RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast - RetailCraft 22 - "Circuitboards and Sofas" - Guy Magrath of RS Components and Graham Wilson of Sofology

RetailCraft 22 - "Circuitboards and Sofas" - Guy Magrath of RS Components and Graham Wilson of Sofology

12/09/20 • 55 min

RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

Tales of transformation in the studio today. First up a conversation with Guy Magrath, recently Chief Digital Officer at Electrocomponents PLC (better known in the UK as the owners of RS Components, purveyors os millions of plugs, bulbs, suppliers for makers and menders around the world).

Guy talks us through many years of change and progress at this global, complex business, culminating in his 5 steps that are very persuasive indeed.

Along the way we pay tribute to the makers of the world, and a moving example is that of Ben Ryan who set out to create a new type of prosthetic arm for his 10-day old son. You can read Ben's story here: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=fortheinspired/customer-ambionics and see the video story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOBVuy2FxoA

Graham Wilson joins us from Sofology, the specialist sellers of Sofas. Selling sofas at the best of times can be a challenge, with lead times, checking colour and seating options, envisioning the sofas in your own home... Graham takes us through some of the digital innovations underway that are enhancing the selling and service propositions and giving the stores a dynamic role during the lockdown(s).

Our thanks to Chris for giving us so much time, and we'll pick up with him again post-Christmas to see how the peak-upon-peak of trading turned out.

Run time: 55 minutes

INFORMATION:

Guy Magrath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-magrath-ned/

Graham Wilson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-wilson-b854594/

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal

Jamie Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemerrick/

Recorded remotely and at Spiritland Studios, UK.

Episode photo credit: Ian Jindal.

Guy talks us through many years of change and progress at this global, complex business, culminating in his 5 steps that are very persuasive indeed.

Our thanks to Chris for giving us so much time, and we'll pick up with him again post-Christmas to see how the peak-upon-peak of trading turned out.

Run time: 55 minutes

INFORMATION:

Guy Magrath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-magrath-ned/

Graham Wilson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-wilson-b854594/

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal

Jamie Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemerrick/

Recorded remotely and at Spiritland Studios, UK.

Episode photo credit: Ian Jindal.

Previous Episode

RetailCraft 21 - "One-way and two-way doors" - Chris Poad, Managing Director, Online at Tesco PLC

Chris Poad, Managing Director, Online at Tesco PLC joins us in the studio for a wide-ranging and extensive discussion. Fresh from a series of senior roles at Amazon (heading Fulfilment by Amazon, then Director, Amazon Business International), Chris has returned to the UK to take up the reins at Tesco's online activities - just in time to be in the eye of the COVID storm!

We segue from his career to the Tesco response - an impressive and sustained activity at scale - and we learn about the values that drove the work, the decision-making approaches, and how the team runs under such great pressure.

The interview is chock-full of insights, expressed with clarity and openness - it's a privileged view inside Tesco at a defining time. There are too many quotable nuggets to list here, but the title of this podcast references a perceptive classification of decision-making - jump to 22m10s if you can't bear to wait! It's worth it.

Our thanks to Chris for giving us so much time, and we'll pick up with him again post-Christmas to see how the peak-upon-peak of trading turned out.

Run time: 38 minutes

INFORMATION:

Chris Poad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispoad/

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal

Jamie Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemerrick/

Recorded remotely and at Spiritland Studios, UK.

Episode photo credit: Ian Jindal.

Next Episode

RetailCraft 23 - "Bring a smile to customers' faces" - Pepsico Europe and Whittards of Chelsea

For our final episode of 2020 we 'beam into' the studio Rui Francisco of PepsiCo Europe and Dan Mahoney from Whittards of Chelsea. Rui and Dan remind us of a passion for products that bring a smile to customers' faces and their growing direct-to-consumer activities.

Rui is up first. He's the European Ecommerce Director for PepsiCo, and we hear from him about their pan-European team, the moves to selling direct, not to mention his own interesting career path to ecommerce.

From a global brand's regional team, we then chat with Dan about how a British heritage brand is operating globally and direct to consumer. Dan has extensive experience in ecommerce, but in his role as Customer Director at Whittards it's fascinating to hear of his own learning journey about tea and coffee, and how the lockdowns have increased their customer focus and digital activities.

Our thanks to Dan and Rui for sharing their experiences with us, and they bring to a close our 2020 podcasts. We look forward to picking up in 2021 but until then we wish all our listeners happy trading.

🎄

Run time: 55 minutes

INFORMATION:

Rui Francisco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rui-francisco/

Dan Mahoney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahoneydaniel/

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ and www.twitter.com/ianjindal

Jamie Merrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiemerrick/

Recorded remotely and at Spiritland Studios, UK.

Episode photo credit: Ian Jindal.