Sam’s Club VP shares the people, product and digital changes that led members to ‘expect something special’

Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to…
Early into a new role that took him from marketing to operations at Sam’s Club, one of Tim Simmons’ staff came up to tell him about a great idea about how to quantify ghost inventory.
“That’s fantastic!” Simmons said. “What’s ghost inventory?”
“Oh, that’s when an associate takes an item out but doesn’t scan it,” the staffer replied.
“Okay, I see,” Simmons said. “Now, takes it out of what, scans it with what, and puts it into what?”
This was the point when Simmons, now Sam’s Club vice-president of in-club product management, realized he would have to overcome a big learning curve to transform and improve the firm’s customer experience (CX).
Sam’s Club At A Crossroads
Speaking at the Cult Gathering conference that took place in Banff, Alta recently, Simmons recalled how, three years ago,
Shane Schick tells stories that help people innovate, and to manage the change innovation brings. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of Marketing magazine and has also been Vice-President, Content & Community (Editor-in-Chief), at IT World Canada, a technology columnist with the Globe and Mail and Yahoo Canada and is the founding editor of ITBusiness.ca. Shane has been recognized for journalistic excellence by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance and the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.