(music)
- Welcome everyone to another addition of Taking Stock Live
where we do just that, we take stock
with leaders from retail and brands all around the world.
And I know for me, and for many of those of you who give me
your, us and us your comments on LinkedIn
it's been an incredible opportunity just to learn
about people's backgrounds, how they're thinking
about the future of their space
and some of the lessons along the way.
And today, for me personally,
I know I'm going to learn a lot from Francesco Tinto
who is the global CIO for Walgreens Boots Alliance.
And he's just had this incredible career.
And I mean, I can't even imagine what it's been like to be
at the helm of, of technology for Walgreens Boots Alliance
for the last two years, but Francesco first off,
just huge thank you to you.
Thank you for joining us today.
- Oh, thanks Shelley and really thank you for inviting me.
Really looking forward to this conversation.
And sooner later, also having again face to face meeting,
(Shelley laughs)
we are almost there.
- Almost there, thanks to you.
And, and I was actually reading a little bit about you guys.
I think you've,
you've given 56 million vaccinations to date, so.
(Shelley laughs)
- Oh yes and probably this was, this number was old
because we keep growing every week.
- Amazing.
- And I think it's just a, a small help
that we are giving really to go back to our normal life.
So that's very fulfilling our, our purpose.
- Will you talk a little bit
about how you think about the role that technology plays?
It is a big question, empowering the, the retail experience.
- Yes, absolutely.
I think it's technology is really at the core
of the transformation of what we are doing here
at the Walgreens Boots Alliance.
In terms of how we migrate from
a traditional physical experience on creating
an omnichannel set of experience solutions
that are targeted to the customer.
And that's where we wanted really to make sure
that we bring the strength of the physical environment
our strength of the presence very close to the customer,
the strength, frankly also of our pharmacist,
their knowledge, their professionalism, the possibility
to add the role that they play in the neighborhood.
Together with as well also the digital element
which is how I expand the different channels.
And that the combination of these two elements is really
what we believe is our winning element
because we really want it to be omnichannel.
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I think, and you just said it
like sort of the strength of your physical presence,
the strength of understanding the consumer
and your pharmacies.
I mean, I think you and I both know customers don't wake up
you know, and think of themselves
as a retail customer one morning, as a pharmacy customer
another morning or an online customer.
Like they just think of it as, as Walgreens.
- And they, they think about Walgreens
and more important is that how seamless they can connect
with the Walgreen across all the different channels
when they're at home, when they're on, on the street,
when they're in the store, when they're at the phone.
So how do I create an experience for them that says,
"Whenever you touch, you really are one Walgreen,
one single experience and for you, it should be seamless."
And more important which is the next level
is how do I know the customer in a way
that I'm personalizing the experience for, for you in a way
that is I provide the service that you are expecting
in the in the most efficient way.
So also reducing the, the difficulties in the experience.
So I'm not presenting Walgreens,
that is the comment where I say,
I present myWalgreens is really something that
has been designed and tailored for you.
- Absolutely. And I mean, I think,
and you've had tremendous success.
Maybe you'll talk a little bit about it with myWalgreens.
- myWalgreens is a concept that we introduced
now almost a 18 months ago.
And I really always like to say
that it is not just the relaunch of a loyalty program
but it's really creating an experience.
An experience for the customer where I have
the entry point into the into Walgreens
is this personalized experience that we want to be seamless.
Like if you are in the web, if you are in the app,
if you are over the call center or if you are in the store.
So the, myWalgreens is how I interact.
From a technology point of view that's where we have been,
you know that we have been working with you
and in the partnership about how do I create
a customer identity across all these channel?
How I build the personalization on top so that in each
and every interaction I really bring an experience for you.
So what we keep saying is that we weren't moving
from a one to many connection, but to one to one.
Walgreens is personalizing the interaction with the,
with the customer.
- Yeah. And you could, I mean, I, you know
and you can feel it as, as the end customer.
I know going sort of going through our own experience in
in my house and, and getting people vaccinated
and going in and getting medications.
Like I, you know, the integration across, you know
your different channels and tailoring it
and helping reminding me when I have to pick things up
you can really feel the progression of,
of some of the investments you're making.
And I always say like, personalization is good
when you don't even know it's happening.
- Yeah. What, what we really would like to make sure is
that we anticipate your needs, and we bring you the,
the content that you are expecting because we want to make,
we also want to be respectful of your time
when you're engaging with us and we want to make sure
that you get immediately what you need.
That is also at the base of creating a relation
that is much deeper.
When we can bring the knowledge to you
anticipating your needs.
And that goes across all the different areas,
because the the beauty of it is start from the retail aspect
but also goes in the pharmacy aspect
it goes into the healthcare aspect.
So it is really creating and integrating experience
for the customer.
- Absolutely. I can't even really truthfully
imagine what it's been like to be you for the last two years
and, and what you've been navigating in terms of just,
you know having all your employees initially at home
but the frontline out there, you know
really trying to keep themselves safe,
trying to keep their customers safe.
But maybe you could share, you know, just some
of the lessons you've learned in the last two years as,
as you have navigated, you know, this team,
this opportunity and, and the, and this incredible brand.
- Absolutely. So first of all, I, I cannot be more proud
of the organization and the team and the how they have been
stepping up during these two years of pandemic.
Starting from the beginning where we were in a situation
where for sure there was a need, first of all,
of thinking about the personal safety
and the safety of their family but as well also to helping
the company to cope with this situation,
the equipping the people to work remote.
Providing innovative solution for the customer
to interacting with us while they were in lockdown.
Guaranteeing the safety of the team member that were
in the front line in the store every day.
So I think that there's been really an element
where I've seen our people, our team member really living
the purpose of the company to provide health service
and thinking about the health first of our patient.
Having said that the key learning for me has been how at
at a certain point, there was so much work
so need to accelerating all the roadmap to provide the, the,
the roadmap to the to provide solution
to our customer and patient.
That one of the strength has been how we have seen
our people to act as a leader,
act in a multifunctional team.
The teams that were empowered to take decision
and really escalating whatever they needed
mainly because of conflicting priority.
But I was really amazed by the capability of our people
to take on a, a program, a task
and to deliver and to take decision
and really it to accelerate.
So that has been incredible in my opinion,
how we were acting all with one single goal
and guided by our purpose.
- Yeah. I mean, absolutely.
And, you know, I know
and you'll never say this about yourself
but I know that culturally, that because of how, who you are
and how you lead that people feel empowered, you know
to make those decisions and to work, you know
those hours in the night to get things done.
It's, and of course the culture of Walgreens as well.
But I think, you know, you set the tone.
(Shelley chuckles)
I know you have very high standards as, as a
as a provider to you, but you're fair.
And, you know, you give people
the empowerment to go and get it done.
And so I'm sure that that's part of why you're proud
of what you saw in the last two years.
- At the end of day, I'm really proud about the team
and also our partners, everybody step up
and work at their best to achieve
and to get where we are now which I'm-
- Absolutely.
- looking forward that it's, it's fantastic.
- Yeah, it's really, it's incredible.
And I think to your point as someone who gets to work
with your team, the way the technology is actually getting
pushed closer and closer in the store associate and to the,
end consumer and then they're developing applications.
Whether it's store audit or, you know, boots program
like things that are actually like meaningful
at the store level or the, you know, getting,
getting the tools closer to the people
so that they can make decisions in turn with speed
has been just a super fun evolution to watch.
It's not sort of corporate IT you pushing things down.
- No, absolutely.
Because what, what I truly believe and that has been
definitely the cultural shift in, in the IT organization
that I, I always wanted to bring in
is at the end of the day, we want to, to make a change.
A change in the way our user, our customer work.
We want to focus on the, on the business results.
So I want to shift from just implementing a technology
or a capability, but on the adoption, on the change.
At the end of the day, are we making a transformation?
What we looking back is it better?
Are we doing an experience that is changing
and is creating a change for the best?
- Right.
- And so I think that's, that's also push
all our organization to be we want to be closer.
We want to understand what happened in the store.
We want understand what these, what the customer thinks
because that is what at the end of day will allow us
to really tailored the right experience.
(music)