01:05
Whoa! Good morning. How's everybody feeling now? Are you all excited about what you heard thus far this morning? Yes. Come on. I'm not feeling it. Are you all excited? Well, listen, everything we are doing is in service to you,
01:21
our customers and our partners. And with that in mind, I'm so excited to have one of our customers on stage Joe from THG. Joe. That was a great video. But I'd love to get the live voice over if you could tell us a little bit more about THG your role. And I heard it's expanding.
01:38
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'll tell you. Tell a bit more about that later, but hi, everyone. My name's Joe. Thanks. Thanks for having me here. Um, so I've been in the tech industry Not quite as long as Charlie mentioned earlier, but for three decades. So just after over 30 years,
01:52
um, I've been working in organisations like Di aio, Accenture, Yahoo, the BBC skyscanner bet fair, And I'm now at THG. So I've been the CIO there now for just over, uh, actually nearly six years. Um, and one of the things that I look after there is running all of the global infrastructure that underpins a lot of the stuff that you just saw in the video there.
02:14
And we run out of just over 30 days centres globally that we that we run from, um and then a bit more about THG. So THG sort of started its life very much as selling DVD S and C DS online. And then it white labelled that web store and sold it, uh, to businesses like Tesco's and ASDA. But we're a very, very diverse and very acquisitive organisation.
02:39
So we actually acquired, uh, brands in the beauty and nutrition area and we were very, very successful at taking those brands globally. Um uh, using ecommerce and then what we started to do was expand our efficiency with those brands. So things that would cost us money like, um, you know, production or, uh, hosting. Or we've got warehouses and factories
03:04
and things like that that were costing us money. Creative was costing us money. We would acquire in those areas and build it into what we were doing to make everything we do a lot more efficient. Then what we did was we branded that as ingenuity and we sell those products and services to our customers to other big retailers.
03:23
And what ingenuity is is it's like this tool kit that has everything in it. You need to imagine a product to take it, taken it globally. That's what we're able to provide through ingenuity. That is amazing. What a journey and what dynamism the organisation is bringing to the market and, you know, ingenuity.
03:43
You know, I, uh, my daughter is actually a big fan of one of the brands that ingenuity powers grow gorgeous. Now, unfortunately, that hair care line doesn't do a lot for me, but my daughter absolutely, absolutely loves it. So now let's, uh, let's give it here. I digress. So let me get into the conversation around THG and Charlie on his presentation,
04:05
talked about kind of applying a challenger's mindset, thinking differently about technology and investments and the data platform. Uh, you know, just tell us a little bit more about how you've thought about the Challenger mindset and reimagining the digital transformation you're on and how that kind of meshes with some of the competitive pressures and dynamics that you're seeing.
04:28
So from some of the stuff I already mentioned you you'll be hearing that we are very diverse and we pivot and change direction. And I think the challenge of mindset is very much ingrained in our in our DNA and a lot of people that work there have that S that similar type of mindset. But we have a a saying within our team, which is be ready for disruption.
04:48
Um so whatever we're looking at, whether it's say, you know, imagine that one of your vendors got bought and the prices got hiked. You know, Imagine if that happened, you'd need to think, Well, how can I pivot, um, and be agile and and nimble and get away from that? So we're constantly looking at everything all the what if scenarios?
05:07
What if something like that happened? Now when the pandemic happened, we were prepping for the disruption of we. We're very inquisitive. So we were thinking, If we acquire a business that's the same size as us, how are we going to integrate that business really, really quickly? So we were prepping for that type of disruption, and the disruption that hit us was a pandemic.
05:26
But because we're always thinking like that, um, we're very ready to pivot and change change direction when it's needed. But it's always making sure we're not tied into things and that we can scale up. We always think 10,000 scale. Will it scale 10,000 times? Can you scale it back down again? We're always thinking like that. Um, there's constantly intense competition out
05:48
there. Technological advances are constantly coming at you. Economic pressures. Um, so you need to be considering that all of the time so you can pivot as and when the business needs you to. Yeah, certainly. We were talking backstage about a particular
06:03
provider that might be increasing their prices and how our platform is giving you kind of that neutrality and that flexibility. So definitely top of mind. All right, so let me kind of transition a little bit. So we heard a lot around a I right. Both a combination of how pure as a platform can help customers accelerate the adoption of a I and how we're also building a I capabilities
06:26
into our own solutions. We saw some great stuff, and we're going to continue to see some great stuff through the course of the morning. And I'd love to just understand kind of, you know, in your role how you're thinking about adopting a I, uh, to really continue to accelerate and transform your business. Yeah, surely. So we We've been at the A I business for a very
06:44
long time now, since 2016 before it was really called a I, um So we've been we've been at it for a while and we've got We've been using it in a number of different ways, whether it's operational efficiencies or ways to increase revenue in. And I literally could talk all day long about some of the things that we've done with a I but just just to touch on a few things, So we built a semantic search in.
07:06
So when you're shopping online, you get hit with just thousands of products. You get completely overwhelmed when you're searching for your grow gorgeous products, Of course. Yeah, good luck with that. So, yeah, you want to say, How do I How do I grow long hair or how to look after my hair? Or how do I care for my skin during the menopause?
07:27
Or how do I gain muscle or how do I lose weight? So really searching for an outcome rather than just getting hit with thousands of products and thinking I, I don't I know I might need some of this and some of that, but But we're really building that into the platform. The other areas recommendations. So we use machine learning to provide
07:47
personalised product recommendations for our clients across our sites and also in our mobile app, so constantly tracking customer behaviour and things that they're buying together so that we can provide personalised recommendations. One that's particularly great is the outfit builder. So Coggles is our luxury fashion website, and, um, you know,
08:10
it will put outfits together for you. So it's like having your own sort of digital personal stylist, um, digital assistant. So you can say, you know, I have a wedding. Uh, this is the location of the wedding. Um, and you can buy something, and it will tell you what other things you can put together, uh, with the outfit. So if you're not particularly good at putting
08:29
things together and choosing your accessories, then, um, it will drive you through through that experience. Um, and the other one is conversational interfaces, and I just touched on the personal stylist digital assistant. But building that in to have a a digital makeup artist, um, or a digital nutritionist, you know, that can help you achieve the results that
08:51
you're looking to achieve. That's awesome. And tell us a little bit more about the role that we've played. Our platform is played. Yeah. So, of course, A I is driven by data data is absolutely crucial to a I. So one of the key things is high performance storage.
09:07
You need to be able to access that data really quickly. You need to be able to scale it as well that the more and more is something that really worries me is the amount of data that we are gathering on everything and the amount of copies that we've got of that data but managing it, having the unified data platform that you guys have so we can see all of that within there and also using it for the data reduction,
09:30
trying to make that data footprint smaller as well as something we really work on hard, uh, with pure and of course, the reliability and the and the performance is is absolutely crucial to us that is awesome. And what I really love is how you're really making it very practical, right? How you're adopting these use cases to deliver a better experience for your customers and ultimately drive growth for your business and
09:56
the brands that you're serving as well. So that's fantastic. So now I'm gonna pivot a little bit, um, away from, let's say THD specifically and you know, a little bit of a coaching moment for all of us, right? You know, you're in a very senior role in the organisation, and you've got a lot of different priorities on your mind, whether it's cyber resilience, A I,
10:14
you know, application, modernization and just a host of things that you're navigating through day in and day out. And I'm sure your team is coming to you with all kinds of ideas around investments and prioritisation and whatnot. So what is the coaching and advice that you would give to your teams?
10:31
You know, to really capture the attention of the executive suite, uh, within your organisation. And ultimately, what's the coaching that you provide all of us. So one of the things we we do in our team is a business case on a on a page, but it needs to be simple. It needs to be a no brainer.
10:49
Storytelling skill is really, really important. Quite often, teams will come to you telling you the technology that they want to buy or adopt or roll out or migrate to, but not the real story and the reason and the benefits behind that. So ensuring that the investment is being tied back to a story that's about delivering value, creating an opportunity or being more efficient and that for the business.
11:15
Um, and also I really like it when the teams come to me and and they've got They've got points of reference outside of our organisation about what our competitors do as well. I'm really interested to know they've really thought about the competitive landscape when they're coming to you with an idea, Um, the practicalities around it, how will it be implemented? Have you done a POC?
11:37
Will it scale? Have you thought about the total cost of ownership, not just the the upfront costs. Sometimes the upfront costs can be larger, but the total cost of ownership is smaller, and sometimes when that price point is higher up front it can turn the engineers off so they won't come to you with the good ideas because they're not thinking about the bigger picture.
11:59
And the other thing is, I'm really suspicious. If they haven't talked to anybody about it, they've done it completely in a silo. It's like it's gonna be fine. Everyone's gonna love it and it's gonna be easy. I like it if they've collaborated with other teams to find, get their input into it, so that if this is something that you're gonna go ahead with, um, there's already that buy in and idea about what we're about to to go and do I love
12:23
it. Focus on outcomes. Focus on TCO. You're telling our story. I love it. I love it. So, um, you know, again, we've been so honoured and privileged to be a part of your journey and TH GS journey, and so I'm gonna pivotal here and get into a lightning round.
12:37
Uh, tell us one thing that is going well, um, so we we're working on some really exciting stuff with P at the moment, particularly around containerization of our apps and the policy piece. So the the actual consumption of infrastructure through code declaring what an engineer's needs are actually, uh, within their code and then making sure we've got policies in place for them to consume
13:00
that. So that's going really well. And we're working really, really closely together together on that. All right, now tell us something that you'd like for us to do a little bit differently. Challenge us Probably. I think there are a handful of people within our organisation that talk to your organisation, and I think there's probably a lot more we can
13:21
do about sharing that more widely across the tech teams. You know, I'd love for there to maybe be a bit more collaboration with, say, the software engineering teams, rather than just the infrastructure teams as well. Not that software engineers particularly want to talk about storage. They tend to want to know how much can I have and when can I have it?
13:42
But it would be really good to sort of take them. And on a journey of the innovation that is going on with storage, that's awesome. That's great feedback, all right. And on a personal note, what are you looking forward to this year? So I'm about to embark upon a new role. So you introduced me as the CIO.
13:59
But I'm going to be expanding my role to become the CTO of the platform. And that's the ingenuity platform. And it's the E commerce platform that drives E commerce for our brands and all of our clients. We have hundreds of retailers that run on that E commerce platform, so I'm really, really excited to be spreading my wings a bit further. And we've done a lot of a lot of transformation on the infrastructure side,
14:25
moving software, defined infrastructure and really looking forward to that new challenge. That's awesome. Well, congratulations on you know your expanded remit. Congratulations on all the progress and success of THG and again on behalf of the entire pure storage theme. Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of your journey and for your trust and
14:46
confidence. Now, for those of you that are learning or looking to learn more about what THE has done with us, uh, THE CTO is going to be leading a breakout. Uh, shortly after we're done here at main stage. Now, before we go, uh, we wanted to take a moment and present to you something a little special.
15:08
And so if we can cue the video, please. THG is the company that does it all, driving a portfolio of leading beauty and nutrition brands to creating commerce sites and subscription boxes to cloud hosting and E commerce solutions for some of the world's biggest brands. With a solid Data Centre Foundation built on the pure storage platform,
15:35
THG can handle anything at every stage of the customer journey and with a subscription to reliable storage. As a service, THG can scale fast to support growth with just the right volumes at any time, while reducing its power consumption by 80%. Congratulations to THG for winning this year's greatest of all Time award breakthrough award for AA and demonstrating how a solid technology foundation can lead to incredible IT
16:04
innovations. Congratulations, THE two. Uh, my daughter is gonna be so excited. When I mentioned that I met the people powering grow gorgeous and thank you again for your trust and confidence. Thanks for being here with us
