Leadership Insights

News Release: RP Sponsors Chantel McCabe at historic USWO

Reach Partners Sponsors Chantel McCabe to Cover The 78th USWO and 1st Major Women's Golf Event at Pebble Beach Links

Pebble Beach, Calif. – Reach Partners, a woman-owned and WBENC-certified management consulting firm, is sponsoring Chantel McCabe as she covers the upcoming, and historical, U.S. Women’s Open first at Pebble Beach.

McCabe is a sports broadcaster that serves as an anchor and reporter for Golf Central, reporting on-site at many major golf events such as the PGA Tour, LPGA tour, NCAA, World Long Drive, and more. She talks golf on PGAT Live, ESPN, and Sirius XM Ch 92 and has many large sponsors and a growing group of followers. When McCabe’s usual sponsorship fell through, she turned to her audience for sponsorship to cover the USWO at Pebble Beach, and Reach Partners stepped in.

As an avid golfer and fan, Ashlee Aldridge, CEO and Founder of Reach Partners LLC is an advocate for growth.

“As a Firm, we dare to do better, be better.  As the founder of a global Management Consulting Firm, I certainly understand the challenges women face in breaking through, gaining funding, and receiving recognition for great work. I want to do my part to give back. We believe that by providing sponsorship for Chantel, we are daring to elevate her, championing her growing followership, and taking one step towards elevating women’s golf among the broader community in this historic moment.”

Pebble Beach Golf Links has hosted seven men's major championships, including six U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, but it is the first time it will welcome the best female golf players from around the world to compete on their course.

McCabe will bring live reporting for this event and shared that "Next week will be a historic one for women’s sports and serve as inspiration to many with a women’s golf major championship being held at Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time. Reach Partners has made it possible to expand coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open, and I am grateful to partner with them to bring live updates and storytelling to life.”

With sponsorship from Reach Partners, McCabe will now report live from the first USWO hosted at Pebble Beach Links July 5 – 9, 2023. You can tune into McCabe's show at SiriusXM PGA Tour radio channel 92 or via Instagram and Twitter. You can also follow Reach Partners on LinkedIn and Instagram, where we will share updates and posts from McCabe.

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Founded in 2014, Reach Partners is a rapidly growing, woman-owned, management consulting firm serving global organizations across the public and private sectors to drive growth and accelerated results.  

Please contact Crystal Tidmore for inquiries by email at crystal.tidmore@reachpartners.net or by phone at 512-565-8131.

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Vault Session: Leveraging Data to Create Processes That Are Sustainable for Your Business and Sustainable for Earth with SmarterX

Welcome to Reach Partners’ exclusive vault sessions, where we unlock the industry’s most lucrative secrets to engage your customers, outpace your competition, and disrupt the marketplace with digital transformation. 

As the Diamond Sponsor of the VIP Awards, an industry awards ceremony that honors and celebrates the changemakers and trailblazers of retail and tech, Reach Partners was able to catch up with Jacqueline Claudia, CEO of SmarterX and nominee for the Best Sustainability Initiative award and the Best Kept Secret award.

SmarterX is a technology solution that leverages data to help brands understand their impact on the environment, and how they can fundamentally change how their products are made, marketed, sold, and eventually disposed of, to improve that impact.

In this exclusive Vault Session, we asked Jacqueline about the opportunities and obstacles companies face when looking for a way to make their products and supply chain sustainable and eco-friendly.

 

 

Responding to the pressure of sustainable practice 

Consumers are increasingly more aware of what goes into products and what happens to them when they’re done, putting pressure on retail companies to clean up their act. It isn’t just about the ingredients in their product, either. They also must consider how their products are made and disposed of and the overall impact of their supply chain.

“ESG, and sustainability specifically, have been hit with a lot of headwinds lately,” says Jacqueline. “Folks are getting called out for greenwashing. So, solutions that give you actual measurable, trackable data about the product decisions that you’re making for what to bring into your assortment and what happens to them when they need to leave potentially out of the back of the store is incredibly important.”

The second mounting pressure that Jacqueline recognizes is regulation. Consumers are now turning to the government to regulate the use of various chemicals, pollutants, unethical supply chains, and bad practices that are harmful to people, animals, or the planet. This rising pressure puts companies under scrutiny and compels them to reevaluate their operations and find innovative ways to reduce their environmental footprint.

“A lot of retailers are still dealing with last-generation solutions,” explains Jacqueline. “Customers demand safety and transparency in the products that they sell. And new technology is really important to help them be able to manage that risk.”

Finally, another large obstacle that Jacqueline sees retailers facing is labor.

“Labor is in shortage and is incredibly expensive,” says Jacqueline. “So, solutions that allow you to do more with less manpower by deploying technology intelligently is critically important.”

That is why digital transformations are a powerful way to help companies change and grow while minimizing overhead costs.

 

How to successfully transform your business for sustainability

The need to strike a balance between cost-effectiveness and sustainability can create significant hurdles for businesses. This often prevents companies from reaching further in their eco-friendly goals. So, to successfully transform your business in a way that is just as good for the bottom line as it is for the environment, companies must achieve three things: ROI, alignment, and trust.

 “First, there needs to be five to ten times the ROI for what you’re deploying. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get the organization behind that,” says Jacqueline.

Stakeholders need to see the monetary value and growth opportunities before investing time, money, and risk into large transformations, which brings up the second point.

“The second lesson is that all stakeholders need to understand that value, what it’s bringing financially, but also the extra business benefits that the solution brings,” says Jacqueline.

Talking regularly to your stakeholders and addressing questions, problems, hesitations, and miscommunications (at all levels) helps ensure everyone is working toward the same goal and aligned with how to get there.

Finally, the third most important lesson is trust. Jacqueline says a solution must be deployed with trust from the employees, the customers, and other stakeholders. She does this by ensuring that their clients have access to their on-staff experts.

“We’ve got a team of data scientists [and] regulatory nerds and talking to them at any time doesn’t come with a rate card. Real people talking to real people is an important part of how you transform business,” says Jacqueline.

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Vault Session: Building Community Online with SNIPES

Welcome to Reach Partners’ exclusive vault sessions, where we unlock the industry’s most lucrative secrets to engage your customers, outpace your competition and disrupt the marketplace with digital transformation.

Creating Community at The Intersection of Tech, People, and Marketing with SNIPES

What happens when you merge tech, retail, community, and streetwear?

A rapidly growing, global brand with a local, grassroots flair.

As the Diamond Sponsor of the VIP Awards, an industry awards ceremony that honors and celebrates the changemakers and trailblazers of retail and tech, Reach Partners was able to catch up with Jenna Flateman Posner, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of SNIPES and nominee for the ‘Partner of The Year’ award.

In this exclusive Vault Session, we asked Jenna about her journey merging tech and retail to grow a community-based streetwear brand amid a pandemic, and how she rose to be one of the trailblazers in retail digital transformation. 

 

 

Starting at the roots

SNIPES can trace its lineage back to 1998 as a German-based streetwear shop. Since then, it has been a top-three sneaker and streetwear retailer across Europe, but The CEO had bigger dreams. Sven Voth, wanted to bring his brand overseas and influence consumers in the United States.

So, in 2019, before COVID made its waves around the world, the community and event-focused streetwear brand acquired Kicks USA and its 64-store regional chain based out of Philly, starting its journey into the U.S. market. And, despite the chain of pandemic-related challenges that shut down many retailers throughout the last several years, SNIPES continued to organically grow and acquire mid-market retailer, reaching 300+ storefronts that stretch from the Midwest to the Northeast all the way down to Texas. 

It also has a thriving digital presence that has grown 10x in reach over the past four years.

“We’re here,” says Jenna. “We’re definitely here, and we’ve only just scratched the surface.”

So, in an environment where even big-name retail stores were closing their doors indefinitely, how did SNIPES enter and take over a completely new market?

 

 

Building a community in quarantine  

SNIPES grew as a brand that focused on grassroots and hyper-localized community branding. So, building a presence in a completely new marketing amidst lockdowns, political divisions, and civil unrest was going to require a new approach. 

“If you would have asked our CEO pre-pandemic what kind of company SNIPES was, he would have said, ‘we are a marketing and entertainment company that happens to sell sneakers and streetwear.’ We were throwing, sponsoring, or supporting around 280 events per year before the pandemic,” explains Jenna.

With lockdowns in place, Jenna and her team had to go back to the drawing board. They leveraged their technology experience to find an intersection between community and retail amid a pandemic and created an online shopping experience that felt personal, local, and easy, which ultimately supported significant growth both in-store and online. 

“We really do have this unbelievably familial thread, this commitment to these niche markets, and this perspective that if you create content and connect with the communities that you’re trying to talk to, the sales will come,” explains Jenna.

Jenna and her team put a tremendous focus on omnichannel marketing to create a seamless customer experience with the SNIPES brand, from social to web to online checkout and storefront pickup it was a team effort. 

They invested in speeding up and personalizing the customer’s web experience, making it easier to check out and creating customized pop-up messages to notify shoppers of their local store’s limited hours for in-store shopping. They also implemented technology to create smooth curb-side pickups and utilized their store space to fulfill online orders. 

The efforts resulted in dramatic increases in sales that exceeded even their pre-pandemic projections and secured their mark as a trusted, go-to brand for street apparel.

“I’ve never really seen anything like it,” says Jenna. “I’ve never seen an evolution that was so authentic.”

A key highlight for Jenna, though, was SNIPES’ partnership with Forter, an e-commerce fraud management solution. Together, SNIPES and Forter developed a product solution that identified bots early on to decline transactions at pre-authorization and help preserve sneakers and other stock for real customers. The program was a success and has since become a solution that Forter now offers to its other clients.

 

 

It’s all about the people

Of course, even during the transition from instore to online, Jenna knew that SNIPES had to keep its community-focused brand. 

“We knew that not only the consumers that frequent our stores but also the people that lived around them needed support,” says Jenna. “We also realized and reminded ourselves that we have thousands of store associates that work in our stores and live around our stores, and taking care of them as part of the SNIPES family was really important, too.”

A big part of the SNIPES brand is finding ways to give back to that community. It’s through the support, empowerment, and celebration of community members that leads to amazing, authentic stories around the product.

While they still focus on their big pillars, like basketball, Hip Hop, dance, and skate, SNIPES also concentrates on local/community impact initiatives, such as revitalizing basketball courts or community gardens and creating free tech centers for communities within the major markets they serve.

It’s through this community-based blending of technology and retail and the hyper-focus on personalized experiences and meeting the continuously evolving customer needs that has helped catapult SNIPES into a powerhouse brand that will only continue to grow.

“We want to just keep that pace — keep growing, keep innovating, keep pushing, and keep meeting our customers where they are,” says Jenna.

 

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Leading the Charge for Your Company’s Digital Transformation

Digital transformations can come with big rewards—greater business efficiency, a stronger company culture, and improved customer value—but only when done correctly. 

Every year, companies set out lofty goals to transform their business through new technological solutions, only to end up with an expensive, time-consuming project that yields little to no return on investment.

 To prevent your company from making this costly mistake, take time to understand what digital transformation means, how it will impact the entirety of your company, and what you should (and shouldn’t) do when it comes to planning and implementing your digital transformation strategy. 

What Is Digital Transformation (And What Is It Not)?

Most people think of digital transformation as adopting and implementing new technology, but it is much more than that. Digital transformation doesn’t just introduce a new app or software into the business; it creates digitized solutions that fundamentally change how the business operates. True digital transformation involves changes to your business processes, workforce, supply chain, and even how you serve your customers.

Take Netflix, for example. What started as a DVD delivery service is now a $158 billion digital streaming service, thanks to a strategic and successful digital transformation. Not only did the company implement new technologies, but it used that technology as a catalyst for completely changing how the company operates, shifting its workforce and providing a new experience to its customers.

The 4 Common Mistakes Digital Transformation Leaders Make

Of course, achieving the same success as Netflix isn’t an easy feat. Most companies that attempt digital transformation lack the foresight and strategic planning necessary to mitigate the challenges of massive business transformation, resulting in more than $900 billion of lost investment.

Most failed attempts can be attributed to 1 of the 4 common pitfalls:

  • The focus is on deploying a tool rather than implementing fundamental system changes that solve real business problems
  • The executive team is unaligned on the purpose, importance, and prioritization of the initiative
  • The DT leader fails to cultivate a company culture that embraces transformation, one of the most important indicators for DT success or failure
  • The chosen metrics don’t reflect continual progress, resulting in lost momentum

Knowing what not to do when it comes to DT can help you develop a robust strategy that anticipates and mitigates these challenges.

Start The Digital Transformation Process

Is your company ready to transform? Discover what it takes to achieve a successful digital transformation in the “Fast Tracking Digital: White Paper.” In this paper, we discuss the nine critical questions every digital transformation leader should be asking and how you can use those answers to build a roadmap forward. Read more here.

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The Digital Transformation Challenge

How to Get Your Team on Board

Organizations today are under more pressure than ever to seek furious digital transformation. In fact, roughly 90% of businesses see a need to adjust their business models, or have already made transformations, to remain economically stable by 2023.

As businesses and clients alike shift their buying preferences and patterns online, resulting in increased connectivity and data availability, businesses need to make themselves more agile to better understand and capitalize on these changes.

Successful transformations start with the right strategy, firm leadership commitment, governance model, technology architecture, operating model design, data and analytics foundation, and change management plans—but challenges can quickly surface during execution.

Let's take a deeper look at some challenges companies face in digital transformation.

Digital Transformation Challenges

Every day, we, as businesses, face new and daunting digital transformation challenges. For example, how can we create compelling customer experiences? How can we move to the cloud without disrupting our operations? How can we develop artificial intelligence applications without sacrificing security? Below are the most common challenges for companies embarking on digital transformations.

Defining a Clear Value Proposition

The first challenge is setting expectations and agreeing on what digital transformation means for the company. Defining a clear value proposition is essential for getting Team members—including senior executives—on board with the changes required for successful execution. Furthermore, building a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for the transformation is critical.

You should tailor value propositions to each business function and stakeholder group to ensure clarity and buy-in from everyone involved. For example, the value proposition for the sales Team might focus on improved customer engagement through self-service channels. In contrast, the finance Team might be more interested in increased operational efficiencies and cost savings.

Lack of Vision

The second challenge is the lack of an overarching architecture or roadmap that outlines how all the moving parts will work together during digitization. Too often, initiatives are siloed within individual business functions or IT departments without considering how they will fit into the bigger picture.

A common goal is integrating new applications and capabilities into existing systems. This significant technological feat would require careful planning before beginning execution. Mapping out an architectural blueprint early on helps align stakeholders around a common vision and establishes technical standards to achieve objectives down the road. The blueprint also provides guidance when investing in enabling technologies such as cloud services, artificial intelligence (AI), or application programming interfaces (APIs). 

Team Conflict

The third challenge occurs when traditional mindsets clash with new ways of working through digital transformations. To resolve this disconnect between perception and reality, it is vital to define what success looks like for everyone involved—not just senior executives but also front-line employees who will actually be executing the changes.

Strategies to Get Your Team on Board

Digital transformations are a necessary part of any company's growth but can often be met with resistance from Team members who are hesitant to change how they do things. Below are six strategies to help get your Team on board with digital transformations:

1.   Have a Plan and Set Measurable Goals

The first step is to have a plan. What are you looking to accomplish with this digital transformation? What specific goals do you hope to achieve? Once you have a clear plan, you can begin setting measurable goals. This will give you something to work towards and measure your success.

2.   Communicate Clearly and Often

It's also important that you communicate clearly and often with your Team. They need to understand what is happening, why it's happening, and how it will impact them. The more information they have, the better equipped they'll be to make the transition. Make sure you're accessible and answer any questions they may have.

3.   Lead by Example

Lead by example. If you want your Team to buy into this digital transformation, you must show them you're all in. Be the first one to try out new strategies and technologies. Show them you're excited about the changes and believe in their benefits. If you lead by example, they're more likely to follow suit.

4.   Get Everyone On the Same Page

Get everyone on the same page—literally. Then, sit down with your Team and lay out the case for change. Explain how digital transformation can benefit the company and each Team member. Use data to back up your claims and be sure to address any concerns your Team may have.

5.   Develop a Plan of Action

Once you have buy-in from your Team, it's time to put together a plan of action. What specific changes do you want to implement? How will these changes improve the way your company does business? Again, data is key here. Build a business case for each proposed change, and ensure your Team understands how it will help the company meet its goals.

6.   Roll Out with Intention

Finally, roll out the changes slowly and deliberately. Trying to implement too many changes at once is a recipe for disaster—resistance will only increase, and you'll likely end up undoing all your hard work. Instead, start with one or two small changes, then build on that success over time. You can overcome even the toughest digital transformation challenges with careful planning and execution.

Final Thoughts

Finding solutions to the digital transformation challenge is essential for companies that want to stay competitive in today's market. But often, the biggest challenge isn't finding the right solution but rather getting your team on board. Following these steps can help to overcome resistance and get your team on board with the corporate change.

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