new cutting-edge treatment that will help millions of Americans, and doing it faster than anyone else, is what you’re supposed to do. But being a thought leader in the field is who you are. When an American biotechnology company needed to obtain meaningful context on the current treatment […]

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Delivering Knowledge With Custom Events

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  CLIENT SITUATION A successful company will have a comprehensive knowledge of its products. They’ll know what it does, who uses it and why. But what happens when a potential new use comes along that might open up an entirely new clientele? That’s what happened when Guidepoint client ResMed, a leader in Sleep Disorder Breathing […]

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