In this episode, we travel to Mexico, where Danone is facing a myriad of strategic decisions in serving a highly heterogeneous customer base through multiple channels. Pedro Urow, VP of Supply Chain for Danone, walks us through the core trade-offs, which are then complemented through a highly insightful discussion with Prof. Dr. Jan Fransoo, based on work conducted by our research team at Tilburg University:

• Going direct vs. indirect (through distributors)

• Presales (separate sales rep and delivery teams) vs. van sales (joint sales and delivery) vs. cross dock (deliver to the retailer's own consolidation points)

• Should firms integrate heterogeneous categories (with associated efficiency gains) or handle them separately (specialized assets and capabilities)

• How often should each nanostore be visited to collect and de ...