Taking Stock Live - a conversation with Shelley Bransten & Sally Gilligan

Sure. Happy to. And Shelley, thank you for having me, thrilled to be here today. So, maybe I'll start a little bit with my role and then I'm happy to go from there. So today I'm for Gap Inc. I head up our Global Tech Organization as CIO and I also wear two hats. I also head up our Strategy for Gap Inc. which includes our Sustainability and Government Affairs teams as well. And I'm thrilled to have both those roles because they are really fun compliment as we think about where do we want to take the future and how we think about where our customer's going and what they care about. And prior to those roles, I spent quite a lot of time in our Supply Chain and so have a really good perspective on end to end of the value chain across our business.

So I, you know, so many moons ago, I think I started in high school my first job was actually in apparel in a fabric store and I loved actually the whole concept of making and designing. And so that's, it's been in who I am for a very long time but actually I came to retail after I did client service for quite some time. And I think I really wanted to be part of something. I wanted to have the opportunity to not just think about what the right strategy is or what the right implementation was, but to truly own it. And, you know, I found my way into our Supply Chain and have just loved it and have really thrived at the ability to have a hands-on impact of building tomorrow and being able to drive the business. And I think if you had asked me many moons ago, if I would stay for as long as I have, I probably would've said, 'I'm not sure.' And I have loved every minute of it and have had just an amazing career opportunity through the mentors and the opportunity inside the company.

You're not supposed to say that out loud. But yes it has.

I know, it's been a wonderful 17 years and have just had so much opportunity to really take the company through different transformations and, you know, always making sure we're focused on the future. And in particular, most recently, in the Tech Organization to really take us through a fundamental transformation of our stock and where we wanted to go. And Microsoft is a huge partner for us in that. And I think it's really set us up, you know, as we looked at the pandemic, our move to the Cloud, our ability to actually respond to the customer, moving digitally, all of that was our ability to scale instantaneously which was a result of that transformation. So it's been, I don't know, that I would ever say I would like to relive 2020 but it was actually an incredible learning year for us across the board.

So I think my team has helped me just as much as I've helped them to be clear. I always say, you know, you're only as good as your team. And I am super fortunate for the folks I work with globally. I think a lot of it is, you know, first you've just empathy, right? All of us have had to open the curtain on our life, right? There's little separation between work and home and making sure that you acknowledged that and, you know, in particular as a leader making sure you're that role model. And I think just flexibility as you well know, we work globally for tech that often means 24/7 someone's available. And just having that empathy of what people are managing many people had small kids at home, particularly women, were highly impacted in some cases teams were in locations where the infrastructure wasn't great and they didn't have the right access. And so just making sure you're aware of that in what you're asking of folks, because we found our teams were actually really highly productive and I'm not sure that's sustainable. And so really encouraging people to take a break, be thoughtful about how they draw those separations. And it's really tempting when your laptop is always at home, always available, but it's also not sustainable. And it's also not the right thing for your balance with your family as well.

No it's been, and I think it's been incredible for the teams across the board. I will also say we also learned the muscle of what we're capable of, right? Like careful, where do you draw the line versus where you can push yourself. And I'll start with first and foremost we took global teams Gap Inc. has 140,000 employees remote overnight, that was only feasible based on the modernization our teams had gone through and the productivity tools that we had chosen to adopt and making sure that groups could do their jobs and what that looked like. There's also a lot of innovation. We looked at a lot of, how do you do white boarding remotely? How do you do solutioning ideation, both in our physical design of our product as well as in our technical design of our product. And so a lot of just on the spot having to solution of what does that look like differently. So that was first and foremost, can everyone do their job and is everyone safe and secure? So we also rolled out a lot of technology to help what we call our safe retailing practices. As our stores operated under different government regulations, we did quite a lot of partnering to make sure that we were promoting safe retailing. That meant being able to tell how many people were in your stores or being able to make sure that you had contactless payment in the speed at which we brought those things to market is what I'm most proud of with the team. In many cases, it was two week iterations and we were deploying something live and learning from it. We did the same with curbside pickup. Normally that would have been two years on our roadmap we would have built into it, we built into it in four weeks. That is what I get excited about. And all that the potential of the teams. I think we learned a lot. It's not just a what, it's the how. Really getting out of the way, how do you empower people to make decisions? How do you make it okay for it not to be perfect? I think that was a huge curve learning for us and giving folks the space to make those types of trade-offs and choices. And I think that is a wonderful part of our learning journey as we went through the pandemic and something that I hope that we don't dissipate or that we make sure that we maintain as we build the momentum forward.

I appreciate that.

I think that a couple of things and for us and operating retail stores and for many, you know, folks that I'm sure that are joining us today we went through a 60 day period where across different countries, you were closing down your stores, then you were reopening your stores. Then here in this country, we had really big protests that impacted were such an important topic. And so intrinsic to who we are as a company but also really required us to pivot again on how we operated our stores. And so I share that because that was one thing that I really learned was the muscle to be able to make decisions quickly to pivot and allow teams to execute was so important. And you really got down to the, 'What matters? Who should be involved?' In really having to orchestrate that execution was really, really important. And we learned, if you give people clear direction and empower them, they will go get it done. We have incredible team members and leaders. And that sounds so simple. You say that out loud and you're like, 'Shouldn't that be the case all the time?' But the truth is in a big organization it gets complex fast, no ill intention. There's just a lot of people that are involved in many things. And so I think that simplification of focus and empowerment is so important. I think the other one that I love is just, give people the problem and let them go innovate. Like I had the challenge to say to folks, 'We need something in two weeks, this is the tool set, no constraints, go do it.' And to watch teams do it and to watch the momentum they built with each other in the support of each other. And like, frankly the, I mean, if you'd ask me to sign up at the beginning of 20 on what we actually delivered in that year I would have looked at you and said, 'That's insane.' And then watch the teams do it and have an incredibly successful, not just navigating the pandemic. We were very fortunate, we had a very successful peak. And for us, that was the first season we ran all of our stores in all of our frontend e-commerce site in the Cloud. And so in a year where we normally would have been very nervous about watching that pivot, it was really fun to watch that scaling and momentum. And on top of it are all my business had grown tremendously with, you know, consumer behavior and the shifts in the consumer behavior during the pandemic. So you would have never asked for all of that to line up at the same time, but I think it really taught resilience to say it very succinctly and innovation and empowerment, all powerful lessons as a leader that you know, but really to watch them in play is incredible.

Well, and I will say this too, shall I take that point? I think the other lesson we learned is, you can't do it alone. So how do you use your partners? You're in it together, and I think that what you just talked about is so important because when you're in those moments, that's when you need your partners and you make each other better when you work simultaneous towards the same thing. And that was really important with everyone that supported us through last year.

I think that is the most exciting. And if I had to be honest, partially terrifying thing, coming out of the momentum from the pandemic is I think the pace of change you've often heard quoted. I think many people have said the innovation was accelerated three years and I don't see that pace slowing down either, right? Once folks have a taste of that, how do you keep up with it? And so what I get really excited about though and this is also the fun part of the job is, I think that we're scratching the surface on what data can do and what that means from a personalized shopping experience and how that enables the customer to truly shop where she wants to, when she wants to. And we all talk about the omnivision, but really watching the breakthroughs in ML and AI and how data moves comes through, really starts to make that real. And that is really exciting to me. It's a fun space. It's a space where there's many great players, a lot of breakthrough, but it's also not a space where it's been fully stitched together or fully discovered yet. So I get very, very excited about that. And I also watch, I think there's a large conversation on privacy and how you think about that in respecting your customer. And I think that's going to continue to really be a requirement of all CIOs and how you think about the technology solutions around that as well.

So I will start with, I always tread lightly on advice, but I will share this, the first and foremost you can do it and you should just assume that you can, and that the opportunity is there, but what does that look like? I mean, I think I as a leader, very very passionate about the diversity of thought. When you think about fundamentally, what do we all do in technology? We solve problems that are everyday part of our human experience and how we bring solutions to bear on that. You can't do that if you have half the voices missing around the table, around what those experiences look like and how we live our lives. And so I think the thing I would say is, you do have a seat at the table and make sure you fill it and make sure that you continue to mentor others. I think it's a symbiotic relationship to role modeling. And I always talked to around there's mentorship and their sponsorship and they are two very important things. And, you know, for mentorship, it's personal, each person's journey is different. You have to decide what you want. I've had incredible mentors. And by the way, some of those mentors have been both female and male and have always had great sponsorship. And for me, sponsorship and the difference with mentorship is really, how do you navigate your organization? and how do you understand your organization? And I think it's important for females to make sure they have both and that they seek them out. For me, mentorship is a little more personal and that you want that person that I always say is going to hold up the mirror. That's going to maybe tell you what you don't want to hear or help you unpack what you need to hear but both are so important for your career journey and actually a really fun part of your career journey. Every time I've taken a risk in my career, it's because someone I really respected that's invested in me has taken the time to sort of push me out of my comfort zone. And I think we all need that in our lives.

That's incredible. You know, I've always been very fortunate that many of the folks, sometimes they've been my manager. Sometimes they've been folks I've worked with who I've stayed in touch with. You know, I started my career in client service and always had the pleasure of working with people that, you know, pushed me and sort of said, 'What do you want to do? And how do you think about that?' In particular, I always think of one mentor I had when I first had my son, when I came back from maternity leave and I was going to do it all. Was going to do it all at the same speed. And I remember he said to me, 'You can do it all, just not at the same time and perhaps not on your terms.' And I remember it so saliently and actually I was just, you know, corresponding with him but it's been 25 plus years that we've known each other. And it was probably some of the best advice I got because really, what he was teaching me is to give myself permission to have different speeds, to have the ability to lean in to sometimes that's your personal life. Sometimes that's your family. Sometimes it's your professional life but you can't hold yourself to the standard of all of it all of the time of perfect. And I actually think that's the best thing a mentor can do, is to give you room to learn and also give you room to discover who you are and what matters to you.

That one is very personal too, I always say that.

So I think first I was to say for the company, I couldn't be more thrilled to be part of Gap Inc. I think what we stand for from our purpose values and behavior, the potential we have on our purpose-driven brands, I'm so excited and the momentum we have with our digital platforms coming out of the pandemic and forward, it's a really fun time to be part of this team. And I'm actually just excited for the retail industry in general. I think there's been a lot of fundamental shifts. I think there's a lot of opportunity. I think the consumer is going to be excited to re-engage as we all start to it's hard to say, go back to what we did. I think we would never will. I think it'll be fundamental changes in how we live our lives and that's a really fun part to be, something to get to participate in, is what I'm excited about.

Likewise, it's always wonderful to have a chance to chat with you Shelly. And really do appreciate it, I can't tell you the partnership has been amazing and has been part of our acceleration.

That is who's solving our problems and that's who's making us better. And I love that.