Picture this: It’s the year 2000, and a Danish postman, Lars, wakes up at dawn, grabs his stack of letters, and begins his route. He’s the lifeblood of neighbourhoods, the bearer of news, love letters, and overdue bills.
Fast forward to 2026—Lars is no longer needed. The Danish postal service has just announced its final letter delivery, shutting down a 400-year-old tradition. The culprit? Digitalisation. (The Guardian, 2025).

But Lars isn’t the only one whose world has changed.

Back in 1999, a company in Poland called InPost was setting up shop. It started as a humble challenger to the state-run postal system, but instead of clinging to the old ways, it saw the writing on the wall. The future wasn’t in letters but in parcels, e-commerce, and speed. So, it pioneered (APMs) automated parcel lockers, making deliveries more efficient, sustainable, and better suited to the online shopping addicts we’ve all become. Today, InPost is Europe’s leading out-of-home e-commerce delivery provider, proving that adapting to change isn’t just smart—it’s survival (InPost, 2023).

And they weren’t alone.

The Businesses That Saw the Future

Imagine you’re launching a new line of luxury chocolates. You can’t just make a great product and expect customers to flock to it. You need a strategy that puts customers at the heart of every decision. That’s where a customer value–driven marketing strategy comes into play.
At its core, marketing is about creating customer value and strong relationships—not just selling products. To do this effectively, businesses must ask two fundamental questions:

Which customers will we serve? (Segmentation & Targeting)
How will we create value for them? (Differentiation & Positioning)
Step 1: Finding the Right Customers

4,000 Jobs Lost — Are You Next?

This morning’s news suddenly made my coffee taste bitter. It’s not as if I didn’t expect it — I’ve listened to the debates, watched the TED Talks, and read the predictions. But today, it’s no longer just a futuristic warning — it’s reality.

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, has announced that 4,000 roles will be cut over the next three years and replaced by AI.

It started innocently enough. We were running errands, making a quick stop at the supermarket before heading home. As we navigated the aisles, my son, barely old enough to tie his shoelaces, turned to me with excitement:

“Mum! Can we get Buldak Ramen? The really spicy one?”

I blinked. “The what?”

“The Buldak Ramen! It’s really cool. I saw it on YouTube.”