Mar 10, 2020
Today, Ken Barraza joins us. Ken is an e-commerce leader for businesses of all sizes, from Fortune 500 megabrands to a celebrity-founded startup, called Just Water. Ken has had an interesting career, both in CPG, and more recently, with Just Water.
In today's episode, he talks about his career trajectory in the
world of e-commerce. He also shares the story behind the incredible
Just Water brand, and he discusses their mission to reduce both
plastic waste and the CO2 footprint, globally.
Ken's journey started with him falling in love with CPG at
Colgate-Palmolive, a huge megabrand with global household
penetration.
There, he learned everything about CPG, from the retail side to category management and sales, to account management. Early on in US e-commerce, between 2011 and 2012, Ken worked on a project that introduced him to a concept that he later called E- Grocery. That task-force led him to explore a curiosity that he didn't even know he had before, about the tidal-wave that was fast approaching CPG and e-commerce, and the way that it could disrupt the traditional sales model. He then started working on small projects within the organization, and setting up product libraries with imagery, content, and copy, and dabbling with different retailers.
From there, it became all about gathering information and keeping his finger on the pulse of e-commerce. Kraft Heinz presented Ken with a fantastic opportunity for growth as they were intending to build out e-commerce and a digital team to help with their more than seventy brands. They offered Ken the opportunity to become their number one team member, and to build their leadership, people, processes, and the technology stack that was needed to support and scale their endeavor. He later moved onto Just Water, which was also building their brand.
Tune in today, for more!