credit photo: pepsico.com Most CEOs began this year reviewing their 2025 growth charts.I began mine looking at PepsiCo. When a global giant like PepsiCo cuts nearly 20% of products from its portfolio, this is not “trimming the fat.”It is a public admission of cognitive overload . They allowed their brand to become noisy — overwhelming the consumer’s brain, triggering decision fatigue, and accelerating a retreat toward simpler, clearer competitors. This is not a supply-chain

Luxury, tradition, and cultural meaning in movie-length Christmas entertainment Case Study Executive Summary Netflix’s Man vs Baby  demonstrates how movie-length Christmas entertainment  can function as a powerful brand and cultural vehicle when luxury, heritage, and tradition are embedded through soft narrative integration rather than overt advertising . By combining: a universally accessible comedy format, cross-generational appeal, heritage luxury brands, and Christian-ro

A STRATEGIC RESET FOR BRAND VALUE, CULTURE & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Architecting a premium retail ecosystem and market leadership strategy OVEVIEW When Carmangeriile Moldovan came to us, the company stood on a strong legacy — but that legacy was not yet translated into a consolidated, modern, premium brand architecture.The business had grown fast: multiple stores, a bistro concept, a wide variety of in-house products, and a loyal consumer base. But each component operated in its

ARCHITECTING A PREMIUM WINE BRAND FROM THE GROUND UP. OVERVIEW When AMB Wine Company entered the Romanian market, Batoș was a young, underdeveloped vineyard in an unknown region. The winery lacked operational maturity, market relevance, and the credibility required for premium positioning. As Executive Manager, my mandate was to architect the entire business—from vineyard operations to brand ecosystem, pricing, distribution, behavioral market entry, and long-term commercial g

As global markets shift, successful private banking services must be innovative and client-focused.

Reframing Luxury Consumption Through Behavioral Insight & Strategic Influence OVERVIEW Veuve Clicquot’s Rich Collection  represented a bold shift in the champagne category—one that challenged traditional consumption norms and introduced champagne as a dynamic ingredient for mixology. Our mission was not simply to “launch a product,” but to change how consumers think  about champagne itself. This required leadership-level strategy, behavioral insight, and a GTM model capable o

CASE STUDY:  AN APPLIED BEHAVIORAL STRATEGY, THE LILIAC LAUNCH EVENT OVERVIEW As the executive leader of Liliac, my primary objective was not just to launch a wine; it was to build an entire business  in a deeply traditionalist-biased market. A standard Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy was guaranteed to fail.  Our modern, "new-style" wine would be dismissed by an "old-school" establishment. I recognized this as a critical business risk,  and I made the decision to architect a mul

OVERVIEW We partnered with Raionul de Pește to lead a year-long business transformation centered around the relaunch of its redesigned flagship location by Karim Rashid while elevating the entire chain into a market-wide Key Opinion Leader. Our role spanned GTM strategy, CX modeling, sensory design, stakeholder activation, and content architecture. THE CHALLENGE The business faced a dual opportunity—and risk: Monetize a major capital investment by repositioning the Floreasca

We've built WineUp not just as a premium wine event, but as an economic and cultural platform OVERVIEW When we began the WineUp project in 2015, Romania had no premium, international-caliber platform able to showcase its wine industry, educate its consumers, or elevate its products to global standards. The market was fragmented, under-activated, and lacking a unified identity. WineUp was created to fill this structural void. Over the past decade, we have not built an event. W

A behavioral, sensory, and cultural architecture for a global-to-local luxury activation. OVERVIEW The Solaire Tables  initiative reflects Veuve Clicquot’s long-standing commitment to innovation and to the pioneering spirit of Madame Clicquot. The program celebrates women in gastronomy and highlights the versatility of the champagne portfolio through curated culinary experiences. Our mandate was to localize this global platform  with precision — ensuring that every touchpoint

OVERVIEW: We were engaged as the lead strategic partner  for a complex, multi-year business transformation. The challenge was not just to launch a new wine business and brand, but to execute a full-scale turnaround  of a dormant asset—a property with immense historical heritage and vineyard that had been left in disrepair, burdened by a   negative market reputation for low-quality wines—and transform it into a commercially viable , premium brand from day one. Our long-term

ARCHITECTING THE FIRST GLOBAL STANDARD FOR TACTILE COLOR ACCESSIBILITY At Artvinium, innovation is not an output—it is a strategic mechanism for shaping markets, expanding accessibility, and creating long-term business value. Our work in this field began with a simple question: How do we design a world where color is accessible to everyone? This question led to a landmark collaboration with Tudor Paul Scripor , the inventor of the Scripor Alphabet—the world’s first tactile