Running a Large Corporate

Can corporations compete with an ever increasing wave of new start-ups?  

Like a Start-up

28.4 millioncustomers

served every weekAustralia’s most valuable brand

(USD $10.8B)

Established1924

~200,000 employees

“Woolworths Limited manages some of Australia's most recognised & trusted brands. We endeavour to create a world class experience for consumers at all levels of our business”

The Retail Landscape

2001: 1st Australian store opened

Amazon Prime worth 30% of Amazon’s total revenue. Amazon reportedly deals with Australian distributers

2009: CostCo, the world’s 7th

largest retailer opens its doors in Australia

2007: Wesfarmers acquires Coles

in largest successful takeover in Australia history.

Wesfarmers larger than WOW in both revenue & profit

2000

300+ stores in Australia

2005: Amazon Prime

Provides free delivery in US markets

2008:  Amazon Prime now

available in Japan, UK, Germany & France

Today

No genetically modified food ever! Mission: To improve the lives and health of our members, by delivering the freshest, cleanest, most delicious food on the planet — in an easeful, dependable way. America’s First Certified Organic Online Grocer. Every order you receive from us takes one more car off the road!  

Selecting food from across the US, Goldbely chooses foods from restaurants based on four variables: deliciousness, uniqueness (or iconic-ness), ability to travel well and, finally, that it makes an awesome gift. For most of these local food producers, this is the first time their dishes are able to reach a national audience. Nearly half of Goldbely's customers have made repeat purchases over its first four months as a live site, and it's brought in $100k in sales.

Offers subscribers a gourmet selection of food delivered every two months from various countries around the world including France, Japan and Brazil!

2008

$500

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

$2,500

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013$

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

30.0%

0.0%

$1,628.8

$1,835.7

$2,020.8$2,124.0

$2,182.9

$2,353.9

$000,000

%

ROLLOUTB

USI

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S CA

SE PILOT

BUIL

D

PLANNING

AP

PRO

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The Delivery Life Cycle

...we had to put our trust in how decisions are made not in what decisions are made

P O W E R E D b y S E R V I C E™

Purchased by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion

 

2000

$200

$400

$600

$800

$1,000

$1,200

2001 2003 2004 2007 2008$

$1.6 $8.6$70

$840

$1,000

$ MILLIONS

$184

Science Assignment

Aim: To learn more about customers in the quickest and most cost effective way.

Hypothesis: By applying basic scientific experimentation in a real retail scenario, learning what customers do or don’t want, can be achieved more quickly & cheaply. Method: Get a developer into a store, in contact with customers to test rapid experimentation. Get feedback from customers and observe their behaviours to see if this is a valid method of learning.

To watch the video go to www.thoughtworks.com/clients/woolworths

Experiment 1

Aim: To provide a more convenient shopping experience for customers.

Hypothesis: Providing a self-scanning app for customers own mobile phones will provide a more convenient shopping experience by helping to avoid queues. Experiment: Build basic self-scan app and observe customers during shop to see if the app can be used easily and if it aids in reducing time on non-essential tasks.

Results: Customers observed to have increased difficulty in shopping with a basket while holding items. Also received comments that it was not useful for a small shop.

Conclusion: Self-scanning on a mobile device does not provide a more convenient shopping experience for small format stores.

Aim: To provide a more convenient shopping experience for customers.

Hypothesis: Many customers are purchasing chickens for a quick meal in the evening. Providing recipes to customers would provide a quick meal that is also healthy. Experiment: Build basic iPad app that provides quick healthy recipes for chicken and observe customers during shop to see if they purchase the items to complete recipes.

Results: Customers do not seem willing to get other recipe items from elsewhere in the store. Going into the rest of the store to get ingredients takes some of the convenience out of the shop.

Conclusion: Items would need to be closer to the app to see if customers are likely to want the healthy meal offering.

Aim: To provide a more convenient shopping experience for customers.

Hypothesis: Moving items close to the chickens and the chicken recipes will provide a convenient way to get a healthy meal in the evening.

Experiment: Move items in the recipes to the same set of shelves as the iPad recipes and see if customers will purchase these items as part of a meal. Results: Customers do not seem to be selecting items from the recipes. A few customers feedback that they were not aware of the items near the recipes though they would be likely to pick them up if they knew.

Conclusion: Items contained in the recipes need to be more obvious to customers to see if it is likely that they would find healthy chicken recipes valuable.

Aim: To learn more about customers in the quickest and most cost effective way.

Hypothesis: By applying basic scientific experimentation in a real retail scenario, learning what customers do or don’t want, can be achieved more quickly & cheaply. Method: Get a developer into a store, in contact with customers to test rapid experimentation. Get feedback from customers and observe their behaviours to see if this is a valid method of learning. Results: Multiple ideas applied and tested within 5 days. Several new ideas also able to be tested that were not planned at the start of the week. A lot of ideas were wrong!

It’s all about how fast you learn

Care about how you make decisions, not what decisions you make

One good test is worth 1,000 expert opinions

Can a Corporate

A recognised brand

Capital to invest

Can a Corporate

200,000 entrepreneurs

200,000 decision makers

200,000 points of interaction with customers