Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: As always, my focus is on exploring the intersection of
Speaker 1: technology and business by having conversations with the most forward
Speaker 1: thinking leaders. Throughout my career, I've covered everything from massive
Speaker 1: parallel processing to advanced robotics, but what truly inspires me
Speaker 1: are the stories of innovation and transformation. Today, I have
Speaker 1: the pleasure of speaking with Simontany Goadbolet, the chief Digital
Speaker 1: and Information Officer at Low's. Simontani's background is in mathematics
Speaker 1: and engineering, and we hit it off right away. I
Speaker 1: quickly learned about both her perspective on technological innovation and
Speaker 1: on business leadership. When presented with a challenge, Simontani begins
Speaker 1: exploring solutions through collaboration and thinking outside the box, all
Speaker 1: while maintaining an enthusiasm around her work. And Simontany has
Speaker 1: played a pivotal role in guiding decisions and strategies at
Speaker 1: Low's as the company has embraced digitalization to improve the
Speaker 1: experiences of customers, partners, and associates alike. But before we
Speaker 1: dive into all the work she's doing at Low's, I
Speaker 1: wanted to take a little time to learn more about
Speaker 1: Samontany herself. Simontani, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 1: on the Restless Ones. I'm extremely excited to have this conversation.
Speaker 2: With you today, Jonathan.
Speaker 3: Great to be here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker 1: Before we jump into all the amazing work done over
Speaker 1: at Low's. I always like to get to know my
Speaker 1: guests a little bit better. I'm very curious how you
Speaker 1: first got interested in engineering and technology.
Speaker 3: You know, I think, Jonathan, I grew up in India
Speaker 3: and did my undergrad in India, and then I came
Speaker 3: here to do my graduate school. And from the very beginning,
Speaker 3: I feel like I was interested in math and science,
Speaker 3: and I wish I could come up with a much
Speaker 3: smart reason. But I figured out that math problems, if
Speaker 3: you just solve them on a consistent basis, you didn't
Speaker 3: have to study too much just before the exams. If
Speaker 3: you do a bunch of mathematical problems, then you're always
Speaker 3: ready for a test and you don't have to do
Speaker 3: anything special. On a more serious note, I think scientific
Speaker 3: experiments hands on learning. I just feel like it interested
Speaker 3: me much more. What I would say is the more
Speaker 3: you do it, the better you get. At it and
Speaker 3: then it becomes a bit of a virtuous cycle. And
Speaker 3: that's what happened to me, Jonathan. And by the time
Speaker 3: then I have completed my high school, I was very
Speaker 3: clear that I wanted to pursue engineering. My dad was
Speaker 3: an engineer, so I'm sure that had a tremendous influence.
Speaker 1: That's great. It resonates with me because I often saw
Speaker 1: math as sort of like a series of puzzles, and
Speaker 1: solving puzzles with something I always love to do. And
Speaker 1: certain types of math, like trigonometry just sang to me,
Speaker 1: and physics sang to me. And it's because it may
Speaker 1: made sense, and once you grasped it, everything starts to
Speaker 1: kind of fall into line, and I get a little
Speaker 1: hint of what it must be like to be an engineer.
Speaker 1: Not that I would ever suggest I am as lofty
Speaker 1: as an engineer, but Samantani, you've of course had lots
Speaker 1: of experience as both a technical lead and an engineer.
Speaker 1: I'm curious how those experiences in those roles shaped your
Speaker 1: approach to leadership.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think the biggest thing that happened to
Speaker 3: me was, even to this day, I truly appreciate what
Speaker 3: engineers do for us, and not just engineers, but ux designers,
Speaker 3: data scientist, infrastructure engineers. I mean, we could go on
Speaker 3: and on, but maybe because I did that work myself,
Speaker 3: I have a huge appreciation for how much dedication it needs,
Speaker 3: how much you have to keep yourself up with new technology,
Speaker 3: keep learning. Jonathan, you said something which so resonated with me,
Speaker 3: which is solving a puzzle. Right, So, if you're after
Speaker 3: an engineer and you're writing cops and gops of code
Speaker 3: on an everyday basis, you're solving puzzles continuously, and then
Speaker 3: there are many evenings you go home and you haven't
Speaker 3: quite solved something and it's bothering you, and you come
Speaker 3: in the next morning, and then suddenly you have a
Speaker 3: breakthrough and things change overnight, like something that seemed completely
Speaker 3: unsolvable yesterday suddenly today you have had a breakthrough. So
Speaker 3: I just feel like living that life gave me tremendous
Speaker 3: appreciation for what our teams do, And to this day,
Speaker 3: when we are having a whiteboard discussions, those that are actually,
Speaker 3: by the way, my best hours, I tremendously enjoy working
Speaker 3: with the teams that way.
Speaker 1: Anytime you get a chance to share ideas with people
Speaker 1: who might be looking at things from a slightly different
Speaker 1: perspective and perhaps see something that you missed. To me,
Speaker 1: that's one of the great joys. I don't get frustrated
Speaker 1: that I missed it. I take joy that someone else
Speaker 1: saw something that just because the angle I was looking
Speaker 1: at I could not see.
Speaker 2: Jonathan.
Speaker 3: One of the big things is every day I realized
Speaker 3: that how much my team knows and how good they
Speaker 3: are at what they do, and it's humbling. It's just
Speaker 3: really awesome to be surrounded by such smart people.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. What actually brought you to Low's?
Speaker 3: So I was working for another retailer, I was working
Speaker 3: for Target. When I got a call from the team
Speaker 3: at Low's. It was going to be a bigger job. So,
Speaker 3: just to be really frank, I felt like I could
Speaker 3: have more impact. I felt like I was ready. And
Speaker 3: when I came and met with everybody at Low's, my
Speaker 3: future peers, and of course I met with Marvin Ellison
Speaker 3: and our CEO. What was very impressive is, first of all,
Speaker 3: I felt like Low's had a tremendous scale. Also, as
Speaker 3: I was listening from everyone about the home improvement business,
Speaker 3: I felt like that field was ripe for omni channel retail,
Speaker 3: lots of innovation, but here's the most important thing. I
Speaker 3: felt like Marvin was truly interested in transformation led by technology,
Speaker 3: and I felt like this happens very very rarely, where
Speaker 3: the company of scale who wants to transform, a CEO
Speaker 3: who's empathetic and really invested in transformation, and then a
Speaker 3: domain that is so problem rich. All these things don't
Speaker 3: come together often enough. And I was really excited after
Speaker 3: listening to everybody, and I didn't want to pass up
Speaker 3: that chance. So I'm really lucky I got this job
Speaker 3: and I love it every day.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the perfect convergence. It does sound like
Speaker 1: the engineer's dream come true of we're going to give
Speaker 1: you the support you need to be the change that
Speaker 1: we need in order to move into the next era
Speaker 1: of our organization's history. Out of curiosity, when you first
Speaker 1: meet someone, how do you actually describe what your job
Speaker 1: is to them?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and Jonathan, that's a really good question. All of
Speaker 3: us want to describe our jobs in a way that
Speaker 3: everybody understands. And here is what I do really on
Speaker 3: an everyday basis. My job is to make sure that
Speaker 3: our customers are able to buy everything they want. However,
Speaker 3: whenever wherever they want to buy. So whether they want
Speaker 3: to go to lows dot com, they want to call
Speaker 3: our contact center, they want to come into our stores,
Speaker 3: they should get a really connected and a seamless experience.
Speaker 3: On the other side of a coin, what we are
Speaker 3: doing is for our associates, whether you're working in a
Speaker 3: store behind a register, or you're receiving a truck in
Speaker 3: our receiving doc or you're a supply chain associate moving
Speaker 3: the product through our warehouse, or you're sitting in our
Speaker 3: what we call it as store support center, which is
Speaker 3: basically a headquarter where you're sitting here doing some financial analysis.
Speaker 3: I really want to make sure that our associates are
Speaker 3: able to have the best experience so that they can
Speaker 3: serve our customers. So it really is about all the
Speaker 3: experiences and technology we design for our customers and associates.
Speaker 3: This is how I describe my job, and we are
Speaker 3: on a journey to become the most customer centric omni
Speaker 3: channel retailer, and I feel like technology plays a really
Speaker 3: important role in that.
Speaker 1: I like that description. Being able to do this to
Speaker 1: provide this experience both to the customers, for Low's Lows
Speaker 1: as partners as well as the associates who work at Lows.
Speaker 1: It requires a bedrock that we love to talk about
Speaker 1: on this show, which is, of course connectivity. It is
Speaker 1: my firm belief that connectivity is the technology that enables
Speaker 1: so much more innovation. And while we can focus on
Speaker 1: the innovation and we will talk about it, it never
Speaker 1: escapes me that that connectivity piece is what makes it
Speaker 1: all possible, so that we don't just have silos of
Speaker 1: data that do no good because they're all independent, little
Speaker 1: islands that never have any connection with anything else. So
Speaker 1: can you tell me a bit about what it means
Speaker 1: to build a connected workforce at Low's.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And Jonathan, when we said home improvement is a
Speaker 3: problem rich space, that this field is right for omni
Speaker 3: channel experiences, I'll tell you what we mean, and that
Speaker 3: goes back to the connectivity you just brought up. So,
Speaker 3: for example, you want to change floors in your house,
Speaker 3: what you generally would do is and there are some
Speaker 3: decisions which are almost like family decisions, because these are
Speaker 3: big decisions you're making not just for yourself, but you're
Speaker 3: making it for the entire family. This is the floor
Speaker 3: you're going to live in every day. This is something
Speaker 3: you're going to wake up every morning and take a look.
Speaker 3: You want to be proud of it, you want to
Speaker 3: feel happy about it. When you invite people over, you
Speaker 3: want them to feel really good about what you've done.
Speaker 3: So there is a lot of pride in this project.
Speaker 3: So what you do generally is what we have seen
Speaker 3: with our customers. You start your journey online and you
Speaker 3: may order samples, you may look at different floors. Now
Speaker 3: we have introduced lots of features where you take a
Speaker 3: picture of your home, upload it. Then you try out
Speaker 3: different floors online from our catalog and you may narrow
Speaker 3: down your choices and you may see, these are the
Speaker 3: three or four things I like. But then generally what
Speaker 3: we have seen is customers then go to the store,
Speaker 3: or they'll go with their contractor we have this huge
Speaker 3: advantage of just really experienced associates, and so when you
Speaker 3: go to the stores, you get tremendous amount of additional information.
Speaker 3: And then what we have seen is generally then people
Speaker 3: sort of complete their transaction. They either complete their right
Speaker 3: there in the stores or they come back and do
Speaker 3: that back online. So that's why it needs to be
Speaker 3: very connected because if it was disconnected, like if you
Speaker 3: zero in on three floors online, but you go to
Speaker 3: the store and then nobody knows what you're talking about,
Speaker 3: it won't work. So there is just a tremendous amount
Speaker 3: of information and connectedness that needs to go back and
Speaker 3: forth between the different channels. For our appliances. For example,
Speaker 3: we started a two way communication where we keep you
Speaker 3: completely updated that Hey, reminding you, Jonathan, your deliveries tomorrow,
Speaker 3: are you still ready for it? Because plans change, And
Speaker 3: then even throughout the day.
Speaker 2: We would keep you updated.
Speaker 3: So I feel like Jonathan, our customers are demanding it
Speaker 3: more and more that it doesn't matter how they buy something,
Speaker 3: but they want it all connected. They want similar and
Speaker 3: consistent experience, and they want it to be really a
Speaker 3: hassle free, fun type of experience when they are doing
Speaker 3: something so exciting in their life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've personally had very many of the experiences that
Speaker 1: you've just mentioned, and I think that the connectivity that
Speaker 1: we've seen over the last several years, which enables this
Speaker 1: where you have this real time inventory management system that
Speaker 1: can be reflected on the customer facing side, that's transformative.
Speaker 1: It removes so many pain points and frustrations as someone
Speaker 1: who's actually tackling a DIY project, which can, as I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're aware, Samontane, it can sometimes be a little stressful.
Speaker 1: So to me, those are those connective points that are
Speaker 1: absolutely critical to having a good experience, and it's the
Speaker 1: one that keeps bringing you back to a specific business
Speaker 1: when that sort of representation of making use of data
Speaker 1: in a constructive way has a huge impact on the customer.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: And the other thing we have also seen is our
Speaker 3: customers and even associates want our experiences to be very
Speaker 3: context aware.
Speaker 2: So exactly like you said, what is available.
Speaker 3: In the store near you, what is right for you
Speaker 3: if you're living in Miami as opposed to let's say Denver, Right,
Speaker 3: the climate and the requirement of these places are very different.
Speaker 3: If you're living in a very tight urban location, no
Speaker 3: point in showing you an elaborate, big patio set. Maybe
Speaker 3: you're looking for a bistrow table with a couple of chairs,
Speaker 3: and maybe that's what we should show you, whether you
Speaker 3: come online or whether you're coming inside a store. And
Speaker 3: these are the context rich experiences.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the other things we love to talk
Speaker 1: about on this show specifically would be the use of
Speaker 1: wireless technologies like five G and Wi Fi six. So
Speaker 1: I'm very curious, Samontoni, do you see places where the
Speaker 1: retail sector in particular can really leverage these connectivity solutions,
Speaker 1: ones that have the high throughput and the low latency
Speaker 1: that we're seeing developed through these new wireless technologies.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Of course, we are tremendous consumers of cloud, and we
Speaker 3: do have our own data centers just given the complexity
Speaker 3: and the reach of LOWS. But then what we have
Speaker 3: done is across our more than seventeen hundred stores, we
Speaker 3: have really created mini are a micro data center in
Speaker 3: each of the stores, so that way we are closest
Speaker 3: to the customer wherever the customer is. So if you
Speaker 3: are online, you're connecting to the cloud. If you walk
Speaker 3: into the store, you're connecting to a cert which is
Speaker 3: in the store itself. And then if you are sitting
Speaker 3: at one of our store support centers, which is like
Speaker 3: a headquarter, and you're let's say a merchandising analyst, you're
Speaker 3: connecting to our data center. So we are trying to
Speaker 3: connect you to the closest location, and then everything you
Speaker 3: mentioned comes into picture in a big way. For example,
Speaker 3: if you're in a store and you are an associate
Speaker 3: or a customer, you're connected to the Wi Fi, you're
Speaker 3: connected to the server which is very close. And what
Speaker 3: we are doing is with our caching strategy and APIs,
Speaker 3: we are making sure that the data is staged closest
Speaker 3: to where you are, and we are trying to reduce
Speaker 3: communication across sites. So, for example, if you are in
Speaker 3: the store, you're trying to keep your communication within the
Speaker 3: stores as much as we can.
Speaker 2: Now there are.
Speaker 3: Times when you are leaving the store, your bits and
Speaker 3: bytes are leaving the stores, going someplace else, collecting answers
Speaker 3: and coming back, and you're absolutely right in those times.
Speaker 3: What we do is use technologies such as five G.
Speaker 3: If you're a customer and there are some calls yours
Speaker 3: which are going outside of the store, or you're an
Speaker 3: associate and you're using a Zebra device, which is basically
Speaker 3: a smartphone device that we issue to all our associates
Speaker 3: to whether find induventor relocations, place an order, get something replenished,
Speaker 3: and so we are making use of wireless technology. Sometimes
Speaker 3: we are using connectivity for tethered servers, but we are
Speaker 3: making sure that the data and the answers are placed
Speaker 3: closest to where the customer is well.
Speaker 1: I imagine that also plays a huge part in logistics
Speaker 1: and things like supply chain as well when you're looking
Speaker 1: at it from the back end. And we've had a
Speaker 1: lot of conversations on this show about supply chain because
Speaker 1: obviously during the pandemic that was first and foremost in
Speaker 1: everyone's minds as we saw all the choke points, and
Speaker 1: people suddenly realized what engineers had known for ages, that
Speaker 1: the supply chain is a delicate system, and that realization,
Speaker 1: paired with our new capacity to collect and analyze information,
Speaker 1: means that the generation of leaders are far more aware
Speaker 1: of the power of data and how you can use
Speaker 1: that information to have as little interruption in business as possible.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and Jonathan, I mean some of these things came
Speaker 3: to surface during COVID, when suddenly the demand for everything outstripped.
Speaker 3: Supply data, to your point, is really powerful and one
Speaker 3: of the biggest things the customers wanted to know is
Speaker 3: what is available near me in my store. So we
Speaker 3: had by that time actually modernized some of our technology
Speaker 3: around inventory and inventory positioning, so we were able to
Speaker 3: expose that even before COVID hit us, So that was good,
Speaker 3: but we unleashed a lot of different experiences and what
Speaker 3: we did was we literally, you know, curbside experience through
Speaker 3: our app. We rolled that out within six weeks. Inventory
Speaker 3: we started making it more prominent as to what is
Speaker 3: available next to you. But throughout COVID, and even before COVID,
Speaker 3: we continued our transformation and we actually doubled down. It
Speaker 3: was great for our customers because they were relying on
Speaker 3: lows to find the things they needed to keep their
Speaker 3: homes working. And I think it truly showed that our
Speaker 3: team was super resilient in really difficult times.
Speaker 1: And this segue is really well into our next section
Speaker 1: where we were going to talk specifically about e commerce.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously e commerce became the dominant form of
Speaker 1: the way that customers interacted with businesses, particularly during the
Speaker 1: times of lockdown. What can leaders in the retail sector
Speaker 1: do to sort of anticipate enormous shifts as what we've
Speaker 1: seen with e commerce. What lessons have you learned that
Speaker 1: I think are valuable to your peers.
Speaker 3: I have always looked at e commerce as a really
Speaker 3: important part of total retail equation, and everybody at Loosed
Speaker 3: US so I don't think that was a big surprise.
Speaker 3: I think what Covid did was it just accelerated trend
Speaker 3: which was already in motion, which is, you know, lots
Speaker 3: of people who had never done online grocery shopping started
Speaker 3: doing that, Lots of people who had never thought they
Speaker 3: could get something delivered, you know, restaurant orders. Overall, digitization
Speaker 3: just reached epic proportions. And I think some of those
Speaker 3: changes are permanent. And what I mean by that is
Speaker 3: just your level of comfort. And what we did was
Speaker 3: we looked at it and we said what does it
Speaker 3: mean to our customers and what would be most helpful. So,
Speaker 3: for example, we observed that virtual appointments people are getting
Speaker 3: really comfortable just this new way of conversing with each
Speaker 3: other through cameras and through this new technology. People are
Speaker 3: really good with that. And so what we did was
Speaker 3: for some of our categories like kitchen design, you know,
Speaker 3: countertops and cabinets, what we do is we have a
Speaker 3: centralized selling team and you could go ahead and book
Speaker 3: an appointment virtually and start talking to them.
Speaker 2: You'll still have people from lows.
Speaker 3: Come to your house and take some measurements, but because
Speaker 3: of their virtual appointment. That is happening even before people
Speaker 3: at Low's come into your house, you have done a
Speaker 3: lot of homework. We can actually do our own homework
Speaker 3: before we come to your house, and then that way
Speaker 3: we can get everything done in one appointment, and we're
Speaker 3: giving you all the information and we can always answer
Speaker 3: your questions later through a follow up virtual appointment. So
Speaker 3: these are some of the things we are noticing. People
Speaker 3: are much more comfortable. So what we have done is
Speaker 3: actually we have taken advantage of these accelerating trends and
Speaker 3: brought even more innovative experiences to our customers and associates.
Speaker 1: Well, next up, I've got an interesting question because I
Speaker 1: think of Lows as a truly enormous company, and often
Speaker 1: we can have a prejudice on enormous companies and think
Speaker 1: of them as being unable to be nimble or dexterous
Speaker 1: when conditions change. So what do you think is the
Speaker 1: secret to leaders to being ready to respond to the
Speaker 1: next big thing?
Speaker 3: Jonathan? I think, first of all, irrespective of your size,
Speaker 3: we all need to operate as if we are startup
Speaker 3: and at loads in technology and otherwise, we are always
Speaker 3: thinking about ourselves as a small company really and not
Speaker 3: as this mega corporation that we are, And I think
Speaker 3: that fosters a sense of entrepreneurship and creativity and scrappiness
Speaker 3: that's really needed to solve even the biggest problems. And
Speaker 3: we totally believe in what we call it as MVP
Speaker 3: minimum viable products. We believe in iterative approach. So we
Speaker 3: would kind of publish something in the market Watch, how
Speaker 3: it goes, keep iterating and perfecting it till it comes
Speaker 3: to a stage where it is ready for prime time
Speaker 3: and a national launch. And all these are signs of
Speaker 3: creatively thinking in small teams and taking risks and giving
Speaker 3: license for people do not get it perfectly right the
Speaker 3: first time. I think that's really a key Jonathan, excellent.
Speaker 1: I'm also curious are there any emerging technologies that you
Speaker 1: are particularly interested in exploring. I mean, obviously, right now
Speaker 1: the technology that's all a buzz across multiple sectors is
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence, though I often find that people reduce that
Speaker 1: to specific applications of AI as opposed to artificial intelligence
Speaker 1: as a whole. But are there any that you're particularly
Speaker 1: excited about?
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, and we are looking at couple of different
Speaker 3: technologies and We'll absolutely talk about AI before we go
Speaker 3: in there. We are looking at a combination of can
Speaker 3: we use RFID for anti theft? So for example, underston,
Speaker 3: until you pay for your tool, it's not going to work.
Speaker 3: We call it Project Unlock. We are exploring that with
Speaker 3: lots of our vendor partners. We feel that that technology
Speaker 3: and Loso was the first one to come up with
Speaker 3: that is really promising. We are looking at a lot
Speaker 3: of these connected technologies. Is what happens in the stores
Speaker 3: and online and how do we connect it. Lastly, I'll
Speaker 3: also talk about AI. Jonathan, you know before that data
Speaker 3: remains extremely important to us and how can we unlock
Speaker 3: more and more insights for our associates and our customers
Speaker 3: in order to make sure that their shopping experience is
Speaker 3: really enjoyable. The goal is to put all the fun
Speaker 3: in the home improvement in and take all the friction
Speaker 3: out and that has been really important guiding principle for us.
Speaker 3: And then lastly AI. We are absolutely looking at AI
Speaker 3: for example when it comes to predicting demand at a
Speaker 3: chain level and store level, but then also predicting demand
Speaker 3: for how many salespeople are we going to need on
Speaker 3: the floor in certain hours on certain days. We are
Speaker 3: doing all these predictions with AI by looking at store
Speaker 3: by store sales on an hour by our basis and
Speaker 3: kind of predicting us to when are the electricians needing
Speaker 3: most help, pro plumbers coming into the stores asking for help.
Speaker 2: When is the right time to deploy all.
Speaker 3: These associates so that we can give the best customer
Speaker 3: service to our customers. I think all this buzz about
Speaker 3: AI recently which has started is all because of chat,
Speaker 3: GPT and generative AI. And we are looking at generative AI,
Speaker 3: and we want to make sure that we come up
Speaker 3: with a use case that is really helpful either for
Speaker 3: associate and customers. And we have some ideas about how
Speaker 3: to upload items really quickly. Can we help in a
Speaker 3: way so that some of the manual work that is
Speaker 3: very repetitious and very tedious can be taken out? So
Speaker 3: I think we are again applying the same principles. How
Speaker 3: do we make sure there is a benefit for associates
Speaker 3: and customers and how do we make sure we keep
Speaker 3: the fun in the home improvement in and take all
Speaker 3: the friction out.
Speaker 1: Before we could let her go, I had to ask
Speaker 1: smontany one more thing, What does being a restless one
Speaker 1: mean to you.
Speaker 3: You know, it is funny you ask, and when we
Speaker 3: are talking about this podcast, I was really curious because
Speaker 3: I love the name, and I tell you what.
Speaker 2: We practice this at lows every day.
Speaker 3: It seems like because we are on this tech transformation journey.
Speaker 3: Like I said, we are on this journey to become
Speaker 3: the most customer centric omni channel retailer. And Jonathan, sometimes
Speaker 3: you feel like this is a tall mountain you're climbing,
Speaker 3: and when you reach the summit, you're going to feel
Speaker 3: this just tremendous happiness. But then we see another mountain
Speaker 3: and we feel like, well, I wonder what is it
Speaker 3: and what's there in that mountain? And we start walking again,
Speaker 3: and then we reach another place and we are like, okay,
Speaker 3: but I can see something else from here, And it
Speaker 3: just feels like a continuous journey as opposed to one
Speaker 3: glorious day when we feel tremendously all done and all
Speaker 3: buttoned up, and frankly, I haven't had that day. And
Speaker 3: I'm quite happy that I haven't had that day, because
Speaker 3: the journey continues, and I think restlessness is a really
Speaker 3: good thing in my mind. You want to feel like
Speaker 3: there is more to learn, more to do. Leadership itself
Speaker 3: is a restless journey. You're never going to come to
Speaker 3: work and say I know everything there is to leadership.
Speaker 3: I think I got it. In fact, every day there
Speaker 3: is a little bit of like, well I know some things,
Speaker 3: but there are so many more things I don't know,
Speaker 3: and hence I feel the name of your podcast is
Speaker 3: really how business is and how technology is, and that
Speaker 3: is how everybody at LOWS feel.
Speaker 2: So the name resonates with us totally.
Speaker 1: Well, Samontani, I could not ask for a better answer
Speaker 1: to that question. Thank you so much for joining our
Speaker 1: show and sharing your perspective. It has been a delightful conversation.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Jonathan, and it was great to
Speaker 3: talk to you.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Somontany Goldbolet for joining us on the
Speaker 1: Restless Ones. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and getting to
Speaker 1: know Smontani's approach to leadership. The fact that she maintains
Speaker 1: her appreciation for each team at the company really shines through,
Speaker 1: and using that paired with a dedication to exceeding customer expectations,
Speaker 1: clearly guides her leadership style. And once again we see
Speaker 1: through connectivity that businesses can achieve real results, whether it
Speaker 1: is to better anticipate and meet customer needs, keep an
Speaker 1: eye on the ever changing conditions and supply chains, or
Speaker 1: to streamline workplace operations for associates, connectivity is the glue
Speaker 1: that holds it all together, and I can't wait to
Speaker 1: see how Lows incorporates innovative technologies in the not too
Speaker 1: distant future. Thank you for listening to this episode of
Speaker 1: The Restless Ones. Be sure to return to hear more
Speaker 1: conversations with pioneers who are at the intersection of technology
Speaker 1: and business, and check out our past episodes for some
Speaker 1: incredible interviews with leaders across the spectrum of business, from
Speaker 1: startups to Fortune five hundred companies. Until next time, I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland.