Ryan den Rooijen

Former Chief Strategy, Chief Ecommerce, & Chief Data Officer. Currently consultant to private equity.

Your Data is Your Edge When Technology is a Commodity Members Public

We live in a time when innovative digital technologies are more accessible to organisations than ever before. Whereas ecommerce platforms, AI solutions, and broadcasting services used to command a hefty premium, now businesses of all sizes are able to take advantage of competitively-priced cloud capabilities. It is no wonder that

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Data & Analytics

Where Data Democratisation Failed, AI Might Succeed Members Public

In this age of constant innovation, many of us will have experienced the rollout of new platforms or processes as part of our jobs. The pitch is usually something along the lines of "... and with this tool, you will now be able to do [insert task] faster and with

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Artificial Intelligence

There Is No Transformation Without Our Better Angels Members Public

It is a truism that the biggest blocker to digital transformation is culture. Leaders repeatedly call out culture-related challenges in research and surveys. On the one hand, the root causes and remedies are well understood by now. On the other hand, why does addressing these not guarantee a positive outcome?

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Digital Transformation

Will Generative AI Transform Our World? Not So Fast Members Public

Over the past few months, everyone ranging from investors and journalists to executives and increasingly consumers have found their attention drawn to the latest generation of large language models (LLMs). Among these, OpenAI's GPT has emerged as the most prominent. This fascination is largely attributable to these models&

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Artificial Intelligence

One Thing Product Leaders Can Learn From the Romans Members Public

In ancient Rome, victorious military leaders would be celebrated upon their return with a grand procession called a triumph. Yet even in the midst of all their success, the chariot driver would whisper "memento mori" into the victor's ear: "remember that you have to die.

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Ecommerce & Omnichannel

Beyond Translation: Winning Ecommerce in the GCC Members Public

The GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) is still in its infancy regarding ecommerce, seeing online account for just over 10% of total retail sales even after COVID's acceleration. Concurrently, these countries boast the highest Internet penetration rate globally. The convergence of

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Ecommerce & Omnichannel

Digital Leaders Need to Maintain a Sense of Urgency Members Public

The thing about hard things is that we tend to get used to them. While this is one of our great strengths as humans — consider our ability to overcome loss — it can be detrimental when this trait causes us to disengage with important topics. Sustained pressure or urgency can cause

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Digital Transformation

In Ecommerce, Beware the Death of a Thousand Cuts Members Public

Some businesses fail in spectacular fashion. In the last few months alone we have seen the implosion of several financial and technology companies as it has become clear their business models cannot survive outside of a ZIRP environment. When it comes to ecommerce, this is a rarer occurrence. Not because

Ryan den Rooijen
Ryan den Rooijen
Ecommerce & Omnichannel