OFFBounds Retail

In this episode of OFFBounds, Paula Macaggi sits down with Nigel Oddy, CEO of American Golf, to unpack what it really takes to turn around a retail business. With more than four decades in the industry and multiple CEO roles behind him, Nigel shares how he approached a company that had lost direction post-COVID, facing overstock, cash pressure, and declining performance. Instead of overcomplicating the strategy, he focused on people, clarity, and a simple vision that the entire organization could align behind.
The conversation goes beyond the numbers and into the realities of execution. Nigel explains how to diagnose a business from the inside out, why most transformations fail in the early stages, and how customer experience becomes a true differentiator when done right. From retraining store teams to reduce customer intimidation to building a one-stop shop model supported by services and technology, this episode offers practical insights for retail leaders navigating growth, change, or turnaround situations.

How do you take a brand most people see as the budget option and turn it into a serious competitor against Samsung, LG, and Sony? You start by knowing your consumer better than they do.
Cole Moir is the VP of Brand and Digital Marketing at TCL North America, and in this episode he pulls back the curtain on how he's used partnerships with the NFL, Call of Duty, and the Olympics to put TCL at the center of culture, not just on the shelf. He talks about what most challenger brands get wrong, why he puts measurement before creative, and the one piece of career advice he wishes someone had given him years ago.

Paula Macaggi sits down with Carl Boutet in Montreal to unpack his new book, The Flip. What starts as a conversation about AI quickly turns into something deeper. A discussion about how value is shifting across retail and business, and why it’s becoming harder to define where that value is actually created. From automation and optimization to contextualization and immersion, Carl breaks down the four forces reshaping commerce and what they mean for leaders trying to navigate this moment of uncertainty.
But this episode isn’t about having the answers. It’s about asking better questions. They explore the idea of “executive cognitive drift,” the risks of over-relying on algorithms, and why “artificially perfect” experiences are starting to feel less human. As AI becomes more embedded in how we work, create, and decide, the real opportunity may lie in knowing when to lean in and when to step back. A thoughtful conversation for anyone trying to make sense of where retail, technology, and human connection are heading next.

Rohlik Group delivers 70,000 grocery orders a day across five European markets in as little as 60 minutes, profitably. And most people outside Europe have never heard of them. In this episode, I sit down with Petr Lizner, Head of Strategy at Rohlik Group, to break down how they built one of Europe's most impressive online grocery operations. From baking bread to order and sourcing from the best local butchers, to building their entire tech stack in-house over 11 years, Petr shares how Rohlik turned a Czech startup into a pan-European grocery powerhouse.
We dig into the Brinkmeister acquisition in Germany, where they nearly doubled a stagnant business in one year. We talk about why automation isn't always the answer, how they price-match offline competitors while delivering in 60 minutes, and what's next as they license their technology to traditional retailers through Veloq. If you care about the future of grocery, this one is packed.

Everyone has a loyalty program, but very few brands actually create loyalty. In this episode of OFFBounds, Paula Macaggi sits down with Noah Goldberg from Loblaw Companies Limited to unpack what it really takes to build one of the most widely used programs in the world. As the leader behind PC Optimum, with nearly 16 million members, Noah shares how loyalty operates at scale and why it goes far beyond points and discounts.
The conversation explores the shift from rewarding transactions to rewarding engagement, and how digital behavior has become the foundation of modern loyalty programs. It also dives into the complexity behind creating a simple customer experience, the role of first-party data and retail media, and how AI will change the way customers interact with loyalty in the future.