Andreas Westendörpf (CTO) brought the concept of composable commerce to Emma Sleep. But that wasn't his agenda from the outset. In this episode, he shares how to know if your organization is ready for composable; why e-Commerce organizations can be surprisingly outdated in their technology; how to challenge vendors and commercial models in parts of the enterprise technology landscape that have not yet embraced composable principles; why Emma Sleep made the jump -- and what you should be prepared...
Mar 12, 2023•20 min•Ep. 24
If you're on the "business" side of your company and don't think too much about the workings of the IT department, Emma Sleep CTO Andreas Westendörpf has some news for you: it's time to start paying attention. In this episode, Andreas uncovers common misconceptions about the IT department and shares why it's essential to close the gaps between IT, marketing, and everything in between. Timestamps: 2:00 How a CTO can bring an enterprise into the 21st century 2:25 Common misconceptions in the busin...
Mar 05, 2023•12 min•Ep. 23
You know that something inside your business needs to change. What do you do next? In this episode, we asked Todd Harris (SVP, Global Alliances, Valtech ) and Gordana (G) Vuckovic (Chief Revenue Officer, Vue Storefront ) about strategies to effect change inside your enterprise. We cover: Why change is hard Strategies to be seen as a positive driver of change (instead of a naysasyer or detractor) How to build confidence to speak up when change needs to happen How to bring change ideas to your lea...
Mar 02, 2023•15 min
Mindy Montgomery (Sr. Technical Product Manager at ASICS) is a true disruptor. As a serial product manager and consultant, she has instigated change in a variety of industries - like democratizing patient data in healthcare. In this episode, Mindy shares her perspective on creating change, what it takes to make changes you put in motion stick -- plus, hear her surprising advice for what to look for in your next job. Timestamps: 0:53 Democratizing patient data in healthcare 4:52 Don't work with p...
Feb 19, 2023•11 min•Ep. 22
Mindy Montgomery , Sr. Technical Product Manager at ASICS, describes the brand's journey from monolithic technology to a composable customer experience ecosystem. She describes how their eCommerce, omnichannel, and partnerships brand experiences are underpinned by composable technology, and how all of that stems from their brand mission - "A sound mind in a sound body". Learn about: - The ASICS vision for the truly omnichannel customer experience - How the company moved from a Salesforce monolit...
Feb 12, 2023•15 min•Ep. 21
Mindy Montgomery has led change from without, from within, as a leader and as an individual contributor - and in this episode, she shares tips learned from years guiding businesses through major technological shifts. - How to work towards a vision, even if leadership hasn't provided one - The killer question that disrupts the attitude "that's the way we've always done things" - How to build your argument to be successful as an agent of change - How to be a leader that empowers change agents (ins...
Feb 05, 2023•17 min•Ep. 20
Jasmin Guthmann is Head of Corporate Communications at Contentstack and Vice President & Executive Board Member of the MACH Alliance . She's also an author, ironman triathlete, and host of People Changing Enterprises podcast. We cover: - How to reframe 'workplace politics' for yourself and play the long game, to get what you want - The art and value of self-promotion - How to ask questions without coming off as a naysayer - When to take initiative and how to do it right Timestamps: 1:14 Refr...
Feb 01, 2023•16 min•Ep. 19
Zach Crittendon has a background as a marketer, software developer, and now software architect at Levi Strauss & Co. And when we asked him what he's most proud of, he said it's that the tools he builds for the marketing team help them to work autonomously, and make their lives easier. In this episode, he shares: - Why one of his proudest achievements is the content technology set-up at Levi's - What it takes to build and maintain tech that supports autonomous marketing teams - Why the market...
Jan 22, 2023•16 min•Ep. 18
You'll hear: - The brand's risk-reducing method to transition to a best-of-breed architecture - How Zach Crittendon built inventory-aware shoppable videos for Levi's in two days of coding -And why going composable has allowed Levi's marketers to do things they only dreamed of for many years Timestamps: 01:43 Levi's e-commerce journey 02:57 Why go composable? 04:53 What going composable has made possible for Levi's 07:39 Zach's advice for making the move to composable successful 08:33 How Levi's ...
Jan 15, 2023•21 min•Ep. 17
Host of Dreammakers, Neha Sampat, is a three-time tech founder and CEO known for building successful companies that are great places to work - and a sommelier, so the show is recorded sipping a hand-selected wine. Jasmin Guthmann is VP and Executive Board Member of the MACH Alliance, Contentstack's Head of Corporate Communications, and host of People Changing Enterprises. She wrote the book (literally) on training for her first ironman competition, and she is leading the "Women in MACH" movement...
Jan 04, 2023•29 min•Ep. 16
Bob shares how he steered Dawn Foods from zero to launch, including: - Hiring the right people - Crucial conversations with stakeholders & the board - 3 foundational truths for thinking about their technology - What decisions had to be made first - How the company had to transform along with the technology - Five lessons learned for a successful transformation
Dec 28, 2022•23 min•Ep. 15
In this episode, Jon, Head of Digital at Golfbreaks, shares what motivated him, how it went, and what he believes are the key values that help you to become a change agent even if you're not exactly confrontational. Timestamps: 0:55 Jon's journey from the Daily Telegraph to Golfbreaks 2:37 Why the Golfbreaks website relaunch was one of the biggest wins of his career 3:41 People need to buy into what you're selling 4:50 Jon's #1 piece of advice: Don't be afraid 6:43 Key values for creating sustai...
Dec 18, 2022•10 min•Ep. 14
In this episode, learn how leisure travel company Golfbreaks went from outdated to composable technology, what a Digital Center of Excellence can do for your company, and how to sustain innovation across the business with technology, people, and processes. Timestamps: 1:13 What is a Digital Center of Excellence? 2:54 Golfbreaks' messy technology landscape "before" 5:09 Why the company stopped using agencies and moved most functions in-house 6:12 How Golfbreaks transformed its tech stack to suppo...
Dec 11, 2022•18 min•Ep. 13
Learn how this industry leader maintains their standard of "excellence" across the entire organization - including what metrics they measure, how they empower their teams, and what they do when things go wrong. Timestamps: 0:53 What is Golfbreaks? 1:37 How Golfbreaks retained 80% of business during the pandemic 2:20 A customer-centric technology buying strategy 4:51 How to demand & maintain excellence throughout the organization 6:55 Examples of how to empower sales agents & customer sup...
Dec 04, 2022•11 min•Ep. 12
Learn how to have better feedback conversations that won't result in ruffled feathers - but instead, better creative, better processes, and better relationships with your designers. This episode features executive creative consultant Kenn MacRae , product designer Sietse Koopmans , and Paul Watson , Head of Brand and Design at Golfbreaks . 02:02 Sietse's best worst feedback story 03:20 Kenn's global perspective 04:17 Paul's unique position inside his enterprise 04:45 Lesson 1 (Set the parameters...
Nov 30, 2022•16 min•Ep. 11
Learn the surprisingly simple values and tactics that you can employ as a mid-level employee to create meaningful change. For senior leaders, the team also drops some suggestions for how to create an environment where change-makers can thrive. This is a short and sweet round-robin on the best ticks and tricks three mid-level change-makers inside Icelandair have learned about what makes making change easier. Timestamps: 1:33 How conflict relates to expectations 2:23 The key value Oskar aims for i...
Nov 21, 2022•11 min•Ep. 10
That's right, the Icelandair content team doesn't just write content. They are guardians of their headless content management stack, working upstream with developers to make the system - and its output (digital products) - better for employees and customers alike. And they feel strongly that this should be the case in more companies out there. Learn from their example in today's episode, and you might be tempted to call your content team into your sprint planning too. Timestamps: 02:08 What the ...
Nov 13, 2022•17 min•Ep. 9
Icelandair's content (all of it - from flight destinations to marketing campaigns) was scattered across business teams and third-party agencies. Then this power trio took the reins and brought the process in-house, under control, and to a level of efficiency that allowed them to stay operational through all the chaos during Covid shutdowns and beyond. In the process they became the brand's "content center of excellence". In this episode, Icelandair's Óskar Völundarson, Edvardas Paskevicius, and ...
Nov 06, 2022•16 min•Ep. 8
In this episode, Danielle shares her toolkit: How to make a game plan, get buy-in for that plan, and implement it effectively. She also shares the personal values that have made her successful, pitfalls to avoid when trying to change an enterprise, and advice for executives aiming for hyper-growth. Timestamps: 1:10 Danielle's story - How she went from accountant to investor, CTO, and founder/CEO 3:40 Danielle answers "How do you do so many things at the same time?" 4:32 Two traits Danielle value...
Oct 23, 2022•14 min•Ep. 7
In this episode, Danielle gives a masterclass on tech selection: how to set a technology strategy for something that's never been done before, how to "diagnose" failure points in a customer experience, and how a flexible architecture approach allowed The St. James to thrive during the pandemic - and become an industry leader in the meantime. Timestamps: 1:14 What is The St James - and why its tech needed an overhaul 3:06 How Danielle diagnoses what needs to be "fixed" in the customer experience ...
Oct 16, 2022•17 min•Ep. 6
In this episode, Danielle shares what she's learned as a first-time CEO about how to set people up for success, when to step in to fix something - and when to stay out of it, and her top strategy for building a culture of collaboration. Doing all this while building an industry-changing product is no mean feat, even without wearing three high-profile hats; but Danielle has a few tricks up her sleeve that you will want to steal - whether you are the CEO or you're just starting your career. These ...
Oct 09, 2022•14 min•Ep. 5
Find out how Bob Howland, a seasoned transformation expert, helps enterprise teams to change: his strategies cover dealing with discomfort, side-stepping the "me vs you" mentality, plus a project he calls "the most embarrassing of his career" that helped rally the entire company around the need for change. Timestamps: 0:11 Intro & Bob's story 2:27 Bob's big decision in the first days on the job that got the entire company to rally behind transformation 4:55 Did Bob need bravery to make chang...
Sep 11, 2022•16 min•Ep. 4
"Too often we build things and then we just let them sit. In all the important aspects of our life, we don't operate that way. So why would we think that a big technology project would be any different?" In this episode, Bob Howland lays down your keys to success as a Chief Digital Officer. For his most recent success, Dawn Foods, Bob sketched out his ideal eCommerce architecture - which was a "composable commerce" stack before that term even existed - and built it in just 22 weeks (which was ah...
Sep 11, 2022•24 min•Ep. 3
Bob Howland ushered in a massive transformation as CDO at Dawn Foods. And it all started with him asking the board for a lot more money than they expected, and telling the CFO "we're never going to agree". Find out how he went from that, to this - a(another) highly successful, on-time, on-budget transformation under his belt. There is so much to learn from this short conversation - from how to create advocates, to how to handle bad news, to how to have the courage for tough conversations. Please...
Sep 11, 2022•18 min•Ep. 2
Welcome to People Changing Enterprises. Meet your host, Jasmin Guthmann, as she shares why we started this show, who it's for (hint: it's you), and a preview of the goodness to come.
Aug 31, 2022•3 min•Ep. 1
