The FMCG Guys

This week, Daniel and Efrain step slightly outside Consumer Goods and Retail to speak with Juliane Hefel, Senior Vice President Industrial Coatings and Specialty Products and Executive Oversight EMEA at Paints leader PPG. Born in a small town in western Austria, she began her career as a translator before moving into Procurement. She spent 16 years at Henkel, with roles in Düsseldorf, Shanghai and Detroit, then joined PPG in 2022. Currently, she double hats: leading both Industrial Coatings and Specialty Coatings and Materials Businesses with, since 1 September, Executive Oversight of PPG's EMEA business. Daniel spotted her story on LinkedIn and knew it deserved a place on the show.
Tune in to hear about:
Why she moved from procurement into general management, and how having sat on the buyer's side of the table helps her today
Why she calls Shanghai the most impactful move of her career
PPG's sustainability goals, and innovation "beyond the can": digital tools, automation and faster product development
How PPG used AI to cut the development time of a fast-curing refinish clear coat by around 20%
Leading through COVID, and why you can't overcommunicate
Her leadership style, built on trust and "radical transparency"
Her view of Detroit, which is better than its reputation
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/
Audio Mixing by Modest Ferrer
Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The FMCG Guys (Dwyer Partners SL) or its partners. The FMCG Guys make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any information discussed, and accept no responsibility for any decisions or outcomes based on this content. Listeners are encouraged to seek their own professional advice before acting on any of the topics covered.

Imteaz Ahamed is an eCommerce and AI pioneer who works with private equity on FMCG acquisitions and transformation, following 16 years at Reckitt. He runs his consultancy with a team of AI agents that he says do the work of five or six people, and is writing a book on data clean rooms for CMOs.
In this live recording from Groceryshop in Las Vegas, Imteaz joins us to discuss how AI agents are changing the way he works, why big CPG companies risk having their lunch eaten by fast-moving challengers, and what data clean rooms can do for marketers.
Tune in to hear about:
Why he left corporate after seeing Gen AI move so fast, and what he calls a "10-year step change" in months
How a "second brain" of memory and context lets his agents run the follow-ups, while he keeps the thinking
What it takes to scale a company: rewriting processes for every 3x in revenue
How Zuru sourced an innovative diaper from China and took about 40% market share within two years
Why big CPG should look east to China, and what brand heritage means to shoppers who have never seen your brand
Life & Business Agents
How data clean rooms helped a baby brand cut media in half and still achieve its sales
How a family property-management business became his test bed for AI, with email response times cut from five days to a day and a half
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Gm573C4dppA 
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/ 
Audio Mixing by Modest Ferrer
Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The FMCG Guys (Dwyer Partners SL) or its partners. The FMCG Guys make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any information discussed, and accept no responsibility for any decisions or outcomes based on this content. Listeners are encouraged to seek their own professional advice before acting on any of the topics covered.

Edu Campanella is Business Group President of Home Care at Unilever, leading an €11 billion business across more than 60 markets. His teams are behind Wonder Wash, the short-cycle laundry innovation that reached more than 35 markets in less than 18 months.
In this episode, Edu joins us to discuss how a mature category like home care can find new growth, what makes an innovation "market making" rather than incremental, and why consumers now see cleaning as a source of joy rather than a chore.
Tune in to hear about:
Why consumers see home care as joyful, and how spending more time at home changed the category
What makes an innovation "market making", and how Wonder Wash grew from a shift to short cycles
Why a brilliant prototype was sent back to R&D: great performance isn't enough if consumers must change their habits
How Unilever turned Europe around by setting bigger ambitions, and why consumers will pay when they see the value
Why consumers are partly brand owners, and why the first 100 days of a launch are critical
Why he looks at input metrics, not just output metrics, and the balance between magic and discipline
How AI is changing formulation and factories, and why early-career talent still needs to do the hard work to learn the business
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/ 
Audio Mixing by Modest Ferrer
Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The FMCG Guys (Dwyer Partners SL) or its partners. The FMCG Guys make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any information discussed, and accept no responsibility for any decisions or outcomes based on this content. Listeners are encouraged to seek their own professional advice before acting on any of the topics covered.

Ingo Reinhardt is CEO and co-founder of Buynomics and author of The Pricing Playbook (find it here: https://www.buynomics.com/the-pricing-playbook-wiley-buynomics)  and Matt Pringle and Brian Knighton are Commercial Capabilities Managers at Food Leader Dr. Oetker (famous for their frozen pizzas!). In this live recording from London during Buynomics' RGM Leaders Forum, Ingo, Matt and Brian join us to discuss why RGM exists, how Dr. Oetker uses Buynomics to predict how shoppers react to price and portfolio changes, and where AI helps and where human judgment still matters.
Tune in to hear about:
Why RGM was born: getting price, promotion and portfolio decisions out of separate teams
How "virtual shoppers" can show what happens to a single and a four-pack when you launch a two-pack
How Dr. Oetker assessed RGM maturity across 32 markets, found pockets of excellence, and chose to focus on price and promotion with Buynomics
Why retailers, not brands, set the shelf price, and how joint value creation shapes the conversation
Why more data brings the risk of analysis paralysis, and why teams need to be obsessed with execution
How AI agents can clean data and run analyses that used to take a consulting project
What strong RGM teams have in common, and why the biggest mistake is doing nothing
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZX5GRZmOS4g 
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/ 
Audio Mixing by Modest Ferrer
Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The FMCG Guys (Dwyer Partners SL) or its partners. The FMCG Guys make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any information discussed, and accept no responsibility for any decisions or outcomes based on this content. Listeners are encouraged to seek their own professional advice before acting on any of the topics covered.

Matteo Gori is President of Bakery and Grocery at Barilla, leading brands such as Wasa and Mulino Bianco.
In this episode, Matteo joins us to discuss why he believes in real conversations over sugarcoated ones, what a failed launch taught him about owning your business, and how food companies can make faster decisions in a market that has become far more volatile.
Tune in to hear about:
Why he is "allergic" to inconvenient truths being hidden, and how he builds a culture of direct conversations
What he learned from Cucina Barilla, the joint venture with Whirlpool, and why failing early made him a better manager
Test and learn in practice: why temporary shops worked and sampling in corporate offices didn't
Why food categories now swing double digits up or down, and what that means for decision-making
How Wasa is growing from crispbread into snacking, with "ambidexterity"
How the marketing manager's job has changed as consumers move between health, indulgence and affordability
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fmcgguys/ 
Audio Mixing by Modest Ferrer
Voice Acting by Jason Martorell Parsekian
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The FMCG Guys (Dwyer Partners SL) or its partners. The FMCG Guys make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any information discussed, and accept no responsibility for any decisions or outcomes based on this content. Listeners are encouraged to seek their own professional advice before acting on any of the topics covered.