Omnichannel: Rethinking Business, with CEOs of GoDaddy, Qualcomm, Intuit +More
Aman Bhutani of GoDaddy, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Sasan Goodarzi of Intuit
A couple of major ideas had an impact on me this past week:
First, that retail is in the early stages of a significant shift, driven not by simple "e-commerce" as we've understood it for years, but by a deeper digitization of the shopping experience. The favored term for this overall shift is "omnichannel."
The omnichannel idea (as I define it) is that retailers have an opportunity to use data on shopper identity, history, loyalty, preferences and payment patterns to improve the experience no matter where the shopper is. Done right, this increases the likelihood that the shopper will buy, be satisfied, and come back.
The "rise of omnichannel" theme played out across multiple conversations I had this week. I spoke with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon at that company's investor day, where he talked about Qualcomm chips powering a new type of experience inside Walmart stores, where Walmart will be able to better understand how customers are navigating the physical space and how to improve it. I spoke with GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani in a Fortt Knox 1:1 about how he's retooling the company to offer omnichannel tools to the small-business customers who may have initially come to GoDaddy just for domain names, hosting and websites. And I spoke with Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi about how his company is positioning itself to power "smart money decisions" for consumers and small businesses, which should better position both to seize the omnichannel opportunity.
Second, this week I also spent time with CNBC's Technology Executive Council, a group of executives who run technology functions at companies across a number of different industries. In our first in-person gathering in about two years, we shared ideas about strategy and policy. MongoDB's CTO, Mark Porter, joined me on TechCheck from the summit:
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon on Growth at the Intelligent Edge: CNBC Working Lunch
On Cristiano Amon’s first Investor Day as CEO this past week, Qualcomm stock rose nearly 8% to all-time highs. In my Working Lunch segment on CNBC's Power Lunch, I introduced viewers to the leader and his plan:
Aman Bhutani, GoDaddy CEO: A Fortt Knox Conversation
I spoke with GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani about the new competitive landscape in digital tools for small business, and his leadership journey:
Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi: Software Fuels Smarter Money Decisions, And Growth
After a blowout earnings report, Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi joined me to talk not only Credit Karma and QuickBooks, but Intuit's bigger-picture strategy for growth:
Is Apple's Self Service Repair A Game Changer? On the Other Hand
Apple's new Self Service Repair program will finally let consumers fix their own iPhones. Is this a revolution in consumer empowerment and Right to Repair? I argued both sides in the latest edition of On the Other Hand on CNBC's Squawk Box:
Check out The Black Experience in America: The Course, an online educational resource I researched, designed and built. A free PDF download is available to bring the material to kids, and the online interactive experience is made for adults.