Choosing which future food models a foodservice company should back

The question

A foodservice company asked us for a roadmap of future food models with real potential.

It wanted to know where the big opportunities would be in the years ahead, which short-term wins would last, and how able the business was to win in each space.

Our approach

We started inside the business, with its own trend material and the views of stakeholders across its segments, so the work built on what it already knew.

Desk research and expert interviews then identified the forces of change. We paired each force with the headwind that could reverse it, and together they generated the opportunity areas.

A digital sprint with the client team brought its judgment to bear, agreeing a shortlist of those areas on business fit.

We then sized each shortlisted opportunity independently, with a custom model built up from today’s market. That gave leadership a second, quantified view to set beside the team’s judgment from the sprint. These were modeled scenarios on stated assumptions, never a revenue forecast.

What the team came away with

Growth leadership had a roadmap of future food models, with each shortlisted opportunity sized and its risks set out.

We handed over the sizing model as a tool the business could keep refining, with its assumptions open to change. The areas left out of the sizing stayed on record, so the business could return to them.