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Hilary Schneider has a long-standing observe report for driving progress and sparking inventive innovation at giant shopper expertise corporations. As a five-time CEO, Schneider has efficiently led corporations by means of a big transformation, guided by her dedication to empathetic management, relentless optimism, and an ever-present athletic stance.
However it wasn’t at all times that method for Schneider.
The truth is, she credit two easy phrases with serving to her tackle new alternatives with gusto: why not?
“Early in my profession, once I was an funding banker at Drexel Burnham, I took on a task inside Company Growth,” stated Schneider. “Not lengthy after, I used to be supplied a possibility in an working position for which I had zero expertise.”
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Schneider added: “I’ll admit, I didn’t know if I may do it! And it will have been straightforward to remain in my present position with a slim remit. However I stated to myself, ‘why not?’ The worst case is I fail, and I study one thing. So, I accepted the position and by no means seemed again. These two little phrases – why not – have been guideposts for pushing myself out of my consolation zone ever since.”
Transferring in direction of constructive motion and embracing change has been a trademark of Schneider’s profession and, most just lately, throughout her time at Shutterfly the place she has served as CEO since January 2020.
“As a long-time buyer, I’ve at all times identified that this was an unimaginable group with two highly effective manufacturers in Lifetouch and Shutterfly, and that it had a robust tradition and values completely aligned with my very own,” stated Schneider. “However I additionally knew that these highly effective belongings could possibly be developed to serve the altering wants of shoppers and to create extra worth for workers and shareholders alike.”
As CEO, she now had oversight of the Lifetouch, Shutterfly and Snapfish manufacturers, in addition to its vertically built-in manufacturing throughout six manufacturing and achievement services. The Shutterfly infrastructure is purpose-built for the complexities of customized design which permits its household of manufacturers to ship customized objects to clients at a speedy tempo.
Schneider stepped into her CEO position at Shutterfly simply weeks earlier than the pandemic started. She shortly halted her in-person listening excursions, meet-and-greets with workers and visits to manufacturing services and as a substitute pivoted to a 24/7 battle room along with her management group.
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Not solely did Schneider must preserve the corporate’s manufacturing websites operational and mitigate the pandemic’s influence on faculty pictures, however she additionally needed to meet an unimaginable surge in demand inside its shopper enterprise. The speedy tempo of change and the necessity for trusted communications required clear and deeply hands-on management.
Schneider kicked off what would turn out to be the corporate’s now extremely regarded Snapshot collection, a stay, weekly 30-minute broadcast the place any worker has the power to ask any query that the manager group will reply in real-time. It’s turn out to be her signature management automobile for serving to groups navigate change and keep related to the long-term imaginative and prescient of serving to individuals create merchandise and seize moments that replicate who they uniquely are.
She realized from a mentor early in her profession that vulnerability is a useful management asset. She’s carried that lesson by means of her varied government roles, and it stays on the core of how she leads right now, usually sharing her private cellphone quantity with workers if they’ve questions that their direct managers can’t reply.
“Over the past two years, the pandemic has turn out to be a robust clarifying pressure,” says Schneider. “It pressured me and my government group to essentially hone our objective and imaginative and prescient for the Shutterfly household of manufacturers. We have strategized and reorganized; divested and invested. And I actually imagine we’ve come out of it stronger for the long run.”
The pandemic has blurred almost each line between the private and the skilled – and Schneider has weaved many classes from her private life into how she leads. She compares maneuvering by means of a disaster to one thing her kids have been taught in group sports activities – to at all times be in “prepared place,” an upright stance that permits an athlete to maneuver in any course as shortly as potential. In instances of change, as in an athletic endeavor, you need to transfer shortly and pivot in a brand new course if wanted.
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As Shutterfly efficiently navigates the post-COVID restoration, Schneider has made a
strategic guess with the acquisition of world design market, Spoonflower, doubling the full addressable marketplace for Shutterfly and deepening the corporate’s attain into house decor. She additionally launched Shutterfly’s first-ever Vacation Crypto Card NFT assortment in partnership with Iris Apfel with gross sales benefiting the Boys and Women Membership of America. It’s all a part of Schneider’s always-on athletic stance as she seeks to go searching corners for what’s subsequent.
So what’s subsequent for Shutterfly and Schneider?
Shutterfly and its household of manufacturers are agency stewards of the facility of self-expression, serving to shoppers create merchandise and seize moments that replicate who they uniquely are.
Shutterfly’s distinctive model portfolio allows all dimensions of personalization and customized design, from pictures (Lifetouch) and enterprise (Shutterfly Enterprise Options) to premium house décor and a design market (Spoonflower) and from the inexpensive (Snapfish) to the mainstream (Shutterfly).
And the Shutterfly household of manufacturers is poised to just do that.
