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Björn Timelin

Senior PartnerLondon

Helps leading consumer-facing companies—including consumer packaged goods, retail, and luxury goods companies—to make better strategic and commercial choices and build stronger capabilities

Björn focuses on strategic and commercial topics for consumer-facing companies in Europe. His clients include retail, consumer packaged goods, media, and luxury goods companies.

Björn has extensive knowledge and expertise in the areas of insights-led growth strategies; marketing and sales productivity, including using zero-based budgeting; and commercial capability transformations.

Recent work examples include the following:

  • working with a global fast-moving consumer-goods company to develop a country growth strategy, covering both where to play (categories, brands, customers) and how to win (marketing, route to market, organisational implications)
  • leading an end-to-end digital transformation for a leading jewelry and watches group—including e-commerce, digital marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and digitally enabled operations
  • helping an international brewer to design a new brand portfolio strategy, develop a new approach to consumer and product segmentation, and using this to develop global and local brand portfolio strategies
  • transforming a European entertainment company, with particular focus on how to improve customer loyalty/CRM and digitizing the consumer journey
  • leading a comprehensive zero-based-budgeting implementation for the European division of a global food company, generating savings of 15 percent across marketing, sales, supply chain, and overhead costs

Before joining McKinsey, Björn spent 4 years in Procter & Gamble’s beauty-care division in the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Published work

A multi-lens approach to finding growth in consumer goods,” McKinsey & Company, July 2023

The execution imperative for European consumer-goods companies,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

Opportunities for e-commerce success in Europe: Retail media networks,” McKinsey & Company, July 2022

Winning with commercial excellence: Ten lessons for consumer goods,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022

Reimagining consumer-goods innovation for the next normal,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020

Meet the next-normal consumer,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

How COVID-19 is changing consumer behavior—now and forever,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020

How CPG companies can sustain profitable growth in the next normal,” McKinsey & Company, July 2020

Zero-based productivity—Marketing: Measure, allocate, and invest marketing dollars more effectively,” McKinsey & Company, August 2018

Building a marketing organization that drives growth today,” McKinsey & Company, August 2017

NOW NEW NEXT: How growth champions create new value,” McKinsey & Company, September 2016

Past experience

Procter & Gamble
Financial analyst

Education

University of Cambridge
MPhil, history

Durham University
BA, history