Metro Group Accelerators

One of the largest global retailers, Metro Group,  pushes innovation via technical accelerators.

" .... The METRO Techstars Accelerator moves into its hot phase: after expiry of the application phase for interested companies at the beginning of August, the task now is to select the participants. Several hundred companies from 20 countries have submitted their application for the Techstars METRO Accelerator. ....  

"The digital transformation pervades all aspects of life and businesses. With the help of digital innovations we want to make our customers in the hospitality segment even more successful", says Olaf Koch, Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG, describing the goal of the Techstars METRO Accelerator. "We have noticed that our customers are presently only using digital solutions to a very limited extent, either because they are not yet available in this form or because our customers are not familiar with them. With the Accelerator, we want to offer our customers a true value added in this field and help them with digital solutions to be even more successful." During a three-month application period, international start-up teams working on digital solutions in the hospitality and food sector had the opportunity to apply for the Techstars METRO Accelerator. Several hundred applications of start-ups from 20 countries were received-among them also the US, Canada, India, Australia and Israel ... "

Metro Group and Alibaba

Visited and analyzed methods of the German Metro Group AG retail chain.  In particular their innovation center in Germany. They are the seventh largest retailer on earth.

Evan Schuman analyzes their recent deal with Alibaba, with good cautions for retail:

" .... Last week, one of the world's largest retailers cut a deal with Alibaba, China's global e-commerce giant. German retail chain Metro Group will turn over its online operation in China to Alibaba. Unfortunately, this is becoming a familiar tale in e-tail, it just about never ends well.

This kind of alliance only makes sense when the retailer doesn't mind surrendering the territory involved forever. Alas, retailers generally use these kind of deals in the opposite way — for extremely important segments, assuming they can move in directly down the road, after their partner has done the dirty work for a while. Gee, what's wrong with this picture?   .... "