Business
Highlights:(0:00) Right now, we are still leveraging machine learning to understand the descriptive nature of what he or she may have done from a customer standpoint and then applied.(0:11) Ecosystems will rely more and more about technology more and more on technology. And mobile is going to be the at the forefront of that.(0:27) No matter where we land, the concept of privacy is going to be different versus security is going to continue to be important because you have to keep yourself secure from bad, you know, or malicious people as well as attackers that are known these days.(0:41)IntroductionAbout Khalid SaleemKhalid is a world-known innovation influencer, driving and facilitating strategic decision-making for the board of directors and executives of multi-million Corporations. Khalid is Chief Digital Officer as VP at TVC Corporation overseeing digital transformation across a $5 billion portfolio of the tire and automotive services for b2c and b2b channels. Khalid has been crafting digital product roadmaps, architecting innovative digital platforms and solutions fueling omnichannel growth and digital transformation, generating over $4 billion in annual sales revenue. At Office Depot, colors implemented and established cloud-based, robust and scalable platforms for online copy and print businesses, expanding them across b2b channels, enabling an enhanced customer experience and generating over 30% year over year sales growth while reducing the development and support costs by as much as 40%. He also is responsible for facilitating the development of Office Depot mobile apps across b2b and b2c channels, driving Mobile App Store ratings to 4.5 stars on Apple and 4.4 stars on Google Play, along with achieving 100%. year over year growth for app downloads to 1 million devices. Alongside these, Khalid has also served as a technical expert and liaison for the digital marketing team recommending building technology solutions, practices that help improve SEO and increase return on advertising spend.The interview- (3:02) (1) You've done so much, and you have achieved so much. I would love to understand a little bit of your history, you know, your backstory, how did you get to this level of success?(3:17) I was born in Pakistan and learned to play sports there. My dad bought a computer for me. for me. When I got home, the first thing I did was start playing games on it.I spent most of my youth playing games, but then I realized that I could run another program on the floppies while they were running the DOS. So I erased it, and guess what? The computer wouldn't start. I thought that all I had to do was copy a few files from a dead hard drive to mine. But after bringing it to a tech store, I realized there was more to computers than I'd ever imagined. That piqued my interest. Once I got going, I've always been inspired by technology and computers.(5:45) (2)Now I'm with your time at Office Depot, you know, you were instrumental in bringing the apps to the App Store and everything. So what what, what were some of the key challenges you faced during that time? I think mobile apps were sort of new at that time, or give me Tell us a little bit about that. (6:05) I didn't actually do it so I won’t take credit for it. Office Depot began to distribute apps before I took charge of the project. In fact, a few pioneers had already established the apps in the app stores even before I started working there. Office Depot was one of the first companies to create an app in the Apple App Store. And as time went on, new apps were being created using similar programming languages for iOS and Android.As head of the app platforms, I saw this as inefficiency in how we were developing apps. As we scaled up, we also started to realize that the mobile app team could not keep up with the web app team. So we considered React Native as a way to make our platform development more efficient.We leveraged React Native and it allowed us to write about 85% of the core code. Because of that, the developers could use the same code on both platforms, which took a lot of time and effort out of development. The large majority of the code remained unchanged, but the team that previously took a long time to create mobile apps became the most efficient in deploying them. With this kind of pivot, a colleague of mine joined the team. We partnered up to completely rework the code and the technical structure, so much that we even completely revamped the looks of the app with React Native. This was done as part of our initiative to make the app easier to use, which will increase loyalty.We launched the new platform and then built the new features on a two-week sprint schedule. We didn't all at once launch everything; that would have confused customers. Over time, we made changes to our product and service that helped us get a higher rating on independent review sites. Our customer engagement increased, and we got more positive ratings. Because we wanted to focus on customer experience, we paid attention to feedback and responded to it ourselves.(11:23)(2)So, like now, going from you know, you did work on the b2b side and b2c side. Again, many corporations have either a singular focus, like b2b or b2c. How did you manage to balance the emphasis on these two different segments of the business?(11:44)I credit my early experience in business development to a manager who recognized I had the ability to manage. I began working as a developer in the b2b space. I was promoted to manager because I partnered well with the business analysts and leaders. The experience we created for b2b customers was completely aligned with their expectations. After that, other leaders saw the chance for growth and career prospects. Going from b2c to b2b is easier for me because I can understand why people do everything they do in the b2b side. That meant that my understanding of B2C was more intuitive than my understanding of B2B. With b2c you're fed back with customer feedback from your customers. During the pandemic, business-to-business skills were particularly useful. Although I started in business-to-business marketing, it was relatively easy to switch to consumer marketing after the pandemic. Do you see innovation in e-commerce increasing? If people had any doubts about e-commerce before, they should be gone now. Ecommerce and M-Commerce will shift into a pattern-based demand-based order.The companies who are winning in the e-commerce space are those who are able to personalize their experience enough that their customers actually want what they're offering.There will come a time when you can use the data to predict future Volusia's actions because your data is so good. That's when true artificial intelligence will come into play. Right now, we are still leveraging machine learning to understand the descriptive nature of what our customers have done from a customer standpoint and then apply that information. The ecosystem will rely more and more on technology. Mobile will be at the forefront of that.Midroll: (18:11)(19:11)(3)So it sounds like you know, the role of AI will become even greater in this world. At the same time, there'll be more concerns about security and privacy. So these you know, obviously AI we can talk about later. What are your concerns about privacy and security? Because here's what I noticed, especially being a person from a technology background, understanding security, what I found, what I find is typical, executives, decision-makers, CEOs in the boardroom, they don't really have a very good idea about what security means. But they use it as a weapon to either forward their agenda. What is your take on that? (20:02)Privacy is subjective. The way we view privacy will change over time. The next generation may not mind having a lot of personal information made public, while this generation is more concerned. Because of the exposure of social media, privacy will become limited, and people will be more receptive to certain products as well. Privacy laws may be rewritten based on the preferences of individuals. For example, if you don't want to be tracked when you're driving unless you need to be, then that option will exist. But privacy is shifting, and our concept of it will need to.In fact, I don't really care what Google knows about me, as long as it doesn't see what's happening with my bank account or my family. With the frequency of security hacks increasing, privacy is becoming increasingly important to ensure that your information remains safe.As more people shift to online banking, security will be more important. With regards to privacy, we'll continue to see it shift. And with regards to security, it will remain important. If you're developing a concept, bring in both perspectives--that it should be secure, and if it cannot be secure, do a pilot test. So, the trend of e-commerce for personalization isn't limited to the giants. Small entrepreneurs and startups can also benefit from making their business more user-friendly. If you're trying to sell something, instead of starting from scratch, you can start with a platform like Shopify.Since many platforms are compatible with most marketplaces, you can get products published on Amazon and other sites without spending additional marketing money.But don't let your startup mentality go. Just because you're ready to sell stuff, don't lose the spirit of building a platform.(30:19)(4)So, you've been in various sectors, you know, obviously, you've been in consumer sectors B2B, B2C. And now you're working in totally different sectors, which is automotive tires, you know, going from post-it notes and, and, you know, binders to tires. What was that experience? What are the insights you gained by switching industries at a drastic level?(30:45) If you look at an opportunity and it has these three things: growth potential, forcing you to learn something new and venture outside your comfort zone, take that opportunity.You are taking a calculated risk in the sense that you will learn something new no matter what and learning should never stop.For me, it was a chance to learn another part of the business, such as how tires are shipped and how they get from one place to another.For me, it was learning about this new experience and using technology to enhance the customer journey for both our business and customers. That's why I got into the industry.(33:52)So being a car lover and being from that industry, what are the long-term trends you're seeing in this industry?(34:02)I believe EBS is going to be the future. I doubt they will be short-lived. One reason EBS are the future is because GM has announced it will no longer make internal combustion engines by 2035. In the automotive industry, we can see that the mindset of customers is moving towards self-driving vehicles. In addition, as more and more of these vehicles come on the road, it will become the norm for vehicles to be self-driving.AI is already having a huge impact on automotive technology, and there are many other industries where AI is likewise making huge impacts.Vehicles will have the ability to communicate with each other and avoid collisions.The vehicle-to-vehicle communication is going to be key in the future, and many car companies are already partnering on this. The dissemination of data and knowledge is crucial to the development of the automotive space.A lot of data is going to be helpful in making the car industry more efficient, so companies are able to create better solutions at lower costs. I think it's too early to predict what happens to that because, with batteries and electric vehicles, maintenance is very limited.In order to ensure smoothness, Goodyear and Continental are investing in technologies that will make their tires last longer. This will take some time, however. But the first two pieces that I mentioned in the automotive space are going to change how people drive, and it's going to make driving safer.(39:44) Before I let you go, can you tell us how people can reach out to you if they want to connect with you? (39:50)I am very active on LinkedIn. You can contact me there. Feel free to contact me. I'm always happy to help if you want to talk about something or need advice or just want to brainstorm an idea.I have a blog as well, and I don't have time to update it often, so you can contact me on LinkedIn or email me.Resources:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalid-saleem-06222b2/ Blog: khalidsaleem.blogspot.com ツ CONNECT WITH ME ツ Leave a comment on this video and it'll get a response. Or you can connect with me on different social platforms too:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manujaggarwal/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manujagro/ • Website: https://manujaggarwal.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.