Ali leads the Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Practices in Southeast Asia. He also leads McKinsey’s retail analytics “SWAT team” in Asia, which helps retail clients create value from their consumer, point-of-sale, and operations data.
Ali works across functional topics ranging from strategy to marketing and sales, with a focus on execution and capability building.
Examples of his recent client work include the following:
- supporting the global marketing and sales transformation for a branded goods manufacturer, including assisting an end-to-end turnaround of sales branches across multiple markets stretching from Japan to West Africa, developing product strategies for each market, implementing world-class channel-management practices, and institutionalizing a commercial operating system
- leading a study of the retail landscape in five Southeast Asian markets for a global retailer evaluating market entry
- conducting a detailed study of the landscape for food-and-beverage and food services in a Southeast Asia market, including surveying more than 400 food-service entrepreneurs to understand key opportunities and challenges for the sector
- supporting the strategic due-diligence process for a global spirits manufacturer, including evaluating global growth opportunities and expansion potential from more effective domestic distribution
- assisting a global food company in developing a market-expansion strategy for Southeast Asia—specifically looking at the key markets of Indonesia and Thailand—including demand forecasting, consumer research to identify key buying factors, and recommendations on brand and channel portfolio
- developing the network-expansion strategy and implementation plan—including developing a “store-in-a-box” toolkit—for a local retailer that resulted an acceleration of the company’s expansion plans, doubling the store network in two years
- supporting the development of a customer-relationship-management (CRM) unit at a leading integrated resort, including shaping a customized CRM methodology, building client capabilities to deliver successful CRM campaigns, and piloting campaigns using the new tools and processes
Ali is a leader of GLAM (Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender and queer at McKinsey). In this capacity, he co-convenes a senior leadership master class that brings together LGBTQ executives from across Asia.