Leaders of Change: Michele McNamara

MICHELE MCNAMARA is the Vice President of eCommerce at Chobani. She is a champion of the omni-channel and online grocery customer experience. Michele seeks to understand the micro-moments that move consumers from browsing to shopping on the ever-evolving path-to-purchase.

Prior to joining Chobani, Michele spent 12 years at Procter & Gamble where she held various sales and trade marketing roles. It was in her last assignment at P&G that she gained her first foray into the world of eCommerce. That experience helped to catapult her to Reckitt Benckiser where she became a charter member of RB’s eCommerce team working across all online "classes of trade," including Amazon. From there, Michele moved to Mondelez to serve as the Omni-Channel Customer Business Leader.

Michele has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts & Sciences from Michigan State University and an MBA from Canisius College in her native Buffalo, NY.

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? Years ago, when Amazon was launching beauty care, my boss asked the team I was on who wanted to be the category lead for eCommerce. No one raised their hand. Because of all that was on my plate at the time, I was hesitant. At the same time, I was hungry to work on something more forward-thinking. Everyone sitting around the table had blank stares on their faces due to the fear of the unknown. Having loved a previous assignment that focused on unchartered territory, I raised my hand. It quickly became the “project” I wanted to work on most and the only thing in my job that I was really passionate about. When I got the opportunity to do it full-time, I jumped in with both feet.

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? From an early age, I hated it when people told me I couldn’t do something or that a possibility was out of my reach. When I was 10, my stepfather refused to buy a piano for my younger sister and me to take piano lessons. We came up with a plan to buy one without his backing. My mother is an amazing baker. With her help, we made and sold apple pies at the local farmer’s market. We soon had regular customers and baked a crazy amount of pies. We made enough money in one season to buy an old player piano in desperate need of tuning and some cabinet work. We put some sweat equity into it, but never took a single lesson because it played on its own. Years later when we needed money for something else, we sold our piano for 3X what we paid for it. That tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit has served me well in eCommerce. There is always a solution and the reward can be great if you are willing to assume some risk.  

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? My understanding of the Hispanic toothpaste market. More than 10 years ago, I did an assignment focused on growing share among Hispanic consumers. We came to a realization that we weren’t making the progress we wanted because we really didn’t even understand the role of the category in the consumer’s life, let alone our brand. Once we built that foundational understanding and put aside any preconceived notions we had, we were able to do amazing things.  A lot of the work I did in that role is what inspired me to hold my hand up and volunteer to take on eCommerce a couple of years later. I have reapplied a lot of that thinking in my approach to eCommerce.

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? Data. There is not a lot of it in eCommerce which makes leadership hesitant to lean forward. But when you can connect the dots to the tell the story, you can move mountains. 

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? I hate predetermined career pathing where you are required to complete certain roles for promotion. I think there are ways to gain skills without being limited to a prescribed set of experiences. A couple of times throughout my career I have had to “check the box.” I was miserable, and it was obvious. It’s really hard to do a job well let alone excel when you are not passionate about the task at hand.  

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? Just over five years ago, I took a leap of faith to move from Cincinnati, OH to Parsippany, NJ to pursue eCommerce full-time. Now we could debate all day long the cultural shift my family experienced and whether or not it has improved our lives. But I personally learned how to deal with ambiguity, as well as how to be more comfortable with assuming risk. Stepping out and breaking boundaries is rewarding. You have to embrace it, and then you will find what your true passion is.  

What are you learning right now? The NYC subway! I recently changed roles and now commute into the City from NJ every day. I quickly learned the importance of knowing multiple routes to get to your destination. Starting your day off by unintentionally going to Brooklyn first, because you unknowingly got on a train headed in the wrong direction is not fun. 

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

• The Greatest Showman movie soundtrack: My playlist is pretty vast. I think my career soundtrack has changed over time.  To be in the moment, I know it’s highly fictionalized, but the soundtrack from The Greatest Showman is very energizing. A lot of the lyrics are consistent with how I think of eCommerce . . . “we can’t go back again to the world we were living in because we are dreaming with our eyes wide open.”  I for one, can’t go back to focusing on a Brick & Mortar only world. “It will never be enough . . . for me.”

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

• Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers: The title speaks for itself. Fear is a fact of life and stems from not trusting yourself. You need to turn that fear into power and go after whatever it is you want. 
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne: When I was at P&G, a leader gave this book to a group of us as our team was about to go through a major change. People handle change differently. I am forever an optimist and loved how this book exuded positivity.  It has been a good source of inspiration for me when I have had to lead groups through change. After all, those of us that work in eCommerce are essentially change agents.

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? Winston Churchill once said, "Never, never, never give up!" This quote says so much to me. Be bold, have purpose, believe in yourself, trust others and stay the course.

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? That you need to have every SKU in your portfolio made available for sale on a retailer’s site. It’s not possible to support them all in a meaningful way. If the consumer is truly shopping online for convenience, it becomes very hard to minimize clicks if you have every size of every flavor offered. Consumers don’t need or necessarily want that much choice. 

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? The only thing consistent about eCommerce is that what you know today to be true may not be tomorrow. The pace of change is rapid. Be flexible in your thinking, stay agile and be willing to take risks. 

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? An eCommerce cohort coined me the "Omni-Channel Queen" years ago. I took a lot of jabs at the time for evangelizing the role eCommerce played in impacting the physical store. I am no Nostradamus, but I predicted that, at some point, Amazon would find the need to have stores. To me, the significance of ecommerce is more than the revenue generated from online purchases. It is the influence it has on the consumer purchase journey. Brick & Mortar is not dead. It needs to evolve. And it will when retailers start being disruptive and create engaging customer experiences that they can bring to life online in a native way. If Brick & Mortar was dead, why would Jeff Bezos have bookstores, develop Amazon Go or buy Whole Foods? Stores can generate excitement, drive engagement and build equity.  The retail environment will fall to those who figure it out, and the term "pure play" will largely become a word of the past. 

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? A pair of sneakers from Dick’s Sporting Goods for my husband. Although there is a plethora of choices in store, it is difficult to find size 13 Extra Wide anywhere but online. Unless of course you are completely okay with your husband wearing white leather sneakers! 

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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.