When Talent Is Destiny

Marketplaces
Written By Rick Watson

If you win the talent wars, you can win the market. Instacart is winning the talent wars.

Recently, Instacart poached the Global Head of Product for UberEats and assigned them a role just over their Shopper app - i.e. how the army of shoppers interacts with stores and customers.

This is a market signal in two directions. Instacart has deeper pockets and more momentum in terms of being able to attract talent than others. Momentum builds on itself.

Bill Gates decades ago famously said at the height of Microsoft power ... paraphrasing: if not for our top 100 employees, Microsoft would not even be close to the same company. I know in the past I said that legacy is destiny. But so is talent.

All these businesses are in the crosshairs: Doordash, UberEats, Delivery.com, Drizly, Minibar, Grubhub.

Instacart believes convenience rules overall. Agree or disagree with them, they will have a seat at the table and will not be a bit player in the North American market at this pace.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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