EPISODE 9

Daniel Eckert on Rapid Gains From Agile Mindsets

How can leaders clearly communicate outcomes in a messy, undefined marketplace? In today’s podcast, Andy talks with Daniel Eckert, fin-tech and digital retail pioneer, about the similarities between Marine missions and bigQUESTs, the need for outcome clarity, and how to modify your methodology while keeping an Agile mindset.

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3 Insights from Daniel

1. Bringing a team through a bigQUEST can be likened to a Marine Air Ground Task Force mission, beginning with a commitment to the commander's intent.

“Leaders should be saying, ‘What I really need to do is offer a vision and a commander's intent of what our overarching outcome needs to look like.’ Then delegate and empower teams who are closest to solving those customer problems to answer the call on how to do it best. ”

2. Maximize Agility with a mindset to tear down silos and think in an interdisciplinary fashion, and along the way, you’ll minimize organizational resistance.

“This notion of having these strong, siloed organizations that can be independent of one another to go and accomplish a certain mission for a company, I think really, in this modern era, will only slow an organization down. It begins with thinking more boundary-less in your organization. Say, ‘What human capital assets can I bring to the table, to help actually address the business challenge I'm trying to meet?’”

3. The speed of modern business means that solutions aren’t well-defined. That’s okay.

That means being flexible with bringing human capital assets to the table, as well as developing comfort with teams coming up with different answers and solutions that ultimately achieve the same outcome.

“Allow for the Agile teams to be empowered to find ways to accomplish variants of all of those things that bubble up into that broader outcome.”

Download the Transcript (PDF)

Episode Links

www.bigQUEST.com
Andy Murray- LinkedIn
Andy Murray- Twitter
bigQUEST- Twitter
bigQUEST- LinkedIn
bigQUEST- Instagram
Daniel Eckert - LinkedIn
United States Marine Corps - https://www.marines.com
JPMorgan Chase & Co. - https://www.jpmorganchase.com
Walmart - https://www.walmart.com
Team of Teams by Stanley Gen. McChrystal
Alive At Work: The Neuroscience of Helping People Love What They Do by Daniel Cable

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About Your Host

Andy Murray

CEO and Founder of bigQUEST

Andy is a highly effective senior leader with a passion for growth, creating cultures that unleash talent, and building capabilities through collaboration across functions. He has held leadership roles across retail (Walmart), CPG (P&G), start-ups (Mercury 11, Saatchi X) and global organizations (Asda U.K.). A creative problem solver, innovator, and marketer, he is known for building high-performing teams and delivering results.

Andy is a lifetime Honorary Board member of the University of Arkansas's Center for Retail Excellence where he helped developed the Center's presence and Innovation conferences. He is also an Early Board Member for the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics college. Andy was inducted into the Shopper Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013 for his pioneering work in developing best practices and industry leadership in the emerging field of Shopper Marketing. He currently serves as Chairman of Asda Foundation.

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About Our Guest

Daniel J. Eckert

Fintech, Retail & Consumer Services Leader

Corporate Innovation | Digital Transformation | Agile Practices | Strategy | Risk

Widely recognized as a financial technology and digital retail pioneer, Daniel Eckert has driven transformative growth through innovation at some of the most respected companies in the world. Most recently, Daniel served as the Chief Product, Strategy & Development Officer at Green Dot Corporation, where he reshaped the company’s product organization for greater customer centricity while helping the company further innovate through its industry-leading Banking-as-a-Service platform with partners such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Intuit, and Wealthfront.

Prior to Green Dot, Daniel spent the last decade in progressive levels of responsibility as a senior executive at Walmart Inc., where he served as a key member of the U.S. leadership team responsible for Walmart’s retail- and omnichannel business transformation.

During his tenure, Daniel nearly tripled the size and profitability of Walmart’s Services SBU through organic innovation and growth, building its financial services practice into the 3rd largest money services business in the U.S. Many of Daniel’s innovations have served to democratize access and improve the financial well-being of underserved communities throughout the U.S.