Welcome everybody. Thank you for joining this session today. Uh We are here to talk about navigating in aqua hire, um culture and transformation in the retail space. And uh I'll just quickly introduce myself and then introduce our speaker here.So my name is Jenna Bowler and I'm director of marketing at an enterprise software start up called OCN. And I'm thrilled to be here today with Katie Ser Engelman VP of Marketing at Giant Eagle to talk about her journey navigating in aqua hire from her position as director of CRM at a small tech start up called MRE to leading a marketing team of 60 at a multibillion dollar privately owned company, Giant Eagle.

Katie's background includes time at both large traditional retailers like Walmart while they were moving into the ecommerce space and going through their own transformation as well as tech organizations like Yelp. And then of course start ups like Mur Katie is now leading marketing and marketing transformation at Giant Eagle. Katie. Thanks so much for being here with us today to share your

story. Thank you so much for having me, Jenna. I'm really excited to be here to just share a bit more about the, the culture transformation that we've been undergoing at Giant Eagle, as well as just some of the experience I've had as a woman in leadership, especially in an organization that is very, very much known for a little bit of an old boys club, which is the grocery space.

So excited to be here today.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, let's talk about that. So, you know, you transition from a Silicon Valley small tech start up to a multibillion dollar private company. I mean, can you just talk a little bit about how the culture was when you arrived? What the culture was like where you were coming from and a little bit of what that challenge was to transform.

Absolutely. I think um the culture that we had at B I mean, everybody that you were working with was in an open space with you. You kind of could just grab whoever you needed to work through a challenge and Giant Eagle couldn't have been more different. First off, you know, Giant Eagle is based in Pittsburgh. I'm in San Francisco and just uh a far more formal organization, you know, 30 plus 1000 team members. So a lot more structure of my very first trip to Pittsburgh. I will never forget uh I had people like put suits and ties on to start the meeting and I come from the world of Lulu Lemon and like hoodies and converse sneakers. So a little bit of shock all around, but it's been such an incredible experience. Uh, you know, I've had a lot of experiences at very large companies like Walmart and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Um but also, you know, at smaller organizations and this is the first time I was at a large privately held company. And so it's just been, um really incredible to watch how we've been able to bring some of what made start up life. awesome, you know, being fast, being agile, um you know, being hands on into a very structured corporate environment, that was very agency first. Uh I think one of the most transformative or shocking things um that we brought to Giant Eagle was the idea that we didn't have offices at our San Francisco office. So nobody had a formal office, no walls, we have meeting rooms, but like everybody sits with everybody.

So you had BPS sitting next to coordinators, Giant Eagle historically has been a very, very top down culture and it was important for the very top to see how successful it can be to just open up communication and get people to start talking because good ideas can come from anyone just like that, ideas can come from anyone.

So it was awesome to really just get everyone to be thinking differently about ways of working. And I'm really proud to share that, you know, the success of what we were able to show and a lot of that cultural mindset then translated into a new office. Yeah, called our Tech fedex in Pittsburgh. And that is completely open space. So a lot of exciting momentum to really just get people to start thinking differently about how to work together.

Right. Yeah, I love that. Um not only building those that muscle to communicate, but even changing the space physically so that people knew, you know, this is an open environment, this is where you can share ideas. I mean, that's amazing. And you know, often when you see a, a start up getting acquired by a large, large company, um it's the acquired company that's adapting to the larger organizations, culture, their processes, their priorities. So, you know, you were asked to be part of the change coming from, you know, the smaller munchy start up into Giant Eagle, you must have undoubtedly faced challenges even though people wanted change, they wanted to transform. I'm sure there were challenges that you encountered along the way.

So can you, can you talk about those more and tell us more how you tackled them?

Absolutely. And this has been such a huge part of, of the journey that I've been on and I, I come from an environment that's very Silicon Valley focused, very data driven. And I'm used to that environment where like, you know, it's all about the numbers, it's all about the data. And if you don't deliver on that, well, there are 25 people behind you who are willing to take your job. And so it's really just about getting the numbers right. And uh that is very, very much not the case at a lot of these retailers they needed far more relationship building. Giant Eagle is a family run organization. And so what was important for me to experience and start to open up to was kind of the softer side of business operations that at times can get lost in Silicon Valley. And it's really been hugely beneficial in building that trust because change is really, really hard. Giant Eagle is a 90 year old grocer. They've been around for far longer than I have and they are very established in what they do. And so to come in and try to shake the tree was not gonna happen without building that trust and building that confidence, which, you know, it, it takes a bit of time.

And so it required a certain amount of patience and collaboration and understanding that I don't think women always get in the workplace. And it, it became at times very uncomfortable to try to push my way into the room and figure out how could I be positioned as an ally as someone that can be seen as a viable partner without just, you know, strong arming my way through or, you know, um without threatening people, which is such a frustrating position to be in.

But this is where really using a lot of active listening and, you know, building relationships with those key people, uh has been huge in my journey at Giant Eagle and it's something that I don't know if we always focus as much on as we could within Silicon Valley.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the company I work for is based in the Midwest. I'm based in Southern California. And so I too feel like there's a way to kind of take the best from both cultures, right? And create something new where you can leverage more data, like you said, like maybe leverage some of the ways of working or a fail fail first mindset or other things, but then merge that with the relationships, you know, family values or other things that might really hold and work well for the company or the culture that you're working with and figure out how do we kind of take from both, not just come in and change everything.

Um So it sounds like you were able to do that too, which is, which is fun. That's really cool.

And I think that is so crucial during like a time like now where everyone is remote or at least in a hybrid model where, you know, you can work from anywhere, you can be anywhere. So you have no idea who you're going to encounter at any given time at any given day. You no longer have to live in this same city that you work. And so I fully expect some of those trends to continue to show that you're going to see people from all over the country, all walks of life coming together, whether it's retail, e-commerce, tech, whatever it is, everyone is in this remote working environment now. And it's more important than ever to figure out how to build those bonds and relationships through the screen.

Absolutely. Yeah. Culture, I think matters more than anything now because what does does give you that identity if you're not walking into the physical space every day, if you're not seeing people, you know, in the break room, if you're not observing people, that's one of the things we talk about a lot too is there's so much culture that can be observed in a way just by how people, you know, behave or interact or like you said, in offices, out of offices.

And um yeah, now it's, it's our, our chance to do that more virtually. Um I guess I wanted to hear about some of the steps you took Katie because, you know, it was, it was, it was quite a journey, it was quite a challenge. You know, nothing's gonna change on day one. I don't know if there's a 30 60 90 day plan that you can come up with to show that you're, you know, changing an organization. So, you know, did you start first with your team? Did you work with the executive group? Like, what were some of the steps that you took to really bring about more transformation.

Absolutely. And, you know, there's no one way to do something like this. Uh, when I came on board at Giant Eagle, there was actually somebody who already had my exact job. And so it was a little bit of a shock to her to have me come in with the same title and we had to figure out how to work together. And one of the challenges of Giant Eagle is they are the largest employer at G in Pittsburgh. And so if you offend one, you offend all because you're likely working with your, you know, with someone's neighbors, best friends, you know, dog walkers, cousin, you never know, who knows who. It's a very community focused organization and incredibly connected. And so it, it was really critical to understand the lay of the land and then start to show short term wins. Uh One of the first things we did was pitch a new ESP which is not something that I would always recommend ripping out technology in your 1st 90 days. But I really wanted to show some key leaders that, you know, this is where I can make a difference quickly because having a team in San Francisco was 100% an experiment for Giant Eagle. They never had a remote office before.

So there was a little bit of skepticism around like, is this even a real thing? Like, are we really going to have a team 3000 miles away with uh within marketing. And so it was, you know, focusing on what are our long term needs and then what are those quick wins to build those relationships and become more data driven and agile. And so we really looked at some of the technical capabilities at our Martech stock. We also really looked at the media mix and started figuring out where we could mo modernize. But I think the number one most important thing I started with was just listening. You know, again, Giant Eagle had been around for 90 years. So it's really critical to understand where they had started and why the decisions had been made a certain way so that I could come in and be seen as a partner and not just a disruptor. Um When it came to my team, it was a mix of people that I was able to bring with me from Munchy as well as team members that I inherited from other departments that was really, really scary for the group. I mean, it was literally people taken from all different areas and mushed together to create this new digital marketing team and people were confused. People were scared. And one of the first exercises I did with my team was a Myers Briggs test.

I just said everybody leave your ego at the door. Let's do this. I'm gonna share a bit about myself how I think how I process information and I want you to do the same and everyone had a lot of fun with it. You know, everybody loves to know which celebrity has the same personality that they do. And it just allowed for people who have never worked together before to start to understand. Ok, this is how this new person that I need to partner with processes information and go from there.

I think that's what's so key about what you said, Katie that really resonates with me. I mean, all of it did. But one thing that really I wanted to highlight is putting your people first, you were listening, you know, you were trying to understand them as individuals, even though you were bringing about a digital first skill set, data driven, you know, mindset, it was really trying to understand the organization and how people could contribute, how people who, you know, needed to change and adopt new processes would fare with that, you know, discovering things about themselves.

Like, I don't know, I feel like all of those are such great things to think about how you worked with the people and listen to the people while also bringing forward technology.

Absolutely. And you know, it, it's very much one of those areas where you have to start to learn to read the room and read the environment. Like you can always tell when someone's like a little nervous or on the edge of their seat or not quite ready to, to open up and one of the things that I found is that, you know, you never know who might be that influencer within the group. But you gotta figure that out quickly because if you can connect with them and get there by and you can start to turn the tide with a large group and it's not always the most senior person in the room.

Mhm. That's a really good point too. Like I found in my career that I used to be so focused on productivity. I want to get the job done. You know, I became a mother even more so wanted to be productive because I got stuff to do, you know, uh at home and have to juggle things. But this idea of really understanding how to socialize new ideas or processes and motivate people, that's such an important part of driving change. Um And I think that's something that, you know, a lot of women are, are good at, they're good at, you know, making connections, building the relationships. Like you said, like listening, empathizing. Um a lot of times my meetings with male colleagues start with them telling me how their day was telling me, you know, what's going on in their lives. And I'm not sure if that's how they connect with each other, you know. So I think I might have unique opportunities to learn more about people which um which is cool, it makes the job, you know, more fun and um helps you get to know people, which is great.

So, um you know, I wanted to give you a chance too though, to talk about the data side. So you took these different steps, you know, you really learned and understood more about the organization and there's plenty of research out there that talks about, you know, digital transformation and its impact on an organization's bottom line. But I guess I'm curious, were you able to measure the impact of your cultural change and the cultural shift uh within marketing or within the company as a whole?

Absolutely none of this matters at the end of the day. If there aren't results behind it, relationships are key, but, you know, we're still a business, we still are here to make money and we've made some huge strides forward. Uh We had some divisions that didn't believe in digital marketing when I came on board and their budgets are now at 95 5 digital to traditional. We also had a record sales year in 2021. So the fact that we were able to exceed a pandemic year with the modernized media mix that I was able to really encourage and, and build that confidence with the organization, you know, the proofs and the pudding. And so the, the more uh that the organization began to trust me and my team, the more responsibility came our way, the more we were able to show those impactful results and we've got a really exciting vision and future ahead for us. Uh We're very focused on our Martech and our ad tech capabilities. We're looking at, you know, what would it take to really go all in on a retail media network? Uh Obviously, the cookies going away, we've got a lot of changes to privacy law and we're very fortunate at Giant Eagle where we have so much first party data. And I feel confident in saying that the organization would not be set up to make these next steps.

Had we not been willing to invest in the people and the culture transformation that we needed to make, to get more comfortable with doing things differently.

Exactly. I was gonna say it feels like you came in at a time when you were able to start this transformation and then by the time the pandemic hit, people were probably so much more comfortable in connecting with each other, you know, because they knew each other better or they're open to adopting more technology or new things or shifting because they already went through that.

So it's like the transformation that begets more transformation and that, that mindset of being willing to change and adopt new things that is gonna keep, it sounds like it's gonna keep your team and the business going well into the

future. Absolutely.

So, um I wanna ask you one last question. I'm kind of like eyeing the time in the corner and we've got a couple of minutes left. Um And this has been a great conversation. So thank you for sharing your tips and your insight. I wanted to do that thing where I say, you know, if you could look back and talk to your 25 year old self, you know, I'm sure there's some tips or advice that you would give. So, what would that be? What would you share with your, your younger

self? What a great question and what I would share with my younger self is to ask the questions. Don't be afraid to raise your hand and speak up. I think we've all had that moment where we might be sitting in the room and and not necessarily feel comfortable raising our hand. Ask the question if, if you have that question, I'm sure someone else does and also make sure your presence is known, especially in this virtual environment where like, you know, people are just, there's no like sidebar or like, oh yeah, I'm on my way to this meeting. You should join me. You want to make sure that you were memorable when you walk out of the meeting because our calendars are all so jam packed every minute matters and every minute counts. And I have definitely, I had moments where I'm like, OK, we had all these people in this room, 90% of them didn't talk is this of value to people. So, you know, ask the question don't be afraid to speak up and demonstrate where you are, you know, helping move the needle. Um So that you are memorable from the conversation.

Yeah, make your presence known. I love it. Well, thank you so much uh for joining us, Katie. Um It's been a pleasure working with you in preparation and here on the stage today um for anyone joining uh feel free to connect with us on linkedin, both Katie and I are on linkedin and uh we look forward to seeing more great content at this conference. Thank you to all the organizers for women tech um and hope everyone has a good rest of their event. Thank

you so much. It's been a pleasure. Bye.