At our recent Consumer & Retail gathering in Hamburg, we explored a tension that many organisations recognise from their daily reality: start-up mentality versus corporate structure. Together with Annette Corsten, Managing Director E-Commerce, Strategy and Marketing at ZooRoyal, the discussion moved quickly beyond theory and focused on a more relevant question: How do you combine speed, customer relevance and entrepreneurial thinking with the realities of scale, systems and governance?
The answer is not choosing one side, but it is managing the trade-offs between both:
Learning 1: Corporate scale is an advantage, if it enables rather than controls.
ZooRoyal benefits from being part of the REWE Group: Access to real estate, controlling, retail expertise, and infrastructure (e.g. logistics and technology) creates a strong foundation, especially for building a physical retail footprint. Obviously, for many companies, this is the part that is hard to replicate, because the transferable insight is not “be part of a large group.” It is rather: scale only creates value if it accelerates execution, not if it slows it down. In this regard, many organisations fall into the trap of over-centralisation and decisions move too far away from the customer, priorities are driven by size, not relevance and speed is lost in governance. The result is predictable: complexity without impact. We see this effect happening within organisations of all sizes.
Learning 2: You cannot optimise everything, hence “second best” is often the right decision.
One of the most pragmatic insights from the discussion was the acceptance of trade-offs. Even in a strong corporate setup, not every initiative gets prioritised. Systems are shared, resources are limited, and business cases compete.
This leads to an uncomfortable but critical reality: You will not always get the optimal solution.
Examples discussed during the event included:
· delayed integration into central systems
· limitations in POS and loyalty setups
· prioritisation conflicts within the group
The key capability is not avoiding these constraints, but to work through them. Real speed in organisations often comes from accepting “second best” and moving forward, rather than waiting for “perfect.”
Learning 3: Speed requires autonomy, especially where customer relevance is created
Where central systems cannot deliver the required flexibility, ZooRoyal deliberately operates independently.
This is particularly visible in CRM and data. In pet retail, understanding the customer, the human who buys the product, is not enough. You need to understand the pet, who will consume it, life stage, consumption patterns, health-related needs. This level of specificity cannot easily be integrated into standardised group systems. As a result, ZooRoyal built its own logic where necessary. This principle applies beyond pet retail:
1. Integration should be selective.
2. Tight where scale matters. Independent where relevance matters.
Most organisations fail because they try to standardise everything or decentralise everything. Both extremes create inefficiencies that are critical in a market environment were the focus must lie on execution and efficient processes.
Learning 4: Omnichannel is not a channel strategy, but an organisational capability
A key take away of the evening is a simple truth often forgotten, when we discuss go to market strategies: Customers do not think in channels. They act based on convenience. So, they will move between online and offline without distinction. Organisations, however, often still operate in silos and think rather sequential in their own logic. This is why omnichannel is frequently misunderstood. It is not about adding channels to existing route-to-market, not about launching e-commerce or about connecting systems superficially
It is about aligning:
· Processes
· sortiment
· incentives
· data
· responsibilities
Omnichannel fails not because of customer behaviour, but because organisations are not designed to deliver it consistently. For many retailers as well as manufacturers, the more relevant question is not “Are we omnichannel?” but if the customer experience is consistent across the touchpoints we actually operate?
Learning 5: Differentiation will not come from price alone
ZooRoyal operates in a highly competitive market with strong incumbents, aggressive online platforms and increasing pressure from low-cost international players. While being challenged on the argument, Annette Corsten remained very clear throughout the discussion: To win the game price leadership is not the response of ZooRoyal. Instead, differentiation in a competive landscape is built on: Advice and expertise at the POS, health-related positioning and a more a more curated in-store experience than the competition. This includes deliberate investment in staffing and service. This is a strategic choice. However, many retailers are currently moving in the opposite direction by reducing service levels and standardising interactions. Both models can work. But not simultaneously. Where products become commoditised, value shifts to trust, advice and experience and service becomes a true differentiator. However, efficiency is a must.
Learning 6: Data advantage comes from relevance, not volume
A critical but often overlooked point is how ZooRoyal approaches CRM. The objective is not mass communication. It is precision - fewer but more relevant incentives, personalised engagement and a higher share of wallet through relevance.
The key enabler is not more data—but better data.
For ZooRoyal, that means combining customer behaviour with pet-specific data. For other retailers, the implication is clear: Competitive advantage in CRM does not come from data volume, it comes from how closely data reflects real customer needs. Most organisations are still operating on transactional data. That is no longer sufficient for meaningful differentiation.
Learning 7: You don’t need a perfect setup, you need the ability to operate with imperfections
Even large organisations cannot deliver perfect systems at speed. For smaller or independent retailers, this is even more true. Yet many organisations slow down because they wait for the right platform, the perfect integration, the complete setup. This is a strategic mistake, because the perfect day will never come. Execution advantage increasingly comes from the ability to operate with imperfect systems. This requires pragmatism, clear prioritisation and the willingness to implement interim solutions. The alternative is stagnation.
Learning 8: Leadership is the ultimate constraint or boost
Across all organisational setups, one factor remains constant: leadership. In an environment shaped by economic pressure, shifting consumer behaviour, technological change, continuous transformation, leadership cannot rely on stable plans. Instead, it requires resilience, decision-making under uncertainty, the ability to create direction without full clarity and the capacity to maintain confidence within teams. A simple but powerful mindset we took away from the discussion: “If you don´t ask, the answer is always no.” This reflects a bias towards action, which we see as critical in complex organisations.
Conclusion
The tension between start-up mentality and corporate reality is not something to resolve. It is something to manage.
The organisations that will succeed are not those that choose one side, but those that can combine the scale, discipline and infrastructure of a corporate, with the speed, focus and customer proximity of an entrepreneurial business while accepting the trade-offs that come with it. For retailers without a large corporate backbone, the implication is even sharper: Clarity, focus and pragmatism matter more than structure.