Todd James, Chief Data and Technology Officer at 84.51°, speaks with Karen Rhodes, Distinguished Technologist, HP Enterprise, in a video interview about his responsibilities, preventing technical redundancy, building reusable capabilities, the need for solid business use case, and investing in innovation.
James introduces 84.51° as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroger. It is a retail data science insights and media company that operates an insights business to help businesses better understand the customers’ path to purchase.
Next, he mentions having a retail media business called Kroger Precision Marketing and a venture capital fund called Pearl Rock Partners. James states that bringing data and science together to cater to deeper insights and to simplify customers' understanding of the grocer’s path to purchase is the goal.
84.51° provides advanced analytics capabilities for the Kroger company. Therein, James’ responsibilities entail the data science, engineering, and product capabilities for both the commercial and the Kroger model businesses as well as the consumer research and the shared service on the Kroger side. Additionally, he is also responsible for digital analytics, data, and innovations around R&D in Kroger.
When asked about preventing technical redundancy, James shares that 84.51° has processes that are managed around advanced analytics and artificial intelligence – there is a line of sight with proper assessment from the performance and responsible AI perspectives to avoid redundancy.
Further, 84.51° has a healthy collaboration culture with native information sharing and a desire to learn and understand the organization, he adds. Moreover, the organization is focused on building reusable capabilities, instead of building point solutions that can be leveraged not just for one business need but across the board.
Sharing an example, James states that the company runs 950 billion forecasts a year, and having a single source of truth is critical to that. Therefore, it has built a forecasting center of excellence that creates a uniform feed used by merchandising, supply chain groups, retail operations groups, finance, as well as the all-profit businesses that sit within 84.51°.
By bringing all of them together, the company has been able to have a single truth across multiple businesses and also scale up, says James. By applying the mindset to different areas, 84.51° is promoting the creation of reusable AI product capabilities that can be used in multiple places.
Commenting on the investment in innovation and returns, James starts by saying any work done at 84.51° has a business case behind it and a business sponsor aligned to it.
While working with business partners he keeps two things in mind:
Ensuring sponsorship from the business based on relevance to their objectives
There is a business case to support it
Further, the business case has to look at two thresholds of fitting in the context of what the company is trying to achieve and ensuring that the resources address the highest priority needs of the organization.
James shares that there are processes in place with business behind it. He states that if it makes sense from a business perspective, it will drive investments.
Delving further, he mentions the 84.51° labs team that is focused on innovation. He maintains that it is a high-risk-high-reward profile, and a high failure rate is acceptable in that environment. However, the labs are structured in a way to hold the team accountable for an economic return.
In continuation, James says that it is more like a financial services fund where a portfolio is managed for different initiatives, expecting higher returns. There is a target return for the team in terms of value provided by the solutions, however it is risk-weighted. Therefore, as long as the portfolio hits the target, the team can afford ideas that do not work out.
According to James, this cultivates discipline as the team pushes technology and innovation while there is accountability for outcomes.
In conclusion, he states that innovation happens everywhere. It is not just restricted to labs and mentions that great innovation is happening in business teams, but the orientation in teams differs.
James says that while in business teams it boils down to intimacy, understanding the business, relevancy, and problem solving, the lab’s detachment from day-to-day activities allows it to move forward and push innovation.
CDO Magazine appreciates Todd James for sharing his insights with our global community.
