I had the opportunity to catch up with Sebastian LeFebure, Managing Director for France & Southern Europe, Manhattan Associates, to discuss the shifting world of retail in a post-pandemic world. In this fireside chat podcast conversation we discuss a range of key business & technology topics around the current state of the rapid evolution & innovation taking place in and around supply chains - and the challenges of meeting shifting consumer demands & expectations across the global retail industry, and the technology Manhattan Associates make available to their customers to meet these challenges and more. Sebastian heads up Manhattan’s French & Southern Europe business with a team of over 150 world leading supply chain, logistics & technology experts. We kicked off with a great view into Sebastian's life, his early years and inspirations, and what set him on the amazing path of business, technology and the amazing world of supply chains. Sebastian delves into one of the biggest questions being tabled in board rooms around the world right now, which is "what does the new world of retail mean for supply chains?". He also gives us a fantastic update on what the new world of retail look like in France today in the context of the various big challenges organisations face in managing increasingly complex supply chains during a "once in a hundred years" global pandemic in the form of the #COVID19 coronavirus. We look at the urgent business and technology need bring driven in part by changes in consumer behaviour, for agility (cloud + micro-services), increasing demand for flexibility (BOPIS + curb-side pickup), the ever present pivot to omni-channel operating models for supply chains (ecommerce fulfilment) and how all of these various key capabilities are now more than ever, paramount to adapt to new consumer behaviour for brands in a post-COVID landscape. As we look into the key technology challenges businesses of all shapes and sizes are facing in dealing with around managing their supply chains, Sebastian shares how Manhattan Associates has transformed the world of supply chain by making cloud based micro-services powered Software as a Services supply capabilities back by world leading business and technology professional services both in-house and through a global ecosystem of partners and integrators, consultants, a world leading SaaS cloud offering, support, education, optimisation and so many other critical offerings that sets their business apart. Sebastian also shares amazing insights and views around how the #COVDI9 coronavirus has changed the way brands view their supply chains, and some great advice and actionable takeaways around how to respond and address these new challenges. We wrap up with both a look at what Sebastian thinks the future of retail (& indeed the supply chain industry) will look like across Europe in 2021 & beyond, with a particular focus on the next 12 to 18 months across industries which are most impacted by what the year 2020 presented to the world, and what the year 2021 has for us as we near the final quarter of 2020 and prepare to enter another challenging year in 2021. This is a conversation every CXO, needs to be hearing and sharing within their organisations, not just throughout their supply chain teams, but all operations, strategy and planning, and in my view, human resources as well, there is so much all senior key business & technology decision makers can gain from what Sebastian shares with me in this amazing fireside chat podcast conversation that you may find yourself listening to it two or more times. Tune in now for all of these amazing topics and more. This podcast was made in partnership with Manhattan Associates. For more information please visit: http://bit.ly/manhattan-assocaites-website .