Davide V.

Health First Network

► President and Chief Executive Officer reporting to a board represented by each province across Canada
► Canada's largest network of retail health and wellness operators representing over 9 figure sales in the growing category of natural health and wellness.
► Founded in 1999, Health First Network, is a national network of 140+ independent health and wellness stores offering supplements, organics, gluten-free foods, natural health & beauty aids, as well as sales, marketing, retail flyer, category management, and distribution services.
►  The focus will include growing retail member sales across all vendors, increase retail traffic and revenue through collaborative vendor partnerships and best-in-class marketing to drive demand generation.
►  Responsibilities include sales, marketing, business development, category management, finance, operations, warehouse, procurement, new product development, and vendor/partner relations.
►  Hybrid retail/CPG model
►  Coast to coast representation across English and French Canada

Chief Executive Officer

Harvard Business Review

As a member of the HBR Advisory Council, we help HBR improve the published content as well as help chart future direction.

Through HBR research, Council Members have the opportunity to provide feedback to the editors, preview new content, and weigh in on ideas from HBR as well as those from the wider world of management and leadership.

Advisory Council Member

CEO MasterMind

► The CEO MasterMind brand concept was born as an Executive MBA thesis about a significant gap in the marketplace; top-level marketing, sales, finance, and strategy development tools never make it to start-ups, 6- 8, and even most 9-figure businesses.
► We fight business failure and stagnant growth by enabling business owners, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs with P&L responsibility to grow and scale their business with proven tools and frameworks from Fortune 500 companies and business schools, our alma mater training ground. All without the cost of the traditional ultra-high-cost consultancies that do not offer accountability and long-term implementation. 
► CEOMasterMind.ai (application required) is the world’s first Super-MasterMind, combining the power and benefits of a mastermind/advisory group with an ongoing expert consultant (human & AI-powered) to connect the hidden levers of growth with the installation of our proprietary CAMR Operating Systems (Strategic Clarity, Accountability, Momentum, and Results). Accountability comes free, and once CAMR is implemented, success is guaranteed to grow and scale.
► CEO MasterMind helps those looking to unlock growth and acquire more freedom and business predictability
► CEOMastermind Academy is a DIY, self-paced, super-training online membership delivering a virtual MBA experience with weekly group coaching calls on core topics (Sales, Marketing & Financial Mastery)

Here are a few top questions we help address:
► How to build great teams with rigorous systems and processes to enable scaling
► How to develop a sales and marketing plan to attract a steady stream of customers (B2B or B2C, goods or services)
► How to choose which strategic and financial structures to maximize growth and profitability
► How to innovate and scale to attract investors, position for divestiture, or even seek acquisitions
► Learn, and access for life, the proven frameworks to scale in any economic condition

Chairman of the Board

Guidepoint

► Bespoke consulting and input on strategy, marketing, consumer research, sales, retailing, etc.
► Confidential, private phone conversations across various industries 
► Guidepoint connects clients with vetted subject matter experts—Advisors—from their global professional network. Clients leverage the insights and perspectives shared by the Advisors to stay informed and make better business decisions.

Global Consultant

Umbrella Local

I’m part of a globally based, leading team of digital marketing experts at Umbrella Local, a global full-service digital marketing agency that focuses on generating more leads and sales for small and medium businesses.

Expert Strategist, Sales, and Marketing Advisor

TEC Canada

- Chapter 428 Member
- Leadership Mastermind of some of Canada's top CEOs and leaders of small/medium-sized companies
- Growth through collaborative advisory

Member

Melitta North America

Melitta is the world’s largest integrated coffee company, Top 10 Coffee company globally with ~$1.5 Billion EUROS Billion in sales, and Top 10 Coffee manufacturer in Canada.  

COMMERCIAL LEADERSHIP
►Provided leadership to help turn around the Canadian business unit
►Member of the Senior Leadership Team 
►Co-led business plan which led to #1 total market dollar share in Coffee Filters for the first time in decades.  
►Co-developed, researched, and sold into Walmart a consumer story that helped lead to category exclusivity and securing new items under our new strategic Pour-Over focus. Sales doubled versus prior year.
►Significantly improved marketing spend ROI - increased revenue generated per dollar spent by +>30% (2015-2017 vs 2012-2014).  

MARKETING STRATEGY
►Developed 360 integrated marketing strategy & consolidated agency partners to drive efficiency.  
►New campaign (Digital/PR/In-Store/In-Home/Print/Flyers) supported by new merchandising tools reversed business trajectory
►Supporting new North American Pour-Over coffeemaker strategy of new premium/luxury durable goods to penetrate new channels for Melitta (B2C & B2B).
►Increased brand household penetration high-single digits and aided brand awareness double-digit growth while driving share gains in each segment.

DIGITAL STRATEGY
►Revamped Digital strategy including new agency, revised content strategy, and launch of E-Commerce for January 2018.
►In the first 5-months of 2018 exceeded the entire digital metrics for 2017 by 25%.

PACKAGING
►Developed new integrated packaging across coffee portfolio enabling current users to find Melitta 22% faster while improving new user conversion by 250%.

CLIENT BASE 
►Loblaw, Sobey, Metro, Walmart, Shopper’s Drug Mart, London Drugs, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Home Hardware, Staples, Amazon, e-Commerce & Specialty Channels

Vice President | Head of Marketing

Centric Health

Centric Health is a franchise retail operation with 60-stores in Canada in the Home Medical Equipment sector. 

COMMERCIAL LEADERSHIP
► VP/GM for MEDIchair retail/medical brand: North America's largest retail/B2B franchisor that carries a complete selection of Home Medical Equipment and Home Health Care products designed to enhance the quality of life, increase mobility, and provide a safe and accessible environment for the home.
►Implemented revised organizational model. 
►Developed ‘Playing to Win’ strategy road-map to exceed $100 Million in sales by championing a One Brand/Duo target Professionals/Zoomers (Rehab/Retail) approach.

PRIVATE EQUITY PARTNERS
►At less than two months into my role, Centric announced intent to sell June 2014. Consequently, Centric Health completed the sale of the Home Medical Equipment Retail Division to Birch Hill Equity Partners on Sept 12, 2014.  
►Hired by Birch Hill in Sept 2014 but exited in Dec 2014 due to a significant change in strategic direction (from growth to divest).

SALES & MARKETING STRATEGY
►Initiated & developed new digital/virtual training across a network of 400+ associates from technicians to Rehab sales staff.
►Completed Brand Playbook & Guardrails. Revised strategy executed during 2015. 

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT 
►Instilled category management discipline with Vendors & negotiated new contracts delivering improved margins for franchisees.

Vice President | Chief Operating Officer

Maple Leaf Foods Inc

PnL RESPONSIBILITY
►Commercial management of ~$400 million PnL (+$25 million trade and marketing budget) leading team of 7; largest desk in Maple Leaf Consumer Foods.
►Led new collaborative process with Sales that secured strong 2013 Retailer support leading to highest share ever – reached 58 share in Hot Dogs, +5.8 pts vs. YAG, +3 pts vs. prior high.
►Led and spearheaded agency RFP consolidation to drive efficiency via scale across four (4) summer promotions.  

PRICING STRATEGY
►Led & developed a revised pricing strategy utilizing Pricing Analytics to recover a $10MM commodities rise.

INNOVATION LEADERSHIP
►Initiated & developed a 3-year offensive strategy to tackle chicken category.  Jan 2014 pilot with LCL showed the validity of the category management story. 
►Developed a 60/40 win product with record commercialization of less than 20 weeks.
►Initiated & sold-in, an out-of-plan Halal wiener strategy for Sept 2014. Entrepreneurial drive led to a co-man solution.
►Quadrupled innovation concept pipeline for Hot Hogs and Sausages to explore new ideas/formats to drive topline & margin-accretion in a flat category. New insights sparked smoked chicken Grill’ems line extension & Quebec-specific innovation.
►Identified & developed two growth strategies for Sausage business; expanded volume & margin recovery plan for Fresh Sausages (including manufacturing repatriation) & secured incremental resources for a new Smoked Chicken platform.

SPORTS SPONSORSHIPS
►Developed sports sponsorship with Toronto Blue Jays.  Schneider’s “Grab a Taste of the Big Leagues” guerilla campaign attracted over 2.4+ M views (YouTube + Bluejays.com)!

Category Business Unit Director (Sr.), Prepared Meats Division

Loblaw Companies Limited

PC is the largest consumer brand in Canada with $3B+ in sales. 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 
►Responsible to lead and own bringing the PC Insider’s Report to life from ideation to in-market and analysis. 
►Developed a RACI Model to get the process and engagement across the organization on time.  (Marketing, Merchandising, Supply Chain.)

 INNOVATION LEADERSHIP
► Lead and collaborate with LBL and Category to bring to market, via the Insider's Report, hundreds of new product innovations generating over millions of dollars in new product sales

RETAIL MARKETING STRATEGY 
►Influence and collaborate with National Event team to showcase innovations & themes via weekly flyers, in-store POS, and merchandising.
►Responsible for go-to-market and marketing of PC Insider’s Report. Marketing mix included TV, digital marketing, content management (videos, tips, recipes, etc.), signage, flyer & merchandising mapping.
►Recommended revised consumer investment strategy that helped drive PC brand health score +6.2% to its highest level ever. 
►Led & implemented an IMC Process for PC Blue Menu. Successfully executed new communication strategy with sales trajectory +8% through revised positioning from ‘taste/good for you’ to ‘healthier choices within reach’.

RETAIL MERCHANDISING STRATEGY
►Summer IR 2012: Program delivered +24.6% driven by increased investment in digital marketing, focus & simplified in-store signage focusing on building retail theatre, plus addition of Summer Essentials theme ($100 million event/46 innovations)
►BTS IR 2012: Program delivered +14.2% driven by increased content focusing on lunch & dinner solutions, plus strong focus on peanut-free ($60 million event/ 32 innovations)
►Holiday IR 2012: Program delivered +4% and expanded digital marketing to include Pinterest

RESEARCH STRATEGY 
►Initiated research to secure consumer insights for PC Organics, supporting a revised value proposition. The implemented strategy resulted in sales growth of +50+% in first eight weeks.

Marketing & Sales Director, President's Choice Insider's Report │ Marketing Director, PC 

President & CEO | Fortune 500 trained expert strategist and executive enabling start-ups to billion-dollar brands to differentiate, compete, grow and scale predictably in any market condition.

An energetic & passionate Tier 1, Fortune 500 trained CPG/Retail business executive with a love of translating consumer & category insights into business & brand growth.  My superpower is connecting dots in businesses that others miss, allowing businesses to unlock growth, scale and grow beyond the owners/leaders' wildest dreams.

MY PROMISE
► I make a difference that has a lasting impact on businesses, brands, and people. 
► I turnaround businesses to restore growth and profitability by uncovering untapped opportunities.

VISION
► Discover, create, and lead new ways to traditional business models.  
► Always exploring more efficient and effective alternatives. 

PURPOSE
► I’m a dynamic leader of people, equally excited by the growth of my team as I am by the growth of the brand.   This is the most tangible and visible result of leadership and is a statement of the difference I can make.  
► At heart, I’m an “owner”.  And with this mindset, I seek to make an accomplishment of every day, ensuring that as a business and team, we are better than we were yesterday.  

VALUES
► Passionate about doing the right thing for the business and the greater good. 
► Optimism, Engagement, and Collaboration, even under pressure.   Makes results tangible. 
► Makes the world better with Enthusiasm and by Helping Others. 

TOP SKILLS 
► Leading cross-functional teams & talent development
► Brand Strategy & Management with full 360 marketing mix exposure (4Ps), from start-up to $3+ Billion
► Digital Marketing And E-Commerce: Marketing Automation, SEM, SEO, Analytics, etc.
► Strong business acumen & financial skills; commercial management of PnLs up to $400 Million
► Category Management, Retail Merchandising, and Retail Marketing
► Business Turnarounds & Pricing Expert, including commodity-based businesses
► Consumer Research, Quantitative & Qualitative

KEY ASSETS
► Consumer centric mindset
► Customer focused
► Business & Financial Acumen
► People Leadership
► Cross-functional Knowledge
► Tier 1 Marketing, Sales & Retail training
► OGSTM discipline

Davide Viola, MBA
Unlocking Brand, Business, and People potential using "Discipline as my Performance Grease" (TM)


AI Isn’t the End of Work; It Should Be the Beginning of the Best Economic Model in Human History

Every day, we’re bombarded with headlines like:
“AI will replace 50% of jobs.”
“The economy is doomed.”
“Prepare for collapse.”

Here’s the part nobody says out loud:
- An economy with 50% unemployment cannot function.  
- A +10–15% GDP long-term boom isn’t sustainable either.
- The truth is far more intelligent, and far more hopeful and helpful!

For the first time in human history, we have the tools to intentionally design an economic system that creates:
- Strong, stable GDP growth
- A healthier population
- Lower burnout
- More time for family, community, purpose
- And more meaningful work, not less

This inspired me to write my latest newsletter, a piece I’ve thought about for months, based on my own journey and my recent Harvard AI course.

It’s not doom.
It’s not hype.

It’s a vision, grounded in economics and history, for what the next 100+ years could look like if we choose wisely.

If you’ve ever wondered: Is there a better way to build the future?”

This one is for you.

Let’s build a future worth living by design, not by default (a concept I learned from one of my favourite authors, Greg McKeown).

Davide Viola, MBA

Fortune 500-Trained CEO | Guiding Founders/Execs in Scalable Business Strategies, Operational Blueprints & Dream Team Building for Predictable Growth in Any Economy With Less Friction | Podcast Fanatic | AI Expert

Imagine a world where we work less, live longer, and economies grow faster. A world where stress, burnout, and economic instability aren’t inevitable,

Open article: The Future of Work with AI Isn’t Doom:        It’s the Greatest Economic Opportunity for Humankind in 1,000+ Years.                      Here’s how. by Davide Viola, MBA • 6 min read

The Future of Work with AI Isn’t Doom:        It’s the Greatest Economic Opportunity for Humankind in 1,000+ Years.                      Here’s how.

Agentic AI Insight #5 → Why Most AI Pilots Fail Before They Even Start

After four weeks in this Harvard Agentic AI course, one fact has become impossible to ignore:
Most AI pilots fail long before they ever get deployed.

Not because the tech doesn’t work (businesses honestly don't need ANY more models, but I understand there is a technology race going on).

Not because teams lack enthusiasm.
Not because budgets are too small.

They fail because the starting point is wrong.

Companies begin with tools, not systems.
With excitement, not architecture.

With “let’s try something” instead of “let’s understand something.”

And that’s why more than 90% of AI and Agentic AI initiatives never make it past the pilot stage.

Here’s the uneasy truth:
You can’t fix a pilot that was designed on top of a broken workflow.

It’s like installing a jet engine on a bicycle and wondering why you’re still not moving fast enough (I couldn't help myself to generate an image).

Agentic/AI exposes every weak link in an organization’s operating model:
- missing data
- unclear decisions
- inconsistent rules
- human exceptions that nobody has ever written down
- undocumented policies
- siloed systems
- tribal knowledge held in people’s heads

If the foundation is weak, the agent collapses under the weight of ambiguity.
The problem isn’t capability.
It’s chaos disguised as “process.”

What Harvard is drilling into us is this:
Agentic AI amplifies whatever system you already have: clarity or confusion.
That’s why the most common failure point isn't in Month 3, it's Month 0!

The winners take a clear & different path. 
They:
1. Start with VSM, not vendors.
Run value stream maps to expose reality:
What is the actual workflow?
What decisions are made?
By whom?
Based on what information?
Most companies don’t know. They only think they know.

2. Make the hidden work visible.
You can’t automate steps you can’t see.
Every exception, nuance, and judgment call must be surfaced.
Otherwise, the agent will hallucinate to fill the gaps.
It takes time to do this work.

3. Define the outcome before the system.
The goal isn’t “let’s try AI.”
The goal is “increase throughput,” “reduce cycle time,” or “eliminate error categories.”
Technology follows outcomes. Not the other way around.

4. Build a “human–tech–human” loop.
This statement was the analogy my professors loved most.
You redesign work so the sequence becomes:
Human sets intent → Tech executes → Human evaluates and refines.
Humans bookend the system.
Tech fills the middle.

That’s where trust and intelligence grow together.

When pilots fail, it’s not the agent that failed, its the humans who didn't provide the VSM.
It’s the system design leading into the agent that wasn’t engineered for autonomy.

The takeaway is uncomfortable yet simple:
If your workflow is unclear to your people, it will be impossible for your agents (they are machines and operate very literally).

Agentic AI doesn’t fix broken processes.
It reveals them.

Agentic AI Insight #4 → The Hidden Cost of Context Switching (For Humans and Machines)

Like most people, I used to think context switching is just a “productivity issue.”
Lose a bit of focus, take a bit longer to finish a task, yeah, no big deal.

But in the world of Agentic AI?

Context switching actually becomes a strategic risk.

Here’s the part few are talking about on LinkedIn: 
Just like humans, AI agents degrade when they’re forced to jump between tasks without clarity, structure, or continuity (cue VSM design).

The machine equivalent of mental fatigue shows up as:
– higher error rates
– weaker reasoning
– memory drift
– inconsistent outputs
– misaligned decisions
- hallucinations

These outcomes may sound familiar, as they are precisely what happens in human teams overwhelmed by fragmented work.

I used to think context switching only affected people.

Now, after studying Agentic AI in this Harvard course, it’s obvious:

Systems suffer in almost identical ways (because ultimately they are still designed by human input).

The problem isn’t capability.

It’s cognitive overload, whether biological or computational.

In traditional organizations, humans patch the gaps:
1. We ask clarifying questions.
2. We recall past conversations.
3. We “hold it together” through working memory and judgment.

Agents can’t do that unless we design for it.

And most companies aren’t. Hence, the 90%+ implementation failure rate.

Key word is ... design.

Across industries, the same pattern is emerging:

The biggest failures in early agent deployments aren’t technical; they’re architectural (lack of VSM process mapping).

They stem from workflows that assume agents can magically keep context across dozens of steps, tools, & data sources.

They can’t.

Not without a system built around clarity, continuity, & explicit memory.
Humans need to design for it.

Here’s what the best organizations are doing differently:
1. They reduce fragmentation.
Single-purpose workflows outperform “Frankenstein” processes stitched across nine systems.

2. They make context explicit.
Every decision, rule, constraint, & exception becomes machine-readable.
Humans are embedded at critical nodes that require judgment.

3. They design for “low-interruption” execution.
Agents complete full loops, not ping-pong tasks back and forth.

I won’t share how we’re applying this internally for IP reasons, but here’s the key lesson:

A system can only be as intelligent as the continuity you give it.
(And that applies to your teams just as much as your agents.)

If automation makes work faster, Agentic AI makes work flow.

But only if you eliminate the invisible tax of context switching for everyone & everything (computers) involved.

Develop an obsessive focus on VSM, & then you set the fertile foundation for technology to shine as we dream it.

My professors really loved my analogy of a human technology sandwich, which always deploys a "human-tech-human" transformation approach. 
More next time

Agentic AI Insight #6 → The AgentOS Advantage

Here’s something I didn’t fully appreciate until this Harvard course I took:

Most organizations attempt to achieve AI-driven results using a human-centric operating system (me included).

This approach does not scale well.

Traditional operating models rely on meetings, handoffs, approvals, silos, & defined ownership.
It works … until it doesn’t.
It was never designed for systems that can act, decide, & improve in real time, since we've never had this level of technology.

Most of us are at this stage since that's been the historical playbook.

An AgentOS flips the script.

Instead of optimizing workflows for human comprehension, organizations optimize them for autonomous execution, with humans serving as supervisors, decision-makers, & exception-handlers.

The shift looks small on paper.
In practice, however, the impact is big.

Here’s what the Agent OS enables that traditional org structures cannot:
1. Instantly complete tasks w/out bottlenecks.

No stalls. No “who has the file?”
Agents move work from intent → action → outcome with minimal interruption.

2. Knowledge is systematically codified and accessible by agents.

Most companies store knowledge in people’s heads.
Agent-first systems require clarity, codification, & explicit rules.
This alone exposes decades of organizational debt.

3. Decision-making accelerates dramatically for faster outcomes.

Humans debate. Agents calculate.
Your people can finally focus on judgment, creativity, and relationship work, instead of chasing data across 12 systems.

When I joined HFN, we had 21 systems. Today, we have much, much less, but still more to simplify and optimize.  It’s truly hard work and takes time.

4. Continuous workflow improvement, driving ongoing gains.

Humans improve quarterly. Agents improve hourly.

Yesterday I was on a call where the workflow created a website in 41 seconds, which would have taken weeks a couple of years ago. 
Exciting & terrifying.

From weeks to seconds.

Early success cases show that agentic approaches achieve 2–10× productivity, while traditional AI barely moves the needle.

The big lesson from Harvard?

You don’t get agentic performance with a human operating system.
You must redesign the entire OS itself.

This is the part that's hurting my brain today.

An critical thought remains:

If your org chart still controls workflows, you aren’t ready for agents.
If your processes rely on tribal knowledge, you aren’t ready for agents.
If systems need people to connect them, you aren’t ready for agents.

The Agent OS isn’t futuristic.
It’s simply the operating model required for the next era of work.

Those who grasp this shift early will quietly outpace others.

To begin transitioning to an Agent OS, identify one process that could be redesigned for autonomous execution & start with that initiative.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.
And although I’m quite a few steps into this, there is much more to go!

taplio