First Movers: Molly Schonthal

MOLLY SCHONTHAL is the VP of Strategy and Innovation at Salsify.

Sitting at the intersection between digital innovation, marketing, e-commerce and technology, Molly has succeeded in mobilizing large highly-matrixed organizations around important opportunities, re-framing strategies taking the (technology-enabled) future into mind.

Molly has been a pioneer in connecting technology to business growth including the first-ever mobile email solution (NOKIAOne), and one of first 30m + fan Facebook pages in the CPG industry. She has also built the first cross-functional (sales + marketing), cross-segment (confections, pet, food) global demand technology roadmap @ Mars, tripling central funding for these initiatives in just over 3 years.

She now helps Salsify and its customers imagine the future and balance what’s needed with what’s next. 

Why did you choose to pursue eCommerce in your career? I didn’t choose it, it sort of chose me…..I was an English lit major as an undergrad and what I loved about critical essays was unpacking the layers of meaning. After school, I joined a big consultancy and was thrown into the world of SAP implementations. I was surprised to discover that tech-driven innovation comes with its own set of shifts in meaning and consequence that must be unpacked on so many levels: strategy, culture, ways of being in the world etc. That’s how the English Lit major became a techie. I’ve always been drawn to big corporate paradigm shifts driven by digital technology. Software was where I started, and at Nokia I sort of “fell into” one of the first-ever social media roles inside a large organization: Blogger Relations. I rode the digital wave from social to digital to eCommerce, so I’ve had exposure to the world of “Digital” from multiple functional angles. I never tire of trying to figure out what technology means as both a threat and an opportunity across an organization. 

What is your biggest strength, and how have you used it for your success in eCommerce? My superpower is the ability to integrate a ton of information from a ton of sources. I can pick up on signals from conversations, information, articles, presentations, and conference calls that others may think are just “ambient” noise. The patterns emerge in my head as a potential shared challenge, solution, or future situation that others haven’t yet seen. Sort of like a human version of Tableau.

What is the weirdest skill or talent to come in handy in your eCommerce experience? I’m great in chaotic situations- I’m a triplet and grew up with 2 twin brothers – so you really can’t phase me- or beat me up :)

How have you most successfully influenced change within your organization (or with your clients)? I’ve heavily influenced our strategic outlook and market creation. I focus on interpreting the future of commerce so that we (Salsify) can make important choices on the role we play within it and how we can help our customers capitalize on the next important thing. I also apply this outlook to the narratives we create around why our products are well positioned for the marketplace now and in the distant future. I also collaborate with our product team on what features may be critical in the near future.

What was your most “valuable” career failure, and why? That’s an easy one--- the time I led an organization in the wrong direction for 6-8 months (depending on when you start counting) following a technology strategy that was directionally right (the right general idea) but specifically VERY wrong (the wrong way to execute). I was new in the IT field, and paid more attention to the “how” I was executing a strategy than forcing some hard decisions on the “why.” I also accepted a lot of assurances from people where I should have interrogated the details more- it’s a lesson you don’t have to learn twice. The mistake cost us time, money and motivation, but we ultimately learned lessons that would push us into launching a much more entrepreneurial way of working that is now pervasive in that department. I’m still very close with the team that I led, and that time is regarded as a big “aha” moment for all of us. 

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior or habit has most improved your life? Scheduling my time. Looking at the day as a budget and everything I have to do and take care of as an expenditure–seriously schedule time to sit and drink coffee- you think I’m kidding. When you do this everything you have to do exists as something you are 1) doing now: literally working on it now 2) doing at some point: scheduled-budgeted on your calendar as a meeting or blocked time to work  3) Never doing- stuff you think you are going to do at "some point" but are really just never going to do--really just drop this stuff completely and stop wasting mental energy on it. Coming to terms with #3 is huge- you will feel so much better when you do.

What are you learning right now? I learned (again) how to make a lanyard. I find that I have trouble not fidgeting while listening to a conference call so it helps if I have something in my hands to do. Put your orders in now!

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

• I’m Still Standing by Elton John: I also use a standing desk…

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

• 4 years ago it was The 4th Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab
• Untethered Soul by Michael A Singer (yes, the cover is cheesy but trust me on this one)

If you could have a gigantic billboard for the world to see with anything on it, what would it say, and why? It’s better to be directionally right and specifically wrong than the opposite. 

I just listened to one of Salsify’s “Unpacking the Digital Shelf” podcasts with a podcast with John Rossman who was speaking about some of Amazon’s organizational philosophies. He talks about the difference between a reversible decision and an irreversible decision (one way and two way doors). He says we often confused the two- which I agree is true.  The consequences of not understanding the difference could be the difference between a strategy that gets executed quickly and sets you apart offensively or defensively and the slow death of doing nothing or moving too slowly.

If you spend enough time at the outset of a strategy really nailing the WHY it’s important and what it will do/accomplish/produce if it succeeds from an outcome perspective- you actually CAN afford to reverse smaller decisions about how you execute it- this tech or that tech, this feature first or that one, this market or that one- that’s where the agility comes in- AND really big ideas are rarely executed correctly to begin with. Honestly, look up any important tech innovation and see whether or not they got it right the first time. It's much better to be headed in the right direction and change the tactics, then get super rigid about the tactics when you’re headed in the wrong direction.

What are the worst recommendations or advice you have heard related to eCommerce? It’s only 1% of our business :-)

What advice would you give to a future leader of change about to enter business, or specifically the eCommerce field? Hang in there.  

What specific, industry-related change do you believe will happen that few others seem to see? I’m sort of obsessed with our too narrow definition of digital commerce as digital buying of physical things. 

Here’s what I mean: When a product is manufactured- say a tube of lipstick, the thing (lipstick) goes in one direction, the data describing it (what is it? what is it called? what is made of? how big is it?) goes another- getting used for logistics, packaging, merchandising, ultimately marketing.

This digital data, the product's digital “body double” must make its way to the "digital shelf" on Amazon or sephora.com .

In most of the cases we see today, the digital “body double” for the product, the product data, must be "traded out" for a real thing- the lipstick that shows up in your house or at a store.

However….for a digital product such as makeup application instructions on your smart-mirror, the data IS the thing- the “body double” and the body, the thing AND its digital representation. For a product like L'oreal's Perso- the digital product and the physical product are combined. 

Either way (whether or not we’re talking about a digital-only product or a digital+physical product or a digital “body double” for a physical product, we need to think how to manage fulfillment of that “product” in all of its forms. 

We should be thinking about a partnership that enables us to help a brand get a physical "thing" somewhere - like Fedex, Uber, AND a digital distribution network to get the digital "thing" somewhere (by the way, experience manager + syndication is already the beginning of this). You can imagine this new flexible definition of a “product” as a new playbook for how to “make” and “fulfill” on the digital shelf.

What is the last thing you bought online, and why? A bottle of champagne on Drizly for a good friend in NYC who was reunited with her family after 37 days as “frontline” doctor.

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First Movers is a change leader 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 change leader for consideration, please reach out to me on LinkedIn.