Re-tales: An Interview with Andrew Smith
Posted by Amanda McLaughlin on Jan 12, 2021
Deliver modern, mobile-first shopping experiences that delight your customers. Drive ROI back to your business across all customer touchpoints—in-store, online, and on mobile. Book a time with our team to learn how we can help transform your business with our omnichannel solutions.
*Privacy Notice: By hitting "Submit," I acknowledge receipt of the NewStore Privacy Policy.
Re-tales is an interview series featuring experts in retail, commerce, and technology. In this post, we speak with Andrew Smith, co-founder of ThinkUncommon, a consultancy that implements the ‘how’ part of innovating in retail so brands can get on with doing the ‘what.’ Andrew’s specialty is in solving problems and leading transformational change. He enjoys agility, not tradition, and is constantly looking to bring his uncommon-ness to businesses craving innovation.
Like so many people, my start in retail was accidental. Ever since I was very little I wanted to be a pilot. I worked really hard and got into a university aviation program, only to learn I had a medical condition that wouldn’t allow me to fly for a living. I was heartbroken of course, but it helped me realize my true love is people, not planes.
I then found myself in an assistant store manager position for Australia’s biggest telco company, Telstra. I became a store manager quite quickly and rose up into bigger stores before I found myself wanting to try something different. I went into a central support role where I did everything from merchandising to workforce planning to business analysis. I also was incredibly lucky that my bosses kept leaving, allowing me to take their jobs until I became the head of retail operations at the age of 29. An insatiable curiosity of wanting to do new things in retail has kept me going and led me to where I am today.
I found early on in my leadership career that I bring to the table an ability to influence an organization to change. Influence leaders to make different decisions, influence processes to be smarter and faster. I was looking for a way to apply those skills, and be what I call a positive manipulator of business transformation. I joined forces with Gareth Jude, and we found ThinkUncomon. He’s been in retail for a long time and is an incredible fountain of knowledge. We were having a conversation about the persistent negative narrative around retail and thought, “What slows so many retailers from constantly innovating?” We found that it was common for people to know ‘what’ to do, but they lacked the operations and capabilities needed to do it. In other words, the uncommon part was knowing ‘how’ to innovate.
So, we decided the industry needed to be reframed. We spent a heap of time researching the biggest retailers and the “best” retailers, as well as the best models for innovation from other industries. We built a company and a process around embedding innovation into the fabric of a retail business. It is specifically crafted for the uniqueness of retail.
“If you want to pursue an idea, it should deliver value to your customer, deliver value to your business, and be aligned with your purpose.”
The ReFRAME model brings together things that are working at the most innovative retailers in the world. It consists of 6 stages and 18 steps to remove friction from the innovation process which means your rate and breadth of change increases.
Re – Reset the foundation. This is where we talk about the alignment of your leadership team, the culture of the business, and the way it defines innovation. The biggest piece here, though, is the clarity of purpose. Every good, innovative business has a purpose that is clear, succinct, and actionable across every role and decision.
F – Filter the ideas. This is our golden rule. If you want to pursue an idea, it should deliver value to your customer, deliver value to your business, and be aligned with your purpose. If it misses a box, it’s almost certainly not going to be the right idea. All too often, innovations don’t achieve what they should have achieved because they’re too focused on just one of those metrics.
R – Get innovation ready. You have to think about and define the role of the sponsors. What type of team do you need? Which part of the business leads it? Then, give those people resources – time, money, whatever it may be. The biggest unlock here is the role the sponsor plays, it shouldn’t be about the name above the door, the knower of all things. This person needs to play a really active role on the team to ensure it is consistently equipped and moving without blockages in the way.
A – Analyze and design the solution. This is how to take a really cool idea and make it actionable. You need to collect evidence and back it up. Retailers have survived since the Istanbul markets on intuition and responsiveness. That doesn’t work as well as it used to. So, we need to change our thinking and become more objective with testing.
M – Make the design and scale it. Here we look at building prototypes and refining the product. There are four lifecycle maturities that we recommend, starting from sticky tape and string to testing in the real world. If it doesn’t work, you move on – either by reframing the idea or parachuting out of the idea.
E – Embed and make it the new normal. This is the most important element that most people forget about. How do you plan a transition? How do you test your transition plan? How do you deploy it through manageable chunks into your network? Common questions, but the execution is actually uncommon.
“Reframe how you think about innovation. It’s not one thing, or dark art, or a marketing statement. If done right, it is a permanent shift of the way you operate that delivers a significantly higher rate and breadth of change.”
Firstly, leadership. One of the big myths about being innovative is that it is all on the leader, who needs some special, rare personality. That isn’t true. Innovation is so much more than that. We describe it as an organization’s ability to have a high rate and a broad volume of change. And the traits needed to do this are new-ish, so it’s ok to not be an expert at them. If I had to narrow it down to some big ones though, it would be these few.
(1) Embrace the philosophy of “doing good rather than looking good.” Always focus on the value your work is creating for the customer and the business, not your career or ego.
(2) Disenthrall yourself from what you thought leadership and sponsorship was. We are brought up to think that you have to be the leader with all the answers. It’s not true. A leader’s role, particularly in innovation, is to bring together the right set of people to create your “thing.” Give them all they need to be successful, then be a navigator.
(3) Reframe how you think about innovation. It’s not one thing, or dark art, or a marketing statement. If done right, it is a permanent shift of the way you operate that delivers a significantly higher rate and breadth of change.
We see innovation as a collection of “things.” You go to the NRF BIG Show and see a bunch of amazing things on the expo floor and feel like a kid in a candy shop, wanting one of everything. Not to mention, too many decision-makers choose things because everyone else is doing it. Humans have evolved an incredible ability to be efficient. That means we sometimes skip critical thinking and go straight to 80/20 decision-making. Always start with your brand, purpose, or customer to look for drivers. Then, choose the best ideas to test and make sure they deliver value to all three.
I will say one thing about aligning with consumer trends. Most of the time brands are behind because they don’t see value in an idea until it has been proven elsewhere, in other words, we play it safe and wait until others do it. Do it yourself! If you have an idea that seems to align with the golden rule, but it hasn’t been done in the market, give it seed funding and test it out. Worst case is you collect a bunch of information about your business and customers and you learn what not to do. That’s what I call influential failure. Failure can hurt, and it should, but if it has positively influenced you by giving you information or experience, then that is great.
It’s been heartbreaking to watch the impact COVID-19 has had on retail. I love this industry, and the people in it, and I hope everyone is doing ok. A positive to come from it, though, is that it has shown us what is possible when we disenthrall ourselves from the way we have always done things. Retailers are built off process and execution. We are made for it, and it has made us successful for thousands of years. But, the game has changed. We are still trying to win Wimbledon with a wooden racket.
It’s time for an update. We have a systematic way of doing things with our ReFRAME model, but you can do a lot of it yourself. Map out on a wall the journey from problem/opportunity statements to a fully embedded idea in your business and get a group of people to tell you what they find are the hardest parts of the process. Is it getting funding? Is it testing? Is it getting permission to try things and experiment? Find the sticking points and scrub them down so innovation can flow more freely.
First, I have a request for the industry. We need to let go of the negative narrative and realize that retailing is retailing regardless of the medium. When malls opened we didn’t ask, “Are you a mall retailer or a street retailer?” We didn’t care, we recognized the medium was different but knew it was still retailing. Online is the same. We are getting used to what that means and how to operate across physical, digital, and social.
For me, the future of retail is all about relationships. I think more products and services will see value in a shift to direct-to-consumer unless wholesalers work out a new way to define their role in ensuring those brands get more consistency in execution than they get right now. And consumers are increasingly looking to feel good about who they give their money to and why, so the relationship with customers is evolving to be much deeper.
I’m an ex-pat living a 24-hour flight away from family and friends, so all the messaging apps. I also spend way too much time on Twitter and Politico.
The number one piece of advice came from a great friend of mine, who was my leader for a long time at Telstra. I am very hard on myself, a classic perfectionist. So, during one of our walking meetings, he said to me, “At least once a day find a way to be kind to yourself.” It has really stuck with me and is advice I regularly give to other people.
You can take the guy out of retail but you can’t take retail out of the guy. I shop! I also love quiet time, sitting outside with a coffee and the dog. If I’m not doing that, I would either be traveling or at an amazing restaurant or bar with my wonderful partner indulging in delicious food and cocktails.
