Tom Litchford's guest appearances

Tom Litchford

RETHINK RETAIL

Remarkable Retail

Ron Thurston

Sucharita Kodali

Simeon Siegel

Carl Boutet

Allie Egan

Cynthia Rowley

Stephan Schambach

Chris Bell

Ian Shepherd

Anthony Marino

Ariel Kaye

Doug Stephens

Warby Parker

Rob Smith

Sarah Davis

OwlTail

Jeff Roster

Welcome to the Retail Rundown, your go-to weekly podcast where RETHINK Retail teams up with industry experts to discuss the news and trends defining the world of retail.In this episode, host Jeff Roster is joined by Tom Litchford, Global Head of Retail at Amazon Web Services. Together they explore the current state of retail and the critical role of cloud technology, understanding the post-pandemic shopper, and the new retail culture of innovation. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by subscribing to our channel and giving us a 5 star rating us on Apple Podcasts.- - - - - -Hosted by Jeff RosterWritten and produced by Gabriella BockEdited by Trenton WallerSocial media by Madison Freeland

Welcome to the Retail Rundown, your go-to weekly podcast where RETHINK Retail teams up with industry experts to discuss the news and trends defining the world of retail. In this episode, host Jeff Roster is joined by Tom Litchford, Global Head of Retail at Amazon Web Services. Together they explore the current state of retail and the critical role of cloud technology, understanding the post-pandemic shopper, and the new retail culture of innovation. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by subscribing to our channel and giving us a 5 star rating us on Apple Podcasts. - - - - - - Hosted by Jeff Roster Written and produced by Gabriella Bock Edited by Trenton Waller Social media by Madison Freeland

Retail Rundown: The New Retail Culture of Innovation | Tom Litchford and Jeff Roster

This week our special guest is Tom Litchford, Head of Worldwide Business Development for Amazon Web Services (AWS). We cover a lot of ground, touching on the key benefits of cloud-computing (turns out there are quite a few), how AWS fits into the Amazon eco-system (spoiler alert: quite nicely), why it takes a crisis for retailers to innovate (don't get us started) and why a culture of experimentation is so important. We also tackle the proverbial elephant in the room.Then we move on to our fast-paced weekly segment    “Remarkable or Forgettable?” where we give our hot takes on retail headlines, and deem them wow-worthy, best ignored or somewhere in between. This week's big stories include Jeff Bezos' final letter to Amazon shareholders (and some of the fun facts contained therein), Amazon's first hair salon (say, what now?), Walmart's move to quell our robot overlords, Lord &amp; Taylor's return from the great beyond and Nike and Lululemon's resale ambitions. Tom Litchford, Head of Worldwide Retail at Amazon Web Services (AWS)As head of worldwide business development for the retail industry, Tom Litchford leads and manages AWS' industry strategy including marketing and sales enablement, channel development, and solution offerings required to address customers' business requirements and challenges.Litchford has more than 35 years of experience in systems engineering, sales, product management and marketing of technology business solutions for the retail and hospitality industries. Prior to joining AWS in 2017, most recently he led the National Retail Federation's (NRF) technology communities and its cybersecurity program. Prior to NRF, he served in various roles with notable technology firms including Microsoft and NCR.Litchford was instrumental in driving the development of the OPOS application program interface (API) set – now a defacto industry standard for point-of-sale application-to-peripheral connectivity. Working with organizations such as ARTS and NAFEM, he has also been influential in establishing XML messaging standards in the retail and foodservices sectors. Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       website.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win &amp; Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption  is now available at  Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      Forbes senior contributor and on       Twitter and       LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      here.Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder &amp; President of M.E. LeBlanc &amp; Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing &amp; eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus        Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  and       The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       here  or on       LinkedIn. 

This week our special guest is<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlitchford/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Tom Litchford,</a> Head of Worldwide Business Development for Amazon Web Services (AWS). We cover a lot of ground, touching on the key benefits of cloud-computing (turns out there are quite a few), how AWS fits into the Amazon eco-system (spoiler alert: quite nicely), why it takes a crisis for retailers to innovate (don't get us started) and why a culture of experimentation is so important. We also tackle the proverbial elephant in the room.Then we move on to our fast-paced weekly segment    “Remarkable or Forgettable?” where we give our hot takes on retail headlines, and deem them wow-worthy, best ignored or somewhere in between. This week's big stories include <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jeff Bezos' final letter</a> to Amazon shareholders (and some of the fun facts contained therein), Amazon's first hair salon (say, what now?), Walmart's move to quell our robot overlords, Lord &amp; Taylor's return from the great beyond and Nike and Lululemon's resale ambitions. Tom Litchford, Head of Worldwide Retail at Amazon Web Services (AWS)As head of worldwide business development for the retail industry, Tom Litchford leads and manages AWS' industry strategy including marketing and sales enablement, channel development, and solution offerings required to address customers' business requirements and challenges. Litchford has more than 35 years of experience in systems engineering, sales, product management and marketing of technology business solutions for the retail and hospitality industries. Prior to joining AWS in 2017, most recently he led the National Retail Federation's (NRF) technology communities and its cybersecurity program. Prior to NRF, he served in various roles with notable technology firms including Microsoft and NCR. Litchford was instrumental in driving the development of the OPOS application program interface (API) set – now a defacto industry standard for point-of-sale application-to-peripheral connectivity. Working with organizations such as ARTS and NAFEM, he has also been influential in establishing XML messaging standards in the retail and foodservices sectors. Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his       <a href="https://stevenpdennis.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>.    The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book  Remarkable Retail: How To Win &amp; Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption  is now available at  <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Remarkable-Retail-Keep-Customers-Disruption/dp/1928055923/ref=zg_bsnr_2656_5?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=H4JS1WFD7SJ9YC2AFJQK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon</a> or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a      <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/#315b93fd4b70" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Forbes senior contributor</a> and on       <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenPDennis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and       <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenpdennis/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel      <a href="https://vimeo.com/376445018" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder &amp; President of M.E. LeBlanc &amp; Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing &amp; eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast,       <a href="https://the-voice-of-retail.simplecast.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Voice of Retail,</a> plus        <a href="https://global-e-commerce-tech-talks.simplecast.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  </a>and       <a href="https://the-food-professor.simplecast.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Food Professor  </a>with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       <a href="https://www.meleblanc.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here  </a>or on       <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeleleblanc/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn. </a>

AWS's Tom Litchford and the Amazon Technology Revolution