One set of February figures just published showing the worst retail footfall on record – as revealed by one GC in the room – this panel discussion at Enterprise GC proved a timely reminder of the challenges faced by the retail sector and all those who sail with her.
And with these challenges comes a lot of learning for GCs and senior in-house lawyers in other sectors too. Almost inevitably Amazon – and, by extension digital transformation and disruption generally – dominated some of the discussion. And, it seems, that issue is more acute in the UK than almost anywhere else in the world, given (among other factors) Amazon’s extraordinarily high rate of market penetration. ‘The UK is the perfect size for Amazon’s model,’ said one GC in the know. One more gloomy forecast from the table was that if you’re trying to compete with an Amazon or similar market leaders head on now, it’s too late.
