Leaders of Change: Jim Morgan

JIM MORGAN is currently Head of eCommerce for Vita Coco, the world’s best-selling coconut water, where he leads eCommerce business and strategy, managing efforts across Sales, Product, Logistics, Supply Chain, Content, Visibility, and Customer Experience.

He also leads eCommerce for sister brand RUNA, the top-selling clean energy drink on Amazon, as well as Ever & Ever, an aluminum-bottled premium enhanced water launching in partnership with Lonely Whale, the non-profit powerhouse that got the world to #stopsucking on plastic straws.

Prior to Vita Coco, Jim has held a variety of finance and strategy roles within Heineken, Diageo, SK Energy, and Cadbury. He received his BS in Finance from The College of New Jersey, which he’d like people to know is “New Jersey’s #1 top school not named Princeton.”

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? While I was on the Insights team at Vita Coco, I became intrigued by our small but quickly growing eCommerce business. In my free time, over the course of months, I worked on analyzing it, understanding it (or at least trying to), and ultimately proposed a comprehensive plan to ignite the channel, which convinced my company to make eCommerce a key strategic pillar, which they were then kind enough to let me lead.

Though I sort of wandered into eCommerce, at this point, I can’t imagine doing anything else. As someone who tends to get easily bored with routine work, the wide breadth of responsibilities plus the rapid pace of industry change ensures that every day is different than the last. Though slightly terrifying, the fact that everything I know today will likely change tomorrow actually excites me. It forces me to always be on my toes, and to anticipate, hedge, and then quickly adapt when those changes happen.

On top of that, it’s just super exciting to be on the front lines of technological change. Particularly in Online Grocery, the developments that are happening right now will forever change how we shop, and to a large extent, how we live our lives. The fact that I can be a part of this, versus just reading about it, is very cool.

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? Coming from an analytical background is the strength I’m most thankful for in my current role, as almost every decision I make must be grounded in a deep understanding of both brand and retailer unit economics. On top of that, being able to manipulate and analyze disparate sources of online data into one cohesive picture is also critical in my day to day.

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? My creative team is going to kill me for this, but a working knowledge of Photoshop has been invaluable when trying to get minor content edits done in a pinch. And by Photoshop, I obviously mean Microsoft PowerPoint.

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? Putting it into the perspective of your stakeholders is key. When I made my first case for increased eCommerce investment, I used data from the latest research reports, webinars, and insight briefs to highlight the rapid pace of industry change, the sheer magnitude of growth coming from the channel, as well as the short and long term costs of inaction. Keeping it extremely fact based helped get the point across.

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? I was laid off early in my career, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have huge impact on my confidence, self-worth, and psyche. Finding a new job seemed like a never-ending struggle, full of non-responses, dead ends, and frustration. The entire experience humbled me, and taught me to never get too comfortable or complacent. It taught me the value of having a professional network, as that’s how I was eventually able to find my next job. It also gave me a lot of empathy for people in similar situations—I truly feel for them. If someone asks me to pass a resume along, I never say no, even if it’s a stranger. It takes pretty much no effort on my part, but it can end up making a huge impact on someone else’s life.  

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? A few years ago, I watched this Minimalism documentary on Netflix and, though it’s far from perfect, I think the core message changed my life. Not saying I was some sort of shopaholic hoarder before this or anything, nor do I live like a Buddhist monk today, but it made me realize that a lot of the stuff we buy doesn’t bring us joy, which in turn made me start asking “Do I really need this?”. Besides just saving money, with less time spent on accumulating things, you end up getting much more of your enjoyment from people and experiences, which I’d argue are much, much better investments.

What are you learning right now? I’ve spent the last 6 months teaching myself French using the Babbel app. My girlfriend and I have gone to Paris the past 2 years, and though we found that most Parisians can speak English, I always felt guilty for not being able to communicate in their native tongue. I also saw firsthand how even attempting to speak very broken French changed how people treated us and their attitude for the better. So I’m already looking forward to our next trip to Paris, so I can look someone in the eyes and say “Donnez-moi votre fromage le plus puant, Monsieur le Fromager” (Give me your stinkiest cheese, Mr. Cheese Man).

What are the 1-3 songs that would make up your career soundtrack today?

• Virtual Insanity by Jamiriquai: The song that plays in my head anytime someone asks me where I think the future of eCommerce is headed. Or when my Echo Dot malfunctions and I realize that I can’t even turn on my apartment lights without Alexa’s help. Or when I learn about yet another way in which my personal data is being collected and monetized right under my nose.

What are the 1-3 books you’ve gifted the most or that have greatly influenced your life, and why?

• Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle: The book has served as an incredibly straight-forward introduction to the practice of mindfulness, specifically in using it to disconnect from all the noise that’s constantly in our minds—be it reliving the past, worrying about the future, or generally any sort of negative thought patterns. In that way, it’s changed my way of thinking, my gratefulness of life in general, as well as my ability to maintain calm and perspective when life throws you a curve ball, which tends to happen at least hourly in the world of eCommerce.

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? It’d just be a slideshow of top cute dog images from r/rarepuppers. I think that’s exactly what the world needs right now.

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? They usually start with “I’ve got an easy fix for your price matching problem….”

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? For any person entering the workforce, I’d give them the same feedback that my first boss gave me, which I wrote on a post-it note that I still have today:

• Dig deeper. That is, be curious. Learn as much as you can, and never stop trying to learn more. Ask as many questions as you can. Don’t get complacent. Don’t accept easy answers, explanations, or conclusions. Double check, triple check, quadruple check. Be accountable. Know your stuff better than anyone else.

For future eCommerce leaders specifically, I’d add:

• Learn from others as much as you can. The fact is, there’s no single, trustworthy source of information for this field, as the learnings are written and re-written daily. Your most valuable source of information is other people in the same spot as you, at similar companies or industries, who are trying to deal with many of the same challenges. So attend a webinar, participate in a share group, or sign up for an Edge Hackathon (wink wink)! 

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? [As Jamiriquai’s “Virtual Insanity” plays in my head] I wish I knew! But maybe related, I just bet a friend that from now until the end of the year, Amazon’s stock price will grow more than the price of Bitcoin on a percentage basis. If he wins, I owe him $100. If I win, he agrees to never, ever bring up cryptocurrency again.

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? My monthly Amazon Subscribe & Save shipment of Orgain Plant Based Protein Powder (Creamy Chocolate flavor). I use this stuff in my morning smoothies, and absolutely swear by it. Also, battery-powered outdoor twinkle lights for my luxe NYC fire escape.

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Leaders of Change is a weekly interview series featuring select industry pioneers who are driving the evolution of commerce, the consumer and everything in between. If you would like to recommend a Leader of Change for consideration, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.