Latest / Chief Officer / Tim Massa, Chief Officer at Kroger: Bloom Where You're Planted

Transcript

Tim Massa, Chief Officer at Kroger: Bloom Where You're Planted · Chief Officer

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Hi Tim, how are you doing? It's so good to see you. So great to
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see you Tiffany. Always enjoy our time together. Definitely,
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same as well. And just so excited to spend time today talking
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to you about your journey, your incredible inspiring career, and
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especially hone in on
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that key step how you attain your chief officer role, which is what everyone
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is here to find out further and hear your thoughts and advice and strategies
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and insights on this. And so excited to spend time with you here on this
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today. Thanks for the opportunity to be with you. Yeah, absolutely. Well,
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Tim would love to hear a little bit more of again your
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your journey, your upbringing, a little bit of that time period
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before your chief officer role, just so everyone is as familiar
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with your journey as I am. Well, absolutely. Well, I grew up
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in Cincinnati, Ohio, Midwestern part of the country. I was the
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youngest of five siblings.
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I had outstanding parents. My mom was 41 when she had me. So that
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was, you know, back then, I'll be 60 in November of this year, but
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that was clearly, you know, a surprise, but I was my oldest brother
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was 15 years older than me. So I grew up, I grew up in old soul
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pretty quickly. I had a lot of older siblings.
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aunts and uncles around me. So I can see you as an old soul as a
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child. Yeah, I cherish that. You know, my, my, both my parents
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worked. My mom was in, in retail all her life and department stores
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and bridal registries and things like that. My dad was a
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salesman in a good year tire and rubber and then was a
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manufacturer's rep. So
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grew up in middle class and went to school at an all boys
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Catholic high school. Played a lot of sports and was involved
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in student government and lots of different associations.
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And that led to going to the University of Dayton just an
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hour north of Cincinnati and had a degree in communications and
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marketing.
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I thought I was going to get into media. I wanted to be a broadcaster on
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national news or some type of entertainment. Yeah, I see that. You have a
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great voice for that actually. I was a DJ in college my freshman year. I
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was the only student, the professional station that happened to be near
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campus hired and they gave me the midnight to 6 a.m shift. I did it
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three days a week.
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I had a moniker named Midnight Massa that still sticks today for
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those that know me well. And I would do the midnight to 6 a.m. and
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sleep till noon and go to class in the afternoon. But tough business
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and while I enjoyed it, I wound up interviewing with lots of
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companies right out of college and joined Procter & Gamble.
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right out of school. Terrific company, Consumer Products
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Company, spent 21 wonderful years there, all in the people
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space. Back then, Tiffany, in 1989, it really wasn't a human
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resources function then. I think we were personnel and
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operations, but I worked for a variety of groups and took a
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liking to the... (static)
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the HR areas of recruiting and succession planning and training and
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compensation and benefits and grew into a function and moved
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nine times with Procter & Gamble over 21 years. A lot of
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assignments around the US and had the opportunity to live overseas
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in Central Europe and Poland.
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and had the whole Central European corridor of Lithuania,
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Latvia and Estonia as a country HR manager. Lots of global
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roles. And P&G was asking me to move for a 10th time, this
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time to Singapore. It was a beautiful opportunity. And at the
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same time, I found the love of my life my first day at
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college at Dayton.
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I love your life. We married right after school and I had two beautiful
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children and they were pretty young at the time. My oldest was going into
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high school when P&G wanted me to move to Singapore and my parents were
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both still living at the time but they were aging and starting to have
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some health concerns.
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Turn that down for family reasons and I was on a short list to
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be into that top HR officer role at P&G, but I knew not
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taking that assignment would lengthen my time for that to
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happen. So one of the former officers at P&G that retired
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connected me with the Kroger Company, also based here in
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Cincinnati. I was back on my...
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I think fourth time living in Ohio with P&G after a lot of other
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assignments and they were looking to really change the people
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function and make it more of a business partner, less of an
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administrative function, a lot of focus with the C-suite and the
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board. So one thing led to another. Who was it that called?
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Well, it was Kroger. Who was your friend there that made the
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call? He was my former officer of HR. He retired and he knew
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that Kroger was doing some work as a consultant with
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Kroger because they wanted to kind of rebrand their people function
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and take more interest in really turning it into a proactive
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business partner role versus just being an administrative role. And
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so they hired, I think, one of the best HR officers in the world,
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Katy Barclay. She came out of General Motors. She came in and she
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committed to give five years to the then CEO, Dave Dillon. But
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she didn't really see anybody internally to succeed her. So she
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believed hardly in
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succession planning and doing it early. So I interviewed with Katy and
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actually interviewed with the entire C-suite and several board members. I
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think there was 13 interviews actually that I went through over a three
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month period of time. Never really thought I'd ever leave Procter & Gamble,
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but saw an opportunity to come to Kroger as Katy's head of talent and
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training and did that.
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and within four years of being here, true to Katy's
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word, I succeeded her. And I'm coming up now on 16 years
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with Kroger and 12 years in the top chair and took
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that over in 2014. And after 37 years of 21 with
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P&G and now 16 with Kroger.
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I'm winding down my career and will be retiring here in
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about three short weeks now after a successful succession
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plan with my successor that'll be stepping in. So it's
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been full circle and I really have looked at the
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opportunity to be in the top chair and
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so many lessons and also so appreciative and blessed of the
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career that I had at P&G preparing me for this and also coming
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into Kroger to get me ready was really instrumental. And one of
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the big beliefs I always have followed, Tiffany, is you need
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to bloom where you're planted.
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And instead of always worried about the next role or
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chasing the next opportunity, I answered a lot of
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opportunities within P&G and then took that chance to
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leave. And I'm pretty loyal. I'm not jumping around from
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one place to the next, 21 years, 16 years. But because I--
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[AUDIO OUT]
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Really at P&G, I think I had 18 different roles in 21 years, but I took
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advantage of every one of them and made the most out of them. And I think
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it helped prepare me for the role that I'm in today and how this role has
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changed over the years versus jumping into something and trying to
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jump through it fast and not necessarily being ready.
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I think that's been a hallmark that I've tried to pass on as I've mentored
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and sponsored and coached countless others along the way. I love this. What
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a beautiful journey and so inspiring. I'd love to hone in on that first
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moment when you knew you would become Chief Officer. When was that moment?
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Was it when you were hired initially as Head of Talent then?
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Like you knew ultimately that would happen. It was our key moment that Katy
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called you into the office and said it's time. Well, look, I think when she
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offered me the job, you know, obviously I, it was a big move to leave P&G,
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but I knew that if I performed well, that I had a path to really become the
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people officer for a fortune, you know, fortune 20 company.
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Kroger has 400,000 people. It's a massive, it's only a US based
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company where I was used to global company before with P&G,
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but I knew just the sheer size and the magnitude of being able
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to lead a people function for such a large company was amazing.
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So while she offered that as part of the job offer, I knew I
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needed to perform.
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and nothing was a guarantee. But I would say, you know, probably
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three years into the, you know, two and a half to three years into the role
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as things were starting to come together and I was making an impact
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and coming from the outside. There weren't a lot of external hires
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that Kroger at the time. We've done a lot more of that, but at the
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time, you know,
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14, 16 years ago that was not very common. But I would say a couple
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years in I started to see that I was getting traction. I was getting
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more involved in our board of directors with the C-suite of the
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Kroger leadership team attending a lot of meetings with Katy and
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starting to take on initiatives and getting more
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coaching behind the scenes and allowing to present
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more directly. I knew that the path was there and
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it was becoming more real. I love that. And is there a
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certain day when you learned the moment was here?
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I almost think of it, you know, like, I found out that I got into Harvard
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or something like that kind of moment where you got a phone call. Yeah, you
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know, we both got a Katy invited me to there was a store publication
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today. It's called HR executive and Katy was going to be on the cover of
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it.
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primarily because of the role model transition that she put in
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place on her succession with me. And it was a four year
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journey. And she was very deliberate and intentional in
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laying that out. And I would say it was probably about a year
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out from when I took over in 2014. So that would have been
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September of 2013.
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the HR executive publisher came to the Kroger offices and they did
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a photo shoot of both of us. And we sat down and walked through her
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philosophy of bringing somebody on. So I knew then that, wow, I'm
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getting on the cover of the front page of an industry publication. That
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was her endorsement and her--
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her rubber stamp and really message publicly to the
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industry and the profession that this is a role model
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example of how you transition appropriately and to
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have that tangible outward example.
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of that publication with both of us on it. And I still have
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that hanging in my office in a frame. I'll remember that quite
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well. And then actually, the actual her retirement, me taking
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over in '14, those days were obviously very, very special. And
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now I'm seeing it full circle of--
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having some celebrations with my team. Two days ago, I was surprised with a
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conference room here in our store support center, our headquarters
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named after me. - Oh my goodness, I love that, wow. - And my wife was there
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and they had a placard put up and to have a room that will...
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forever be used and my name I think speaks below. The
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Midnight Massa Room? Something like that. They could make a
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Midnight Massa but that was quite nice and now just being able
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to appreciate the countless leaders and associates that
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you've been able to impact is quite gratifying.
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It's amazing. What a good culture and good example of leadership all
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throughout this last few decades. I feel like you have, I mean,
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obviously your career has been full of hard work and dedication and,
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but so many wonders, like such a beautiful path.
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is being able to meet your wife on the first day and you know and two
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careers as a leader 20 years plus at two organizations it's rare it's
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really rare gem you know it's such a beautiful life.
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What was the first week like as chief officer? I'm just curious if you
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could walk us through it. The first day I got on one of our company
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planes and flew out with one of our senior business leaders. And we
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were doing, you know, we have 20, we have 3000 stores. So we were
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getting prepared for a quarterly.
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quarterly analyst call and in order to do that these leaders that ran
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our divisions would go out to get feedback on how the division in
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Houston, Texas was doing. So I jumped on a plane with a one of the
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senior leaders to go to Houston for one of their quarterly business
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reviews and you know it was my first day I didn't know him and
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And just flying on it, it was my first time on a company
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plane flying to Houston and being able to get in the market and
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meet men and women that worked in our stores, do a store
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visit to hear how our business was doing in Texas to help bring
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that back, you know, back then in terms of the...
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results and to have that be a key input into the quarter
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results for our fiscal year. I felt I was on cloud nine
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and I was thrown right into how could we help the
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business from a, what was their staffing like? Did they have
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the right training?
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We were getting into succession planning with the leader there that was
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going to be retiring in a few years. And so I was able to work with the team
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there and work back here with our corporate team on how we were going to
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support that. So, yeah, that day feels like yesterday in some regards, but
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it was 16 years ago. - I love that. And what's been one of the decisions
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you've been proudest of as...
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Chief officer or accomplishments, you know, and me asking this question,
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what was the first thing that popped into your mind? Because I'm sure
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you would. I would say the first one that popped into mind, obviously,
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was, you know, we all lived through it. But I think our our time during
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COVID, I'm very proud that, you know, our store stayed open. We had
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essential workers.
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I was reminded, you know, we had a call every day at 11 a.m.
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And it was with all the leaders of our divisions, 21 leaders,
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all of our C-suite. And we did not have a playbook. And we
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were trying, we were learning every day how to keep our stores
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open, how to protect our associates and our customers, you
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know, and the ability.
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also to move all of our folks in our headquarters home. That
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was March 13th of 2020. It was Friday the 13th. I will never
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forget that. And we were using Teams as a virtual, and
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nobody knew what Teams was. And we were sending hundreds of
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thousands of people home and it worked. And here we are
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today. So.
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I am very proud of, we listened intently. We probably
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listened for understanding more than ever, regardless of
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the level of the individual, the location of the
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individual. We were seeking best practices, best ideas
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to keep our stores running and to serve our associates
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around the world, around the country.
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that was probably one of the most collaborative times
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in our company's history and for many companies
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obviously around the world. But I just remember all
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the daily decisions we made. But I would also say,
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we've also dealt with some tragedy. We've had our
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handful of...
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natural disasters and when a community comes together in a hurricane,
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then the grocery store is a place that is a haven for working with
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Feeding America and helping those in need. I mean, times of need. We've
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had an unfortunate mass shooting in one of our stores in Boulder, Colorado,
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and how we came together as a community supported those that were...
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- Yeah. - You know, senselessly killed and their family members, how we
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supported them and how to this day we still honor them. You know, it is a
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local community and you know, one of my former colleagues who retired as
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our CFOs said it's the biggest little company in America. And I think
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back to decisions we've made, I've made that. (static)
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We treated this large company like a small shop and in a
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community and with a name, with people that were there to
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serve. I cherish that a lot and there were countless
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examples like that.
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Yeah, that's remarkable. And you have to make a remark here actually, as, as
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we're talking, I really am more making this observation to for our
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listeners. It's remarkable that, you know, you've been here for so long. And
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we were just talking about a mutual friend, Jacqueline, the CHR at General
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Mills, who also similarly grew up at General Mills. Terrific. What I see of
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you two, you're remarkable leaders.
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When it comes, for example, in this age of AI and transformation, you are
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some of the most advanced in terms of the workforce transformation you've
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already implemented and already carried out. And that's perhaps correlated
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to the tenure you've had and led here. That tenure, the insights you have
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into the organization has led you to...
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be able to operate at a faster speed than other organizations where perhaps
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leadership has higher turnover is what it may be seeing because both you and
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her have shared with me insights and plans and transformation underway that
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is again much more advanced than many of their other organizations that we
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collaborate with or support or see or just observe.
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since we have this unique vantage point at mobile, to see at the C-speed
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level across 700 plus organizations. So I want to commend you for that. -
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Thank you. - And so, maybe if you could share a little bit of insight about
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what I just shared with listeners, I'd love to have them here, your
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remarkable efforts in this age of AI. - Well, thank you again for the
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feedback. I think one of the pieces we've leaned in on is we see... (static)
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asking for help is a sign of strength. No one person has all the
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answers. So, your ability to be able to collaborate
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cross-functionally, I think is so important today, even in the age
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of AI and in technology advances. And we really refer to it as
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ways of working, Tiffany. We look at how can we improve our ways of
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working. Tools. (static)
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Like AI, we need to lean in and how can it simplify your work?
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How can it free you up so that we want you to do more
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human-centric activity? We want you to be able to be empathetic,
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to listen for understanding, to provide feedback, to get out in
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the stores, in our plants, in our warehouses, and work with our
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associates and have...
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performance feedback and coaching. And when you get bogged down
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in a lot of the administrative and other tasks and meetings,
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that goes away. And I think one of the drawbacks from COVID was
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that we lost a generation of shoulder to shoulder coaching and
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being around. And our culture is one that's collaborative and yes,
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we can do.
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things virtually and value the efficiency and the
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effectiveness of that. But nothing takes away from
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working together and helping get after somebody's dreams
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and interests and the concerns they have and helping remove
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barriers. Tools like AI, etc., can help simplify things so that
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we have more airtime and more space.
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to focus on things like that. So, you know, we created a driver's
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license, we call it AI driver's license for every one of our
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associates based on their role because a data scientist who's working on,
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you know, customer data and our loyalty program that feels
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personalized to that shopper is a different use of AI skills
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than
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someone who's a program manager or a product manager or a
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category manager of one of our categories in healthcare
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versus a cashier versus someone that's working in a plan. So
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we've been able to really create a baseline understanding
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of AI. And just like you have a driver's license to be able
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to drive a car,
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we want you to be certified in your area of role, or then to
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show what skills do I need that I need to upskill or improve on
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if my role that I'm doing today may be altered or changed or
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eliminated, what things can I do to go add more value or give
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me more time to go focus on. So we've tried to take that
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approach.
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and really look for folks to lean in versus seeing this as a, you
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know, it is all about changing culture. And we're trying to
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really help people embrace and lean in on that. And I think it
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goes back to collaborations is the new currency and it's okay what
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you don't know. It's okay to raise your hand for help.
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and we've tried to drive that throughout the company and it's
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starting at the top and I think that's been a hallmark for us. I
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would also say we really tried to create an experience where
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people want to work here and we're trying to be intentional about
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the experiences we're trying to create, the behaviors that support
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those experiences.
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because we believe then the outcome's more intentional. If we're not,
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you know, calling for the type of behaviors we expect from our leaders
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and the experiences we're trying to create, then we believe at the
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chance, then it feels like it's opening day every day and that leaders,
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we were putting people into leadership roles and they may not be...
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(static)
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understanding what they're signing up for. And we're a 143 year old company,
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but we've been grounded in a set of values that have been around for over 50
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years that haven't changed. And we continue to make sure that whatever role
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you're in, we're values and principle based driven. That's always gonna be
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our North Star that guides us all the way through.
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- Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Tim. So inspiring to hear you speak
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of your journey. The culture is so admirable. It's so kind, warm,
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collaborative, and it's demonstrated in everything you say throughout every
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initiative, even in this age of AI, it's apparent everywhere.
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So thank you so much again for sharing also your moment of attaining the
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chief officer. It's been a dream talking to you. So thank you so much, Tim.
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And I'm excited to continue the conversation. Look forward to staying in
25:13
touch. Thanks for your partnership, Tiffany. Thank you, Tim.
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