49 min
Vitamin Shoppe CTO/COO Andrew Laudato Build Better Tech: How the nation’s leading companies use tech as business strategy to win.
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- Technology
Andy Laudato has an incomparable level of experience in retail tech. In addition to developing groundbreaking customer-facing tech, he has the superpower of being able to understand the overall business and design solutions to optimize for it.
He’s a business leader first, and a technologist second. Accordingly, he has recently stepped from the role of Chief Technology Officer into Chief Operating Officer at Vitamin Shoppe.
Topics by time stamp:
0:45 — Andy and technology at Pier One: Where they started, and how did he lead the tech team to have a greater impact (apparently winning Halloween is a good start!)
8:04 — Leadership as a CIO: What’s at the heart of it, and what’s unique about leading in tech as opposed to other areas?
10:25 — For developers: how do I know if I should stay a developer and pursue growth as an expert, or pursue growth as a manager and move up that way?
14:40 — Advice for non-technical people working with development teams
17:32 — What makes the best teams?
21:15 — 4000 years of retail, in 2 minutes or less. As a tech leader, who is Andy’s customer and what makes them brag about his team? Plus, Andy ribs Colleen about still writing checks.
28:35 — Andy’s prediction of what retail tech will be in 2050 (think Minority Report, but in a good way?)
38:35 — What’s 2020 about for the Vitamin Shoppe? Plus, Andy talks about reducing online order time to reach the store from 45 minutes to a matter of seconds.
43:39 — Great advice for both tech and business-oriented people early in their career
46:10 — What does the Vitamin Shoppe do better than anyone else in the world, and what does that mean for its tech?
Andy Laudato has an incomparable level of experience in retail tech. In addition to developing groundbreaking customer-facing tech, he has the superpower of being able to understand the overall business and design solutions to optimize for it.
He’s a business leader first, and a technologist second. Accordingly, he has recently stepped from the role of Chief Technology Officer into Chief Operating Officer at Vitamin Shoppe.
Topics by time stamp:
0:45 — Andy and technology at Pier One: Where they started, and how did he lead the tech team to have a greater impact (apparently winning Halloween is a good start!)
8:04 — Leadership as a CIO: What’s at the heart of it, and what’s unique about leading in tech as opposed to other areas?
10:25 — For developers: how do I know if I should stay a developer and pursue growth as an expert, or pursue growth as a manager and move up that way?
14:40 — Advice for non-technical people working with development teams
17:32 — What makes the best teams?
21:15 — 4000 years of retail, in 2 minutes or less. As a tech leader, who is Andy’s customer and what makes them brag about his team? Plus, Andy ribs Colleen about still writing checks.
28:35 — Andy’s prediction of what retail tech will be in 2050 (think Minority Report, but in a good way?)
38:35 — What’s 2020 about for the Vitamin Shoppe? Plus, Andy talks about reducing online order time to reach the store from 45 minutes to a matter of seconds.
43:39 — Great advice for both tech and business-oriented people early in their career
46:10 — What does the Vitamin Shoppe do better than anyone else in the world, and what does that mean for its tech?
49 min