Q&A with Anne
Can you tell me about your work at Levis?
I am a Senior Director of Sales, where currently I am responsible for managing all of our Club (Costco, BJ's, Sam's) and Off Price (Ross, TJMaxx, Burlington Coat Factory, etc - about 20 more accounts) for all of the Levi's brands (Levi's men's and women's, Dockers, Signature, and Denizen) for both the US and Canada. I manage a team of 9 people who are responsible for the day to day operations, where I manage senior level relationships and strategy.
What project did you work on at Skypad?
I knew my position at Levi's would be shifting when I returned from Skypad, so initially I worked on outlining the major projects I wanted to tackle within my new role. As I got into the work and the way the week was structured, I realized I would not be able to attack each of these projects, and needed to narrow my scope to one. I focused specifically on how my new team could best utilize tools to create a low touch model, in order to increase their bandwidth and handle more accounts more efficiently than they are today.
“Since being back, I have continued to flush out the work I did, but would not be nearly as far in the process had I not had the dedicated time to figure it out at Skypad.”
How did your work at Skypad differ from that in the office?
The work I did with Skypad was work that needs to be done when transitioning roles and getting a new team, but one never has the time to dedicate 5 full days to creating a new organization and new ways of working. Since being back, I have continued to flush out the work I did, but would not be nearly as far in the process had I not had the dedicated time to figure it out at Skypad.
Did the Skypad curriculum shift your project in any way? Please describe.
The curriculum definitely did shift my project, but also my approach to how I am going to structure all of my teams (I now have 3 separate divisions reporting into me), and any big project I need to work on in the future. My approach prior would not have asked so many questions of the people affected by the changes being made, but now I have spent a great deal of time with the teams reporting to me to ensure that the structure divvies up the work appropriately.
What was your favorite part of the week?
My favorite parts were the outings and the brainstorming sessions. I felt like the outings built trust within the group that were critical to getting the most out of the evening sessions, where the brainstorming sessions were great exposure to people in different, but related industries, that allowed me to think differently about my approach to my work.
