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Speaker 1: As we start to see proliferation around like five G mobile,

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Speaker 1: edge computing, driving AI, pushing more data science out to

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Speaker 1: the edge, the low latency compute in the store, that's

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Speaker 1: going to be the interesting thing to see as that

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Speaker 1: starts to mature a little bit further. We're not quite

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Speaker 1: there yet, but we're, you know, definitely moving down that path.

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Speaker 1: And I think when you start to see not just

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Speaker 1: the maturity, but you have to have, you know, the

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Speaker 1: range of availability across all of our markets to be

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Speaker 1: able to see that at mass and in scale, that's

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Speaker 1: gonna be some really differentiating experiences. Welcome to the restless ones.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent more than a decade really

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Speaker 1: learning about technology one makes it tag and then describing

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Speaker 1: and explaining that to my audience. But it's the conversations

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Speaker 1: with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the

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Speaker 1: intersection of technology and business that fascinate me the most.

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Speaker 1: In partnership with T Mobile for Business, I explore the

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Speaker 1: unique set of challenges that see I O S and

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Speaker 1: C t o S face from advancements in cloud and

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Speaker 1: edge computing, software as a service, Internet of things, and

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Speaker 1: of course five g we are often left wondering how

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Speaker 1: the leading minds and business continue to thrive. Let's find out.

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Speaker 1: Our guest today is Ryan Keene, VP Technology Strategy Operations

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Speaker 1: for Kroger. The Kroger Company operates two thousand seven fifty

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Speaker 1: grocery stores under several banner names. The company has manufacturing facilities, pharmacies,

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Speaker 1: fuel centers, and more. Keeping an operation like that running

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Speaker 1: smoothly requires strong leadership and innovative technological solutions. As Ryan explains,

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Speaker 1: finding the right solutions for a company as large as

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Speaker 1: Kroger requires a methodical approach and carefully defining the parameters

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Speaker 1: of the problem you're actually trying to solve. Ryan, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining us today. I'm really excited

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Speaker 1: to talk with you about Kroger and technological implementations. But

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Speaker 1: before we get into any of that, I would love

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Speaker 1: to learn a little more about you, and so I'd

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Speaker 1: like to open this up by just asking you what

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Speaker 1: was your first job in tech? Shared? Thanks Jonathan, and

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me on today. So my first job

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Speaker 1: in tech, I was a contractor at the Ray Patterson

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Speaker 1: Air Force Base. First job coming out of school, I

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Speaker 1: did a little bit of everything at Desktop support, serve administrations,

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Speaker 1: some database, little networking. So it was a great opportunity

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Speaker 1: to kind of test my skills in several areas, get

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Speaker 1: to learn to delay the land, but also start to

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Speaker 1: understand what it means to work for an organization that

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Speaker 1: really has well understood vision and mission well. And I

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Speaker 1: find that that kind of approach also is really helpful

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Speaker 1: in that you get that understanding of how one group

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Speaker 1: is working versus another and how you can kind of

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Speaker 1: bridge those gaps which often can be pain points when

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Speaker 1: you're trying to implement a specific project or solution. Oh yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 1: And when you first start out in your career and

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Speaker 1: you kind of look at what is the team I

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Speaker 1: work on and what are the points that it touches.

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Speaker 1: But then as you progress and your leadership responsibility grows,

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Speaker 1: or the scope of your responsibility grows, then it's all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, that periphery it grows out to right,

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Speaker 1: so your sphere of influence continues to grow. And you know,

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Speaker 1: my current role, it's not just within tech, but it's

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Speaker 1: also now, how do we understand the business strategies, how

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Speaker 1: do we understand our corporate objectives? And now look across

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Speaker 1: all of those and then you lay the technology lens

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Speaker 1: on top of it, and this is where it gets

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Speaker 1: super exciting. And there's a lot of passion in this

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Speaker 1: space because you know, that's when you really start to

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Speaker 1: accelerate the company and you understand how technology is an

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Speaker 1: enabler or something much larger. It's not technology for technology.

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Speaker 1: Um So I think, you know, just even starting off

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Speaker 1: where I got to be sort of like the jack

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Speaker 1: of all trades and several roles really helped preparing me

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Speaker 1: for where what I do today. So for our first

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Speaker 1: job in tech, as you say, that was a great

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Speaker 1: opening experience to kind of wet your feet and get

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Speaker 1: that so that you don't have this narrow focus going

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Speaker 1: through your career. What was your path from your start

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Speaker 1: at Kroger to where you are now? How did that progress? Yes,

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Speaker 1: I joined Kroger in two thousand six, so I've been

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Speaker 1: here for almost fifteen years. Really spent the first part

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Speaker 1: of my career Kroger within the infrastructure space, and when

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Speaker 1: I got to Kroger, I honestly thought, hey, this is

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Speaker 1: the grocery store I shop at. That was my knowledge

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Speaker 1: of the scale of Kroger. In my first role, I

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Speaker 1: had responsibility for our enterprise storage team as well as

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Speaker 1: our enterprise database teams. So both of these teams are

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Speaker 1: going through some massive changes. On the database side, we're

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Speaker 1: going through a managed service transition. On the storage side,

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Speaker 1: we're going through massive throwing pains in terms of scale. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, it kind of got dropped in two areas

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Speaker 1: where I didn't know quite honestly, a whole lot about

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Speaker 1: from a technology perspective, and you're all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: in the middle of everything that goes on in our business.

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Speaker 1: So you're in the middle of supply chain, you're in

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Speaker 1: the middle of merchandizing. Because database and storage they support everybody.

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Speaker 1: So I quickly started to understand the scale. I quickly

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Speaker 1: started understand the breadth of the responsibility, and that started

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Speaker 1: to build into other infrastructure roles, so whether it be

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Speaker 1: a different platforms so mainframe, Unix, BM or cloud. But

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Speaker 1: then kind of shifting over out of the infrastructure space,

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Speaker 1: spent a little bit of time and development, but then

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Speaker 1: it started working more on portfolio, on strategy, a lot

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Speaker 1: around data and then you know, my current role is

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Speaker 1: is kind of a mix of several things, but a

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Speaker 1: big part of that is to help overall company transformation. Wow.

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Speaker 1: So so really continuing that theme of being able to

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Speaker 1: step into different roles. It's amazing that that is a

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Speaker 1: through line in your career in many ways. So if

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Speaker 1: someone were to ask you what you do for a living,

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Speaker 1: how do you describe your job to someone who's not

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Speaker 1: already part of your team? Yeah, I mean I think

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Speaker 1: you know, and and turns of just the Kroger vision

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Speaker 1: and and the Kroger mission. Right. So the first thing

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Speaker 1: I want to focus on is I want to be

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Speaker 1: part of this team that we're driving these technology and

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Speaker 1: line of business solutions that provide these incredible customer and

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Speaker 1: associate experiences, right in terms of retail. But you know,

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Speaker 1: you step back from that and you're like, Okay, now

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Speaker 1: what do I do every day? You know this from

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Speaker 1: your experience to every day Our role as leaders is

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Speaker 1: to develop more leaders. So I think that's our number

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Speaker 1: one responsibility. You know, I'm really fortunate that I get

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Speaker 1: to work with the leadership team that it's focused on

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Speaker 1: creating a growth culture. We're able to talk about, you know,

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Speaker 1: our personal challenges, have the humility, provide the coaching along

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Speaker 1: those lines with our folks in that part of my

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Speaker 1: job I find to be the most rewarding and it's

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Speaker 1: something I get excited about every day. What are just

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Speaker 1: out of curiosity, What are some of the qualities you

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Speaker 1: look for when you're looking to develop leadership? What are

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Speaker 1: the things that really stand out to you? Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: two most important words and leadership are empathy and humility.

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Speaker 1: So when I step back, I really wanted to have

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Speaker 1: the folks that spend the time to understand who they serve, right,

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Speaker 1: go into that conversation with that empathetic stance and saying,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I want to try to understand your perspective.

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Speaker 1: I may not know it, but I want to understand it,

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Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden I can serve better.

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Speaker 1: And then on the humility side, I don't want to

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Speaker 1: do that in a way that says, you know what

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Speaker 1: I can learn from you. I don't know everything I have.

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Speaker 1: You know, you have all this great experience, and I

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Speaker 1: have all this great experience. What if we get together

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Speaker 1: and we start talking about it, and now, all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, it's like it starts to have this big

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Speaker 1: multiplying effect. Technology skills you can teach it, business skills,

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Speaker 1: you can teach it, and you know, of course you

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Speaker 1: want folks to come and have that experience, but you know,

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Speaker 1: in the end, I do feel like you've developed a

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Speaker 1: culture in your company and you want to have you know,

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Speaker 1: progress that culture, you know, to even a higher level.

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Speaker 1: And some of those things that aren't necessarily technology skills

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Speaker 1: aren't necessarily business skills. Well, and you mentioned earlier the

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Speaker 1: importance when you're looking at technology is thinking about the

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Speaker 1: outcome that you desire, the end result you're aiming for,

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Speaker 1: and how can technology enable you to reach that goal

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Speaker 1: as opposed to just throwing tech in willie nilly just

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Speaker 1: because it exists. But I am curious in what ways

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Speaker 1: has tech evolved while you've been at Kroger that have

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Speaker 1: been really interesting or surprising to you. What are some

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Speaker 1: things that you know you've seen change over your time

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Speaker 1: there that perhaps have become really important and really transformational. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's been a journey, We'll say that. So, you know,

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Speaker 1: having been there fifteen years. When I first got there,

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Speaker 1: our primary focus was and we've got to improve reliability, scalability, availability,

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Speaker 1: all of sort of that service management component. To say

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Speaker 1: that we were challenged in certain areas at that time

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Speaker 1: would probably be a pretty accurate statement. So we invested

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Speaker 1: quite a bit. It was a heavy lift getting to

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Speaker 1: a place where, you know, through consolidation of legacy platforms

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Speaker 1: and doing work our data centers, we get to a

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Speaker 1: place where now you know, our business partners can depend

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Speaker 1: on us. And so once we got to that point,

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Speaker 1: then we start to say, okay, well now we're like

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Speaker 1: we can deliver predictable, but how can we be better?

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Speaker 1: And then we started to shift from waterfall over to

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Speaker 1: agile methodology. And this was awesome for me because as

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Speaker 1: as being a leader through this period, now I got

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Speaker 1: to shift my mind focus of not just changing technology

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Speaker 1: to help the business move before, but now it's like,

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Speaker 1: how do we change how we work right? How do

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Speaker 1: we have a better understanding of the people every day

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Speaker 1: and how they're delivering their work and where those gaps at.

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Speaker 1: We started to deliver incremental value and now we've kind

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Speaker 1: of matured to all right, well, now let's think about

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Speaker 1: how do we start to use platforms to drive exponential acceleration.

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Speaker 1: So not just a technology platform, but actually again look

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Speaker 1: across the entire line of business. Step back, understand how

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Speaker 1: you can change one area of the business and have

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Speaker 1: direct or indirect implications in a positive way to three

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Speaker 1: or orders away in some other line of business. And

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Speaker 1: so that's I think one of the biggest opportunities that

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Speaker 1: we have. We're moving down that path super fast now

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Speaker 1: and I'm super excited about that. It's exceptionally hard in

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Speaker 1: a company as large as we are and as complex

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Speaker 1: as we are, or this awesome grocery store, right we have.

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Speaker 1: You know, we support ten million customers a day, we

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Speaker 1: have four d and fifty thousand associates, but we also

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Speaker 1: have pharmacies, We have a massive supply chain, we have

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Speaker 1: a massive manufacturing capability, and on and on and on

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Speaker 1: that all the support that goes into that. So when

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Speaker 1: you're trying to drive transformation that we like we are

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Speaker 1: across something that massive, it requires this constant collaboration, this

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Speaker 1: constant transparency in building on how we work just as

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Speaker 1: much as building on the technology. So to think of

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Speaker 1: it from that perspective of how do we continue to

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Speaker 1: make good on the mission statement of the company while

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Speaker 1: also moving it forward in a tech logical way, It's

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Speaker 1: hard for me to even wrap my mind around the

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Speaker 1: scope of that. Yeah, and it's you're right, it is

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Speaker 1: exceptionally challenging. But you know, while we have the scale,

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Speaker 1: we don't necessarily have the solutions that scale. So a

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Speaker 1: lot of times that is you know, either custom developing

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Speaker 1: something because you know, simply you know, cots application out

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Speaker 1: of the box just is not going to you know,

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Speaker 1: fit within our scale. Or it's finding great partners and

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Speaker 1: that might be startup community, that might be some niche players,

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Speaker 1: you know, that might be just working our personal networks

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Speaker 1: to figure out where can we create partnerships, bring something

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Speaker 1: in and start doing the rapid test and learn and

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Speaker 1: get something out there and then figure out, Okay, do

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Speaker 1: we need to invest to get it to scale or

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Speaker 1: is it a niche within the our overall complex that

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Speaker 1: we can put it in and gain value from it.

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Speaker 1: Sort of every situation is a little bit different. You know.

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Speaker 1: In the ideal world, we would want the vast majority

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Speaker 1: of things that we bring in to be able to

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Speaker 1: scale just like that, but the reality is it's um

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Speaker 1: it takes a lot of work. M hmm. Well, this

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Speaker 1: is a great time for us to transition into more

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Speaker 1: specifics about your approach to your role and projects that

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Speaker 1: you've worked on. So can you tell us about a

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Speaker 1: specific project you've worked on at Kroger that that made

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Speaker 1: a big difference. It sounds to be like you have

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Speaker 1: no shortage of options. Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you, Jonathan,

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Speaker 1: I've been so fortunate throughout my career. I've had leaders

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Speaker 1: that have invested in me and provided me tons of

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Speaker 1: opportunities to stretch and grow. You know, I've got to

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Speaker 1: work on master data projects. I've got to help, you know,

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Speaker 1: drive our move to agile, I've got to help champion

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Speaker 1: moving to cloud. I really do think a part of

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Speaker 1: my current role is some of the most exciting that

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Speaker 1: I've done with Kroger, and that's being our transformation workstream

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Speaker 1: leader for Kroger Technology and Digital. So what that means

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Speaker 1: is I'm collaborating with my peers from all across the company.

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Speaker 1: We have a number of different work streams out there,

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Speaker 1: and we're not only trying to ensure that we're investing

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Speaker 1: in the best way, in most effective way. I think

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Speaker 1: more importantly, we're trying to drive to this new way

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Speaker 1: of working that's centered around partnership, transparency and trust. So,

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Speaker 1: given the scope and the scale of our company, this

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Speaker 1: is absolutely critical for us to do and it's this

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Speaker 1: massive difference maker. So a year ago, I would say

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Speaker 1: I would have been super challenged to reach out to

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Speaker 1: all you know, ten twelve plus lines of business and

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Speaker 1: try to find a great contact to help bounce ideas

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Speaker 1: off of collaborate, try to figure out that we have

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Speaker 1: issues that we can solve together, or how do we

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Speaker 1: escalate things. Now today we're meeting multiple times a week.

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Speaker 1: We had this strong collaboration, open feedback, and we're growing

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Speaker 1: this trust and which is super important because when you

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Speaker 1: look at the Technology Department, we're involved in everything, right,

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Speaker 1: So if you don't have that strong foundation of trust, transparency,

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Speaker 1: a great way of working with all these peers across

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Speaker 1: all these areas and understand what are their needs, what

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Speaker 1: are their business objectives, what are their strategies, and then

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Speaker 1: how do those ladder into the enterprise strategies. You know,

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Speaker 1: Without that, you're just it's technology for technology, right. So

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Speaker 1: now we're going down that path and it's that shift

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Speaker 1: from being hey, you're the technology department, so now you're

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Speaker 1: like a strategic partner um And to me, you know,

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Speaker 1: I get so excited um to be part of that

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Speaker 1: because I see it every single day and I know

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Speaker 1: where we came from and we talked about the things

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Speaker 1: that make a big difference. I think this is something

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Speaker 1: that's gonna make a big difference of Kroger for decades.

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Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I'm very curious what does success look like

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Speaker 1: for you and for Kroger? Um? I think success is

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Speaker 1: going to be really around that openness, clear communication, the

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Speaker 1: transparency that's driving the most effective use of our resources

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Speaker 1: and differentiating experiences to our customers and status. Because in

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Speaker 1: the end, regardless of how well we work together, if

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Speaker 1: our customers and our issues and our stores are not

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Speaker 1: feeling it and they're not engaged and they're not excited

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Speaker 1: about Kroger, it's not a success, right. And so it's

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Speaker 1: working to together to understand, Hey, if we have supply

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Speaker 1: chain and merchandising and marketing and technology all working together,

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Speaker 1: what can how can that impact our associate in the

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Speaker 1: store in an awesome way? That's a success, UM. And

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Speaker 1: that's that's really, UM what we get excited about. And

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Speaker 1: again that comes back to that idea of how can

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Speaker 1: technology achieve the outcome that you desire? Right? And I

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Speaker 1: love that that's your definition of success. What is your

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Speaker 1: process when it comes to evaluating technological solutions. How do

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Speaker 1: you go about that? Yeah, you know, part of it

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Speaker 1: hasn't changed in a decade. Let's start with the first one.

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Speaker 1: So when you look at the business challenge you're trying

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Speaker 1: to solve, is it something that you can define the

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Speaker 1: requirements for? Right? Is it something that's well understood? Can

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Speaker 1: you go out of the box? Right? And at that

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Speaker 1: point it kind of falls into our standard process that

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Speaker 1: we all use. Right, it's well, I'm gonna create an our.

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Speaker 1: If i I'm going to do an RFP, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to bring something in, I'm going to implement it and

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Speaker 1: deliver some value that commissure. But then there's the latter situation,

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Speaker 1: and these are the ones that are can be a

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Speaker 1: little bit more challenging. Right, it's a little bit more nebulous.

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Speaker 1: But this is where we're focused on driving differentiating value

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Speaker 1: or a differentiating experience to our customer of the company

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Speaker 1: or associate. And for those it gets into Okay, now

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Speaker 1: let's step back, let's do this ideation. Let's do a

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Speaker 1: lot of brainstorming, design thinking leading into okay, now, can

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Speaker 1: we do this ourselves? Right? And maybe we do custom

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Speaker 1: develop it or maybe this is where we look for

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Speaker 1: a startup partner, or we look for a niche player

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Speaker 1: partner or one of our trusted partners, and we bring

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Speaker 1: them in and we start to iterate and kind of

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Speaker 1: put something out there and test. Right, it's the test

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Speaker 1: and learns the test l let's iterate through it and

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Speaker 1: then figure out is that something is going to deliver

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Speaker 1: the value that we want. We have the measurements built

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Speaker 1: in place so that we can directly tie that into

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Speaker 1: incremental value to the company. If it is, then at

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Speaker 1: that point becomes okay, well, how do we structure a

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Speaker 1: partnership that's beneficial to all parties? And what about when

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Speaker 1: it comes to getting buy in from leadership? What sort

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Speaker 1: of your approach to that? Um, it's really about you know,

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Speaker 1: that direct high into your enterprise strategy and outcomes and

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Speaker 1: it kind of you know, it gets to what is

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Speaker 1: the difference between output and outcomes? Right? And so I'm

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Speaker 1: making it sure that our our business leaders, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're not the only ones that understand the outcomes, but

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Speaker 1: your technology teams have to do it as well. They

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Speaker 1: really have to understand line of site between what are

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Speaker 1: they trying to build and how it has direct impact

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Speaker 1: to the company, customers, associated shareholders, and the rest um

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Speaker 1: So for us, it's about how do you create the measures,

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Speaker 1: the okay rs that are tied to each one of

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Speaker 1: these efforts, and then make sure that we are appropriately

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Speaker 1: communicating that to our line of business leaders to gain

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Speaker 1: their support. If there's one thing most businesses can agree

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Speaker 1: on these days, it's that change has never come about

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Speaker 1: so quickly. New ways of working have become the norm.

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Speaker 1: As a result, the status quo no longer cuts it

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Speaker 1: when it comes to helping businesses adapt and innovate. That's

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Speaker 1: why T Mobile for Business uses unconventional thinking to help

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Speaker 1: businesses work smarter and grow faster. Only T Mobile offers

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Speaker 1: America's largest and fastest five gen network. It's just one

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Speaker 1: reason they're better able to help businesses solve the real

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Speaker 1: world challenges they face as they evolve. For instance, their

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Speaker 1: new WFX solutions help team members stay connected and productive

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Speaker 1: where work happens. With nearly two and a half times

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Speaker 1: the network coverage of a T and T, nearly four

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Speaker 1: times more than Verizon, and forty billion dollars invested in

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Speaker 1: network and business improvements over the next three years, T

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Speaker 1: Mobile for Business is better for your business right now

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Speaker 1: and into the future. See what they can do for

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Speaker 1: your organization at T mobile dot com. Slash Unconventional Open

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Speaker 1: Signal awarded T mobile Fastest five gen network based on

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Speaker 1: average speeds USA five G User Experience Report January. Capable

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Speaker 1: device required converts on available in some areas. Some users

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Speaker 1: may require certain planner features cet mobile dot Com. Ryan's

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Speaker 1: approach the leadership goes well beyond identifying tech solutions, but

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Speaker 1: I really wanted to find out what his opinion is

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Speaker 1: on several emerging technologies, and his answers really opened my

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Speaker 1: eyes as to how a task is universal, is shopping

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Speaker 1: for groceries can be transformed with the effective use of technology?

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Speaker 1: In what ways has Kroger leveraged customer data from a

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Speaker 1: customer facing and user interface approach and also from a

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Speaker 1: store operations approach. Yeah, let me let me touch on

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Speaker 1: a few ways we're doing that today. So for anybody

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Speaker 1: that shops, you know, in any of our banners across

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Speaker 1: the US, they're likely part of our loyalty program. And

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Speaker 1: so you know, through our great data science, our personalization science,

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Speaker 1: and then tying that into store behaviors, and we use

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Speaker 1: that to be able to create very relevant offers for

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Speaker 1: our customers through that program. And we do that through

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Speaker 1: a couple of different ways. One is we'll do UM

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Speaker 1: sort of a best customer communication that we send out

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Speaker 1: to our customers, but then we also do it UM

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Speaker 1: through digital cupons. If your preference is one brand, we're

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Speaker 1: not going to send you another brand, We're gonna send

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Speaker 1: you our offers for that brand. And because that our

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Speaker 1: redemption rates are well in excess of industry average, right,

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Speaker 1: So that that science tied to that is uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's a massive differentiator for us when we look at

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Speaker 1: then how do we tie that into our store experience

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Speaker 1: when you go into the store, and UM, we use

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Speaker 1: that data to drive you know, obviously, what are we

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Speaker 1: carrying within our stores? Where are we do we need

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Speaker 1: to improve our in stock positions? You know, what are

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Speaker 1: the brands or the commodities that we needed to expand

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Speaker 1: or contract And that all gets tied into our associates

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Speaker 1: experience through their handhelds or through other applications to make

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Speaker 1: sure that they have the most relevant data at one

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Speaker 1: time of what the movement through the store is. Right,

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Speaker 1: so as things go out the front and we can say, hey,

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Speaker 1: well we need to restock x, you know, in the

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Speaker 1: next thirty minutes, so we can make sure that. From

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Speaker 1: a customer perspective, you know, we're doing our absolute best

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Speaker 1: to make sure we have a great position for you.

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Speaker 1: And then you'll see some of this in the store,

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Speaker 1: and it's a lot of our store technologies behind the scenes,

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Speaker 1: but when you look at some of the data around

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Speaker 1: people as they come through the stores. If you're in

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Speaker 1: any of our stores and you look at the front end,

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Speaker 1: you'll see some screens in front of you. Numbers on

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Speaker 1: the screens are saying, is there's how many check lanes

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Speaker 1: we should have open right now? And our goal there

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Speaker 1: is that we want to have the fewest number of

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Speaker 1: folks waiting in a check lane, you know, to get

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Speaker 1: through and get out of the store right So if

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Speaker 1: we know haylenes are starting to back up, we flash

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Speaker 1: up there and we say, hey, we need more lanes open,

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Speaker 1: because we're watching the data as it comes through. And

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Speaker 1: then from a user experience perspective, you know, we're building

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Speaker 1: the measures into all of our products, both customer facing

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Speaker 1: and associate facing, so we understand how they're using the applications.

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Speaker 1: So by building the measurement plan upfront, putting it in

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Speaker 1: the hands of our users, understanding, gathering the data that

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Speaker 1: informs our product management team on where we need to

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Speaker 1: make changes, and then it just kind of creates the

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Speaker 1: circle that we hopefully will continue to improve that product

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Speaker 1: to get to the sweet spot for both these customers

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Speaker 1: and our associates. So, yeah, data is um data. The

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Speaker 1: collection of the utilization, the analytics around it is absolutely

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Speaker 1: a huge part of Kroger and Kroger technology and digital

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Speaker 1: and and I like that you touched on the in

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Speaker 1: store experience. I mean, obviously if you take a step

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Speaker 1: back and you look even further, that data applies to

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Speaker 1: decisions for things like supply chain. Uh, you know which

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Speaker 1: regional stores are going to be stalking more of a

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Speaker 1: certain product than another. You start looking at at how

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Speaker 1: data has a really powerful impact on big business decisions.

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Speaker 1: And again, as you say on the on the of

433
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:16,399
Speaker 1: the store side of it, to make sure that the

434
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,080
Speaker 1: associates have everything that they need in order to create

435
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,679
Speaker 1: a customer experience, that's a positive one. So to me,

436
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 1: that's a great use case to show how powerful data

437
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,719
Speaker 1: can be because it's something we can all relate to.

438
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: It's something. We all go grocery shopping, so we all understand,

439
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,479
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the reason why I'm able to get the

440
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 1: things that I can get at the grocery store are

441
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 1: because these companies have the information and know how to

442
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: act on it in a way that benefits me. Yeah.

443
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: I think the next challenge you run into is then

444
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,239
Speaker 1: how do you use that data at that point of

445
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 1: decision right and drive that to the most relevant uh

446
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: irrelevant point within the store and how it's being used

447
00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,200
Speaker 1: at the time, whether it be a customer or an associate.

448
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:01,480
Speaker 1: And this is where I think some of the rapidly

449
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: advancing technologies and as we start to see proliferation around

450
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:09,360
Speaker 1: like five G mobile edge computing, UM, you know, driving AI,

451
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: pushing more data science out to the edge, the low

452
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,719
Speaker 1: latency we have at that point to compute compute in

453
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,159
Speaker 1: the store where we can actually do that at that moment,

454
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:21,560
Speaker 1: that's going to be the interesting thing to see as

455
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: that as that starts to mature a little bit further. UM,

456
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: we're not quite there yet, but we're you know, definitely

457
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 1: moving down that path. And I think when you start

458
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 1: to see the um not just the maturity, but you

459
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: had to have you know, the range of availability across

460
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: all of our markets to be able to see that

461
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 1: at mass and in scale, that's gonna be some really

462
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: differentiating experiences. Well, and and Ryan, you you said one

463
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,639
Speaker 1: of my favorite things in the world. You mentioned five G,

464
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: and uh, I agree, like the the the possibilities are phenomenal.

465
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: So I'm curious if you could think ahead and someone's

466
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 1: going into go shopping and you've got a mature rollout

467
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 1: of five G infrastructure and the various technologies, the sensors

468
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: and the apps that integrate with that, what do you

469
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 1: think that experience is going to be, Like, how do

470
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: you envision the leveraging of these technologies to make a

471
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 1: transformational experience both for the customer and and for the

472
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: company's side. Yeah, you know, five years from now, it's

473
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:30,159
Speaker 1: kind of it's kind of funny when you think about it, right,

474
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: So if you would ask this question last January, I

475
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 1: would have said, well, it's it's just like it is today, right, Um.

476
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: But the reality is we're there and I think you're

477
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 1: gonna continue to see to accelerate as the technologies accelerate.

478
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: So when I think about a customer experience in retail

479
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,480
Speaker 1: five years from now, it's gonna be this ubiquitous retail.

480
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,959
Speaker 1: It's gonna be always on. So it doesn't matter if

481
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: you're in the store, if you're at the your kids

482
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: soccer game, or you're at work. Right you have the

483
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 1: availability to get what you want, when you want, where

484
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,879
Speaker 1: you want, and then how you want to receive it.

485
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 1: Um where I think all all these things come to

486
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: play together is going to be in making sure that

487
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 1: that is a dramatically personalized experience for you, not just

488
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 1: for you, but for your family unit. Where I think

489
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,439
Speaker 1: will be the differentiator though, is going to be around

490
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: a fresh So I think everyone is going to push

491
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: to say, how do we start to understand better last

492
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 1: mild delivery? You know through things like delivery or like

493
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:37,439
Speaker 1: what we're doing right now and doing a pilot with

494
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 1: drone delivery. You know there's gonna be a lot of

495
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: play within that space, So how do you do that

496
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: end to end field the fork and be able to

497
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 1: start to understand and communicate traceability, scalability, sustainability. So when

498
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,040
Speaker 1: you know Jonathan gets food delivered to your house, it

499
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,439
Speaker 1: is I know this is the freshest thing and I

500
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: can trust it. Whoever manages and optimizes that is going

501
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:09,159
Speaker 1: to be the winner. Yeah. I sit there and I

502
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 1: think about the experience from a customer standpoint, and I

503
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: think about things like having a shopping list that integrates

504
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,880
Speaker 1: with the app in such a way that I'm having

505
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 1: a seamless experience navigating through the store to get the

506
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 1: things on my list. Further than that, I think of,

507
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,120
Speaker 1: what if instead of a shopping list, I'm just telling

508
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,000
Speaker 1: the app what it is I plan on, like making

509
00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: that week like a menu, and it's directing me to

510
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,520
Speaker 1: all the different individual ingredients and I don't even have

511
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: to break it down into a shopping list the way

512
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 1: I did. So these sort of little experiences, I think

513
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:46,679
Speaker 1: are things that I just imagine as being integrated into

514
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: that that store experience in the future, where it again

515
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:56,440
Speaker 1: is just making the the entire uh visit from start

516
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: to finish seamless and useful and rewarding. Yeah. And you

517
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: you can actually see that in a lot of our

518
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: stores today to to a degree of what you just described.

519
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,239
Speaker 1: So when you log in with your account and it's

520
00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: gonna come up and say here's all your usuals, right,

521
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: you want us to create your list for you, right,

522
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: based on what you typically get and then as you're

523
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:20,919
Speaker 1: going through the store, right, if you can't find something,

524
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: ask the app where is that in the store? And

525
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:25,479
Speaker 1: intellis you. And so we start to build all of

526
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,600
Speaker 1: this in and now what heck, what could happen if

527
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: you could start to tie that into more like a

528
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,520
Speaker 1: r in the future, right, and is there some some

529
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: play there that is relevant and valuable to the not

530
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,959
Speaker 1: not just kind of like a techy thing, but what

531
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: is it that brings value to the customer, value to

532
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 1: the associates um. So, yeah, there's absolutely there's so much

533
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: here you can build on. And it's really exciting to

534
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: see this space right now because there are so many

535
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: new players, so many great startups they are going into

536
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:56,959
Speaker 1: this space, and then the technologies to support air maturing

537
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 1: really rapidly. It is so exciting. We have seen in

538
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 1: the past a sort of seesaw effect with bottlenecks of

539
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,960
Speaker 1: where the slowdown was going to be in tech, whether

540
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,680
Speaker 1: it would be on processors which just keep getting more

541
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: powerful and smaller, or we see it on the communication side,

542
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 1: where we have all these cool technological solutions, but because

543
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: of the throughput or the latency of our communications channels,

544
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: they're not really uh, not really practical to implement, and

545
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 1: we're getting to a phase where a lot of those

546
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: doors are being opened wide and the possibilities are are phenomenal.

547
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: I love what you said right there, because in the end,

548
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:41,600
Speaker 1: when you have this technology coming in and we as

549
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 1: technology leaders, you know, one of the best things that

550
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: we can do is help people ask the question that

551
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: they've never thought of before. That's how these companies move forward.

552
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: That's how the experiences get to somewhere where they've never been.

553
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: Because if I've been doing the same thing for twenty

554
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: years in the same way, I will never ask a

555
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: different question and it's not gonna get any better. But

556
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,959
Speaker 1: if we can bring in different perspectives, you know, and

557
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: bringing our friends from different areas and have that conversation,

558
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, now it's like I

559
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: have twenty new questions, and we have fifty new experiences,

560
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:16,480
Speaker 1: and we have like this variety of things to choose

561
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: where to invest that are all differentiating, and that is

562
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: so exciting. I think our ability to help people ask

563
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: new questions is so important right now. I think you

564
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: just nailed the mission statement of the Restless Ones with

565
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: that as well, it's not enough to just sit back

566
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,120
Speaker 1: and do the same thing as you've been doing for

567
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 1: twenty years. There's always the opportunity to look at it

568
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 1: from a new perspective and improve the process for all

569
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: parties involved. Before concluding our interview with Ryan, I had

570
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 1: to ask one more thing, what keeps you up at night? So,

571
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: without question, what keeps me up at night is how

572
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 1: to build the the best tech organization in all of retail.

573
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 1: Right now, every company we're all in the same battle

574
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,960
Speaker 1: for talents. We know that there's not enough talent out

575
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: to fill the jobs that are going to be available,

576
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: and we we've seen all the data and so now

577
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 1: it's like, how do I still go external bring in

578
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: who I can? How do I work with universities and

579
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: bringing new talent that's coming out and it's going to

580
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: be starting their careers. But most important of all is

581
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: how do I develop and grow the talent that we have?

582
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: And Dewey that doing that in a meaningful way while

583
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: each one of them feels uplifted every day that they're

584
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: doing something that's differentiating and it means something to the customer,

585
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: means something to our associates. Um I think I'm gonna

586
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: have a lot of sleepless nights because you know that

587
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: the talent challenge is not going to be solved anytime soon. Um.

588
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 1: But it it's once out there, it's real, um, and

589
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: it's everywhere. Marian, thank you so much for joining us

590
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: on the Restless Ones. This has been an incredibly interesting

591
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 1: conversation for me and given me a new perspective on

592
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: something that frankly, I have frequently taken for granted. All Right,

593
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,120
Speaker 1: I really appreciate the opportunity and to get share a

594
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: little bit about Kroeger story. So thank you. Ryan's background

595
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 1: gives him a great starting off point for creating actionable

596
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 1: solutions to solve business challenges. At Kroger. He's served in

597
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: the trenches, as it were, in a variety of roles.

598
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,560
Speaker 1: That experience gave him an appreciation for the needs and

599
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 1: goals of various stakeholders, which is of tremendous value when

600
00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: as a leader he's working on the next generation of

601
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: technology solutions. Brian also gave me a greater appreciation for

602
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,080
Speaker 1: how technologies like five G and connected sensors can have

603
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: a huge impact not just on me as a consumer,

604
00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: but on business operations as a whole. Imp Proved operations

605
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 1: frequently ripple outward and lead to a better customer experience,

606
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: and so what benefits the business often has a beneficial

607
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: impact on me as a shopper. Putting changes into that

608
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,560
Speaker 1: kind of context is a powerful story that encourages enthusiasm

609
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: and buy in. I'm grateful that Ryan took the time

610
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: to share with us his perspective and expertise, and I

611
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: look forward to many more conversations with leaders and lots

612
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 1: of industries to learn about how they use technology to

613
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,120
Speaker 1: enable a truly amazing future. Make certain you tune into

614
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: future episodes of The Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. These days,

615
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: new ways of working have become the norm, and the

616
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 1: status quo no longer cuts it when it comes to

617
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: helping businesses evolve and grow. That's why T Mobile for

618
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: Business uses unconventional thinking to help businesses sees innovation only.

619
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 1: Te Mobile offers America's largest and fastest five gene network,

620
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: which makes their new WFX solutions possible, letting businesses stay

621
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,560
Speaker 1: connected and productive where work happens. See what T Mobile

622
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: for Business can do for you at t mobile dot com.

623
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 1: Slash Unconventional, Open signal awarded. T Mobile Fastest five G

624
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,000
Speaker 1: network based on average speeds. USA five G User Experience Report, January.

625
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: Capable device required coverage not available in some areas. Some

626
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: users may require certain planner features see t mobile dot

627
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: com