Tools of the Tread: How Discount Tire Uses Tech to Drive Success

How does Discount Tire stay ahead of the curve? Tom Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer, discusses how treading new ground in tech and analytics drives innovation forward. 🚘🔧

Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway Briefing
Listen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...

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Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway Briefing
Listen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Chapters

• 15:06 [Ad] Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway Briefing
• 15:06 [Ad] Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway Briefing
• 16:33 (Cont.) Tools of the Tread: How Discount Tire Uses Tech to Drive Success
• 16:33 (Cont.) Discount Tire Podcast

Transcript

Discount Tire Transcript - Tomorrow's World Today

0:01

Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.

0:04

We sit down with experts, world changing innovators, creators and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts and more.

0:21

And now this week's episode, in this episode of the Tomorrow's World Today podcast, George Davison, who is also the host of Tomorrow's World Today on science interviews Tom Williams who is the Executive Vice president and Chief experience Officer of Discount Tire, a retail chain that offers a wide selection of tire brands along with services such as tire installation, balancing, rotation and repair.

0:49

Tom reflects on his educational journey, the important of collaborative learning from failures and emphasizes the role of research in innovation and business development.

0:59

He also highlights the importance of analytics and technology in shaping new ideas and improving operations.

1:07

Now, here's George.

1:09

Thanks for coming on, Tom.

1:10

Thanks for having me.

1:11

Tom has a very unique title in the business that he's in.

1:14

He works for Discount Tire and his title is Executive Vice president and Chief experience officer.

1:22

Right.

1:22

Yep, that's a big title, Tom.

1:24

It's a big job.

1:26

Well, I it would be great if you could talk a little bit about what does that mean?

1:31

Like that title of experience officer?

1:33

I don't think most people hear that every day.

1:36

I, I think to keep it simple, right?

1:39

It's, it's literally looking at what we do for our customers and we look at the end to end journey right from the time that you, you, you have a need to the time that we can service that need.

1:49

So it's really looking at that journey for a consumer from start to finish.

1:53

And how do we make that better for the consumer step by step by step?

1:57

The same thing is how do we make it easier for our people to deliver on that experience for our customers?

2:02

So that's kind of the the big picture that we look at is that those end to end journeys for customers.

2:07

It's a great way to think about just about any business.

2:10

You have a customer, you wanna make a great experience.

2:13

So think of about your product, think about your training of your employees.

2:17

Do you ask for feedback from your, the people who come to the company?

2:21

And yeah, you know, it's, it's kind of fun.

2:23

So we obviously tires.

2:25

So we like to look at two things at the house.

2:28

So we look at all of our folks on the front lines, we call it in the stores.

2:32

We call them our car drivers and all of us at the corporate office are the car builders.

2:37

And so together their feedback helps us shape what we do to deliver on the experiences.

2:43

So it kind of aligns us towards a common mission.

2:45

And so when there is an idea out there, what's going on, our feedback from our front drivers are those, those front line folks is critical to help us shape whatever we're doing, whatever that experience is.

2:57

And so that's a big one.

2:59

And then obviously customers, you know, I mean, as a retailer, we listen to every word, right, survey our consumers and so forth.

3:04

But feedback is the key without feedback.

3:07

Then what, what do you do?

3:09

That's great.

3:09

Intel, walk me back when Discount Tire was, you know, first created.

3:14

It was, I'm sure there was a founder and what was the inspiration for this entity?

3:21

You know, our founder, Mr Holley opened his first store in Ann Arbor Michigan.

3:25

and he was an entrepreneur and he had a failed start in another business and he had a family and, and, and honestly, I mean, he opened up his star and we got a book out there.

3:33

It's called Six Tires No Plan.

3:35

And so he opened his first store in Ann Arbor Michigan, had six tires and opened that store up and he hand painted a sign called Discount Tire.

3:44

That's great.

3:45

And he goes on for several days without selling a tire yet.

3:49

And,, sold his first tire and kept doing that and just repeat.

3:53

And, and that really was the, the, the foundation of our organization and that was in 1960, a gentleman that had an idea to open up a store, but he had no plan.

4:04

All, you know, is he, was gonna sell tires and take care of customers and he had to focus on them.

4:08

And, you know, we grew to what we are today.

4:10

That's a great story.

4:11

I think a lot of people when they first go out for business, they think I put my shingle out there and the world's just gonna beat a path to my door.

4:19

It's really not like that is it, it's not like that at all.

4:22

Yeah, we always, we,, we always try to envision, we have these exercises with our managers and we, we, we talk at,,, called Three Day Hungry.

4:31

And so we try to imagine what it was like and how he engaged that first customer that walked in the store and, you know, because everybody selling, you know, back then a lot of people selling tires, what makes it different to buy tires from here versus there.

4:45

And it really comes down to experience, right?

4:47

So we're all selling a commodity.

4:49

But how do you do it?

4:50

That's differentiating yourself.

4:51

And that was the thing that he really embedded in all of us.

4:54

, and, and, and brought to life a product that not a lot of people wanna buy, but they need to buy.

5:00

They create an experience that separated us.

5:03

That's great.

5:04

So, now that we've learned a little bit about him, could we talk a little bit more about you?

5:09

Yeah.

5:09

So let's say that you're ta I'm one of your Children.

5:13

Right?

5:14

What advice would you give me?

5:16

The world's not about you, right?

5:19

The world's about the people around you and how you impact them.

5:21

So, you know, I was instilled in me very much my, my, my parents, right?

5:25

Obviously.

5:26

, and you just look at it.

5:28

, my dad was a military guy.

5:30

, so put a lot of discipline in me and what I do and so that discipline and rigor helped me throughout my whole life.

5:37

And and so when I look and talk to my kids, it's really those things is how do you make sure you stay focused?

5:45

Right?

5:45

And, and discipline to the out comes that you desire whatever that may be.

5:49

And so growing up, that was instilled in me very much by Bob H, right?

5:53

So, to really focus on those things, if you're gonna do something, do it with a purpose and do it to be the best.

6:00

And then, and, and that was really much whatever that choice may be.

6:03

, so looking at back in those days, if I just kind of reflect, that was a relenting message that my pop and my mom drove into me that helped me, I think shaped me who I am today.

6:16

So, what a blessing.

6:17

That's great advice.

6:19

So, you had your parents as mentors, you know, with that blessing.

6:24

Did you have any mentors in school?

6:26

Were there any teachers that kind of stick out in, in that world?

6:29

Yeah.

6:30

You know, I mean, I, I, I, I playing sports, you know, coach Warren, I mean, that's, that's, that's a gentleman that really inspired me in the same way.

6:37

He had a lot of the same mentality of,, be the best.

6:40

And,, and so I would look back then his, again helping me stay focused and, and,, and relentless,, was,, was a big thing for me, right?

6:50

To push me hard.

6:51

So, yeah, good stuff.

6:52

Good,, coach was,, coaching what sport, by the way?

6:56

Football, football.

6:57

Yeah.

6:57

Well, there you go.

6:59

It's ok to get knocked down once in a while.

7:00

I'm sure you had to get up a few times.

7:02

Yeah.

7:03

If you had to do one thing over in your high school or college career, what would it be?

7:09

That's a great question.

7:10

I think when I look back I would have finished college.

7:13

Interesting.

7:14

Yeah, I would have finished college.

7:16

I did not.

7:17

So, you went to the school of hard knocks?

7:19

I went to the school of, yes, by yourself.

7:21

Yeah.

7:22

Yeah, I went to school for a year.

7:24

And, you know, working two jobs, I was working at discount tire.

7:28

I started part time a gentleman I grew up with in high school, had started with the company and really encouraged me to come over and, and join, I was going to college at that time.

7:37

So I started working part time for the company and then fell in love with a culture and never looked back.

7:45

And so I didn't finish, you know, I, I, I looked at it but if I look back in life, I'm like going, I, I wish I would have finished that.

7:51

It's, you know, I look back at all the things that I was taught to be relentless to finish things and do and I didn't finish that part.

7:59

Do I regret it?

8:00

No.

8:01

I'm living a life that I never dreamed I would live.

8:04

and working for a company that is, I know I'm biased is magical.

8:09

And so I wish I would have finished school.

8:12

Well, why don't we look at that a little more?

8:14

I mean, so you started at what age at discount times?

8:17

So I was I graduated high school at 17.

8:20

OK.

8:20

Started going to school that year.

8:22

And I started that summer.

8:25

And it was roughly almost a year later that after my first year of college, I stopped going to school and chose discounts, a career so called.

8:34

I was 18 years old.

8:35

Wow.

8:36

I think it's,, it's very interesting that, you know, you started at this company at a young age and you've worked your way up through the organization.

8:46

How long have you been with them now?

8:47

38 years?

8:49

38 years.

8:50

Wow, that's a commitment.

8:52

Congratulations.

8:54

Thank you.

8:54

You've had a busy career, you know, helping to shape this company.

8:58

You've been there long enough now.

9:00

Yeah, when, when I joined the company, we had 100 and 55 stores and today we're just shy of 1200 stores.

9:06

1200.

9:07

How many employees we are?

9:09

Right?

9:09

Around 29,000 employees as an organization.

9:11

Yeah, that's fabulous.

9:13

Yeah.

9:14

What a great story.

9:16

All right, let's see here.

9:18

Can you tell me about something that you or discount Tire did that you failed at completely?

9:25

And then what was done in response to that failure?

9:28

Our founder was really big into kind of back in the tape entrepreneurship.

9:32

He would look like store managers, right?

9:33

So we all grew up, we all had great ideas running our stores to kind of always improve that experience.

9:39

But there is an adventure way back.

9:42

I'll never forget this.

9:42

So they made a decision to start a potential new concept and they called it Tires Plus Club.

9:49

So it was almost like a wholesale club.

9:51

Think of a Costco or Sam's.

9:53

Ok.

9:54

But we went out and decided we're gonna create a Costco type club for tires and automotive accessories.

10:01

All right.

10:01

And it didn't work out.

10:03

So, and it was a great lesson learned, but I think that was the fun part about it is you don't learn unless you fail.

10:10

Right.

10:10

You gotta try things.

10:12

And we had a vision, it was one of the individuals in our company, shared it with our founder, Mr Holley and Mr Holly supported it and it didn't work out, but that's OK.

10:23

Right.

10:24

And it, it allowed us to know that, hey, we tried something and that's really not who we are.

10:30

And that's not really what we do, that's that.

10:33

So I'll go back to be the best.

10:35

and we're really good at tires.

10:37

And so we, we really focused ourselves and, and kind of reset.

10:40

But that's one thing as an organization that was a big one.

10:44

But we learned from, moved on.

10:46

Well, I guess that, you know, we, we refer to that as we fail our way forward around here a lot.

10:51

And, but you're right.

10:52

I mean, you try something and then if you can do good observational analysis, it's like, what did my team learn from that event?

11:00

And the other benefit I always see from it is on those failed experiments are that it brings the team together.

11:07

It's like, well, we kind of all failed together.

11:10

We all learn something together and it brings us together.

11:13

So hopefully you had that kind of experience as well.

11:16

Absolutely.

11:17

Absolutely.

11:18

So, what about the world of research and trying to figure things out in advance in the, in the field of innovation and you know, that we're developing a new business or developing a new product, innovating something?

11:34

Is there a method to doing some sort of research in advance of, let's say, developing an idea or a segment to the business?

11:43

Yeah, I mean, I would say yes.

11:45

Right.

11:45

We we, you gotta understand what you're doing.

11:48

Is it a true need?

11:49

Right.

11:50

Ideas are great.

11:51

We want lots of ideas.

11:52

But what are you really trying to solve for?

11:55

So we're pretty rigorous on trying to understand what is it that is, you know, what's this true benefit gonna do?

12:01

So we'll put a lot of research into that and how that will be received by our people and, or our customers one way or the other.

12:07

But research is it's a big one.

12:09

It, we do it right now.

12:10

Part of my job as a, as the experience officer is a lot around research.

12:15

It's, it's a looking at what the trends are, what's going on and understanding that.

12:19

So it helps shape our strategy.

12:21

And so it's, it's, it's, it's pretty interesting question like right now we're, we're literally engaged in many different ways to gather research to make sure the things that we're doing that are gonna set us up for long term success.

12:35

And that's, that's, that's the fun and you gotta make sure you do your homework to kind of make sure the things that you're gonna do and the investment you're still gonna make is gonna line up to our, our responsibility, right?

12:47

So, and that's our responsibilities of 29,000 people we work for, we got to ensure that their future is secure.

12:54

And so the homework we do ensures that we're making the investments to take care of them.

12:58

That's a great way to say it.

12:59

The 29,000 people that we work for.

13:02

Those are the people that you work with, right?

13:05

I like the way you position that.

13:07

That's again, it's all about them.

13:09

Not about the me.

13:11

That's right.

13:11

Yeah.

13:12

Based on how you just said that I imagine teamwork is an important principle inside the organization.

13:18

Yeah, it really is our founder.

13:20

He drilled some things into us, right?

13:22

He had these five life lessons, ok?

13:24

And and first one was be honest, right?

13:29

Second one was work hard, have fun, be grateful and pay it forward.

13:34

And these are five life lessons that he really instilled in all of us relentlessly and, and, and kept just talking about it and he always said we do this together and we got a big poster of them out there and a big quote and that was what he said all the time is we do it together.

13:49

That's the motivation personally, right?

13:53

Is knowing that we've got 29,000 people focused on the same thing.

13:58

And we talk about our mission as an organization and our mission is to make dreams come true as a retailer.

14:04

And you can look at that as what does that really, really, really mean?

14:06

It's different for all of us, right?

14:08

So, but but that truly is our mission and our mission is to help every individual achieve their dreams, whatever that dream may be.

14:16

and give them the tools to do that.

14:18

We look at our organization and we call you know, you profits, right?

14:23

Looks out there for profits.

14:24

He never called them that.

14:26

And what was cool is he called those tools?

14:28

And he goes, these are the tools that allow us to help dreams come true and invest in you.

14:33

So we do this together is is at the center of our organization because together we we can deliver great things.

14:41

Well, I really wish I met him.

14:42

He sounds like a wonderful guy.

14:44

Yeah, he was very inspiring.

14:47

So how about getting ideas across in the world of like how so we could do, let's say the research we have something that looks promising.

14:58

How does the communication work to try and get in a, you know, an idea into the next step at the organization?

15:07

Yeah.

15:07

That's a great question.

15:08

So like in our organization right now, we have what we call this customer experience value stream, right?

15:13

It's all the different disciplines within the organization and those ideas, we have a framework, right?

15:19

To follow, to bring those ideas to the table.

15:22

And then those ideas get shared with, call it a working team that will help ask questions and and make sure that what are we really trying to solve?

15:31

What is the true benefit that's gonna do for the consumer?

15:34

And what's the outcomes that we can expect from it?

15:36

So we kinda have a framework that we walk through that goes through a couple of stage gates and that's the first stage gate.

15:43

Our ideas are out there in the field.

15:45

But how do we have some kind of discipline to follow, to ensure that those ideas are thought through as they get ready to come to potential those next steps.

15:55

So you gotta look at the feasibility, right?

15:58

Is it something that's gonna be able to we, we can do in scale?

16:02

Can we do a proof of concept on it and then go to a pilot and go to production?

16:06

So we do have that process and that framework in place for our individuals to bring things forward and and and continue to share and grow.

16:15

That's we refer to those in a similar way.

16:18

We refer to that as inventing making and storytelling because you do have to come up with the idea, you have to figure how to get it to scale and then we have to get it communicated out to the world in some way.

16:29

And so, yeah, sounds, sounds very familiar.

16:33

So how about the world of marketing?

16:36

I mean, your, your business is a broad, it, it, it's tires, we, we, you know, you're servicing that, that segment of the market.

16:44

But how does marketing play into that?

16:46

Because your organization is big and broad?

16:48

How does marketing communication work in the organization?

16:52

Well, I mean, we have a marketing team, right?

16:55

We have, I look at it two ways.

16:56

We, we market internally and we market externally, right?

16:59

Two different ways that we look at that right now.

17:01

So that marketing team we have today is constructed of a group of individuals doing their various tasks, you know, driving awareness of our brand.

17:11

But you know, the other thing we look at, I don't know if this is silly or not, but you know, marketing we've built an organization.

17:20

the greatest marketing you can do is deliver an experience that's different, right?

17:24

You can tell the world about an experience, but you got to deliver on those experience.

17:28

So I call silly book that I read that I love is raving fans.

17:31

So just love the book, right?

17:34

And it's a simple read, but it really puts in perspective that, you know, the difference between a satisfied customer and a raving fan, right?

17:42

Big difference.

17:43

Yes, absolutely.

17:44

And so that that type of experience when you deliver on that and you create those kind of consumers, there's no marketing in the world that can, that can overcome that, right?

17:55

The word of mouth, the conversation of the people sharing that.

17:58

So I don't know, I mean, we have an internal marketing team, obviously that structure that puts things together to help go out there and drive awareness of our brand.

18:06

But internally the greatest marketing we do is the experiences that we deliver to our customers, right?

18:11

Well, and so it's a bro, it's a broad spectrum of people that work at discount tire, right?

18:18

So lots of different skill sets, if you were to mention just for simplicity sake, what kind of skill sets?

18:27

Three or four, if you can name a few off the top of your head, the kind of jobs that are out there.

18:32

So gosh, the big one right now is, you know, you go back to your question about research, right?

18:39

And, and we look at analytics is a big one, understanding the data that we're receiving and and interpreting that data that helps us drive new ideas and outcomes and experiences.

18:50

So that's, that's a big role within the organization that we continue to grow on.

18:55

a lot there.

18:57

You look at the technology side because technology is continued to advance at such a pace, right?

19:04

How do we, how do we have people that can help us bring that technology to life?

19:08

And that's a big piece of the organization that we're making big investments in.

19:13

and, and, and to do it when you refer to technology, are we referring to consumer facing technology as in predictive technology thinking all of it all?

19:25

Ok.

19:25

Yeah, I mean it, it customer facing internal facing, right?

19:28

So how do we drive efficiencies to the organization?

19:31

Right?

19:31

And the technologies that we got deployed, how do we ensure that we can deploy experiences out there that will benefit our customers?

19:39

I look at the device that we have out there, this mobile device that we co innovated with the company that we put in the, you know, hands of our people.

19:48

So all these different roles are are all these different car builders, right?

19:53

So go back to that analogy, you got this this back of the house, that's the car builders that are putting all these pieces together from the marketing side, from the social media side, from learning and development, right?

20:06

We we we train our people, we have what we call discount our university.

20:10

So we have people that can help educate our people, right?

20:13

Put programs together and pull that together.

20:16

We have our risk management team which is constantly looking at the overall operations of the business and how do we improve that all the time with safety at the first, at the front of the mind.

20:27

You've got our technical teams, right?

20:29

So our I T groups that are looking at how they can deploy new technologies to drive efficiencies or experiences.

20:35

So our operations team that comes from the field.

20:39

So all these are different roles that are putting this car together.

20:42

And in building a car for our associates to drive.

20:46

Thanks for expanding that whole side of this conversation.

20:50

If we were gonna project into the future a little bit, what do you think the next big move in the industry is going to be, where is innovation going to be driving your organization to lead the industry?

21:05

Yeah, we, we were watching those, the world of is changing quickly, right?

21:11

And you hear a lot about what's going on right now.

21:14

You know, you see the E V market, you see autonomous vehicles, and we're watching that and we see this, this shift happening and, and car ownership changing from, you know, individual ownership to more shared ownership, you know.

21:30

So we were watching it right now and we're looking at you know how this space can evolve.

21:35

So we, you know, you're gonna see probably a consolidation of vehicles styles and types and that consolidation creates a lot of change for, you know, the tire itself, right?

21:43

So you go from the, the many to the few, I guess, best describe it and get more focused on that.

21:49

So we see,, we see shifts coming with ride share fleet, more autonomous vehicles.

21:56

That's all, that's all changing a lot right now.

21:59

So, we're gonna, it, it, I guess the only thing that's consistent is change.

22:03

So that's for sure, staying flexible and, you know, trying to figure it out and lead it.

22:08

It's hard.

22:09

Yeah, I, I, I look back 38 years ago.

22:12

Right.

22:13

It's, it's, it's, we had a few different sizes that we sold.

22:17

I mean, it was pretty basic.

22:18

I mean, most of the vehicles that rolled in our door, you didn't have a whole lot of different sizes.

22:23

It was, well, put it this way, like I look at a Ford, a Chevy and a Dodge truck, they all had the same size.

22:29

They were one of them.

22:30

So, it just changed.

22:32

Right.

22:32

But today I call the proliferation.

22:35

Right.

22:35

So, we've gone from the few sizes to now the many sizes and the, the, the complexity of it's just evolved over the years as cars evolved.

22:44

, and so I, I kind of, it's, it's interesting how we think.

22:48

Right.

22:49

You gotta make your bets.

22:51

Right.

22:51

Right.

22:51

We've gone from the few to the many, but we think the future could be back to the few as vehicles consolidate.

22:58

Right.

22:59

And, and you get to this one, you think of waymo.

23:02

Right.

23:02

Now.

23:03

So Waymo, it's out there.

23:04

, I use it,, you never thought you'd crawl into a car with nobody up in front.

23:09

Right.

23:10

But it's kind of the,, I think it's the coolest experience out there and, and it's,, it's consistent and I think that's what's really neat is because it's, it's, it's, it's the jaguar I pace that pulls up every single time.

23:23

Right.

23:24

And so you think about that concept right there?

23:26

It's one car, one style, one tire size, right?

23:30

Uber is all over, right?

23:32

So you can you, you get Uber Black, you get this, you got all these different cars, right.

23:36

Right.

23:37

Waymo Autonomous, which they want to be that car of the future.

23:42

It's one car, right?

23:44

And they have one tire size on it.

23:46

So that's kind of what we're we're watching happening, right?

23:50

So I'm sure you guys will figure out the, the best way to manage that in the future.

23:55

I tom, I can't thank you enough for coming in here and, and sharing your time with us and letting us learn a little more about discount tire.

24:03

Well, thank you.

24:04

I really enjoyed it.

24:05

Thank you.

24:05

Thank you.

24:06

Well, everybody that's another edition of tomorrow's role today.

24:10

Have a great day.

24:12

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.

24:17

Join us next time as we continue to explore the worlds of inspiration, creation, innovation and production.

24:25

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24:28

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