Creating Value, Changing the Game — Paul Jen, VP Enterprise Planning

Our patrons literally volunteered to put their lives on the line, keeping us safe while we sleep, defending the rights we so enjoy. So in my small way, I am truly honored to be able to serve those who serve.

You have an unique position at the Exchange. What do you do?

Unlike many other managers, I do not have a set team I work with or specific function that I work on.

My role is that of a catalyst; I work with different people from the talented Exchange team, and see if we can collectively find the best solution with facts and open debate.

In terms of what I work on, in a nutshell, I try to create value for the Exchange. Value could come in roughly four types – lowering costs, gaining sales, changing the game, and avoiding pitfalls. Sometimes, I also analyze with the teams which choice among various strategic options might make sense. So I also function as a debate partner.

Can you give some examples?

There are assets we have that can be further leveraged to earn a return for the Exchange, and provide a greater benefit to the military community. With Director/CEO Tom Shull’s leadership, and working with the talented team, I helped put together the business case for extending online shopping privileges to all honorably discharged veterans, also known as Veterans Online Shopping Benefit (VOSB). VOSB would extend shopping benefits to approximately 15 million veterans. At this point, we are cautiously optimistic that VSOB will be approved in the near future.

I spent a lot of time dispelling the myths that mergers of all military resale and privatization would undoubtedly create value, as some in the Pentagon seem to believe. This is by no means a new issue, but there have been new and intensified pressures to pursue these ideas.

I have evaluated many military resale reform proposals to provide facts and logic as to which ones would work and which ones could destroy value and compromise readiness and the spirit of the military community. For example, I spent a lot of time dispelling the myths that mergers of all military resale and privatization would undoubtedly create value, as some in the Pentagon seem to believe. This is by no means a new issue, but there have been new and intensified pressures to pursue these ideas.

How does your work affect operations? Does it affect associates?

My work is definitely not directly impactful like those of store operations or the merchandise directorate. But longer term, programs like VOSB, or the avoidance of pitfalls, for example, might mean that the future is altered in some way compared to status quo.

How has your past work experience prepared you for your current role?

I am very lucky to have worked with Tom for the past 25 years at a myriad of companies. As you may know, we share a common thread with our consulting background. He was at McKinsey and I was at Booz Allen and Hamilton. I worked in many functional areas across many industries ranging from aerospace to energy to consumer goods. After joining Tom’s firm, the issues got intensified as we specialized in turnarounds. For most of the companies we worked with, it was improve quickly or die.

The main difference vs. consulting is as we took on management roles, we have to live with our actions, “eat our own cooking” so to speak. For example, I made many decisions as head of marketing at Barneys both artistically and business-wise that ruffled feathers initially but were well accepted later. So in all, I think the training I’ve had is directly applicable to the Exchange, which has similar business complexities. The Exchange has a further set of non-commercial issues, being a DoD entity. This adds a new dimension. It has been truly a privilege to be able to continue my education by learning from so many talented people at the Exchange.

What do you see as challenges for the Exchange in the upcoming year and how will we overcome them?

The whole retail environment is fiercely competitive, made even more so by the Internet. We need to cherish each customer. It takes a lot more effort to “win-back” a disappointed customer than to delight one. Its human nature: dissatisfied customers share their experiences readily in this connected environment but the converse is not true. So we must cherish each customer we encounter. The choices our customers have are literally limitless with the internet.

I think we are very lucky to have multiple touch points with our customers so we have many chances to strengthen our relationship with them. Our active-duty customers work on base and leave at night. That means we have at least one encounter with them on a daily basis when they eat or drink. That is a very large competitive advantage that many other retailers do not have.

There is also a change in the way our senior management team is looking at the customer. Under Dr. Jim Skibo’s leadership, we are building an analytics team with PhDs to tease out key customer insights from the data we have. The end result would, hopefully, allow us to better communicate with our customers. With analytics we can even create a more tailored and relevant experience. It might take more than a year, but the prospects are enticing.

Would you like to add anything about your personal experiences during your time at the Exchange and what does it mean for you to serve those who serve?

I was born in Hong Kong and grew up watching Sesame Street, the Six Million Dollar Man, Bewitched, Star Trek, etc. I have always felt gravitated towards the U.S. I was lucky enough to eventually get to the U.S. and attended high school in Boston, and pretty much stayed and worked with many amazing companies after getting my bachelor’s and master degrees. Nothing, though, is as gratifying as working at the Exchange. I was attracted to the U.S. as a child because of the freedom it represents. In today’s world, it is apparent that there are many ideologies that are incompatible with the American way of life. And these powerful forces are not passive nor tolerant as we can see with the many attempts to crush our spirit and destroy our values. Our patrons literally volunteered to put their lives on the line, keeping us safe while we sleep, defending the rights we so enjoy. So in my small way, I am truly honored to be able to serve those who serve.