Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer. 

Welcome again to Retail Checks and Balances. Today, we have a IT manager in a supermarket chain with over 20 years experience, Michael Kamahil. Michael, welcome to the show. 

Thank you, Kevin. It's an honor to be here. I feel privileged based on the list of auspicious guests you've had in the past. I really feel privileged to be here. Thanks for having me. 

I think everybody who who's a guest on this podcast brings their own level of awesomeness. So you are among the great guests that's going to be on this podcast. But, um, I think specifically being 20 years in the same business is a fantastic achievement and you should not, um, you should be very proud of that. And, um, Jessica, the wealth of experience that you bring to the table should not go unmentioned. Do you agree? 

Yeah, I mean, 20 years and not just 20 years of experience in the IT field. because I don't believe that you could be in retail and just do IT alone. You really learn the facets of retailing in terms of being in the store, doing inventory, stocking up on your goods, order leveling. There's a list of things that you have to learn in order to actually give the people the solutions that are IT related. business in order to do that? 

Oh, exactly. I mean, it is a crucial role. IT is a crucial role in any business. And ensuring these seamless operations of these bustling retail spaces is just as enlightening as anything else. But I think retail and hospitality is its own niche and its own general animal because, you know, as we, we see you, you can't live without retail, right? Everybody's selling something. Everybody has a product to sell. Everybody has a service to sell, which is retail. And, um, and what we've seen in the pandemic, you know, is that the retail businesses are the one that had to prepare, um, a lot for the demand, especially on the, um, the food side, the supermarket or grocery side, in order to keep people's hungry bellies full, right? Because everybody has to eat. You agree? 

Correct. And what my experience during that pandemic was that that was the first time that people noticed that grocery employees were deemed to be the the people who you turn to in order for you to supply your goods. The lines that we had outside, letting in people one by one, we kind of changed our opening hours to help the elderly, letting them come in a little earlier than the rest of the customers. I mean, and it was The staff as well, they did such an excellent job in coming every day, even at the risk, because at that point in time, it was a risk just to be outside. You know, everybody had to stay inside, everybody had to wear masks, you had to change the whole way that you did your work. And the term essential workers, apply to us because at that point in time, we were very essential. 

Exactly. I mean, big time. I mean, they couldn't shut down supermarkets, of course, right? No. But what I want to, what I want you to elaborate on is, let's talk about how technology forms that backbone of, of modern supermarkets. As an experienced IT manager in this supermarket industry, take us on a walk in terms of the intricacies of managing the entire IT infrastructure from the point of sales systems to inventory management, as we were talking about just now, and everything in between that. 

Okay, well, it really starts with your backbone or your highway, which is how you're connecting to these sites, these different sites. So you start off with having a network that you could communicate properly with, and you could receive the information and the data on the fly. So you start with your networking and then now you choose your systems that is going to be in line with the business units. And what I have done in the past is that usually IT does not send the business unit in the direction that it has to go. IT rarely conforms to what the business unit wants to go. So usually, I would look for systems that will make the business better. Your point of sale is very critical because that is where your backend system to record your sales, to balance your cashers, to cut POs, to do receiving. And that system has to be at the forefront of your IT setup. And also, at the end of the day, when all said is done and all the sales are done, you still have to take account of what went wrong and how it went wrong. And that's where your inventory management comes into place. I just came from an inventory management count, and that is what determines how are we performing in the last three months as we do inventory management quarterly. And We have, in the past, we have actually brought down our shrink levels to below 1%. And that's phenomenal. Yeah. I mean, that is absolutely excellent for us. And further to that, we also, we don't close our stores. So imagine getting your shrink at 1% with your store remaining open and still selling as normal. So we have to employ certain strategies in order for that to be exactly right and come out as correct as possible. 

That is very amazing, I must say. I mean, I think a lot of retailers would love to be in your shoes. And we know that supermarkets face unique challenges when it comes to technology. along those specific hurdles you just mentioned. And I think a big one as well, you know, we know these days is ensuring data security, handling that large scale transactional, and as you said, implementing that innovative online ordering systems. But I want to get specific on cyber security. I know you probably spend sleepless nights, you know, ensuring and praying that those ransomware attacks don't happen, correct? 

Correct. That is so true. I don't think that there's that one package that will solve everything. I think what you do is you probably look for a lot of different pieces to the puzzle. And even with all those pieces to the puzzle, there's still a chance that somebody could still attack you. But you must be prepared for the quick turnaround for the business to resume selling. Because that's where not just the loss of data, but the fact that I have to be down and we saw that happen with a, with a major supermarket chain. Um, if it wasn't last year, the year before, uh, it took them a while before they could, they could actually start back properly selling and that the millions of dollars that probably were lost in that period. Uh, that's phenomenal. 

Yeah, it's disheartening for anybody to go through that. I mean, even if somebody is your competitor, you really don't want, from a business perspective, for somebody to go through that pain of being attacked by those cyber thieves. 

I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. 

Exactly. You know, You know, a lot of people specifically said that how you were involved in the inventory count, because you want to make sure that goes smooth from a technology perspective, because the technology is what will send the data to reporting. And, you know, getting into the daily operations of certain aspects of the business, is how you provide your proactive problem solving techniques. Would you agree with that? Minimizing disruptions for both customers and staff? 

Yeah, well, I do believe that you have to actually know what it is that, let's say, management wants, you know, misinterpret what they want, then you will provide an incorrect solution, obviously. So learning all those little parts that need to be done, what strategies that they want to implement, those are things that is critical in providing the best support as an that there's a little difference in terms of IT and IT retail because there are a lot of things that you could open up an IT book and read about but they never really taught you about scales or scanner scales or price checkers or these kinds of things. It's specific to retail. So, you know, it's something that you have to be in all don't really come to retail and spend a month and then you learn everything that you need to know about. It's something that you have to learn, you know, year after year after year, the same thing grinding out over and over and then finding the solutions that, you know, I always remember one time when we were doing inventory counts and We used to do the inventory count where we count the store. We still had the store open, currently store. And then we would go, we probably wouldn't finish counting the store in one day. And then the next day we would go and continue to count and scan at the same time. But when we did that, that provided such errors that, you know, I talked to myself, I said, Hey, I told the management, I say, what we probably need to do is we probably need to count the store and scan the store in one day. And they didn't listen to me at first. And eventually they listened to me and that corrected all the problems because that was the strategy that we needed to employ to keep the store open. 

That's a significant success that you should be proud of. Because what you are doing is, you know, it's very minuscule when you think about what's in the basket. It's not much, especially if you're counting on a day that's not busy. You know, you start very early. So I think that's a significant success that you should be proud that you've been able to achieve within that organization. Because, you know, I have several customers who battle with that. even from the sense of zero in the inventory and not looking at variance. And it really was, I kind of talked about it in the previous podcast on inventory, but I think this is a good method that people should adopt in terms of their inventory counting practice. And the other thing I think What you mentioned is another important point I want to bring up, because I know you would probably have to bridge the gap between the technical and non-technical teams within your organization. And I want you to explain the importance of what I really want to be effective communication and collaboration for any successful IT implementation project. 

Well, first to begin, it is always easier when you have somebody who is in charge, who understands that IT plays a pivotal role. And I think that that always makes it easier for you to come to them and explain and for them to understand. It can get difficult when there is a non-technology person, not an person, but a non-technology person to explain it to them. But I believe that you have to explain it to them in the best way possible for them to understand what is critical and what is non-critical. I mean, sometimes you, if just by saying that, you know, there are key words that a lot of people understand. So saying, we can be breached by a cyber attack is something that everybody would understand, whether you're technical or you're non-technical, because nobody wants to have that happen to them. So sometimes you have to see it for what it is. And if they don't understand at first, you try a different method, you try a different strategy. And eventually, like what happened to me with the inventory, they see your points and then you just say, yeah, that was a good idea you had. 

Oh, I think you really hit the nail on the head in terms of my next point. You know, these particular skills that you possess, you know, help you to stay ahead of this ever-changing landscape, you know. where we, you know, we have those discussions around the future of technology in supermarkets or generalized retail or even hospitality, you know, where you will have to share thoughts or the process of thought with management, with different users and upcoming innovations, any potential challenges that you may have in in achieving those, um, you know, those strategies. Um, you agree with that? 

Well, I mean, uh, I think more or less if you're dealing with, um, people who are non technologically, um, you know, advanced and you, you have to lay it on your line in terms of cost effectiveness, cause everybody understands cost. Yeah. So, where once you once you're able to provide the information that says this will save us this amount of money or this will reduce this once you use once you get once you get there i mean i think most of the times you find that the they will agree with with those kinds of suggestions it's it's it's a lot difficult to to get innovative types of technology in, which is the new technology because sometimes those new technologies, you can't see the savings in the cost. You probably see the savings in it being more efficient for you to work with or better reporting or something like that. and you can't really put a return on investment cost on it. And I think that that is kind of a little hard to sell at times. But eventually, you know, in order for you to keep up with the competition out there, sometimes you just have to go the way of technology. Because I mean, if it is that we decided that a point the sales system was too expensive and we continued using a manual cash register, I don't think we would have been making the amount of money that you would be making now. So those are the the kind of concepts that you have to picture them for them to understand. 

Oh fuck yeah, I mean this this is fantastic stuff Michael. Let's spin away from this for a bit, you know, let's talk about you for a minute. Tell the listeners about you, yourself, I mean whatever you want to share in terms of your hobbies, you know, what's your path for life, you know, if you want to get that deep, you know, what do you think would be your greatest success? 

Well, basically, I have come from being working, starting to work in a commerce department where, you know, going through the run of the mill trying to develop a career. And that was like some 30 years ago. And I branched off and decided that I liked IT and So when I was at a previous company, what used to happen is that I was interested in IT and I used to go to the IT department and tell them, hey, if you have anything that you need done, like to run something or to do something on an evening, I'll do it for you. It's not a problem. I'll do it. And that's how I started getting into IT. And then eventually I got the opportunity to come back as a systems admin and he started from there and years passed and he ended up being the IT manager and it's something that I like because IT is always evolving but still kind of remains the same because like some of the problems that a user might call you for you could just close your eyes and you know exactly what the problem is, so you're able to diagnose based on what the person would have said. But it's always interesting because there's always something new happening and new developments, you know, and basically that's me in terms of, you know, in terms of the IT, Michael the IT person. Michael the individual, I pretty much like I like sports. Um, I watch a lot of sports. I game from time to time. Yeah. 

Digging your green headphones. Gaming. Sorry. Fuck that. Gaming headphones, right? I'm going to give it what it is. Gaming headphones. 

This was specially bought from, from, from my wife. So it's, it's, it's pretty good. You know, she, she bought this for me. Um, and spending a lot of time with family and actually helping people is something that I like to do as well. So that's basically my humble roots. I'm always interested in progressing further or getting more knowledge. So that's something that I aspire to do as well and I like to travel. Okay. I realize that I have a thing for traveling. So last year I went to, I was in Jamaica last year. It was pretty good. And this year I have some plans maybe to go to Orlando or maybe Barbados this year. So that's me in a nutshell. 

Great. And I think that says, This is another great episode. I really want to send out a big thank you to you, Michael, for providing us with valuable insights into the world of IT management in supermarkets. We hope that our listeners have gained a newfound appreciation for tech wizards like yourself working behind the scenes to ensure that you know, their grocery shopping experience is as smooth as possible. Um, until next time, this is Kevin Spencer saying goodbye. Thanks Michael. All right. Thanks Kevin. 

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show, wherever you consume podcasts, so we'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review until next time, friends.