The infinite power of technology goes only as far as the people in any given convenience-store chain can imagine—or be persuaded to imagine.
Speaking at the recent Conexxus meeting in Tucson, Ariz., three information technology (IT) executives discussed the challenge of identifying, funding and executing IT projects amid the noise of their companies’ unique internal dynamics.
Oddly enough, all three—Doug New, CIO of Tedeschi Food Shops, a 7-Eleven company based in Rockland, Mass.; Ric Spargo, vice president of information systems and technology, North America, for Alimentation Couche-Tard, Laval, Quebec; and Hubert Williams, CIO of Maverik, North Salt Lake, Utah—all agreed that the answer goes beyond any lofty cloud-based solution.
“We all influence people,” Spargo said, explaining how he spends much of his time listening and negotiating. “As long as we’re engaging people, we need to be ‘people people.’ ”
Getting a Seat at the Table
For Tedeschi, a key factor in transitioning to a technology-focused chain was its former CEO, Peter Tedeschi. He had a technical background and used it to change the mindset of the executive team, convincing them that technology could be a strategic enabler.
“It set the path,” New told session attendees. “Now IT had a seat at the executive table.”
From that point on, IT was part of the discussion in all parts of the business and could start to bring proactive solutions, New said.
It also allowed the technology team to identify weak points in the chain’s infrastructure, pinpoint what applications needed to be retired or repurposed, and eliminate redundancies. The effort eventually brought IT into alignment with the other internal teams within the company.
For Spargo of Couche-Tard, the job of alignment is complex because the chain’s network is composed of multiple business units, each having its own management, operations, marketing and human-resource departments.
Spargo’s ultimate purpose is to create employee engagement and focus his IT team on the challenges facing each unit. He advised other retailers to commit to consistent communication within their teams, with leaders helping everyone understand the priorities and goals for any given project.
“People want purpose,” Spargo said. “They want to know how [their tasks] align with the overall mission.”
Spargo believes being approachable is also important. He takes time to get to know people’s families and to keep abreast of their lives outside work. Creating inclusive and safe environments allows critical thought, the ability for employees to challenge expectations and not worry about failing.
“The best ideas have to win,” Spargo said. “They have to be prioritized over hierarchy.”
The Vetting Process
An inclusive structure and honest but respectful discussion is also important for Maverik, Williams said.
He spoke of a “vetting process” in which executives from different departments bring their lists of technology priorities to meetings. They discuss their own needs and, as a group, decide which projects—across all departments—are worthy of limited resources.
“We put all this stuff on the board every month and say, ‘What do you want us to do?’ ” Williams said. “It empowers the business.”
Several questions arose from attendees about how to handle requests that were unreasonable or priorities that clashed. Panelists generally said that such problems work themselves out in a natural course of discussion—but only if IT is part of the conversation.
If not, IT often takes on the role of a firefighter, always trying to solve issues after they’ve already begun to negatively affect the business, Williams said.
On larger projects, Maverik forms governance teams or appoints a project manager, which is what the chain did for its made-to-order foodservice project.
“It can be like herding cats,” Williams said. “But there’s a lot of steps to flow through, and [the hope is] everyone gets a good understanding of the big picture.”
The Pros and Cons of Project Management
Because new projects require interactions between multiple departments and the juggling of multiple logistical and technical details, the concept of project management within a chain’s process can be considered everything from imperative to a luxury.
Doctoral graduate Fila Bertránd of Northcentral University, Prescott Valley, Ariz., conducted a study of CIOs within the convenience-store industry to see the pervasiveness of project-management processes, the establishment of project-management offıces (PMOs) and operators’ opinions of their value.
The study reached out to 26 executives using surveys; seven were further interviewed:
- Two-thirds had PMOs.
- One out of seven respondents did not have a PMO, but all considered project management a vital step toward success.
- Maturity, size and culture were key elements that determined the establishment of a PMO, with larger, more mature chains opting to create one.
“They do feel that PMOs have a positive impact and feel they get a return on investment,” Bertránd says. “However, none of them are currently tracking them in terms of effective measures.”
Regardless of any given chain’s process, Bertránd emphasized the importance of defıning metrics for return on investment and measuring the overall success of projects in relation to the PMO’s influence.
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