This week on the Be Epic podcast, Brent sits down with Simon Miles, Vice President of Global Omnichannel at The Coca-Cola Company. They discuss the omni-channel retail space and innovations including those in retail media, AI, and e-commerce. Simon shares his global perspective gained from working with his team that operates in 206 countries and the important role of collaboration across functions and with retailers. Simon also offers guidance for students entering CPG and retail marketing, emphasizing the value of curiosity, action-orientation, and resilience in building a career.
Podcast Episode
Episode Transcript
Simon Miles 0:00
It's very easy sometimes when you you know, everybody's busy. It's very easy just
to be very internally focused as you put it earlier. You know, as you walk in, you've
got to do this. It's on your mind, you got a few things you've got to do today. But
build in, if you can some time to explore, and to think about the outside world.
Brent Williams 0:16
Welcome to the Be Epic podcast, brought to you by the Sam M. Walton College of Business
at the University of Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll explore
the dynamic landscape of business, and uncover the strategies, insights and stories
that drive business today.
Well, today, I have with me, Simon Miles. Simon is Vice President of Global Omnichannel at the Coca Cola Company, and has become a good friend. So Simon, thank you for joining.
Simon Miles 0:49
Thanks, Brent. It's so good to be back in Northwest Arkansas again. We've been coming
for a lot of years. And it's always a great pleasure, good to see you.
Brent Williams 0:54
Well, we're glad to have you here. Maybe from the accent we can tell you're not from
Arkansas. Right. So maybe tell us a little bit about yourself.
Simon Miles 1:01
Yeah, I'm I'm from the south, but it's the south of England. So I live near to near
London. Yeah, so I've, I've been coming over to the US part of Coca Cola for for many
years, I've been part of the global team for the last 10 years, been at Coca Cola
17 years, so had a sort of long, long career in all sorts of different elements of
that. But you know, personally married, two kids who are no longer kids, they're grown
ups now. And keen tennis player and photographer, and even drone pilot for a bit of
aerial photography occasionally.
Brent Williams 1:31
That's right, quite the quite fun interests outside of work. And inside work, you
know, from a professional perspective, a background in marketing, digital marketing,
e commerce.
Simon Miles 1:43
Yeah, certainly in the last 10 to 15 years that's dominated it. Although I have to
say in in the earlier parts of my career it was much more varied than that. So yes,
there was some sales roles, there was some admin roles, I was leading teams on insights,
on category planning, on shopper marketing. So it was it was a good broad base from
which then I eventually kind of narrowed it down and started to specialize as digital
marketing, and ecommerce started to evolve. So I could see the opportunity and kind
of spent more time in that space.
Brent Williams 2:11
And then in this role, you're leading commercial strategy with, for Coca Cola on behalf
of most global customers?
Simon Miles 2:21
Yes, so. So I do that across all of our regions of the world. So we operate in these
206 countries. Clearly, I can't cover all 200 metrics. So prioritization is always
key. But yes, I'm responsible for that for our overall omni channel strategy with
all of our key customers across the different regions of the world. But of course,
we have in Coca Cola, we have nine operating units around the world. So I work with
our local teams who will do more of the kind of day to day work on the ground.
Brent Williams 2:46
Okay. Totally makes sense. Well, let's, let's kind of dive into the omni channel world.
Because what an exciting place, what an exciting area you work in, omni channel retail,
you've got a good bit of history, you know, working in a with retailers in omni channel.
Yeah, just kind of what are you seeing? And how do you see it evolving right now?
Simon Miles 3:09
Yeah, it is. It's ever evolving. It's one of those fascinating spaces, you know, it's
changed a lot in the sort of 10-15 years, I've been in that space. And of course,
there was the huge acceleration towards e commerce during the COVID pandemic in a
couple years back, which I think really changed the game for a lot of suppliers. And
certainly for us, we're suddenly, from a very small part of our business, it's suddenly
become a very significant part of the business. And I know the same is true for many
retailers, too. And that's driving a lot of change, I think in terms of how people
view the importance of the E commerce side of omni channel. And so we're seeing a
lot more investment going in. So we're not going to talk about investment. I'm thinking
people resource, as well as you know, dollars and cents, and a lot more focus in terms
of our business planning and those kinds of areas that we work on. And just to give
you sort of a couple of areas that I think have really sort of moving forward a lot
more recently, there's been a lot of sort of capacity constraints and that kind of
stuff, which came out of the pandemic, it was difficult for people to meet demand
at the time, as that, as that spiked. And so there was a lot of investment go into
into sort of supply chain solutions and logistics and those kinds of things to build
the capacity so that we can meet demand. So I think that's, that's a real trend that
really accelerated through through and beyond the pandemic. And more recently, I think
you've seen the development of a couple of areas like artificial intelligence, which
is really making it starting to make a difference. I think it's still early, and we're
still figuring it out. But it's starting to play out. And I think it has a lot of
as has a big future, if you like as to the things I'm thinking about for the future.
And the other one is the emergence of the retail media area, which is driving significant
amount of inven investment potentially into the retailer, p&l from different parts
of the supplier organization here. We're talking brand dollars rather than kind of
traditional trade dollars. But again, it's early days, we're still figuring it out.
So yeah, there's lots of beads. It never stops, right? It's it's such a fascinating
space,
Brent Williams 5:01
It is fascinating, maybe kind of diving in on both of those, maybe we'll start with
with AI, because we probably, we've done some work together on retail media, which
I want to touch on. Very early days of, you know, generative AI being much more accessible
to both individuals and companies. Any like little tidbits of highlights of where
you think maybe this could make a real difference in omni channel?
Simon Miles 5:29
Yeah, I think the jury's still out, you know, because we are at the early stages,
but the way I look at it is, I can definitely see. And I was talking about this with
our local team yesterday, actually, when you think about how people shop, and the
what they're trying to do is they're trying to feed the family for the week, right?
Typically, mom is saying, you're saying like, okay, I've got, you know, the kids got
to go to school. And I've got lunchboxes to make, and then I've got, you know, some
friends come around on Saturday night, so that she's got a meal plan in her head of
a number of meals. And at the moment, the structure of how people generally shop online
is called item by item or aisle by aisle right picking it through, and I think what's
gonna happen with something like AI is you could actually put in, in sort of natural
language, you know, build me a plan for the week, I've got you know three kids in
the house, I need five lunchboxes, and I need a meal for Saturday night. And it'll
give you suggestions then of products, which I think was kind of one click, you can
add to the basket. So that kind of ability, I think is going to change the dynamics
of how people shop online from, you know, frankly, what historically, I think, has
been almost imagine a floor plan of a supermarket, put on a page of a computer screen.
And then we're made to kind of go through all the aisles, which perhaps isn't the
best experience we could have built. But it's it's just we are where we are. So I
think AI is going to make a difference to that kind of thing. And I also think more
technically, how the digital shelf is built, I think, really heavily influenced by
artificial intelligence. So at the moment is it's it's kind of quite a manual process
in many ways of images and texts, and the rest of it to kind of create the pages that
you see. But I think artificial intelligence will take a lot of the effort out of
that. So you know, most of the use cases that we're seeing are in the space of time
saving and efficiency. And I think that's where it's really gonna start to begin with
where it goes beyond that, you know, you have to ask a futurist really can get around
that.
Brent Williams 7:17
Well even your first example of meal planning for a family, that that could be an
impact of saving a family an hour, you know, on the weekend that could allow them
to enjoy, enjoy family time or enjoy recreation. And, you know, I'm excited about
the ability of generative AI and enterprises to, of course, take out the rote tasks
that we probably as humans, you know, could be using our time better. So I think it's,
I think it's exciting. I can't wait to watch it.
Simon Miles 7:49
Yeah, no completely. And I'll give you another little, little tiny example that I've
been using it for recently, when we were still having a lot of virtual meetings at
Coke, right. I'm part of a global team. So we hosted a meeting last week with about
10 people on the call. And we recorded the call, because there were some people who
couldn't make it. And so the the there's, you know, Zoom automatically created a transcript
of the meeting I needed then to summarize it. So I just put that into ChatGPT and
said, turn this transcript into a summary of the meeting with bullet points and action
points. And it did it in 15 seconds. So you know, the time saving for me, yes, I could
have gone through that. But it was an hour's meeting would have taken me probably
half an hour to have done that. So you're absolutely right, in terms of the time saving
is tremendous.
Brent Williams 8:28
That is wonderful I agree. Well retail media, which is really how you and I originally
got to know one another. And you individually, Coca-Cola, as a company has really
supported the Walton College in putting out thought leadership around retail media.
We put out our first white paper early last fall, and are working on a second version
of that, that you're helping us with, again, so one, thank you for helping the Walton
College create thought leadership. But one thing I love is that we're doing this together.
And but, you know, well, how do you see this space evolving? Because it's been a space
that really seems to have evolved really, really quickly.
Simon Miles 9:18
Yeah, it is. You're right. And many people think of it as the third wave of, of digital
advertising, you know, after search and social, and but the speed at which it's got
to the level is much faster than either of those two. And so it's hard to you know,
and that's why we wanted to partner up with you guys. And it was such an important
piece of work that you led last year, to give us a baseline of understanding on it
because there was a lot of there was a lot of literature out in the marketplace, but
it's all coming much of it was coming with an angle. So, you know, an agency would
publish or a retailer would publish. And so we wanted an independent viewpoint and
that's what you gave us and that was really helpful for us as a business to then be
able to think through for ourselves. What are the key things we want to be focused
on? What do we want to try and work out? So it's been a wonderful partnership, and
we really appreciate the work that you've done. And it's definitely helped us, I think,
to work with some industry partners as well, to sort of take some of that thinking
on. And so, you know, retail media is one of those areas that has, has such opportunity
in it. And I think it's quite easy, as you articulated in the white paper last year
to kind of understand the promise of that, with, you know, consumers getting more
relevant advertising and retailers making some a new revenue stream and suppliers
being able to target in a way that hadn't before and measure. But we've still got
a way to go to kind of realize that that promise. But there's been, you know, significant
strides forward, you know, we've been testing with a number of different retailers
in different parts of the world. You know, what responds, well, how do you work through
it? What types of tactics work well, in this space, as many others have, as well.
And I think there's been a lot of work. And one of the things that's interesting about
this space, and, and it reminds me of when I was first in E commerce, you know, over
a decade ago, there's quite a collaborative spirit in the industry, which doesn't
necessarily exist in other parts. And so we've certainly partnered up a lot, you know,
as we did with you in the first instance, but with other, you know, there's cross
supplier forums, there's people like the IAB are working in this space, there's a
lot of collaboration here. And I think the way forward in this space, and when I come
back to suppliers, and retailers specifically working together to work out the right
plans for the consumer collaboration is at the heart of that. Because what I'm seeing
now, globally, is that these are all evolving in their own way. So if you're a Carrefour
in France, or you're Woolworths Australia, or you're a Walmart in the US, you're developing
for your own platform. And so it's developing slightly differently. And so there's
a, there's a need to collaborate together to understand where all those platforms
are going, and how we get more consistency in the industry. And that's starting to
come, we're starting to open that up. But I don't think any one company has all the
answers either. And so it's not one of those things, we can just go out and try and
make everybody fit to our model, because we don't have all the answers either, certainly.
And so it's opening up a really fabulous collaboration opportunity between retailers
and suppliers. And I think long term, this will fundamentally change the way that
retailer supplier relationships work. Because it historically, you know, it's been
owned by the merchants and the key account teams, you know, it's been the sort of
two, two sides of the coin, if you like, and kind of working out and negotiating together
and building the plans. Now, with the advent of retail media, where it's much more
about marketing and media, different parts of the organization are brought into play.
And you have to have both sides working together in order to make that work. So you
have collaboration opportunities, within the retailer, within the supplier, and between
the retailer and supplier, which looks different in the future than it did in the
past. So it's it's an amazing evolving space. You know, as you say, fast, lots of
investment going in, lots of progress, but still lots of development to come.
Brent Williams 12:57
What are my learnings out of that work last summer, that speaks to this point was,
you know, typically you you thought about that relationship as you're right. I mean,
at least being I won't say owned, but maybe led by it was more dyadic, if you will,
you know. And all of a sudden, we see multiple parts of the organization have to not
only collaborate across retail and supplier, but even within a brand or within a retailer
that we hadn't seen before. And so I agree with you that the collaboration and the
integration, both internally and externally are going to be key.
Simon Miles 13:40
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And that we've certainly been doing, you know,
since we were working together last summer, we've been doing a lot of that sort of
work, so you won't see it on externally. But internally, we've been doing a lot to
break down some of the silos that exist in our business. And think about how do we
plan activation together in a way that's much more joined up than it was in the past.
So you know, the brand teams and the commercial teams are much more linked. It's based
off the, you know, category and insight understanding, and the insights that the retailer
can share with us as well. So it's quite a different animal. There's a lot more people
involved, that's complex, and an organization our size, you know, Coca Cola has something
like 700,000 people globally. That's not easy to kind of, you know, manage your way
through that. So we spend a lot of time thinking about that. And, you know, the good
news is, I think there's, there's an appetite, and an understanding from the retailer's
point of view as well, that the same thing exists in their organizations. They're
feeling that too. And we're helping, you know, working together in a way that we probably
couldn't have done before. We're bringing some of our expertise as media buyers and
marketeers, which is historically what you know, our organization has been been been
good at and been famous for. And we're bringing some of that skill set and expertise
on behalf of our retail partner. So it's been it's been good. It's been good, overall
positive about the future of that.
Brent Williams 14:52
I'm looking forward to the next iteration of the work. So again, thank you for for
partnering with us on it. And you mentioned something that over the last year, as
I've gotten to know you, that you've helped me with, and that is being able to get
a more global understanding of what's happening in omni channel retail, but some of
the unique aspects regionally across the world. And so operating in 206 countries,
I think you have a great vantage point of that. Just what are some of the things you
see differently regionally that you think are interesting?
Simon Miles 15:31
Yeah, you're absolutely right, it's one of the privileges of the role I have at Coca
Cola is I get to see a lot of different models working. And, you know, there's, there's
a lot of often a lot of similarities between places like the US and Western Europe.
But even that, you know, if I think about, you know, my home country, the UK, built
up its ecommerce business based on home delivery. Whereas if you're in France, or
most other sort of developed markets, it's more of a pickup market. And so there's
nuances in terms of how the E commerce model works, and where some of the costs are
contained in that, because obviously, from the UK model is quite expensive to run,
because you got to then deliver to people's houses. Whereas if you get the consumer
to work, do that work, then you know, there's there's a slightly different economic
return on it. I think what's interesting as well is when you step out into Asia, you
know China's out kind of almost on its own and its own sort of ecosystem developed
very differently. Very mobile led, is very socially lead. So lots of the commerce
sitting within the framework of the social media channels that exist in China, which
looks, you know, somewhat similar to the ones that we will be familiar with, but operate
under slightly different ways. And so what's interesting is the influence of China
in some of the other Asian markets. So we take India, where I think currently it's
the market is still very, very traditional trade led right so something like 96% of
our business in India, is still what you call traditional trade, so the Khurana stores,
and that, you know, mom and pop stores, that kind of stuff. So it's only quite small,
the kind of develop side, but that's all just skipping a generation that's going straight
into social and mobile. So you see the models very much sort of developing differently.
But they are also thinking about things like retail media, and artificial intelligence,
you know, so some of those threads that I've talked about, are still manifesting themselves
in markets, which on the surface look very different. So yeah, there's lots of lots
of different areas that the other bit that would, that I'm also responsible for, if
you start to step away from retail for a minute is kind of food service and food service
aggregators, quick commerce, that kind of era. And we've seen that develop in a lot
of different parts of the world. So you have markets like Israel, or Turkey, which
are very strong in terms of some of the tech developments there around for food aggregator
platforms, which are very sophisticated in terms of how they, how they will market
themselves, you know, what the platform looks like, how interactive it is, and those
kinds of things. So it's always just fascinating. I mean, you know, that that expression
every day is a school day. And it certainly in my job, that's absolutely true. And
I'm always coming into stuff thinking, wow, I never saw that before. That's amazing.
Brent Williams 18:00
Well, you know, one thing that I think I can tell, is, you know, you enjoy learning,
right? And so being curious, and learning and learning about what is happening in
the world is quite a privilege, as you mentioned, I'm sure.
Simon Miles 18:14
Yeah it is, you're absolutely right. And that's one of the motivators for me is trying
to understand the space. And when I in the role, I have one of the sides of that,
that I think I owe the organization for the privilege of doing the job I do is to
be the person who's almost like the translator for our business, to take the outside
world and bring it in to Coca Cola. So understand the trends understand the differences
regionally. But see the similarities between so that we can draw the dots between
various different whether it's customer platforms, or whether it's, you know, different
regions of the world and try and see that and say, what is the implication for our
business in other parts of the world. So I'm an opportunity spotter, if you like,
on behalf of the of the organization, and that, that keeps me intellectually stimulated.
Because you're absolutely right, you've got to stay in that learning mindset, and
say, how do I just not take anything for granted here? How do I look at this fresh
every day? And try and figure out what's new and different? I love that side of it.
Brent Williams 19:10
Yeah you know, and I think that's actually where I would, we would turn that sensemaking,
you know, for the organization. And that's actually something that I think often leaders
can forget is a really important part of their role, right? Because I know for me,
it's so easy to walk in at whatever time you're coming in, in the morning, and the
to do list sort of takes over. But but it is true, right? There's so much happening
outside of the walls of the organization. And a leader does have to be able to scan
and make sense of it, you know, for the organization for the strategy of the organization.
Simon Miles 19:46
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I've always taken the view if I'm one of the
leaders in our digital business, that I'm supposed to be driving that agenda and where
is most of that going to come from? It's not going to come from the work I've set
off, although you always do get some fantastic work internally, I've got to at least
have the view outside to see what others are doing. And that's why I've always taken
time to attend, you know, conferences and you know, things like this. You know, I
always learn something when I talk to people like you Brent and and others, you know.
And so it's important to have an external focus as well as an internal one. Just to
keep abreast of everything in the industry, because there's so much to learn all the
time it moves so quickly, particularly in the digital space.
Brent Williams 20:22
Yeah. Well, speaking of learning, one of mine working together last year, was really
about the organization of Coca Cola. You know, I thought, Coca Cola. But you know,
it's a little more complicated than that with with your bottlers and the relationship
that you have with bottlers. And I think most of us probably don't understand that
it's a little bit unique.
Simon Miles 20:45
Yeah, I think it is. You're absolutely right. People just think Coca Cola is like
one big company, right. But it's actually sort of the easiest way to think about it
as a split is two halves, right? So you have the Coca Cola Company, which owns the
brands, creates, creates the magic, if you like, in terms of the advertising campaigns,
and that kind of stuff, and also owns the magic formula. And before you ask me now,
I don't know what it is.
Brent Williams 21:06
Okay, now, that was my next question.
Simon Miles 21:08
That's way above my paygrade. And so yeah, so that's what the kind of company does.
And then there is a network of franchise bottlers around the world who take the syrup
that we produce, and then they then bottle and manufacture that locally. So we have
hundreds of plants around the world that manufacture and they will then distribute
that in the local markets. And so that's, that's the sort of franchise model that
we have. But of course, it's a symbiotic relationship, right? We are absolutely work
hand in hand with our bottling partners, you know, we we just would not be successful
without them clearly. And so. And in fact, I'd the first nine years of my Coca Cola
career, I was on the bottling side of the organization in the UK. So I'm very familiar
with that. So I've sort of done the transition. So I've set both sides of the of the
Coca Cola system, as we call it.
Brent Williams 21:54
So having the background with the bottler, I'm sure gives you an advantage as you
as you work with them in this role.
Simon Miles 22:01
Yeah, I think it does. I think it partly, you know, commercially, I understand the
economic model, and the business model for the bottlers, which, you know, is very
helpful on a day in day out basis, because, you know, what, what their agenda is likely
to be and what the what they need to achieve, and how it works, how to get stuff done.
And that's one of the, one of the challenges, I think, as you enter business. And
as you build a career, the most, in my view, the most successful people are people
who know how to get stuff done. You know, there's a lot of people who are, you know,
good thinkers, or they're, you know, smart people, but if you can't get it done, it's
going to be a limiting factor. And so, for me, you're right, that that history of
mine in the bottling side of the organization is very helpful for me to understand
what what would they need to make this work because that often locally, they will
be the people who will go and sell to retailers, and they'll be building the local,
you know, spin on the plant. And so if you know that going in, you know, have feed
that information in the first place. And so that ability to get stuff done, I think,
is a really important thing to hold on to, as you build a career,
Brent Williams 23:02
Transitioning maybe back to the to the business, just just to touch you know, the
overall categories that you're in the beverage category is one without deep knowledge
of the category seems to be innovative in some really interesting ways. So I guess,
what are what are some of the highlights of that innovation? And where do you see
those categories evolving to?
Simon Miles 23:23
Yeah, there's there is a lot of, of dynamism in the beverage category always has been,
but it's sort of, like much of most things in life, it's accelerating and fragmenting
a lot. So we've seen you know, the growth of things like coffee is a really, really
big global trend, you know, alcoholic beverages like seltzers, and things like that
have come up, you know, more recently, but huge innovations in, in packaging as well
driven by a sort of sustainability agenda as well. So as you'll notice, as you travel
the world, there's lots of different ways in which that manifests itself. And whether
it's lightweight glass bottles, whether that's different types of plastics, whether
it's yeah, one of my favorite ones recently I was in Japan, recently, they've got
what they call labeless bottles so another little plastic seat sleeve that often sits
on the outside of remove that and just print directly onto the bottle. So there's,
there's ways in which we're innovating constantly around some of those kinds of sides
of the of the categories. But it's it is amazing how much choice there is now for
consumers. And of course, that that also presents itself a challenge when you think
about the business side of it from assortment and display and you know, planogram
automation, all that kind of stuff. We're working hard on to make it simple, simple
for people to shop the category to drive that but yet again, another area that never
stops innovating.
Brent Williams 24:42
Well, and you know, I guess as the choice proliferates, you know, for me as a consumer,
going back to retail media and some of the some of the innovations in technology.
I'm excited that that you as a marketer with Coca Cola can increase singularly speak
to me individually, and helped me parse through all of that choice, knowing me as
the consumer.
Simon Miles 25:09
Yeah. And that's the wonderful thing about where technology will take us, I think
and I don't think we're, we've cracked that code yet. But we're certainly getting
there. So you're absolutely right. Because, you know, there's that notion of the endless
aisle, right, as you get a kind of category like ours which got 1000s of SKUs in it,
no one wants to shop an endless aisle, what you want is to find the things you're
looking for very quickly. And that's where the technology will help surface the right
products in the right way. And then provide a bit of inspiration. So that's where
that technology comes in really powerfully, I think and the more that we can understand,
you know, that the mission, you're on the type of baskets, the types of products that
you might like, and we're able to synthesize that together, that's what then surfaces,
the inspirational content to you. And so, you know, that's, I think that's, that can
be really powerful as a way of driving it, and driving up discovery side of it. So
it's very exciting.
Brent Williams 25:58
Well, speaking of inspiration, I guess I'll close with this question. And you've gotten
to know a little bit about our students, and, you know, the students of the Walton
College that I believe have a tremendously bright future in front of them. If, you
know, as you get a chance to interact with, with young people entering into the field
of CPG, or retail marketing, what are some of the lessons learned from you, as you
sort of look back at this global career that's been quite exciting?
Simon Miles 26:32
Yeah, it's, I mean what an exciting time to be joining business. Right. I mean, amazing
opportunities I think, for the for the students. I think there are some timeless things
which still relevant, I think, going forwards. I mean, I think we've touched on a
couple of them. So having a sort of curious mindset, I think is really important asset
to, to think about. And so be seeking out and trying to learn constantly, I think
is a really important thing as as you transition out of the sort of academic world
into into a business world and start to build your career. I think that notion of
being somewhat action orientated. So having the ability to understand how the, how
your organization, big or small, how does it work? How does stuff really get landed?
How do you get to the end goal, you know, as efficiently and as effectively as possible?
I think that's really important. And I think that whole kind of external mindset,
you know, it's very easy sometimes when you you know, everybody's busy, it's very
easy just to be very internally focused, as you put it earlier, you know, as you walk
in, you've got to do this, it's on your mind, you got a few things you've got to do
today. But build in, if you can, some time to explore. And to think about the outside
world. I mean, for example, I always have the first hour of my day, is used externally.
So I'm reading or I'm, you know, interacting with people on whether it's LinkedIn,
or whether it's, you know, some other platform. And that's about learning that's just
about opening my mind before I start thinking about what I need to do for the day.
And so, you know, I have to because of the way I work, my brain works, I have to diarize
that. And so that's in that that's in my calendar, you know, on hours of external
stuff, otherwise, I just wouldn't get to it, because I just start in what I'm doing.
So I think, you know, having that kind of curiosity, having that external mindset,
but being able to sort of think about how you get stuff done, to achieve I think,
is really important. And it's definitely all of those has really helped me I think,
as I've developed my career.
Brent Williams 28:24
Well I, synthesizing that maybe just to touch a couple of the things that really resonated
with me, for our students is one I'll go back to one of your earlier comments, which
is the ability to get things done, you know, to focus and get things done particularly
early in your career can really be something that sets you apart. And then at the
same time, be able to have a broad mindset, understanding what's happening, so that
you can bring those learnings and, and a unique perspective to the workplace. I think
both of those are valuable and can be a competitive advantage for a young person.
Simon Miles 28:59
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And I think the the other thing is just sort of
fortitude or resilience, I think is an important sort of human quality to have, because
rarely are our careers a straight line. Mine certainly hasn't been mine has meandered
all over the place. I mean, just you know, just to give a bit of insight, you know,
I was made redundant twice in my career, you know I had to change industries a couple
times. And it's just that fortitude to get back up and go, hey, you know, I've got
stuff to offer. And so have, you know, confidence in your own ability, I think is
an important area to drive things forward, you know, that there will inevitably be
setbacks of one type or another. And the ability to dust yourself off and just go
again, I think is really important, too.
Brent Williams 29:40
What wonderful advice to close on. So be resilient to our to our students out there
listening. Well, Simon, I really appreciate you joining us today. I appreciate your
support of the Walton College and your partnership.
Simon Miles 29:54
Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure. Thank you.
Brent Williams 29:57
On behalf of the Walton College thank you for joining us for this captivating conversation.
To stay connected and never miss an episode, simply search for Be Epic on your preferred
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Brent D. Williams is the Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
With a deep commitment to fostering excellence in business education and thought leadership,
Dr. Williams brings a wealth of experience to his role, shaping the future of the
college and its impact on students and the business community.
