Gary Hawkins

Gary Hawkins has lived his career ahead of the curve, putting him in the right place at the right time to lead the fast moving consumer goods retail industry into the future during a time of exploding innovation. Drawing on his work advising leading companies around the world, Hawkins is a regular guest lecturer at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the USC Marshall School of Business, in addition to keynoting retail conferences in the US and abroad. Hawkins is the author of three books including the latest, Retail in the Age of ‘i’, that explores the future of retail propelled by the exponential growth of technology. Retail Mindsteps (retailmindsteps.com) serves as Hawkins’ personal blog and repository of the myriad articles and papers written for industry publications where he distills the complexity of tech-fueled retail innovation into digestible and actionable insights.

Full Bio

Gary Hawkins has lived his career ahead of the curve, putting him in the right place at the right time to help guide the fast moving consumer goods retail industry into the future in a time of exponential technology growth using never-before-available capabilities to innovate the future of shopping. 

Hawkins is the Founder and CEO of CART (Center for Advancing Retail & Technology). CART’s mission is to connect retail to new innovative capabilities through programs, events, and education. Knowing that awareness and discovery of new technologies are only one part of future success, the CART team is at the forefront of helping retailers, wholesalers, brand manufacturers, and solution providers cultivate a culture of innovation and agility through a proven process and approach. On the other side of innovation lies strategy development, technology roadmaps, and systems assessments. Hawkins and his team are uniquely positioned to assist retailers in preparing for the future.

Hawkins’ work is built on a legacy of driving retail industry innovation. Early in his career, understanding the transformative power of technology, Hawkins launched one of the first loyalty programs in the US supermarket sector, quickly leading industry learning around shopper insights and analytics. That work soon expanded to assisting premier retailers in markets around the world in gaining customer intelligence. Next up were leading packaged goods brand manufacturers, helping companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever develop a shopper focus and leverage customer insights and analytics into collaborative marketing initiatives with key retailers, laying the foundation for today’s shopper marketing movement. Realizing the ineffectiveness of mass marketing across the supply chain, Hawkins leveraged early insight to new innovative technologies to develop and deploy the first personalized marketing system for mass retail, driving industry focus on the power of marketing personalization.

Hawkins leverages his unique perspective into his role as board member and strategic adviser at select companies bringing exciting and game-changing capabilities to the market. Retail Mindsteps (retailmindsteps.com) serves as Hawkins’ personal blog and repository of the myriad articles and papers written for industry publications where he distills the complexity of tech-fueled retail innovation into digestible and actionable insights. Hawkins is the author of three books including the latest, Retail in the Age of ‘i’, that explores the future of retail propelled by the exponential growth of technology. In addition, Hawkins is a regular guest lecturer at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in addition to keynoting retail conferences in the US and abroad.

Retail 4.0: The Age of Metamorphosis

The massive fast moving consumer goods industry has passed through three ages: The Age of National Brands (1.0), The Age of Big Retail (2.0), and the Age of the Shopper (3.0). The digitalization of retail has launched us into Retail 4.0: The Age of Metamorphosis. Unlike the prior evolutionary shifts, the development of Retail 4.0 will be breathtaking in its scale, scope, and speed. This digitalization of retail - the industry transmuting into a new, higher-order, ecosystem - will be accompanied by a radically different economic model, disrupting the nearly century old industry. The digitalization of everything powers this change, blending the digital and physical worlds of shopping, vast customer intelligence, and enabling exponential value creation.

Retail in the Age of ‘I’

As tech fueled innovation transforms and disrupts the massive fast moving consumer goods retail industry, five ‘I’s become increasingly important: A shift from mass marketing to the individual shopper, the intelligence needed to power that shift, integrated systems to deliver on the promise, the need for immersive shopping experiences both online and in the store, and lastly, a need for constant innovation.

Marketing in the Age of ‘I’

Increasingly the world about us is becoming increasingly tailored to each of us individually; in products, in services, and certainly in marketing. Marketing in the Age of ‘I’ requires sophisticated and realtime customer intelligence along with the systems to deliver on the promise of hyper and strategic personalization.

Retail@Risk: Innovation Overload

Innovation Overload. We are at the inflection point on the exponential growth curve of technology and new innovative capabilities are flooding into retail at a growing rate. And even though this exponential growth is just beginning to take off we see a growing number of retailers already becoming overloaded in trying to keep up. 

DRIVING GROWTH, INNOVATION AND RESULTS

#NoMatterWhat

Sterling Hawkins x #NoMatterWhat

Sterling Hawkins is out to break the status quo to create what’s actually possible for people and companies in our time. He has spent his life coming back from the brink to sell companies, finish ultra-marathons and getting results #NoMatterWhat it takes.

Sterling is an internationally-recognized thought leader and has given a TED talk with over 100,000+ views on the topic of discomfort being necessary for innovation. He is a top-rated keynote speaker on the #NoMatterWhat approach to driving growth innovation and results, regardless of what’s happening in the world. His keynotes share meaningful strategies delivered with the inspiration to leave attendees in action.

The #NoMatterWhat is a movement for leaders who are seeking results regardless of the circumstances. The 5 core #NoMatterWhat practices are grounded in science and real-world research to transform your results by shifting your beliefs.