Welcome to my web site. Do spend a couple of minutes browsing and find out what I do for a living. If I can be helpful to you and your organisation, give me a call or e-mail.
I’m a talker – it’s not pretty, but that’s what I do! For the last thirty years, I have lived and worked in many countries in both hemispheres of the world and have always been involved in food and drink. In short, I have a constantly evolving informed view on global food industry developments – from consumer, grocery retail and food service towards one end of the value chain to life science companies at the other, and everything in-between. Talking to and with senior directors and managers of food and beverage companies, R&D organisations, farmer-owned businesses, government and others, I help them work out what are the commercial implications of change in their industry and how they might respond to combat threats and embrace opportunities.
To ensure my views on business are “fresh” (and reflect the brutal reality of day-to-day commercial life), I have direct involvement with food firms in the UK and the USA and I sit on food organisation boards in several countries of the world. Keeping abreast of leading edge research, I maintain my academic linkages with The Centre for Supply Chain Research at Kent Business School ,University of Kent, Imperial College London and Imperial College at Wye , and I am a frequent examiner of PhD/DBA level research on food industry strategic management issues. Linking in with primary food producers, I am a Visiting Professor at the University of Kent Business School and at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, UK.
Whether talking to small groups from a single company, or a hall full of conference attendees:
- I use practical business examples from around the world to make key points;
- my presentation style is interactive to keep participants involved and on their toes;
- I use dry humour to lighten the day without diluting the content!
- and, regularly, score the highest marks in conference and seminar participant feedback with “insightful”, “energetic”, “charismatic”, “deep industry knowledge” as frequent accolades see recent comments on my work.
Best regards,
David Hughes