Bloom Where You're Planted

Tiffany Pham

Hi Tim, how are you doing? It's so good to see you.

Tim Massa

So great to see you Tiffany. Always enjoy our time together.

Tiffany Pham

Definitely, same as well. And just so excited to spend time today talking to you about your journey, your incredible inspiring career, and especially hone in on that key step how you attain your chief officer role, which is what everyone is here to find out further and hear your thoughts and advice and strategies and insights on this. And so excited to spend time with you here on this today.

Tim Massa

Thanks for the opportunity to be with you.

Tiffany Pham

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Tim would love to hear a little bit more of again your your journey, your upbringing, a little bit of that time period before your chief officer role, just so everyone is as familiar with your journey as I am.

Tim Massa

Well, absolutely. Well, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Midwestern part of the country. I was the youngest of five siblings. I had outstanding parents. My mom was 41 when she had me. So that was, you know, back then, I'll be 60 in November of this year, but that was clearly, you know, a surprise, but I was my oldest brother was 15 years older than me. So I grew up, I grew up in old soul pretty quickly. I had a lot of older siblings. aunts and uncles around me.

Tiffany Pham

So I can see you as an old soul as a child.

Tim Massa

Yeah, I cherish that. You know, my, my, both my parents worked. My mom was in, in retail all her life and department stores and bridal registries and things like that. My dad was a salesman in a good year tire and rubber and then was a manufacturer's rep. So grew up in middle class and went to school at an all boys Catholic high school. Played a lot of sports and was involved in student government and lots of different associations. And that led to going to the University of Dayton just an hour north of Cincinnati and had a degree in communications and marketing. I thought I was going to get into media. I wanted to be a broadcaster on national news or some type of entertainment.

Tiffany Pham

Yeah, I see that. You have a great voice for that actually.

Tim Massa

I was a DJ in college my freshman year. I was the only student, the professional station that happened to be near campus hired and they gave me the midnight to 6 a.m shift. I did it three days a week. I had a moniker named Midnight Massa that still sticks today for those that know me well. And I would do the midnight to 6 a.m. and sleep till noon and go to class in the afternoon. But tough business and while I enjoyed it, I wound up interviewing with lots of companies right out of college and joined Procter & Gamble. right out of school. Terrific company, Consumer Products Company, spent 21 wonderful years there, all in the people space. Back then, Tiffany, in 1989, it really wasn't a human resources function then. I think we were personnel and operations, but I worked for a variety of groups and took a liking to the... the HR areas of recruiting and succession planning and training and compensation and benefits and grew into a function and moved nine times with Procter & Gamble over 21 years. A lot of assignments around the US and had the opportunity to live overseas in Central Europe and Poland. and had the whole Central European corridor of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as a country HR manager. Lots of global roles. And P&G was asking me to move for a 10th time, this time to Singapore. It was a beautiful opportunity. And at the same time, I found the love of my life my first day at college at Dayton.

Tiffany Pham

I love your life.

Tim Massa

We married right after school and I had two beautiful children and they were pretty young at the time. My oldest was going into high school when P&G wanted me to move to Singapore and my parents were both still living at the time but they were aging and starting to have some health concerns. Turn that down for family reasons and I was on a short list to be into that top HR officer role at P&G, but I knew not taking that assignment would lengthen my time for that to happen. So one of the former officers at P&G that retired connected me with the Kroger Company, also based here in Cincinnati. I was back on my... I think fourth time living in Ohio with P&G after a lot of other assignments and they were looking to really change the people function and make it more of a business partner, less of an administrative function, a lot of focus with the C-suite and the board. So one thing led to another.

Tiffany Pham

Who was it that called?

Tim Massa

Well, it was Kroger.

Tiffany Pham

Who was your friend there that made the call?

Tim Massa

He was my former officer of HR. He retired and he knew that Kroger was doing some work as a consultant with Kroger because they wanted to kind of rebrand their people function and take more interest in really turning it into a proactive business partner role versus just being an administrative role. And so they hired, I think, one of the best HR officers in the world, Katy Barclay. She came out of General Motors. She came in and she committed to give five years to the then CEO, Dave Dillon. But she didn't really see anybody internally to succeed her. So she believed hardly in succession planning and doing it early. So I interviewed with Katy and actually interviewed with the entire C-suite and several board members. I think there was 13 interviews actually that I went through over a three month period of time. Never really thought I'd ever leave Procter & Gamble, but saw an opportunity to come to Kroger as Katy's head of talent and training and did that. and within four years of being here, true to Katy's word, I succeeded her. And I'm coming up now on 16 years with Kroger and 12 years in the top chair and took that over in 2014. And after 37 years of 21 with P&G and now 16 with Kroger. I'm winding down my career and will be retiring here in about three short weeks now after a successful succession plan with my successor that'll be stepping in. So it's been full circle and I really have looked at the opportunity to be in the top chair and so many lessons and also so appreciative and blessed of the career that I had at P&G preparing me for this and also coming into Kroger to get me ready was really instrumental. And one of the big beliefs I always have followed, Tiffany, is you need to bloom where you're planted. And instead of always worried about the next role or chasing the next opportunity, I answered a lot of opportunities within P&G and then took that chance to leave. And I'm pretty loyal. I'm not jumping around from one place to the next, 21 years, 16 years. But because I-- Really at P&G, I think I had 18 different roles in 21 years, but I took advantage of every one of them and made the most out of them. And I think it helped prepare me for the role that I'm in today and how this role has changed over the years versus jumping into something and trying to jump through it fast and not necessarily being ready. I think that's been a hallmark that I've tried to pass on as I've mentored and sponsored and coached countless others along the way.

Tiffany Pham

I love this. What a beautiful journey and so inspiring. I'd love to hone in on that first moment when you knew you would become Chief Officer. When was that moment? Was it when you were hired initially as Head of Talent then? Like you knew ultimately that would happen. It was our key moment that Katy called you into the office and said it's time.

Tim Massa

Well, look, I think when she offered me the job, you know, obviously I, it was a big move to leave P&G, but I knew that if I performed well, that I had a path to really become the people officer for a fortune, you know, fortune 20 company. Kroger has 400,000 people. It's a massive, it's only a US based company where I was used to global company before with P&G, but I knew just the sheer size and the magnitude of being able to lead a people function for such a large company was amazing. So while she offered that as part of the job offer, I knew I needed to perform. and nothing was a guarantee. But I would say, you know, probably three years into the, you know, two and a half to three years into the role as things were starting to come together and I was making an impact and coming from the outside. There weren't a lot of external hires that Kroger at the time. We've done a lot more of that, but at the time, you know, 14, 16 years ago that was not very common. But I would say a couple years in I started to see that I was getting traction. I was getting more involved in our board of directors with the C-suite of the Kroger leadership team attending a lot of meetings with Katy and starting to take on initiatives and getting more coaching behind the scenes and allowing to present more directly. I knew that the path was there and it was becoming more real.

Tiffany Pham

I love that. And is there a certain day when you learned the moment was here? I almost think of it, you know, like, I found out that I got into Harvard or something like that kind of moment where you got a phone call.

Tim Massa

Yeah, you know, we both got a Katy invited me to there was a store publication today. It's called HR executive and Katy was going to be on the cover of it. primarily because of the role model transition that she put in place on her succession with me. And it was a four year journey. And she was very deliberate and intentional in laying that out. And I would say it was probably about a year out from when I took over in 2014. So that would have been September of 2013. the HR executive publisher came to the Kroger offices and they did a photo shoot of both of us. And we sat down and walked through her philosophy of bringing somebody on. So I knew then that, wow, I'm getting on the cover of the front page of an industry publication. That was her endorsement and her-- her rubber stamp and really message publicly to the industry and the profession that this is a role model example of how you transition appropriately and to have that tangible outward example. of that publication with both of us on it. And I still have that hanging in my office in a frame. I'll remember that quite well. And then actually, the actual her retirement, me taking over in '14, those days were obviously very, very special. And now I'm seeing it full circle of-- having some celebrations with my team. Two days ago, I was surprised with a conference room here in our store support center, our headquarters named after me. -

Tiffany Pham

Oh my goodness, I love that, wow. -

Tim Massa

And my wife was there and they had a placard put up and to have a room that will... forever be used and my name I think speaks below.

Tiffany Pham

The Midnight Massa Room?

Tim Massa

Something like that. They could make a Midnight Massa but that was quite nice

Tiffany Pham

and now just being able to appreciate the countless leaders and associates that you've been able to impact is quite gratifying. It's amazing. What a good culture and good example of leadership all throughout this last few decades. I feel like you have, I mean, obviously your career has been full of hard work and dedication and, but so many wonders, like such a beautiful path. is being able to meet your wife on the first day and you know and two careers as a leader 20 years plus at two organizations it's rare it's really rare gem you know it's such a beautiful life. What was the first week like as chief officer? I'm just curious if you could walk us through it.

Tim Massa

The first day I got on one of our company planes and flew out with one of our senior business leaders. And we were doing, you know, we have 20, we have 3000 stores. So we were getting prepared for a quarterly. quarterly analyst call and in order to do that these leaders that ran our divisions would go out to get feedback on how the division in Houston, Texas was doing. So I jumped on a plane with a one of the senior leaders to go to Houston for one of their quarterly business reviews and you know it was my first day I didn't know him and And just flying on it, it was my first time on a company plane flying to Houston and being able to get in the market and meet men and women that worked in our stores, do a store visit to hear how our business was doing in Texas to help bring that back, you know, back then in terms of the... results and to have that be a key input into the quarter results for our fiscal year. I felt I was on cloud nine and I was thrown right into how could we help the business from a, what was their staffing like? Did they have the right training? We were getting into succession planning with the leader there that was going to be retiring in a few years. And so I was able to work with the team there and work back here with our corporate team on how we were going to support that. So, yeah, that day feels like yesterday in some regards, but it was 16 years ago. -

Tiffany Pham

I love that. And what's been one of the decisions you've been proudest of as... Chief officer or accomplishments, you know, and me asking this question, what was the first thing that popped into your mind? Because I'm sure you would.

Tim Massa

I would say the first one that popped into mind, obviously, was, you know, we all lived through it. But I think our our time during COVID, I'm very proud that, you know, our store stayed open. We had essential workers. I was reminded, you know, we had a call every day at 11 a.m. And it was with all the leaders of our divisions, 21 leaders, all of our C-suite. And we did not have a playbook. And we were trying, we were learning every day how to keep our stores open, how to protect our associates and our customers, you know, and the ability. also to move all of our folks in our headquarters home. That was March 13th of 2020. It was Friday the 13th. I will never forget that. And we were using Teams as a virtual, and nobody knew what Teams was. And we were sending hundreds of thousands of people home and it worked. And here we are today. So. I am very proud of, we listened intently. We probably listened for understanding more than ever, regardless of the level of the individual, the location of the individual. We were seeking best practices, best ideas to keep our stores running and to serve our associates around the world, around the country. that was probably one of the most collaborative times in our company's history and for many companies obviously around the world. But I just remember all the daily decisions we made. But I would also say, we've also dealt with some tragedy. We've had our handful of... natural disasters and when a community comes together in a hurricane, then the grocery store is a place that is a haven for working with Feeding America and helping those in need. I mean, times of need. We've had an unfortunate mass shooting in one of our stores in Boulder, Colorado, and how we came together as a community supported those that were... - Yeah. - You know, senselessly killed and their family members, how we supported them and how to this day we still honor them. You know, it is a local community and you know, one of my former colleagues who retired as our CFOs said it's the biggest little company in America. And I think back to decisions we've made, I've made that. We treated this large company like a small shop and in a community and with a name, with people that were there to serve. I cherish that a lot and there were countless examples like that.

Tiffany Pham

Yeah, that's remarkable. And you have to make a remark here actually, as, as we're talking, I really am more making this observation to for our listeners. It's remarkable that, you know, you've been here for so long. And we were just talking about a mutual friend, Jacqueline, the CHR at General Mills, who also similarly grew up at General Mills. Terrific. What I see of you two, you're remarkable leaders. When it comes, for example, in this age of AI and transformation, you are some of the most advanced in terms of the workforce transformation you've already implemented and already carried out. And that's perhaps correlated to the tenure you've had and led here. That tenure, the insights you have into the organization has led you to... be able to operate at a faster speed than other organizations where perhaps leadership has higher turnover is what it may be seeing because both you and her have shared with me insights and plans and transformation underway that is again much more advanced than many of their other organizations that we collaborate with or support or see or just observe. since we have this unique vantage point at mobile, to see at the C-speed level across 700 plus organizations. So I want to commend you for that. - Thank you. - And so, maybe if you could share a little bit of insight about what I just shared with listeners, I'd love to have them here, your remarkable efforts in this age of AI. -

Tim Massa

Well, thank you again for the feedback. I think one of the pieces we've leaned in on is we see... asking for help is a sign of strength. No one person has all the answers. So, your ability to be able to collaborate cross-functionally, I think is so important today, even in the age of AI and in technology advances. And we really refer to it as ways of working, Tiffany. We look at how can we improve our ways of working. Tools. Like AI, we need to lean in and how can it simplify your work? How can it free you up so that we want you to do more human-centric activity? We want you to be able to be empathetic, to listen for understanding, to provide feedback, to get out in the stores, in our plants, in our warehouses, and work with our associates and have... performance feedback and coaching. And when you get bogged down in a lot of the administrative and other tasks and meetings, that goes away. And I think one of the drawbacks from COVID was that we lost a generation of shoulder to shoulder coaching and being around. And our culture is one that's collaborative and yes, we can do. things virtually and value the efficiency and the effectiveness of that. But nothing takes away from working together and helping get after somebody's dreams and interests and the concerns they have and helping remove barriers. Tools like AI, etc., can help simplify things so that we have more airtime and more space. to focus on things like that. So, you know, we created a driver's license, we call it AI driver's license for every one of our associates based on their role because a data scientist who's working on, you know, customer data and our loyalty program that feels personalized to that shopper is a different use of AI skills than someone who's a program manager or a product manager or a category manager of one of our categories in healthcare versus a cashier versus someone that's working in a plan. So we've been able to really create a baseline understanding of AI. And just like you have a driver's license to be able to drive a car, we want you to be certified in your area of role, or then to show what skills do I need that I need to upskill or improve on if my role that I'm doing today may be altered or changed or eliminated, what things can I do to go add more value or give me more time to go focus on. So we've tried to take that approach. and really look for folks to lean in versus seeing this as a, you know, it is all about changing culture. And we're trying to really help people embrace and lean in on that. And I think it goes back to collaborations is the new currency and it's okay what you don't know. It's okay to raise your hand for help. and we've tried to drive that throughout the company and it's starting at the top and I think that's been a hallmark for us. I would also say we really tried to create an experience where people want to work here and we're trying to be intentional about the experiences we're trying to create, the behaviors that support those experiences. because we believe then the outcome's more intentional. If we're not, you know, calling for the type of behaviors we expect from our leaders and the experiences we're trying to create, then we believe at the chance, then it feels like it's opening day every day and that leaders, we were putting people into leadership roles and they may not be... understanding what they're signing up for. And we're a 143 year old company, but we've been grounded in a set of values that have been around for over 50 years that haven't changed. And we continue to make sure that whatever role you're in, we're values and principle based driven. That's always gonna be our North Star that guides us all the way through. -

Tiffany Pham

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Tim. So inspiring to hear you speak of your journey. The culture is so admirable. It's so kind, warm, collaborative, and it's demonstrated in everything you say throughout every initiative, even in this age of AI, it's apparent everywhere. So thank you so much again for sharing also your moment of attaining the chief officer. It's been a dream talking to you. So thank you so much, Tim. And I'm excited to continue the conversation. Look forward to staying in touch.

Tim Massa

Thanks for your partnership, Tiffany.

Tiffany Pham

Thank you, Tim.