As the leader of McKinsey’s Consumer Packaged Goods Practice in Europe, Jessica has worked with many consumer-facing companies to strengthen their strategies, pursue growth and cost reduction, and boost the effectiveness of their marketing and sales.
Since joining McKinsey in 1999, she has consulted for leading consumer-packaged-goods, retail, and food-service companies headquartered in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, as they seek to pursue strategic priorities and control costs.
As an advisor to senior executives, Jessica offers an enhanced understanding of how consumer preferences are changing as digital channels mature. She guides organizations as they respond to the implications of growth, strategic focus, organizational capabilities, and operating models. She has worked with clients in all stages of operational development, from first market entry to maturity, and often assists with strategic mergers and acquisitions.
Jessica also advises private-equity firms on consumer opportunities and engages in their portfolio work.
Examples of her recent work include the following:
- resetting the strategy for an industry-leading fast-moving consumer-goods company, and then supporting the company in accelerating the strategy over several years
- assisting a leading fast-moving consumer-goods company in dramatically reshaping its cost base through zero-based budgeting and by value engineering its products
- helping a fast-moving consumer-goods company reignite growth in a mature category
- conducting vendor due diligences and commercial due diligences for a range of consumer-goods players, such as luxury apparel, specialty apparel, beauty, home care, and hard goods
- leading the pre-close merger-planning effort for two major international retailers
- conducting a big data analysis of a food retailer’s sales data to identify opportunities to strengthen its value proposition (assortment, private-label offer, and pricing and promotion)
- conducting the due diligence and then assisting in pre-close merger planning for a large fast-moving consumer-goods company
- assisting a grocer in building its online business
- assisting a retailer in reducing its indirect spend by 12 percent
- transforming the sales and marketing operations of a quick-service restaurant, focusing on pricing and promotion optimization, menu board and in-store merchandising, and local store marketing
- assisting a major contract food-service supplier to better understand and plan for emerging industry trends
- conducting due diligences and portfolio work for a range of food-service players (fast food, fast casual, casual dining, coffee, and bakery)
Jessica first joined McKinsey in the United States–working in our New Jersey and Washington, DC, offices—before moving to the United Kingdom in 2010. She is a board member for the American Friends of Cecily’s Fund, which assists Zambian AIDS orphans, and for the Duke University Student Publishing Company.