Edition 02: the restaurant that turned into software

From our work

Our latest work, with the numbers and structural insights compact enough for your coffee brief.

FUTURE LEAD 2026: Leadership is becoming more human after all

Last week, together with Campus M University, we hosted the second edition of FUTURE LEAD in Munich, bringing together corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and academics to discuss one question: what does leadership look like in an AI-native world?

adidas shared how one of the world's most iconic brands navigated a profound turnaround, from rebuilding trust after years of turbulence to redefining strategy under new leadership and reigniting a global brand. Siemens offered a rare look inside what AI transformation actually means at enterprise scale: thousands of use cases, fragmented data landscapes and the challenge of turning technological potential into organisational capability. Our Munich start-up Supernutural demonstrated what entrepreneurial leadership looks like when building a consumer brand from scratch, balancing relentless experimentation with a clear long-term vision. Lastly, taking a very different angle through the eyes of sports, Handballgemeinschaft München reminded us that creating talent is ultimately about creating environments in which people are trusted, challenged and able to grow.

Across every conversation, leadership seemed to become more human, not less. As AI increasingly automates analysis, content creation and execution, competitive advantage shifts towards the capabilities technology cannot replace so easily: judgement, curiosity, empathy, trust, the courage to make difficult decisions and the ability to align people behind a common ambition. Technology may accelerate organisations, but organisational capability makes it reality.

Perhaps that is why the most memorable moments happened long after the final presentation. Our guests stayed long into the evening exchanging ideas, challenging perspectives and making new connections. Leadership is becoming more human after all.

From the news desk

What is happening in the industries we work in, with a focus on the latest in AI.

Wonder: from restaurant to software

The US-based restaurant group Wonder closed a Series D of more than $650 million in July at a $9 billion valuation, with Accel, GV and NEA returning alongside new backers AllianceBernstein, Cathie Wood's ARK Invest and Kayne Anderson. The round brings total funding to roughly $3 billion since 2018, a period in which Wonder has folded in Grubhub and Blue Apron. It now runs 135 food halls across ten East Coast states. And that is just the beginning: founder and CEO Marc Lore says Wonder will be ready and prepared to go public early next year. Lore is asking public markets to believe a restaurant group can carry software-style multiples, built on a kitchen-as-platform model running up to 30 concepts out of one space. For consumer goods companies, the question is increasingly whether value sits in the product or in the operating system around it. Wonder is betting that proprietary technology, customer data and operational orchestration deserve software multiples. Investors are increasingly rewarding businesses that own the customer relationship, the operating system and the underlying data layer rather than simply manufacturing or distributing products. As AI continues to compress execution advantages, those integrated platforms are likely to capture a disproportionate share of value creation. (Fortune)

AI enablement: from technology deployment to enterprise capability

Benedict Evans recently made a case we recognise from the inside: as usage matures, he points to rising demand for AI maturity and strategy assessment, use case definition, systems integration and implementation services. The essential layers that turn a capable model into a working process and organisational capability. It's a useful corrective to a year of headlines about model releases and benchmark scores. The capability curve has outpaced the change-management curve, and closing that gap, not shipping the next model, is where the next round of enterprise value gets created. AI is increasingly seen as an enterprise capability rather than a technology deployment. Our experience suggests that enterprise value is created sequentially rather than spectacularly. The opportunity starts with helping individuals and teams work differently, expands into agentic workflows that augment judgement and execution, and ultimately evolves into AI orchestrating how the business operates across functions and customer interactions. Every stage compounds the value of the previous one. That's where leadership attention belongs.

AI at CPG: still in its infancy

A new report from BCG and the Consumer Goods Forum finds that scaling AI across the demand chain could unlock 220 to 350 basis points of cumulative EBIT for CPG companies. Yet nearly three-quarters remain in pilot mode, more than half still don't measure AI ROI systematically, and only 11% have scaled AI in idea-to-market despite identifying it as the highest-value use case. We see this pattern repeatedly across industries: companies consistently deploy AI where implementation is easiest rather than where strategic value is greatest. Growth follows the opposite logic. The real prize lies upstream: faster innovation, smarter portfolio choices, sharper pricing, more effective media investment and stronger consumer engagement. AI will increasingly differentiate how brands grow, not just how efficiently they operate. ((BCG and the Consumer Goods Forum))

Healthcare M&A is repricing around data, not therapies

PwC's 2026 mid-year review of health industries M&A finds capital shifting decisively toward digital, data and AI-enabled assets, with buyers now building post-deal value through access expansion and data monetisation rather than the traditional cost-synergy playbook. The uptick in megadeals (above $5 billion) in early 2026 shows strategic buyers chasing assets with proven biology and, increasingly, differentiated data, not just a strong pipeline. Our read: a proprietary data asset is no longer a nice-to-have that sits alongside the therapeutic story, it's becoming the valuation driver itself. Any healthcare business without a clear answer to "what data do we own that a buyer can't replicate" is negotiating from a weaker position than its pipeline alone would suggest. ((PwC))

Competitive advantage around GLP-1 is being rebuilt

New Gallup polling shows GLP-1 use among US adults has surged to 11% this year, up from just 3% in 2024, and for the first time the national obesity rate has shown what researchers call a "meaningful" decline. At the same time, the picture is split sharply by payer. Medicare launched its GLP-1 Bridge on July 1, offering seniors access at a flat $50 monthly copay, while several major private plans dropped weight-loss GLP-1 coverage the very same week. A parallel JAMA Pediatrics study published July 20 shows GLP-1 use rising fast among adolescents and young adults too, even as bariatric surgery rates fall. The category is growing on both the demand side and the access-inequality side simultaneously. For consumer healthcare and pharma companies the question is no longer how many patients will use GLP-1s, but which companies will secure sustainable access to them. As public and private reimbursement diverge, commercial advantage will increasingly be determined by payer strategy, distribution models and patient support rather than efficacy alone. Competitive advantage will increasingly be built through payer partnerships, affordability models, patient support and integrated care pathways that determine who actually reaches patients at scale. ([(JAMA Pediatrics) + Gallup)