EP192 - Macy's VP of Innovation Parinda Muley  Parinda Muley (@parinda), the VP of Innovation and Business Development at Macy’s.  In this broad-ranging interview, we discuss a number of Macy’s innovation initiatives including ThredUp, Macy’s Market @ Macy’s, B8ta, Story, and Style Crew.  We also talk about the strategies for fostering innovation, and how retail innovation is likely to evolve in the future. Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 192 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday, August 21st, 2019. live from the eTail East trade show in Boston, MA. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded live from the etail East trade show in Boston on Wednesday August 21st 2019, I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and unfortunately Scott was unable to join us today so you’re getting twice the Jason for half the usual price which as I understand it is a bargain but the sweeten the pot we have an awesome guest adjoining on the podcast is parinda movie. Malay thank you very much she’s the VP of innovation and business development at Macy’s prenda just finished a keynote panel discussion entitled fostering Innovation rethinking the omni-channel organization today thanks very much for being on the show. Parinda: [1:09] Thank you for having me. Jason: [1:10] We are thrilled to have you you have a slightly unusual title to me and I mean that in an exciting way what does a VP of innovation and Business Development do for someone like Macy’s. Parinda: [1:23] Yeah so the whole team is fairly new to Macy’s on this group is about 2 years old and I think it was when retails really focused on how do we continue to drive change in an organization from the inside and I think that was what about 2 years ago and they were looking to establish a team that was focused on Innovation and what’s new what’s next which is one of our pillars and so I think establishing this group was really around focusing on new business models new initiative how do we solve for a customer for tomorrow’s customer and we are opportunities that we can continue to play in a game chair in if I knew Sharon and play it with an authentic voice. Jason: [2:04] That sounds fabulous and I want to dig into that a little bit before we do what’s her background you have to have to get real like that can you talk a little bit about your background. Parinda: [2:13] The absolutely so I very new to retail I have been in the business development Innovation function for a very long time but mostly within the media sector I came from timing. I’m where I served as a sort of a business development lead mostly on the digital side. Prior to that I was with MSNBC and then with a startup before that and Consulting before that but I’ll really in the media space and so I think I spent a lot of time focusing on driving new revenue streams for companies and how do you start relying Less on the core and sort of innovating in the news of the function and the you know start of shift to retail was actually not that big of a job after I did it and it stopped felt a little daunting initially but it was the same problem different industry and I think you know there’s a running joke in my family that you moved from one struggling industry to another but I think that’s what’s so exciting is that there’s so much opportunity to to reinvent and change and that’s sort of the perfect time to do that I’m in the perfect role to be in to help. Jason: [3:11] Well I’m super excited to have met you because I feel like I have a bunch of Industries I can recommend for