Bridging the Gap Between Strategy & Field Execution: Roundtable with Mondelez & Lactalis
Strategy in retail is shaped by national trends and category priorities, but its impact is ultimately decided in the reality of each store. Execution varies by store, region, retailer, and the daily realities of sales teams. The gap between intention and reality is where most FMCG companies lose speed, revenue, and influence.
During a recent EasyPicky roundtable, three leaders explored this gap and how modern retail execution technology finally makes it possible to close it:
Their perspectives, from two very different markets and maturity levels, reveal a shared truth: when field data becomes reliable, exhaustive, and actionable, it transforms both execution and strategy.
Watch the replay of the roundtable and catch the insights in this article.
Why Field Execution Remains the Weak Link in Strategy
In theory, strategy should cascade smoothly from HQ to the field. In practice, it often dissolves somewhere between the PowerPoint and the shelf.
The fragility of field data
For years, field data has been treated with suspicion. Sales teams collect what they can, but the process is manual, incomplete, and inconsistent. HQ teams hesitate to rely on it, preferring national averages or panel data that arrive weeks later. This creates a disconnect: the people closest to the shelf have the least trusted data.
EasyPicky changes this dynamic by capturing shelf reality with precision, every SKU, every competitor, every label, every promo.
Suddenly, the field becomes a source of truth rather than a source of doubt.
Macro data that hides local realities
National data is useful for strategy, but it rarely helps a sales rep decide what to do in a specific store on a specific day. A category may appear stable at the national level while experiencing ruptures or promo inefficiencies in specific locations. Without local visibility, execution becomes guesswork.
With store-level insights, reps can finally prioritize based on what matters in their territory, not what averages suggest.
“A national average doesn’t tell you what’s happening in Marseille or Nantes. Execution is local. Without store‑level visibility, you’re navigating blind.”
Charles Robin
National Sales Director, LactalisTools that don’t help reps act in-store
Many tools provide dashboards, but few help reps act in the moment. Execution happens in the aisle, not in a spreadsheet. Sales reps need clarity: what to fix, where, and why. When insights become actionable, execution accelerates. When they remain abstract, they stay unused.
EasyApp delivers the right information at the right moment, in the right store, turning strategy into action.
How to Build a Digital Transformation That Works
“Digital transformation isn’t about replacing a tool. It’s about changing how people work, how they trust data, and how decisions are made.”
Andranik Nalbandyan
Digital Solution Manager, MondelezMondelez Belgium’s journey illustrates a digital transformation that is both technical and behavioral.
They had an aging image recognition solution that once felt innovative but had become a source of friction. Data governance was weak, trust was low, and adoption was fading.
The turning point came when they realized that it wasn’t just a matter of replacing a tool. It was a matter of redefining how field teams work, how HQ teams consume data, and how decisions are made.
The transformation followed a clear path:
- Building a business case grounded in real pain points
- Involving stakeholders early
- Cleaning and structuring data before deployment
- Establishing governance and ownership
- Rolling out a solution designed for reps, not just for reporting
The result was not just adoption, it was acceleration. Mondelez Belgium doubled its efficiency and ultimately multiplied store visit frequency by five.
When Field Data Becomes a Strategic Asset
Once shelf data becomes reliable and exhaustive, it stops being a reporting tool and starts becoming a strategic engine.
Lactalis: Turning shelf reality into competitive advantage
Milk may seem like a simple category with few SKUs and stable demand. The reality is far more complex: heavy promotions, frequent ruptures, intense competition, and a market where half of all liters sold are private labels.
EasyPicky gives Lactalis a complete view of the shelf: own SKUs, competitors, private labels, promo displays, and transformation rates. This visibility allows teams to act quickly and decisively.
“The right information, at the right moment, in the right store. That’s when execution becomes a competitive advantage.”
Charles Robin
National Sales Director, LactalisOne example illustrates the shift. Carrefour asked Lactalis for a list of stores meeting specific criteria for a merchandising test. Historically, this required three weeks of manual checks and photo collection. With EasyPicky, the team delivered the list and the photos in 48 hours. They won the test, way ahead of their competitors.
This is strategy powered by execution, and execution powered by data.
Mondelez: From shelf data to company-wide intelligence
Mondelez integrated EasyPicky data directly into Databricks, turning shelf insights into a shared asset across the organization:
- Category managers use it to refine assortments
- Key account managers use it to negotiate with retailers
- Leadership uses it to monitor performance and make faster decisions
The appetite for more features keeps growing because the data is trusted, immediate, and actionable. Shelf reality becomes a strategic lever rather than an operational detail.
“Once the data is trusted, everyone wants more. It becomes part of the company’s nervous system.”
Andranik Nalbandyan
Digital Solution Manager, MondelezScaling Across Countries, Teams, and Use Cases
Scaling retail execution is not just about adding more users or more stores. It’s about expanding the impact of shelf data across the business.
EasyPicky enables:
- Broader store coverage thanks to faster audits
- Pay-for-performance merchandising models
- Contract compliance on gondola ends and secondary placements
- Cross-division and cross-country deployment
- Promo transformation tracking
- Out-of-stock reduction
- Laser-focused productivity on priority categories
What emerges is a new backbone for retail execution, one where technology supports both strategy and operations, and where data flows seamlessly between the field and HQ.
Conclusion
“Your strategy is only as strong as your ability to execute & measure it.”
Marine Bibal
Founder, EasyPickyThe roundtable revealed that retail execution is no longer a blind spot.
When shelf data becomes reliable, immediate, and actionable, it reshapes how teams work, how decisions are made, and how strategies evolve. Execution stops being a bottleneck and becomes a competitive advantage. The bridge between HQ and the field finally holds, and companies can move faster, act smarter, and deliver more consistently across every store.
EasyPicky stands at the center of this transformation, not only as a tool, but as the connective tissue between strategy and reality.
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