From the day it was founded in 1957, The Honey Baked Ham Company has had the recipe for success.

Founder Harry J. Hoenselaar had it when he cured and glazed his first ham joints; his children and grandchildren have never lost it, overseeing the huge growth of a company that is something of an American institution.

HoneyBaked is now embarking on a transformation journey that will see it finding new recipes for success, while keeping a tight hold on the original.

It is a balancing act – digital transformation and doubling the size of the business on one side, with tradition and familiarity on the other.

One of the senior leaders charged with making the journey seamless is HoneyBaked’s Chief Transformation Officer Darin Morrow.

Darin started his career in the US Air Force 40 years ago. Between active duty and reserves, his tech journey included software engineering and object-oriented design, missile defence systems plus many years in the area of technical intelligence.

Having retired from the AF Reserves as a Master Cyber Operations officer, his forces skills aligned with his commercial career.

While serving in the AF Reserves, Darin then also spent 22 years at AT&T working on high volume and complex systems across several businesses.

The work was at the leading edge of technology and integration, from .COM and service-oriented architectures to highly integrated systems – including building what today is Cricket Wireless.

He also led technical integrations for mergers and acquisitions such as DirectTV, led technology strategy for consumer and large business, and finally served as VP/CIO at Cricket Wireless.

Hope is not a strategy or a plan

Moving to HoneyBaked in August 2019, Darin faced the huge challenge of doubling the size of the business while implementing a digital transformation programme.

In order to face the challenges, he says there are a few foundations to put in place.

“Similar to all transformation roles, comprehending the complexities and uniqueness of the business is critical – not just being technically savvy.

“Finding the right technologies that fit the problem space and the culture of the company is critical.”

Finally, he says: “Having the right strategy and tactical roadmap to achieve the strategy and transformation is key. After all, hope is not a strategy or a plan.”

Customer engagement is key

Darin knows that the goal of doubling the size of HoneyBaked is a futile one if the business ceases to engage its customers. If the customers do not want to go with it and grow with it, all bets are off.

He says: “The goal of the company is to double its size over the next few years, but at the same time we want to engage customers and provide the best experience every day, not just at the holidays.

“We want to continue the HoneyBaked tradition of providing distinctive, premium, quality products that make meals memorable – at the holidays and every day.”

Getting technology baked in

The strategy to engage customers has many aspects, some of which will be possible thanks to efforts to enable infrastructure on the cloud, secure its data and platforms, while merging in artificial intelligence.

Darin says: “We want to engage our customers how they want to be engaged and when. We want to target new consumers through different channels and technology, new delivery models, new in store experience, new web experience, and more.”

He adds: “We have focused on our omni-channel strategy by working through customer segments, mastering our customer data, detailing our customer journeys and consolidating and streamlining our digital experience.

“When we started, we were a bit disparate between our stores and direct-to-consumer businesses. Even our 3P and catering were separate in the view of our customers.

“We have pulled all that together and we truly have a single digital front end to our customers that is getting better every year and will launch our mobile app next spring.”

Read the full story HERE.

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