Activity
13K followers
-
Bill Bennett shared thisI’m thrilled to announce that after a year of consulting and advising consumer packaged goods companies and retailers on their e-commerce strategies, I’m jumping back into a full-time role with AT&T, as the Vice President of Consumer Digital Performance. Many thanks to Kellyn Kenny for the extremely warm welcome on stage to the Marketing and Growth Organization on my very first day! I’m excited to learn a new industry, and start a new adventure in Dallas!
-
Bill Bennett shared thisI had the opportunity to be interviewed for this article about Blue Collar Robotics' low-capital grocery-picking solutions. Very excited to see how this business develops! Hank Crawford Yağmur Han Sağlam Paul Harker Blue Collar Robotics https://lnkd.in/eD7w_X_2Blue Collar Robotics bets on human-assisted grocery robots to cut on costsBlue Collar Robotics bets on human-assisted grocery robots to cut on costs
-
Bill Bennett shared thisThese price cuts are long overdue. When I started my career with General Mills in 2006, we were taught that Walmart was EDLP, Safeway was Hi/Lo, and Kroger ran a "hybrid EDLP" strategy. This meant that they promoted less frequently than the Safeways of the world, but they invested more supplier trade funds in lower everyday prices. It meant that their white tag prices weren't offensive, and customers felt comfortable shopping for their entire basket at Kroger. That strategy has withered away over the years as Kroger fell into the hi/lo trap of trying to drive traffic through promotions rather than providing a strong overall value proposition. They should be able to achieve a significantly improved price position without significant investment, simply by shifting those promo dollars back into lower white tag prices. Will be interesting to see how their test performs! https://lnkd.in/gfX8aAViThe Friday Checkout: Kroger’s CEO wants to close the gap with low-price retailersThe Friday Checkout: Kroger’s CEO wants to close the gap with low-price retailers
-
Bill Bennett shared thisThis is staggering to me, that grocery retailers aren't moving faster to implement agentic shopping features. And the startling thing is that most grocers on this list still have large capability gaps in their ecommerce offerings, with retail media, product content, search, and fulfillment speed still years behind Amazon/Walmart. As grocery e-commerce continues its rapid ascent, more grocers are getting left behind, and I think are going to find themselves rushing to Instacart to help them catch up.Bill Bennett shared this17 of 24 leading grocery retailers including Costco Wholesale, Ahold Delhaize USA, and Sam's Club don't have a customer-facing AI shopping assistant. None of the 24 has integrated AI into their primary search bar. And 18 or the 24 reach third-party AI agents like ChatGPT via Instacart. These are some of the findings from the first Agentic Commerce Capability Index just released by Astra Works AI, an AI advisory firm I manage with Grant Steadman. In this weeks The Retail Playbook Brief, I provide a breakdown of the findings and discuss what it means for grocery retailers.Amazon Leads in Agentic Commerce. Most Grocers Have Barely StartedAmazon Leads in Agentic Commerce. Most Grocers Have Barely Started
-
Bill Bennett shared thisLove this post from Brittain Ladd! Having spent my career inside grocery and alongside many of the industry’s current solution providers, I believe Blue Collar Robotics represents the most practical in-store fulfillment solution the market needs today. Their approach addresses the real issue in e-grocery profitability: lowering fulfillment cost inside existing stores without requiring major capital investment or duplicate inventory. I’m glad to be advising Blue Collar Robotics as they bring this much-needed technology to market and help retailers build a more profitable e-grocery model!Bill Bennett shared thisTHE GROCERY ROBOTICS WAR JUST ENTERED A NEW PHASE For the past decade, grocery retailers have been told the same thing: If you want profitable e-commerce, you must build automation infrastructure. ✅ Micro-Fulfillment Centers ✅ Customer-Fulfillment Centers ✅ Automated warehouses Companies like Ocado Group and AutoStore™ built technology that enables high-throughput grocery fulfillment. And now Ocado Group is piloting Store-Based Automation (SBA) to bring robotics directly into stores or among clusters of stores. Ocado is going to pilot their SBA solutions in 2026. But there’s a problem the industry rarely talks about. Most grocery retailers cannot justify the capital. A typical micro-fulfillment deployment can cost $10M–$40M per site, require extensive construction, and take 6 to 9 months to deploy. However, a different model is emerging. And it will completely change how grocery automation evolves. Blue Collar Robotics led by Hank Crawford and Yağmur Han Sağlam, launched a radically different approach: Teleoperated robotic picking inside existing grocery stores. The robots can also replenish products on shelves. ❌ Instead of trying to fully automate the store, BCR uses teleoperated robots to safely fulfill orders. In other words: ✅ The labor is digital. ✅ The robots are physical. ✅ And the store doesn’t need to change. No construction. No warehouse buildout. No multi-million dollar automation project. Just robots that move through the store and pick products from shelves. Robots can safely pick with or without customers in the stores. But here’s the real insight from my experience: You don’t need to automate 100% of a grocery store to change the economics of fulfillment. You only need to automate about 80%. Center-store packaged goods such as cereal, canned food, beverages, snacks, household items, etc., represent the majority of items in an order. The hardest items remain: ✅ Produce ✅ Meat ✅ Seafood ✅ Deli ✅ Frozen foods Even the most advanced robotics struggle with those categories. Which means the winning architecture may actually look like this: ✅ Robots pick center-store goods. ✅ Humans pick perishables and frozen products. In unionized stores, this creates an interesting dynamic. Instead of replacing labor, robots handle repetitive picking while union employees perform higher-value selection tasks. So the real question grocery retailers should be asking is this: Should they continue investing in capital-intensive automation infrastructure? Or should they deploy robotics directly inside stores at scale? Note: Blue Collar Robotics is a great way to eventually replace Instacart and/or DoorDash. The answer will determine who wins the next decade of grocery e-commerce. I believe the future of grocery automation belongs to the company that finds the fastest and most economical way to automate 80% of the problem. And that battle has officially begun. #retail #ai #logistics #robotics #microfulfillment
-
Bill Bennett shared thisI’m excited to announce that I've joined Blue Collar Robotics as a Strategic Advisor. Blue Collar leverages Remote Labor as a Service (RLaaS) to enable fast, accurate manual-labor tasks, with online grocery picking as their first focus. The timing is perfect for an in-store fulfillment solution for e-Grocery. The grocery industry has tried multiple approaches, but these haven’t worked at scale because they are capital-intense, overly-centralized, and too duplicative of inventory. What grocers need is a practical solution that fits into the stores they already have, leveraging forward-deployed inventory, reducing the last mile, and improving unit economics, all with a low upfront capital cost. I’m also impressed by the leadership team. They have the right mix of domain experience, real-world execution, and focus to bring this to market. Excited to see where we can take Blue Collar Robotics!Bill Bennett shared thisBlue Collar Robotics Welcomes Bill Bennett as Strategic Advisor We’re excited to announce that Bill Bennett has officially joined Blue Collar Robotics as Strategic Advisor, starting February 23. Bill brings deep grocery and eCommerce leadership experience from executive roles at Kroger and Walmart, and most recently as CEO of Innovative Food Holdings. Welcome aboard, Bill! Full announcement is now live on our website: https://lnkd.in/gAqdEi8XBlue Collar Robotics Welcomes Bill Bennett as Strategic AdvisorBlue Collar Robotics Welcomes Bill Bennett as Strategic Advisor
-
Bill Bennett shared thisCongratulations to Grocery Dealz, and Matt Goynes and Micheal Waldroup, on winning the Omnitalk Retail podcast award for “Best Retail Technology of 2025!”Bill Bennett shared thisWe are HONORED to be recognized as "BEST RETAIL TECHNOLOGY OF 2025" 🏆 by Chad Lusk from Alvarez & Marsal Consumer and Retail Group as announced on the Omni Talk Retail Annual awards podcast. This acknowledgment reinforces our mission of bringing grocery savings to consumers and marketplace opportunities to Retailers & Brands. We couldn't have done this without the help of all our partners and investors! 🎆
-
Bill Bennett shared thisVery excited to join the Grocery Dealz advisory board! The Grocery Dealz markeplace app is a consumer-facing grocery price comparison tool. Think Expedia, for groceries. Shop your basket of items, and the tool will compare your basket across retailers in your local area. Choose a retailer, then port that basket straight to Instacart to place your order. Going to be fun to see where Matt Goynes and Micheal Waldroup take this!
-
Bill Bennett posted thisCorporate goal setting is broken. In 20 years of corporate life, I can’t remember getting an annual goal that was both motivating and achievable. The problem? We tie goals to a 12-month cycle, but most meaningful strategies take years to play out. And to make it worse, budgets often aren’t finalized until 3–6 months into the year. So employees are left trying to “hit” goals they had no real chance to shape. This usually happens through short-term actions that are actually detrimental to the business in the long-term. By year-end, bonus payouts usually reflect one of two things: 1. Trends that were already in place when the year started, or 2. Random external events (looking at you, COVID). So, bonuses feel disconnected from effort. Motivation dies. Here’s the fix I’ve been noodling on: 1. Split bonuses 50/50 between corporate performance and personal performance. → Keeps people accountable individually, but still drives collaboration 2. Measure corporate performance in financials. → Cash has to be there before bonuses can. 3. Measure personal performance through strategic objectives, not dollars. → Example: “Launch 10 new customers over $10M” or “Complete warehouse tech rollout.” 4. Pay bonuses quarterly. → Keeps people engaged and gives a fresh start if one quarter misses the mark. This turns goal-setting into a collaborative, ongoing process — one that actually drives the business forward instead of punishing timing or rewarding luck. For senior roles, I’d pair this with a three-year long-term incentive tied to financials, to keep short-term objectives aligned with long-term financials. Curious — what are your thoughts on how to make goals both motivating and achievable?
Bill Bennett commented on a post
2mo
Congrats Brandon!
Bill Bennett replied to a comment
3mo
Doug Partin interesting! They would need an incredible amount of demand density to make this model work, in addition to lots of inventory forward deployed to warehouses close to customers. Feels like Walmart is already doing this, if you replace "totes" with "Walmart bags"?
Bill Bennett commented on a post
3mo
Nice. It takes a lot of finesse to handle a situation like that gracefully and without offending your team members. But it’s definitely important. Not all people process challenges well in a group in a fast moving conversation, and need the opportunity to step back and think through the problem in a quiet space, so I love how you helped them through that process!
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked thisFor 25 years as CEO of WD-40 Company, I opened almost every meeting with the same line. "Good day, I'm Garry Ridge. I'm the consciously incompetent, probably wrong, roughly right CEO of WD-40 Company, and I need all the help I can get." People assumed I was being humble for effect. Most never realized it was the most strategic sentence I said all year. That line was not modesty. It was an operating system. When you are a senior leader, information gets filtered before it reaches you. People smile more. They challenge less. Reports get edited. Bad news arrives softer. Sometimes it never arrives at all. Nobody wants to be the person who hands the boss the hard truth. So the truth stops traveling. And you spend quarters making decisions based on a version of the company that does not actually exist. The introduction line was my structural fix. By naming my own incompetence first, in public, I changed the rules of the room. People watching me say "I am probably wrong and I need help" learned that being wrong and asking for help were now permissible behaviors. The signal traveled. The decisions got better because the information got better. Here is a diagnostic question I want you to sit with: Has anyone told you that you were wrong about something important in the last 30 days? If the honest answer is no, your team has not gone quiet on you. You went quiet on them. And now they are just responding to the vocabulary you gave them. The good news is you can start changing it in your next meeting. Try opening with something you do not know instead of something you do. Watch what happens.
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked thisWe are proud to be recognized by Utah Business as one of 10 innovations changing how we live and work. An intentional part of our innovation is creating an entirely new category of work - one that enables anyone, anywhere in the world, to operate a robot remotely through the internet. I look forward to the moment when we can clearly see this vision becoming a reality through Blue Collar Robotics. We appreciate Utah Business for putting a spotlight on innovations that can change the world and for giving emerging technologies like ours an opportunity to be part of the conversation. https://lnkd.in/gkxc2Z6e
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked thisA fun milestone! Our article, “The False Alignment Trap,” is the cover story of the new July/August issue of Harvard Business Review, now out on newsstands. The article addresses a pattern we see often in large-scale change. Where leaders say they are “aligned," but they have not actually reached true agreement on the hard questions and the elements that matter the most to really deliver the change outcomes. 💡 Why are we changing? 💡 What exactly is changing? 💡 What are we not changing? 💡 How will the change happen? When those answers remain vague without real specifics, teams can end up moving quickly, creating a great deal of activity, but not effectively and often in different directions. Thank you to my coauthors (Julia Dhar and Philip Jameson), and to the HBR team for helping bring this piece to life. Grab a copy if you see it on newsstands, or read the article online here: https://lnkd.in/ejtPKsrj
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked thisInstead of watching 2 hours of Netflix tonight, watch this Stanford lecture. It's the clearest explanation I've seen of how ChatGPT and Claude actually work. The best part is that it’s useful whether you've never touched AI in your life or have been using it every day for the past year. Together with this guide, you will be able to Build an Agentic OS with Claude Fable 5 in a few hours🤖: https://lnkd.in/dZsST5qR Bookmark it & watch the whole lecture (link: https://lnkd.in/dhPs9HQJ) this weekend, because it might end up being the most valuable thing you learn all week.
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked this4 years at Figure This is a video from our all-hands, it's a rare look behind the scenes of the early bringup of F.03 F.01, F.02, and F.03 were all designed and walking within a year of each other. The pace of progress is mind-blowing, especially considering each robot was a new architecture, with a ground-up hardware and software redesign We haven't slowed down. We're now through the final major design cycle for F.04. This will be the biggest leap we've made between robot generations since we started
-
Bill Bennett liked thisBill Bennett liked thisConnection is no longer just a link between people, it now shapes how kids grow, learn, and experience the world around them. Toy Story 5 came out in theaters this past weekend, and it’s a timely reminder that the digital world is now part of the childhood experience. Kids are engaging with technology earlier and more often than ever, making digital literacy and security essential. At AT&T, we’re focused on supporting families in practical ways. Our partnership with The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios brings this to life by creating spaces for families to engage with technology together. Today, connection means more than access, it requires understanding and responsibility. Every family deserves the tools and opportunity to navigate digital spaces with confidence. #ATT #ToyStory5 #ConnectingChangesEverything
Courses
-
Civilization, Culture, and Leadership
-
-
Corporate Finance
-
-
Corporate Restructuring
-
-
Decision Models
-
-
Financial Accounting
-
-
Financial Modeling through Training the Street
-
-
Financial Statement Anaylsis
-
-
Fundamentals of Negotation
-
-
Global Financial Management
-
-
Global Markets and Institutions
-
-
Managerial Accounting
-
-
Managerial Economics
-
-
Managerial Effectiveness
-
-
Marketing Management
-
-
Operations Management
-
-
Statistical Models
-
-
Strategy Management
-
-
Strategy in Emerging Markets
-
Languages
-
Italian
-
Recommendations received
8 people have recommended Bill
Join now to viewOther similar profiles
Explore more posts
Explore top content on LinkedIn
Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place.
View top content