I have recently joined Litmus7 as Director of Product Management. Shortly after joining I was scheduled an introduction call with my new CEO. I expected a standard conversation in which I would tell him a bit about myself, lay out my experience in Product Management, and highlight achievements and challenges I faced and how I overcome them. You know… the usual. So, I started the conversation with my usual spiel and he immediately stopped me. “No, I don’t want to know about that, I read your CV and I know all that. Now I want to understand what I need to do to make you happy. What can I do as your employer to make you feel that working for Litmus7 is more than just another job which you can leave if a better offer comes along? Tell me, what will make you want to wake up in the morning and come to the office?”
That took me by surprise. This was not the type of question I expected in my introduction call with the CEO. Instead of me reciting my CV while he’s half listening and answering emails, he was asking what HE could do to make ME happy. He was asking me where I would find job satisfaction and how he could supply it in order to make sure that I continued to work for Litmus 7.
I took a deep breath to stall for time and to gather my thoughts and in those few seconds a childhood memory came to me and I immediately knew the answer.
My father was a mechanical engineer. He devoted his life to inventing, engineering and manufacturing agricultural machinery. And he was good at it. During the 70s and 80s machines of his design ruled the agricultural landscape and completely revolutionized the way crops were harvested throughout the country. Growing up in a rural area I remember riding with my family through the countryside and everywhere we went we saw one or another of my father’s machines working in the fields. I can still hear my mother voice as we drove past a field, “You see this, this is your father’s doing!” My heart soared with pride.
And so I replied to the CEO. “I want to make a difference,” I said. “I want to leave something behind for my daughters to see and be able to say “this is my father’s doing”.”
Working in eCommerce means that I will not leave large machines of iron and steel for future generations to admire but it doesn’t mean I can’t make a difference.
Americans spend five trillion dollars on retail every year, of which almost 10% is spent online. Ecommerce allows the average shopper to spend less time and less money, leaving more time and money to spend with your loved ones or on favorite hobbies. Ecommerce makes our lives efficient, allowing us to shop from our desks or our kitchens, when traveling or in transit, using time that may otherwise be wasted to do important daily tasks. Ecommerce is a positive force for the environment, allowing us to source local products and saving energy.
Ecommerce is the future. It will have a deep influence on society. It will affect people’s day to day lives, both how we manage our daily activities and the quality of life we are able to have. If I’m part of how ecommerce develops then I am part of shaping the lives of regular people in the future — their daily schedule, their social life, their free time.
In the grocery sector, eCommerce accounts for just 2% of sales. Along with other bright minds of our generation, I am working to solve the challenges faced by online grocery retailers. This is a nut we need to crack, and I want to be there to hear the cracking sound.
A colleague of mine recently posted a dystopian story about a futuristic Manhattan where physical stores are a thing of the past due to Amazon taking over retail. Every evolution that changes how people do things evokes radical response, from the Luddites of the 19th century to current predictions ranging from artificial Intelligence taking over our jobs to killer robots taking over the world.
I do not share these bleak predictions. I have faith in human kind. I believe that eCommerce is a positive step forward. It is an opportunity. With all opportunity comes risk, but also the possibility of change for the better.
This is what makes me get out of bed in the morning. This is what drives me to search for solutions to the challenges of eCommerce. This is the mark I want to leave on the world so that my daughters, who will be empowered consumers who save money and time, can point to their screens and say with pride, “My dad did that.”
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