Promoting the strength of tech and teams at Woolworths

Electrocuting himself with a screwdriver in the back of a prototype computer when he was very young sparked Steve James’ interest in technology. Fast forward several years and what attracted him most to pursue a career in it was the strategy, leadership, and passion to bring people into the industry.

Once at Woolworths, and now GM of technology there, the complexity of responsibilities magnified, but a major accomplishment has been the way he and his team have been able to partner with colleagues across the Woolworths Group to get the best outcomes for customers. “It’s been a journey to build those relationships and turn roadblocks into opportunities for us as a team,” he says.

By any measure, Woolworths is a large organization, consisting of a very complex supply chain system, over 22,000 employees, and 190 stores in New Zealand alone. There’s also a digital media business, a wholesale business, and distribution centers throughout the country. So James and his team have to be laser-focused to make sure things run smoothly.

“We’re at that foundational aspect of anything you can think of that drives a large, complex grocery retailer or fast moving consumer goods,” he says. “The key for us is being able to stay lean, but still service such a dynamic system as we utilize a lot of technology that’s housed in our Australian head office. The magic for us is how we partner to get good outcomes for them. So the technology team is pretty full service, ranging from helpdesk end-user compute, to front-end developer and architect.”

What it all comes down to, though, is optimizing technology to make the customer experience better in store and online, and over the last five years, the group has focused on modernizing platforms by replacing old equipment every year as part of its capital spend. “We have something called Stop Trade Events where anytime a distribution center or store can’t service customers, the clock starts ticking,” he says. “Five years ago, that was 600 hours a year, or almost two hours a day, where a store couldn’t trade. This year, it’s 40 hours a year, so there’s almost never a stop trade incident. And we can directly correlate that with the time we started replacing old systems to now. Being able to tell that story is important, so we use storytelling to show tangible value.”

James admits he’s a technologist at heart, and anything that makes his team safer, or reduces toil or repetitive work, is key along the digitization journey. “That’s where I think AI offers opportunities for us in that space,” he says.

O’Sullivan and James also discussed investment in modernizing platforms, how the tech strategy needs to live in service of the business strategy, and the nuances of personal transformation. Watch the full video below for more insights.

On the digitalization journey: During COVID was one of my proudest moments with my team. We were an essential worker, so people still needed to go to the supermarket, and we needed some people to go into the office. But we were also faced with unique challenges, so within a few weeks, teams across infrastructure and digital set up a virtual customer call center on Zoom staffed by volunteers, and it made such a difference to people who really needed it. Another big response was after Cyclone Gabrielle in February last year. We had several communities that were completely cut off and we had to get our stores up and running as quickly as possible. The food in those stores was just sitting there and we couldn’t get the stores open or sell anything. So working with our partner Spark, the team came up with a creative solution to get store systems communicating through a satellite with generators, and we got those stores back up and running to service communities.

On a good partnership: We’re huge and sometimes can be a bit hard to work with. Not everyone loves us. What I want is a real partner — someone who’s going to come into my organization and be my organization. They bring their expertise, but they deeply understand our business strategy. They’re involved in the quarterly planning and sprint cycle because in that context, they can provide a much richer service to us. They’re not just coming in and exiting the business. We have a tight governance process on partners, which sounds really boring, but it’s incredibly successful. So if you talk to Spark, one of our key New Zealand partners, they’re in this process, and what it allows us to do is have a master services agreement. We have a team of people who go through that, and we legally agree. Then we have a group that asks what that means for the business, and how will that partner prove to us they’re meeting their commitments in that agreement. We meet monthly to talk about those things, and every six months, they get a chance to meet with our executive team to talk about not just how they’re doing, but what extra they could bring into the business. And because it’s on this repetitive cycle, everything’s on the table, so there’s no passive aggressive BS that can come into our vendor or partner relationships where people don’t feel they can be upfront, or they just want to be aggressive and thump the table. I’ve learned that being clear, honest, and using a master services agreement to your advantage, rather than just a document that goes in a drawer, is incredibly beneficial for both parties. You both know where you stand. I love some of the partners who ideate with us. And because of our scale, they’re willing to take risks on us and give some new tech that maybe they haven’t released.

On budget management: We’re in that belt tightening era as the cost of living hits. You’re seeing that as large retailers close and profits go down in some areas. So we need to manage our cost of doing business while we still invest in innovative things to give you that competitive advantage as a business, and differentiate you from others in the market. The cloud has been a blessing, but it’s also easy to sprawl in, and I think people are realizing the ongoing costs of using stuff in the cloud. It needs discipline, as we had discipline when things were on premise as well. So using tools to control those costs and give you visibility is a real challenge because people who don’t get on board with AI, for instance, will be left behind. My dream is that some of these new technologies democratize access to some of the cool thinking we have access to with our expertise and our business.

On diversity in IT: The key thing is you have to turn it into something you’ll actually do rather than just talk about. Many in the industry say they need to create a diverse team, but when they start trying to create one, they realize it’s not easy, and then it stops. There has to be a commitment to push through and make a difference because you believe it’s the right thing, not just because you have to tick a box. For me, it’s having a rich team with diverse thinking, not just about gender or ethnicity. Diverse thinking makes me a better leader and we get better outcomes. I don’t want carbon copies of me. So we’re working with partners, and the best way is to work with grassroots organizations and being creative. Now that I’m a senior leader, and I have a decent amount of industry and organizational power, I can’t forget I used to knock on the door and ask how to get into this industry. You also have to make your spaces safe. So don’t bring in people only to have them feel awkward and unsafe in your environment. You have to work hard to understand what it is that makes the diverse community you’re welcoming in safe in your environment. Are there biases, is there training that needs to happen, and do you need to unlearn or relearn some things. All of those things together sound difficult, but if you can commit to it, that’s the important thing.

On maximizing team potential: My team and I are learning to listen and not talk so much. I love talking and rich conversation, but I’ve had to learn to dial that back and spend time listening, eyeballing people, trying to find the quiet person in the room, but also looking out for that diverse opinion that I don’t like and try to hear gold in that. That’s really important to bring the best out in your team. It helps them feel safe to speak and enriches your decision making process, because you get to hear the thoughts that aren’t just yours. You don’t just have sycophants saying yes to everything. The other thing  is making sure my leaders can actually lead. Again, as technologists we’re guilty of putting in a really great technologist into a leadership position, only to wonder why they don’t lead properly, or why team engagement is low. Teaching people to lead is a real skill, and people who lead well get exponentially better results than people who just fumble along. So teach your people to lead, have proper leadership programs, and also help your team understand how to follow a good leader, how to help them make good decisions, and how to work collaboratively. And keep away from that victim mentality. See obstacles as opportunities. If you can teach your team to do that with you, when they’re feeling like they’re stuck, you can help them. And when you’re feeling stuck, you’re getting the best out of your team as well.