Lowe’s and Google Cloud

Lowe’s and Google put their heads in the Cloud

Lowe’s is in the early stages of what it calls a multiyear technology transformation and is investing more than $500 million annually through 2021. The Mooresville, N.C.-based retailer is also hiring up to 2,000 engineers for the purpose of strengthening its retail experiences.

And to support it all, Lowe’s and Google Cloud are expanding their partnership to create a “best-in-class technology foundation.” The move includes improving the retailer’s customer service experiences while providing store associates with better tools to assist customers, regardless of whether they are shopping online or in a store.

The tech strategy for the home improvement company includes new investments toward modernizing Lowes’

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e-commerce, merchandising, supply chain management, and pricing systems. Lowe’s said that it will ultimately provide a more fluid, “channelless” customer experience spanning from product discovery to return visits.

“We are making substantial investments in technology to modernize our platforms and advance our digital capabilities,” said Seemantini Godbole, executive vice president and chief information officer of Lowe’s. “Partners like Google Cloud provide the innovative tools and support we need to execute our digital transformation.”

Lowe’s began transitioning off its legacy e-commerce system in late 2018, choosing Google Cloud with the goal of increasing the speed, reliability, and performance of Lowes.com.

Lowe’s is now looking at how Google Cloud technology can improve the customer experience across all parts of the business, with a focus on three key areas: Godbole

• A seamless, personalized digital experience: Lowe’s is working to optimize the online customer journey, from search to navigation to checkout, personalizing the experience for different types of customers.

• Merchandising and inventory improvements: Using Android-based mobile devices and Google Cloud technology, Lowe’s is giving store associates the ability to view and update pricing and inventory on-the-fly. The company has rolled out 88,000 SMART Mobile devices to allow its associates to efficiently access realtime data without leaving the sales floor or losing engagement with a customer.

• Data analytics and machine learning: Lowe’s is also leveraging Google Cloud to grow its capabilities using machine learning and analytics. By centralizing its data lakes into BigQuery, Lowe’s will empower employees across the company to gain greater visibility into different aspects of the business and make more data-driven decisions. This data centralization, coupled with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, will provide Lowe’s with the ability to model everything from the impact of severe weather to demand forecasting.

“The winners in the retail space will be those who focus less on the individual transactions and more on building long-term customer relationships that evolve and stay relevant as consumer preferences and channels change,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “Lowe’s already has great relationships with its customers, and we’re helping extend that in new and exciting ways.”

Lowe’s revs up with Honda

Lowe’s and Honda Power Equipment, a business unit of American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced that the home improvement retailer will be a new destination for Honda’s line of outdoor power equipment.

Honda products are already available at Lowes. com and begian rolling out to stores nationwide in late January and early February. Lowe’s said that it will offer a range of Honda outdoor power products, including walkbehind lawn mowers, generators, snow blowers, tillers, pumps and string trimmers for residential and commercial applications.

“We are committed to offering a

wide selection of brands DIY and pro customers know and trust, and Honda strengthens our ability to deliver on customer expectations in outdoor power equipment,” said Bill Boltz, executive vice president of merchandising for Lowe’s. “By providing customers with more highquality and durable products, we are making it even easier for our customers to complete their next outdoor project.” According to Lowe’s, the move provides customers with “greater access to high-quality offerings that will help them complete their outdoor spaces.”

“The partnership between Lowe’s and Honda will help bring the industry’s best lawn and garden

The retailer will offer Honda’s DIY and professional mix including mowers and generators.

products to even more households nationwide,” said Will Walton, vice president of Honda Power Equipment. “At Honda, we’re looking forward to a relationship with Lowe’s and serving their customers with exceptional products through an exceptional shopping experience.”

Dealers applaud USMCA ratification NLBMDA describes USMCA as a “great victory for the LBM industry.”

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) released the following statement regarding the vote by the U.S. Senate to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA):

“NLBMDA is pleased that Congress has approved the USMCA and this is a great victory for the LBM industry,” said NLBMDA President and CEO Jonathan Paine. “Stability in North America is vital for a vibrant economy and this agreement will ensure trilateral relations in the region are strong and encourage success in residential and commercial housing and construction. We commend Congress for taking action on a new agreement that supports both the industry and the economy.”

The USMCA was signed in 2018 by President Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada, but still had to be approved by the legislatures of the three signing countries. Mexico has already approved the agreement, and Canada’s parliament is expected to take action in the next several months. With some additional minor procedural action, the agreement should take effect later this year.

The deal, all 2,082-pages of it, effectively replaces the North American Free Trade Act, commonly referred to as NAFTA, which was

signed into law by President Clinton. President Trump had previously described NAFTA as “a nightmare.” Among other things, USMCA creates environmental and labor standards for the three counties. It incentivizes car production in North America and opens Canadian markets for American dairy farmers. And it rolls back a NAFTA-era system of arbitration that allowed businesses to sue governments for uinfair treatment. Based in Washington, D.C., the NLBMDA represents more than 6,000 member locations operating single or multiple lumber yards and component plants serving homebuilders, subcontractors, general contractors, and consumers in the new construction, repair and remodeling of residential and light commercial structures.

Here’s how to lobby The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers’ Association is getting D.C.-ready.

“It’s an incredible time for politics in Washington, and as the 2020 election cycle continues to gear up, both parties are quickly putting together their agendas before campaigns dominate the calendar,” said Bob Sanford, the NLBMDA chair and president of Connecticut-based Sanford & Hawley.

There’s a lot stake. And that’s why Sanford appealed to dealers everywhere to participate in the association’s annual Spring Meeting & Legislative Conference — March 23-25, at the Westin Washington City Center in Washington D.C.

Sanford explains it this way: “This conference is your opportunity to hear from the lawmakers directly. We will bring members of the United States Congress directly to the conference to speak to you, and you’ll get to meet personally with lawmakers to make sure our collective legislative priorities and concerns are shared with leaders that are in a position to make a difference. You are the best representative for your business and industry, and your personal stories make a persuasive and powerful case for policies that will make residential housing and the overall economy stronger.”

For more on the NLBMDA Spring Meeting, visit dealer.org.

Start Planning Today! Check out our inspiration gallery at Armadillodeck.com/inspiration/hbs-dealer

Join us in Chicago Nov. 4-5, for the first Top Women in Hardware and Building Supply Awards Gala! Visit HBSDTopWomen.com/2020

From Plodding Progress to Quantum Leap Three action items designed to keep women in the game and on the path to the C-suite. By Sarah Alter W hen I was a young girl, I didn’t dream of becoming a nurse or a teacher. Both are honorable professions, but they’re weren’t in my wheelhouse. I wanted to be in business. And not just in the rank and file — I wanted to be a CEO. I didn’t have female CEO role models, though, because there were so few. There still are far too few. Even as our societal demographics continue to shift, the seats of power within global companies have remained stuck decades in the past.

Now that I’m a CEO, I can look back on the road traveled. And I’m determined to be one of the executives who smooths the road for the women who come after me.

If progress in the CEO ranks has been slower than desired, progress for women at the board level has also been sketchy. Recent numbers for the Fortune 500 show a trend — the same small group of women are being tapped for multiple boards. Seven women serve on four Fortune 500 boards. Thirty-four women serve on three.

Boards want C-suite experience. Yet women comprise only 6.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs. And my organization’s research shows a female leadership crisis: Senior women are heading for the exits at a far higher rate than men. Female higher-level managers, executives and C-suite members leave their jobs nearly four times as often as men — 26.9% versus 7.3%.

So it becomes a chicken-and-egg conundrum. California took the lead to legislate greater equality on boards, which should help get more qualified women into C-suite positions. Boardequality legislation is also moving through the legislature in my home state of Illinois, and being considered in New Jersey as well as a few other states. But I have to be honest: I’m always disappointed when it takes a law to force companies to do what’s good, right and just plain smart. From my own experience, there are potholes in the road to the executive suite. NEW research shows that a few issues across the board cause women to leave companies in droves. Just a few key actions could help them stay: Offering transition support/career pathing. When females report on the support that they receive from those above them in the corporate hierarchy, only half say that they receive support when they accept a new challenge or job. Men’s perception of support from peers and their managers ranks higher, at 63%. And while six out of 10 women say that their supervisor entrusts them with a range of assignments that help prepare them for their next role, the remaining 40% aren’t receiving the corporate stretch roles and breadth of experience necessary to place them in contention for positions of higher responsibility and authority. This leaves women either stagnating in their current roles, feeling passed over, or promoted without sufficient development or support through the transition. None of these situations bodes well for women reaching the C-suite successfully. Modernizing work schedules. While the world has changed dramatically from the years when men worked and women stayed at home to take care of children and domestic duties, work schedules haven’t, to the particular detriment of women with children. As Melinda Gates wrote, “We’re sending our daughters into a workplace designed for our dads.” Confronting bias. Combine a lack of female role models in executive management with the sense of isolation that can come from being the only woman in the room — add in a lack of sponsorship — and you have a recipe for female leaders heading to the exits. Only 36% of women surveyed agree that there’s minimal favoritism within their company. The similarto-me bias, unless addressed head-on within corporate culture, means that many executives will hire and promote candidates with similar interests, backgrounds and experience to them.

As institutional investors push for greater diversity on boards and C-suites because of the business case for it, I think that we’ll see more progress. And I do think we’ll reach the tipping point sooner rather than later, where plodding progress becomes a quantum leap. Sarah Alter is president and CEO of the Network of Executive Women, a learning and leadership community representing 12,400 members in 22 regional groups in the United States and Canada. Learn more at newonline.org.

CEO: BMC is poised to transform

David Flitman rallied the troops in Las Vegas during the 2020 BMC National Event.

The International Builders’ Show wasn’t the only big-time residential construction event to swing into Las Vegas in January.

The 2020 BMC National Event, a biennial five-day conference hosted by BMC Stock Holdings, led the way Jan. 13-16 at the Rio.

The event, themed “Innovation Delivered,” gathered more than 2,000 attendees, including top builders, contractors, architects and suppliers, to experience the latest trends and ideas moving the industry forward. Through exclusive networking opportunities with BMC sales and management teams, attendees explored cutting-edge design and construction methods enabling homes to be built better, faster, safer and greener than ever before.

BMC kickstarted the week by celebrating the company’s performance and outlining its 2020 key initiatives.

BMC President and CEO Dave Flitman delivered the keynote address along with a confident market outlook.

“By focusing on innovation and driving a culture of continuous improvement, BMC is in a prime position to transform the industry,” said Flitman. “We are committed to providing the resources needed to take a rough idea, refine it and turn it into a solution that delivers real value for our customers.”

The showroom floor was anchored by the BMC Pop-Up House, a twostory 1,600 sq. ft. structure built in just three days using Ready-Frame, the company’s smart-bundled, compact, pre-cut and labeled framing package. Acting as a mobile version of a BMC Design Center, the home allowed customers to see the company’s framing and custom millwork firsthand and learn about shipping tactics.

More than 150 manufacturers and suppliers participated in the trade-show portion of the event, exhibiting their latest products while educating the crowd on the technologies and insights that made them possible. The event was also heavy on philanthropy, as it highlighted the $823,000 raised in 2019 on behalf of LLS, the world’s largest voluntary health agency dedicated to fighting blood cancer through research and support services.

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