Scaling Innovation and Collaboration in Omnichannel with Simon Miles
This week on the Be Epic podcast, Brent sits down with Simon Miles, Vice President of Global Omnichannel at The Coca-Cola Company. They discuss the omni-channel retail space and innovations including those in retail media, AI, and e-commerce. Simon shares his global perspective gained from working with his team that operates in 206 countries and the important role of collaboration across functions and with retailers. Simon also offers guidance for students entering CPG and retail marketing, emphasizing the value of curiosity, action-orientation, and resilience in building a career.
Transcript
It's very easy sometimes when you you know,
Simon Miles:everybody's busy. It's very easy just to be very internally
Simon Miles:focused as you put it earlier. You know, as you walk in, you've
Simon Miles:got to do this. It's on your mind, you got a few things
Simon Miles:you've got to do today. But build in, if you can some time
Simon Miles:to explore, and to think about the outside world.
Brent Williams:Welcome to the Be Epic podcast, brought to you
Brent Williams:by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of
Brent Williams:Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll
Brent Williams:explore the dynamic landscape of business, and uncover the
Brent Williams:strategies, insights and stories that drive business today.
Brent Williams:Well, today, I have with me, Simon Miles. Simon is Vice
Brent Williams:President of Global Omnichannel at the Coca Cola Company, and
Brent Williams:has become a good friend. So Simon, thank you for joining.
Simon Miles:Thanks, Brent. It's so good to be back in Northwest
Simon Miles:Arkansas again. We've been coming for a lot of years. And
Simon Miles:it's always a great pleasure, good to see you.
Brent Williams:Well, we're glad to have you here. Maybe from the
Brent Williams:accent we can tell you're not from Arkansas. Right. So maybe
Brent Williams:tell us a little bit about yourself.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I'm I'm from the south, but it's the south of
Simon Miles:England. So I live near to near London. Yeah, so I've, I've been
Simon Miles:coming over to the US part of Coca Cola for for many years,
Simon Miles:I've been part of the global team for the last 10 years, been
Simon Miles:at Coca Cola 17 years, so had a sort of long, long career in all
Simon Miles:sorts of different elements of that. But you know, personally
Simon Miles:married, two kids who are no longer kids, they're grown ups
Simon Miles:now. And keen tennis player and photographer, and even drone
Simon Miles:pilot for a bit of aerial photography occasionally.
Brent Williams:That's right, quite the quite fun interests
Brent Williams:outside of work. And inside work, you know, from a
Brent Williams:professional perspective, a background in marketing, digital
Brent Williams:marketing, e commerce.
Simon Miles:Yeah, certainly in the last 10 to 15 years that's
Simon Miles:dominated it. Although I have to say in in the earlier parts of
Simon Miles:my career it was much more varied than that. So yes, there
Simon Miles:was some sales roles, there was some admin roles, I was leading
Simon Miles:teams on insights, on category planning, on shopper marketing.
Simon Miles:So it was it was a good broad base from which then I
Simon Miles:eventually kind of narrowed it down and started to specialize
Simon Miles:as digital marketing, and ecommerce started to evolve. So
Simon Miles:I could see the opportunity and kind of spent more time in that
Simon Miles:space.
Brent Williams:And then in this role, you're leading commercial
Brent Williams:strategy with, for Coca Cola on behalf of most global customers?
Simon Miles:Yes, so. So I do that across all of our regions
Simon Miles:of the world. So we operate in these 206 countries. Clearly, I
Simon Miles:can't cover all 200 metrics. So prioritization is always key.
Simon Miles:But yes, I'm responsible for that for our overall omni
Simon Miles:channel strategy with all of our key customers across the
Simon Miles:different regions of the world. But of course, we have in Coca
Simon Miles:Cola, we have nine operating units around the world. So I
Simon Miles:work with our local teams who will do more of the kind of day
Simon Miles:to day work on the ground.
Brent Williams:Okay. Totally makes sense. Well, let's, let's
Brent Williams:kind of dive into the omni channel world. Because what an
Brent Williams:exciting place, what an exciting area you work in, omni channel
Brent Williams:retail, you've got a good bit of history, you know, working in a
Brent Williams:with retailers in omni channel. Yeah, just kind of what are you
Brent Williams:seeing? And how do you see it evolving right now?
Simon Miles:Yeah, it is. It's ever evolving. It's one of those
Simon Miles:fascinating spaces, you know, it's changed a lot in the sort
Simon Miles:of 10-15 years, I've been in that space. And of course, there
Simon Miles:was the huge acceleration towards e commerce during the
Simon Miles:COVID pandemic in a couple years back, which I think really
Simon Miles:changed the game for a lot of suppliers. And certainly for us,
Simon Miles:we're suddenly, from a very small part of our business, it's
Simon Miles:suddenly become a very significant part of the
Simon Miles:business. And I know the same is true for many retailers, too.
Simon Miles:And that's driving a lot of change, I think in terms of how
Simon Miles:people view the importance of the E commerce side of omni
Simon Miles:channel. And so we're seeing a lot more investment going in. So
Simon Miles:we're not going to talk about investment. I'm thinking people
Simon Miles:resource, as well as you know, dollars and cents, and a lot
Simon Miles:more focus in terms of our business planning and those
Simon Miles:kinds of areas that we work on. And just to give you sort of a
Simon Miles:couple of areas that I think have really sort of moving
Simon Miles:forward a lot more recently, there's been a lot of sort of
Simon Miles:capacity constraints and that kind of stuff, which came out of
Simon Miles:the pandemic, it was difficult for people to meet demand at the
Simon Miles:time, as that, as that spiked. And so there was a lot of
Simon Miles:investment go into into sort of supply chain solutions and
Simon Miles:logistics and those kinds of things to build the capacity so
Simon Miles:that we can meet demand. So I think that's, that's a real
Simon Miles:trend that really accelerated through through and beyond the
Simon Miles:pandemic. And more recently, I think you've seen the
Simon Miles:development of a couple of areas like artificial intelligence,
Simon Miles:which is really making it starting to make a difference. I
Simon Miles:think it's still early, and we're still figuring it out. But
Simon Miles:it's starting to play out. And I think it has a lot of as has a
Simon Miles:big future, if you like as to the things I'm thinking about
Simon Miles:for the future. And the other one is the emergence of the
Simon Miles:retail media area, which is driving significant amount of
Simon Miles:inven investment potentially into the retailer, p&l from
Simon Miles:different parts of the supplier organization here. We're talking
Simon Miles:brand dollars rather than kind of traditional trade dollars.
Simon Miles:But again, it's early days, we're still figuring it out. So
Simon Miles:yeah, there's lots of beads. It never stops, right? It's it's
Simon Miles:such a fascinating space,
Brent Williams:It is fascinating, maybe kind of
Brent Williams:diving in on both of those, maybe we'll start with with AI,
Brent Williams:because we probably, we've done some work together on retail
Brent Williams:media, which I want to touch on. Very early days of, you know,
Brent Williams:generative AI being much more accessible to both individuals
Brent Williams:and companies. Any like little tidbits of highlights of where
Brent Williams:you think maybe this could make a real difference in omni
Brent Williams:channel?
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think the jury's still out, you know,
Simon Miles:because we are at the early stages, but the way I look at it
Simon Miles:is, I can definitely see. And I was talking about this with our
Simon Miles:local team yesterday, actually, when you think about how people
Simon Miles:shop, and the what they're trying to do is they're trying
Simon Miles:to feed the family for the week, right? Typically, mom is saying,
Simon Miles:you're saying like, okay, I've got, you know, the kids got to
Simon Miles:go to school. And I've got lunchboxes to make, and then
Simon Miles:I've got, you know, some friends come around on Saturday night,
Simon Miles:so that she's got a meal plan in her head of a number of meals.
Simon Miles:And at the moment, the structure of how people generally shop
Simon Miles:online is called item by item or aisle by aisle right picking it
Simon Miles:through, and I think what's gonna happen with something like
Simon Miles:AI is you could actually put in, in sort of natural language, you
Simon Miles:know, build me a plan for the week, I've got you know three
Simon Miles:kids in the house, I need five lunchboxes, and I need a meal
Simon Miles:for Saturday night. And it'll give you suggestions then of
Simon Miles:products, which I think was kind of one click, you can add to the
Simon Miles:basket. So that kind of ability, I think is going to change the
Simon Miles:dynamics of how people shop online from, you know, frankly,
Simon Miles:what historically, I think, has been almost imagine a floor plan
Simon Miles:of a supermarket, put on a page of a computer screen. And then
Simon Miles:we're made to kind of go through all the aisles, which perhaps
Simon Miles:isn't the best experience we could have built. But it's it's
Simon Miles:just we are where we are. So I think AI is going to make a
Simon Miles:difference to that kind of thing. And I also think more
Simon Miles:technically, how the digital shelf is built, I think, really
Simon Miles:heavily influenced by artificial intelligence. So at the moment
Simon Miles:is it's it's kind of quite a manual process in many ways of
Simon Miles:images and texts, and the rest of it to kind of create the
Simon Miles:pages that you see. But I think artificial intelligence will
Simon Miles:take a lot of the effort out of that. So you know, most of the
Simon Miles:use cases that we're seeing are in the space of time saving and
Simon Miles:efficiency. And I think that's where it's really gonna start to
Simon Miles:begin with where it goes beyond that, you know, you have to ask
Simon Miles:a futurist really can get around that.
Brent Williams:Well even your first example of meal planning
Brent Williams:for a family, that that could be an impact of saving a family an
Brent Williams:hour, you know, on the weekend that could allow them to enjoy,
Brent Williams:enjoy family time or enjoy recreation. And, you know, I'm
Brent Williams:excited about the ability of generative AI and enterprises
Brent Williams:to, of course, take out the rote tasks that we probably as
Brent Williams:humans, you know, could be using our time better. So I think
Brent Williams:it's, I think it's exciting. I can't wait to watch it.
Simon Miles:Yeah, no completely. And I'll give you
Simon Miles:another little, little tiny example that I've been using it
Simon Miles:for recently, when we were still having a lot of virtual meetings
Simon Miles:at Coke, right. I'm part of a global team. So we hosted a
Simon Miles:meeting last week with about 10 people on the call. And we
Simon Miles:recorded the call, because there were some people who couldn't
Simon Miles:make it. And so the the there's, you know, Zoom automatically
Simon Miles:created a transcript of the meeting I needed then to
Simon Miles:summarize it. So I just put that into ChatGPT and said, turn this
Simon Miles:transcript into a summary of the meeting with bullet points and
Simon Miles:action points. And it did it in 15 seconds. So you know, the
Simon Miles:time saving for me, yes, I could have gone through that. But it
Simon Miles:was an hour's meeting would have taken me probably half an hour
Simon Miles:to have done that. So you're absolutely right, in terms of
Simon Miles:the time saving is tremendous.
Brent Williams:That is wonderful I agree. Well retail
Brent Williams:media, which is really how you and I originally got to know one
Brent Williams:another. And you individually, Coca-Cola, as a company has
Brent Williams:really supported the Walton College in putting out thought
Brent Williams:leadership around retail media. We put out our first white paper
Brent Williams:early last fall, and are working on a second version of that,
Brent Williams:that you're helping us with, again, so one, thank you for
Brent Williams:helping the Walton College create thought leadership. But
Brent Williams:one thing I love is that we're doing this together. And but,
Brent Williams:you know, well, how do you see this space evolving? Because
Brent Williams:it's been a space that really seems to have evolved really,
Brent Williams:really quickly.
Simon Miles:faster than either of those two. And so it's hard
Simon Miles:to you know, and that's why we wanted to partner up with you
Simon Miles:guys. And it was such an important piece of work that you
Simon Miles:led last year, to give us a baseline of understanding on it
Simon Miles:because there was a lot of there was a lot of literature out in
Simon Miles:the marketplace, but it's all coming much of it was coming
Simon Miles:with an angle. So, you know, an agency would publish or a
Simon Miles:retailer would publish. And so we wanted an independent
Simon Miles:viewpoint and that's what you gave us and that was really
Simon Miles:helpful for us as a business to then be able to think through
Simon Miles:for ourselves. What are the key things we want to be focused on?
Simon Miles:What do we want to try and work out? So it's been a wonderful
Simon Miles:partnership, and we really appreciate the work that you've
Simon Miles:done. And it's definitely helped us, I think, to work with some
Simon Miles:industry partners as well, to sort of take some of that
Simon Miles:thinking on. And so, you know, retail media is one of those
Simon Miles:areas that has, has such opportunity in it. And I think
Simon Miles:it's quite easy, as you articulated in the white paper
Simon Miles:last year to kind of understand the promise of that, with, you
Simon Miles:know, consumers getting more relevant advertising and
Simon Miles:retailers making some a new revenue stream and suppliers
Simon Miles:being able to target in a way that hadn't before and measure.
Simon Miles:But we've still got a way to go to kind of realize that that
Simon Miles:promise. But there's been, you know, significant strides
Simon Miles:forward, you know, we've been testing with a number of
Simon Miles:different retailers in different parts of the world. You know,
Simon Miles:what responds, well, how do you work through it? What types of
Simon Miles:tactics work well, in this space, as many others have, as
Simon Miles:well. And I think there's been a lot of work. And one of the
Simon Miles:things that's interesting about this space, and, and it reminds
Simon Miles:me of when I was first in E commerce, you know, over a
Simon Miles:decade ago, there's quite a collaborative spirit in the
Simon Miles:industry, which doesn't necessarily exist in other
Simon Miles:parts. And so we've certainly partnered up a lot, you know, as
Simon Miles:we did with you in the first instance, but with other, you
Simon Miles:know, there's cross supplier forums, there's people like the
Simon Miles:IAB are working in this space, there's a lot of collaboration
Simon Miles:here. And I think the way forward in this space, and when
Simon Miles:I come back to suppliers, and retailers specifically working
Simon Miles:together to work out the right plans for the consumer
Simon Miles:collaboration is at the heart of that. Because what I'm seeing
Simon Miles:now, globally, is that these are all evolving in their own way.
Simon Miles:So if you're a Carrefour in France, or you're Woolworths
Simon Miles:Australia, or you're a Walmart in the US, you're developing for
Simon Miles:your own platform. And so it's developing slightly differently.
Simon Miles:And so there's a, there's a need to collaborate together to
Simon Miles:understand where all those platforms are going, and how we
Simon Miles:get more consistency in the industry. And that's starting to
Simon Miles:come, we're starting to open that up. But I don't think any
Simon Miles:one company has all the answers either. And so it's not one of
Simon Miles:those things, we can just go out and try and make everybody fit
Simon Miles:to our model, because we don't have all the answers either,
Simon Miles:certainly. And so it's opening up a really fabulous
Simon Miles:collaboration opportunity between retailers and suppliers.
Simon Miles:And I think long term, this will fundamentally change the way
Simon Miles:that retailer supplier relationships work. Because it
Simon Miles:historically, you know, it's been owned by the merchants and
Simon Miles:the key account teams, you know, it's been the sort of two, two
Simon Miles:sides of the coin, if you like, and kind of working out and
Simon Miles:negotiating together and building the plans. Now, with
Simon Miles:the advent of retail media, where it's much more about
Simon Miles:marketing and media, different parts of the organization are
Simon Miles:brought into play. And you have to have both sides working
Simon Miles:together in order to make that work. So you have collaboration
Simon Miles:opportunities, within the retailer, within the supplier,
Simon Miles:and between the retailer and supplier, which looks different
Simon Miles:in the future than it did in the past. So it's it's an amazing
Simon Miles:evolving space. You know, as you say, fast, lots of investment
Simon Miles:going in, lots of progress, but still lots of development to
Simon Miles:come.
Brent Williams:What are my learnings out of that work last
Brent Williams:summer, that speaks to this point was, you know, typically
Brent Williams:you you thought about that relationship as you're right. I
Brent Williams:mean, at least being I won't say owned, but maybe led by it was
Brent Williams:more dyadic, if you will, you know. And all of a sudden, we
Brent Williams:see multiple parts of the organization have to not only
Brent Williams:collaborate across retail and supplier, but even within a
Brent Williams:brand or within a retailer that we hadn't seen before. And so I
Brent Williams:agree with you that the collaboration and the
Brent Williams:integration, both internally and externally are going to be key.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And that
Simon Miles:we've certainly been doing, you know, since we were working
Simon Miles:together last summer, we've been doing a lot of that sort of
Simon Miles:work, so you won't see it on externally. But internally,
Simon Miles:we've been doing a lot to break down some of the silos that
Simon Miles:exist in our business. And think about how do we plan activation
Simon Miles:together in a way that's much more joined up than it was in
Simon Miles:the past. So you know, the brand teams and the commercial teams
Simon Miles:are much more linked. It's based off the, you know, category and
Simon Miles:insight understanding, and the insights that the retailer can
Simon Miles:share with us as well. So it's quite a different animal.
Simon Miles:There's a lot more people involved, that's complex, and an
Simon Miles:organization our size, you know, Coca Cola has something like
Simon Miles:700,000 people globally. That's not easy to kind of, you know,
Simon Miles:manage your way through that. So we spend a lot of time thinking
Simon Miles:about that. And, you know, the good news is, I think there's,
Simon Miles:there's an appetite, and an understanding from the
Simon Miles:retailer's point of view as well, that the same thing exists
Simon Miles:in their organizations. They're feeling that too. And we're
Simon Miles:helping, you know, working together in a way that we
Simon Miles:probably couldn't have done before. We're bringing some of
Simon Miles:our expertise as media buyers and marketeers, which is
Simon Miles:historically what you know, our organization has been been been
Simon Miles:good at and been famous for. And we're bringing some of that
Simon Miles:skill set and expertise on behalf of our retail partner. So
Simon Miles:it's been it's been good. It's been good, overall positive
Simon Miles:about the future of that.
Brent Williams:I'm looking forward to the next iteration of
Brent Williams:the work. So again, thank you for for partnering with us on
Brent Williams:it. And you mentioned something that over the last year, as I've
Brent Williams:gotten to know you, that you've helped me with, and that is
Brent Williams:being able to get a more global understanding of what's
Brent Williams:happening in omni channel retail, but some of the unique
Brent Williams:aspects regionally across the world. And so operating in 206
Brent Williams:countries, I think you have a great vantage point of that.
Brent Williams:Just what are some of the things you see differently regionally
Brent Williams:that you think are interesting?
Simon Miles:Yeah, you're absolutely right, it's one of
Simon Miles:the privileges of the role I have at Coca Cola is I get to
Simon Miles:see a lot of different models working. And, you know, there's,
Simon Miles:there's a lot of often a lot of similarities between places like
Simon Miles:the US and Western Europe. But even that, you know, if I think
Simon Miles:about, you know, my home country, the UK, built up its
Simon Miles:ecommerce business based on home delivery. Whereas if you're in
Simon Miles:France, or most other sort of developed markets, it's more of
Simon Miles:a pickup market. And so there's nuances in terms of how the E
Simon Miles:commerce model works, and where some of the costs are contained
Simon Miles:in that, because obviously, from the UK model is quite expensive
Simon Miles:to run, because you got to then deliver to people's houses.
Simon Miles:Whereas if you get the consumer to work, do that work, then you
Simon Miles:know, there's there's a slightly different economic return on it.
Simon Miles:I think what's interesting as well is when you step out into
Simon Miles:Asia, you know China's out kind of almost on its own and its own
Simon Miles:sort of ecosystem developed very differently. Very mobile led, is
Simon Miles:very socially lead. So lots of the commerce sitting within the
Simon Miles:framework of the social media channels that exist in China,
Simon Miles:which looks, you know, somewhat similar to the ones that we will
Simon Miles:be familiar with, but operate under slightly different ways.
Simon Miles:And so what's interesting is the influence of China in some of
Simon Miles:the other Asian markets. So we take India, where I think
Simon Miles:currently it's the market is still very, very traditional
Simon Miles:trade led right so something like 96% of our business in
Simon Miles:India, is still what you call traditional trade, so the
Simon Miles:Khurana stores, and that, you know, mom and pop stores, that
Simon Miles:kind of stuff. So it's only quite small, the kind of develop
Simon Miles:side, but that's all just skipping a generation that's
Simon Miles:going straight into social and mobile. So you see the models
Simon Miles:very much sort of developing differently. But they are also
Simon Miles:thinking about things like retail media, and artificial
Simon Miles:intelligence, you know, so some of those threads that I've
Simon Miles:talked about, are still manifesting themselves in
Simon Miles:markets, which on the surface look very different. So yeah,
Simon Miles:there's lots of lots of different areas that the other
Simon Miles:bit that would, that I'm also responsible for, if you start to
Simon Miles:step away from retail for a minute is kind of food service
Simon Miles:and food service aggregators, quick commerce, that kind of
Simon Miles:era. And we've seen that develop in a lot of different parts of
Simon Miles:the world. So you have markets like Israel, or Turkey, which
Simon Miles:are very strong in terms of some of the tech developments there
Simon Miles:around for food aggregator platforms, which are very
Simon Miles:sophisticated in terms of how they, how they will market
Simon Miles:themselves, you know, what the platform looks like, how
Simon Miles:interactive it is, and those kinds of things. So it's always
Simon Miles:just fascinating. I mean, you know, that that expression every
Simon Miles:day is a school day. And it certainly in my job, that's
Simon Miles:absolutely true. And I'm always coming into stuff thinking, wow,
Simon Miles:I never saw that before. That's amazing.
Brent Williams:Well, you know, one thing that I think I can
Brent Williams:tell, is, you know, you enjoy learning, right? And so being
Brent Williams:curious, and learning and learning about what is happening
Brent Williams:in the world is quite a privilege, as you mentioned, I'm
Brent Williams:sure.
Simon Miles:Yeah it is, you're absolutely right. And that's one
Simon Miles:of the motivators for me is trying to understand the space.
Simon Miles:And when I in the role, I have one of the sides of that, that I
Simon Miles:think I owe the organization for the privilege of doing the job I
Simon Miles:do is to be the person who's almost like the translator for
Simon Miles:our business, to take the outside world and bring it in to
Simon Miles:Coca Cola. So understand the trends understand the
Simon Miles:differences regionally. But see the similarities between so that
Simon Miles:we can draw the dots between various different whether it's
Simon Miles:customer platforms, or whether it's, you know, different
Simon Miles:regions of the world and try and see that and say, what is the
Simon Miles:implication for our business in other parts of the world. So I'm
Simon Miles:an opportunity spotter, if you like, on behalf of the of the
Simon Miles:organization, and that, that keeps me intellectually
Simon Miles:stimulated. Because you're absolutely right, you've got to
Simon Miles:stay in that learning mindset, and say, how do I just not take
Simon Miles:anything for granted here? How do I look at this fresh every
Simon Miles:day? And try and figure out what's new and different? I love
Simon Miles:that side of it.
Brent Williams:Yeah you know, and I think that's actually
Brent Williams:where I would, we would turn that sensemaking, you know, for
Brent Williams:the organization. And that's actually something that I think
Brent Williams:often leaders can forget is a really important part of their
Brent Williams:role, right? Because I know for me, it's so easy to walk in at
Brent Williams:whatever time you're coming in, in the morning, and the to do
Brent Williams:list sort of takes over. But but it is true, right? There's so
Brent Williams:much happening outside of the walls of the organization. And a
Brent Williams:leader does have to be able to scan and make sense of it, you
Brent Williams:know, for the organization for the strategy of the
Brent Williams:organization.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I've
Simon Miles:always taken the view if I'm one of the leaders in our digital
Simon Miles:business, that I'm supposed to be driving that agenda and where
Simon Miles:is most of that going to come from? It's not going to come
Simon Miles:from the work I've set off, although you always do get some
Simon Miles:fantastic work internally, I've got to at least have the view
Simon Miles:outside to see what others are doing. And that's why I've
Simon Miles:always taken time to attend, you know, conferences and you know,
Simon Miles:things like this. You know, I always learn something when I
Simon Miles:talk to people like you Brent and and others, you know. And so
Simon Miles:it's important to have an external focus as well as an
Simon Miles:internal one. Just to keep abreast of everything in the
Simon Miles:industry, because there's so much to learn all the time it
Simon Miles:moves so quickly, particularly in the digital space.
Brent Williams:Yeah. Well, speaking of learning, one of
Brent Williams:mine working together last year, was really about the
Brent Williams:organization of Coca Cola. You know, I thought, Coca Cola. But
Brent Williams:you know, it's a little more complicated than that with with
Brent Williams:your bottlers and the relationship that you have with
Brent Williams:bottlers. And I think most of us probably don't understand that
Brent Williams:it's a little bit unique.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think it is. You're absolutely right.
Simon Miles:People just think Coca Cola is like one big company, right. But
Simon Miles:it's actually sort of the easiest way to think about it as
Simon Miles:a split is two halves, right? So you have the Coca Cola Company,
Simon Miles:which owns the brands, creates, creates the magic, if you like,
Simon Miles:in terms of the advertising campaigns, and that kind of
Simon Miles:stuff, and also owns the magic formula. And before you ask me
Simon Miles:now, I don't know what it is.
Brent Williams:Okay, now, that was my next question.
Simon Miles:That's way above my paygrade. And so yeah, so that's
Simon Miles:what the kind of company does. And then there is a network of
Simon Miles:franchise bottlers around the world who take the syrup that we
Simon Miles:produce, and then they then bottle and manufacture that
Simon Miles:locally. So we have hundreds of plants around the world that
Simon Miles:manufacture and they will then distribute that in the local
Simon Miles:markets. And so that's, that's the sort of franchise model that
Simon Miles:we have. But of course, it's a symbiotic relationship, right?
Simon Miles:We are absolutely work hand in hand with our bottling partners,
Simon Miles:you know, we we just would not be successful without them
Simon Miles:clearly. And so. And in fact, I'd the first nine years of my
Simon Miles:Coca Cola career, I was on the bottling side of the
Simon Miles:organization in the UK. So I'm very familiar with that. So I've
Simon Miles:sort of done the transition. So I've set both sides of the of
Simon Miles:the Coca Cola system, as we call it.
Brent Williams:So having the background with the bottler, I'm
Brent Williams:sure gives you an advantage as you as you work with them in
Brent Williams:this role.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think it does. I think it partly, you
Simon Miles:know, commercially, I understand the economic model, and the
Simon Miles:business model for the bottlers, which, you know, is very helpful
Simon Miles:on a day in day out basis, because, you know, what, what
Simon Miles:their agenda is likely to be and what the what they need to
Simon Miles:achieve, and how it works, how to get stuff done. And that's
Simon Miles:one of the, one of the challenges, I think, as you
Simon Miles:enter business. And as you build a career, the most, in my view,
Simon Miles:the most successful people are people who know how to get stuff
Simon Miles:done. You know, there's a lot of people who are, you know, good
Simon Miles:thinkers, or they're, you know, smart people, but if you can't
Simon Miles:get it done, it's going to be a limiting factor. And so, for me,
Simon Miles:you're right, that that history of mine in the bottling side of
Simon Miles:the organization is very helpful for me to understand what what
Simon Miles:would they need to make this work because that often locally,
Simon Miles:they will be the people who will go and sell to retailers, and
Simon Miles:they'll be building the local, you know, spin on the plant. And
Simon Miles:so if you know that going in, you know, have feed that
Simon Miles:information in the first place. And so that ability to get stuff
Simon Miles:done, I think, is a really important thing to hold on to,
Simon Miles:as you build a career,
Brent Williams:Transitioning maybe back to the to the
Brent Williams:business, just just to touch you know, the overall categories
Brent Williams:that you're in the beverage category is one without deep
Brent Williams:knowledge of the category seems to be innovative in some really
Brent Williams:interesting ways. So I guess, what are what are some of the
Brent Williams:highlights of that innovation? And where do you see those
Brent Williams:categories evolving to?
Simon Miles:Yeah, there's there is a lot of, of dynamism in the
Simon Miles:beverage category always has been, but it's sort of, like
Simon Miles:much of most things in life, it's accelerating and
Simon Miles:fragmenting a lot. So we've seen you know, the growth of things
Simon Miles:like coffee is a really, really big global trend, you know,
Simon Miles:alcoholic beverages like seltzers, and things like that
Simon Miles:have come up, you know, more recently, but huge innovations
Simon Miles:in, in packaging as well driven by a sort of sustainability
Simon Miles:agenda as well. So as you'll notice, as you travel the world,
Simon Miles:there's lots of different ways in which that manifests itself.
Simon Miles:And whether it's lightweight glass bottles, whether that's
Simon Miles:different types of plastics, whether it's yeah, one of my
Simon Miles:favorite ones recently I was in Japan, recently, they've got
Simon Miles:what they call labeless bottles so another little plastic seat
Simon Miles:sleeve that often sits on the outside of remove that and just
Simon Miles:print directly onto the bottle. So there's, there's ways in
Simon Miles:which we're innovating constantly around some of those
Simon Miles:kinds of sides of the of the categories. But it's it is
Simon Miles:amazing how much choice there is now for consumers. And of
Simon Miles:course, that that also presents itself a challenge when you
Simon Miles:think about the business side of it from assortment and display
Simon Miles:and you know, planogram automation, all that kind of
Simon Miles:stuff. We're working hard on to make it simple, simple for
Simon Miles:people to shop the category to drive that but yet again,
Simon Miles:another area that never stops innovating.
Brent Williams:Well, and you know, I guess as the choice
Brent Williams:proliferates, you know, for me as a consumer, going back to
Brent Williams:retail media and some of the some of the innovations in
Brent Williams:technology. I'm excited that that you as a marketer with Coca
Brent Williams:Cola can increase singularly speak to me individually, and
Brent Williams:helped me parse through all of that choice, knowing me as the
Brent Williams:consumer.
Simon Miles:Yeah. And that's the wonderful thing about where
Simon Miles:technology will take us, I think and I don't think we're, we've
Simon Miles:cracked that code yet. But we're certainly getting there. So
Simon Miles:you're absolutely right. Because, you know, there's that
Simon Miles:notion of the endless aisle, right, as you get a kind of
Simon Miles:category like ours which got 1000s of SKUs in it, no one
Simon Miles:wants to shop an endless aisle, what you want is to find the
Simon Miles:things you're looking for very quickly. And that's where the
Simon Miles:technology will help surface the right products in the right way.
Simon Miles:And then provide a bit of inspiration. So that's where
Simon Miles:that technology comes in really powerfully, I think and the more
Simon Miles:that we can understand, you know, that the mission, you're
Simon Miles:on the type of baskets, the types of products that you might
Simon Miles:like, and we're able to synthesize that together, that's
Simon Miles:what then surfaces, the inspirational content to you.
Simon Miles:And so, you know, that's, I think that's, that can be really
Simon Miles:powerful as a way of driving it, and driving up discovery side of
Simon Miles:it. So it's very exciting.
Brent Williams:Well, speaking of inspiration, I guess I'll
Brent Williams:close with this question. And you've gotten to know a little
Brent Williams:bit about our students, and, you know, the students of the Walton
Brent Williams:College that I believe have a tremendously bright future in
Brent Williams:front of them. If, you know, as you get a chance to interact
Brent Williams:with, with young people entering into the field of CPG, or retail
Brent Williams:marketing, what are some of the lessons learned from you, as you
Brent Williams:sort of look back at this global career that's been quite
Brent Williams:exciting?
Simon Miles:Yeah, it's, I mean what an exciting time to be
Simon Miles:joining business. Right. I mean, amazing opportunities I think,
Simon Miles:for the for the students. I think there are some timeless
Simon Miles:things which still relevant, I think, going forwards. I mean, I
Simon Miles:think we've touched on a couple of them. So having a sort of
Simon Miles:curious mindset, I think is really important asset to, to
Simon Miles:think about. And so be seeking out and trying to learn
Simon Miles:constantly, I think is a really important thing as as you
Simon Miles:transition out of the sort of academic world into into a
Simon Miles:business world and start to build your career. I think that
Simon Miles:notion of being somewhat action orientated. So having the
Simon Miles:ability to understand how the, how your organization, big or
Simon Miles:small, how does it work? How does stuff really get landed?
Simon Miles:How do you get to the end goal, you know, as efficiently and as
Simon Miles:effectively as possible? I think that's really important. And I
Simon Miles:think that whole kind of external mindset, you know, it's
Simon Miles:very easy sometimes when you you know, everybody's busy, it's
Simon Miles:very easy just to be very internally focused, as you put
Simon Miles:it earlier, you know, as you walk in, you've got to do this,
Simon Miles:it's on your mind, you got a few things you've got to do today.
Simon Miles:But build in, if you can, some time to explore. And to think
Simon Miles:about the outside world. I mean, for example, I always have the
Simon Miles:first hour of my day, is used externally. So I'm reading or
Simon Miles:I'm, you know, interacting with people on whether it's LinkedIn,
Simon Miles:or whether it's, you know, some other platform. And that's about
Simon Miles:learning that's just about opening my mind before I start
Simon Miles:thinking about what I need to do for the day. And so, you know, I
Simon Miles:have to because of the way I work, my brain works, I have to
Simon Miles:diarize that. And so that's in that that's in my calendar, you
Simon Miles:know, on hours of external stuff, otherwise, I just
Simon Miles:wouldn't get to it, because I just start in what I'm doing. So
Simon Miles:I think, you know, having that kind of curiosity, having that
Simon Miles:external mindset, but being able to sort of think about how you
Simon Miles:get stuff done, to achieve I think, is really important. And
Simon Miles:it's definitely all of those has really helped me I think, as
Simon Miles:I've developed my career.
Brent Williams:Well I, synthesizing that maybe just to
Brent Williams:touch a couple of the things that really resonated with me,
Brent Williams:for our students is one I'll go back to one of your earlier
Brent Williams:comments, which is the ability to get things done, you know, to
Brent Williams:focus and get things done particularly early in your
Brent Williams:career can really be something that sets you apart. And then at
Brent Williams:the same time, be able to have a broad mindset, understanding
Brent Williams:what's happening, so that you can bring those learnings and,
Brent Williams:and a unique perspective to the workplace. I think both of those
Brent Williams:are valuable and can be a competitive advantage for a
Brent Williams:young person.
Simon Miles:Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I
Simon Miles:think the the other thing is just sort of fortitude or
Simon Miles:resilience, I think is an important sort of human quality
Simon Miles:to have, because rarely are our careers a straight line. Mine
Simon Miles:certainly hasn't been mine has meandered all over the place. I
Simon Miles:mean, just you know, just to give a bit of insight, you know,
Simon Miles:I was made redundant twice in my career, you know I had to change
Simon Miles:industries a couple times. And it's just that fortitude to get
Simon Miles:back up and go, hey, you know, I've got stuff to offer. And so
Simon Miles:have, you know, confidence in your own ability, I think is an
Simon Miles:important area to drive things forward, you know, that there
Simon Miles:will inevitably be setbacks of one type or another. And the
Simon Miles:ability to dust yourself off and just go again, I think is really
Simon Miles:important, too.
Brent Williams:What wonderful advice to close on. So be
Brent Williams:resilient to our to our students out there listening. Well,
Brent Williams:Simon, I really appreciate you joining us today. I appreciate
Brent Williams:your support of the Walton College and your partnership.
Simon Miles:Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure. Thank
Simon Miles:you.
Brent Williams:On behalf of the Walton College thank you for
Brent Williams:joining us for this captivating conversation. To stay connected
Brent Williams:and never miss an episode, simply search for Be Epic on
