30 Minutes With: Bill Van Thillo eCommerce Lead at PepsiCo

Tech Hubble's 30 Minutes With. A simple concept: we spend half an hour with one of our members, taking a deep dive into their career, listening to their advice, stories and experiences. Each interview provides valuable, personal insights and sheds light on the challenges faced and the dynamics at play across our industry.

We recently sat down with Bill Van Thillo, eCommerce Lead at PepsiCo, to discuss his fast-paced and successful climb to seniority before the age of 30, what he learnt and his advice for anyone following a similar path.

How did it all begin?

What I feel like was quite an important step for me was that, pre-career, I went to boarding school and experienced a very serious, “educationally focused” environment. It was quite severe, as I was a little energetic as a kid, so this had to be channelled into schooling. It really taught me how to be independent, and this type of knowledge – of learning to be your own in general – is really good preparation for the future, especially when you are in school with older classmates, too. I was always the youngest, wherever I was, as I skipped a year and graduated when I was 17. I had to toughen up a bit, as well as manage my own strong personality, all of which made me very independent.

The question I asked myself once I graduated school was “what is the proudest education I can find in Belgium?” This lead me to find commercial engineering, applied engineering and mathematics, which is what I applied to do. I was really active in student life, as my father had always said to me two things: “The most I learnt was in the bar” and “Always beAlwaysbe interested in other people”. It is always important to enjoy yourself along the way!

After my Bachelor’s degree, I took an internship at a private equity wealth management company in Belgium because I wanted to stay updated with finance, and back then I was interested in that as a career… that changed! But that experience was very interesting, and I learnt a lot in those few month, even though I quickly discovered that that job was not the right direction for me. It gave me the experience I needed to understand finance more than the average person in marketing and I have since been able to apply this to my role in retail.

After that job, I travelled to Australia and joined a start-up accelerator/incubator. If I had any advice it would definitely be to go to other fascinating countries, learn about their culture and gain as much ownership and responsibility as early as possible in your career. Being part of this small start-up was really inspiring as I got to meet a lot of people. I met the venture capitalists who owned the space and I got to see a lot of talent coming up.

Another bit of advice: Learn to fail! Failing is never a problem, just do things as best as you can, and you will learn what’s better along the way.

I then went back to Brussels and did my Master’s degree. I got involved in an exchange programme with Trinity College Dublin and really enjoyed myself. But I also became serious at this time in my life – I met people, and I am still connected with them today.

So, what was your first graduate job?

Well, I was a 23-year-old graduate with a Master’s degree but I didn’t instantly see a fixed job that I wanted, so I applied for lots of different roles. I wanted international experience, something involving the retail space, a fast-paced environment… I started with branding at Ahold Delhaize and I made sure to really take advantage of the on-the-job learning here. My manager gave me good flexibility and I learnt many of the core functions of the role quickly, including how to manage every aspect of the supermarket and how to talk to all different kinds of people.

After that role, I went to America for half a year to work on building a digital loyalty programme. I lived in Portland, Maine, and I had a lot of responsibilities – this was a key life experience for me because I discovered my love for the digital environment and eCommerce. I also had the opportunity to travel a lot and I met so many interesting people. Definitely always take advantage of those kinds of opportunities!

When I returned for my last rotation of traineeship, the management team had changed completely. In two weeks the entire eCommerce team had been switched up and it was really sad as the guy who hired me, who I had a great connection with, had been let go, and a new, strict manager came in clapping the ropes. I had to learn the hard way.

What did this teach you?

It taught me a lot about how to behave in bigger organisation and how those organisations work in terms of presentations, structure, etc. Specifically, working for Albert Heijn [part of Ahold Delhaize since 2016], I noticed big differences between the Dutch and Beligan way of working in those areas.

What did you do at Albert Heijn?

I was responsible for the online sales of wines. The wine sales site was then integrated with the general grocery platform, which was not good decision as we lost customers and, after being hired to do a certain project and putting blood, sweat and tears into that project, just to be told that there are no resources available and that the project is now cancelled, is really disappointing. However, this also taught me a lot as well– you definitely can’t always get what you want. This experience made me become a lot more strict in a sense, especially in terms of decision making, structure, approach, having ever aspect in the right way, and being clear and concise throughout the journey.

After this, I had my first promotion which was into category management in eCommerce. There’s quite a small and tight eCommerce community in Belgium, so I got in touch with all the other CPG companies to continue connecting and sharing ideas. Whilst doing this, we changed the website and found new ways of working, and launched new activations across various areas of the eCommerce business.

Then COVID-19 struck! But I was already thinking of moving jobs as I wanted to be at a company where I was responsible for all eCommerce in Belgium…Perhaps I was too young for this?! Who knows. I have always been proud and motivated to work hard.

PepsiCo contacted me a few months later and I was inspired by the company. The person who originally reached out to be is now part of my team and we have spent the last 12 months focused on Belgium to provide clear visibility, grow the market, build structure and prioritise transactional customer data.

What would be your advice to anyone looking to begin their career or wanting to make a change?

-     Jump on every opportunity. The thing is, when you have an offer, just try it! If it’s not what you expected, there will always be something else available.

-     You will always regret the things that you didn’t do.

-     You will obviously fail at a lot of stuff, but that’s only way to get better at something

-     Think about how you can do something rather than what can’t be done. Always ask yourself “How can we make this work?” because it’s easy to say we can’t do something.

-     Be openminded

My biggest advice to juniors would be a combination of two things: do the things you love, and if you don’t enjoy it, look where the market and where society is going and where there is a big potential for growth.

When I was young and I saw the online supermarket opportunity, I saw that grocery online wasn’t big and many industries hadn’t digitised grocery. Being fascinated by the ecommerce and digital space, I wanted to explore something that wasn’t necessarily proven as a market.

A lot of people were into job security and traditional businesses inside big businesses. The role everyone wanted was traditional category management – finding new innovation seemed to be sexiest job available– where, year on year, it’s the same repetition and process. And whilst finding new products is interesting, repetition doesn’t always work on motivation. I started to see that most businesses were starting to hire more in eCommerce and less in the traditional roles, and I wanted to be part of a buzzing environment where I could be constantly growing, and exciting new opportunities are always arriving through the door.

-     Stay in touch with what’s going on in the market.

-     Check beforeCheckbefore you get hired! When you’re talking to someone before they hire you, check their personality – its important in a job with repetitive tasks, and just in general, to have a manager that inspires you. Being part of a buzzing environment, but with no teaching or ownership, will never be fully enjoyable.

-     Be honest with yourself – don’t think that you are somewhere that you’re not. Reflect on what your inspirations and ambitions actually are. Don’t always sell yourself as the best manager or leader without staying honest to yourself and asking yourself, “Where am I now ”and “Where should I be?”

-     Stay committed to your goals. What’s important to you?

How do you bring this advice and your experiences across to your team now?

We are quite a digital team (not always face-to-face)so I try my best to meet up with people in general to talk about aspirations, what they want outside of work. I mainly do this in the form of informal dinners, taking the time to talk instead of hopping into operational stuff.

As you start getting to know each individual at a time, you can learn what it is that inspires them and what sticks out to them. A lot of the time, I share content with members and they share it with me. This helps us to inspire each other – and as we know each other’s interests, we can find relevant things for everyone. By knowing what steps each of the team has to take, we can feed them the correct information and this allows them to step outside of their comfort zones – to think outside of the box.

Always look for inspiration outside of your workplace. As a team, we went to an inspiration session in a high-tech digital environment, We were guided around new technologies and, afterwards, we reflected on what we could bring back to our own environment. Of course, the other countries and markets are ahead of what we are doing, but you have to dream a little! Perhaps it is not possible in our current framework, but what could we do?

What advice do you have for other industries and business leaders?

-     Enable your staff to be exposed to senior members of the company.

-     When presenting an example, give ownership to areas that perhaps should be presented by someone more senior

-     There are many different approaches and ways of doing things – so always be open and don’t have problems with sharing other stuff with people. I have my own way of thinking; the more you share the more you get back.

If you could change one thing, what would it be?

I come more from the principle of “don’t have any regrets”, because if you’re happy where you are in life, be happy with what you have! But, perhaps that I didn’t go on an exchange at university, I only went to Trinity College. I could have done a Bachelor’s in a new language or country– I do wish that I had done that. Definitely try to learn about another culture or language. Get out there, get yourself exposed, discover yourself and find new cultures.

Do you have any podcast recommendations and why?

Before I recommend anything, I have to say that I’m a history buff!

The Economist:

What I like about this one is the small bitesize topics and the approach – they always take one topic and discuss all things about it, inspiring to know what is happening at that time. They approach things differently to other news podcasts.

De Zonnekoning by Klara:

This is the best Dutch podcast about LouisXIV, the King of France. It is very interesting content and there are many life lessons that can be applied to businesses as well.

The CMO Podcast:

Ran by Jim Stengel, Former CMO of P&G. I initially listened to it as the PepsiCo CEO was being interviewed, and I found it very interesting and inspiring as he talked about building a vibrant company, but he also opened up about the personal issues that he faced and what he had to overcome mentally when he lost his wife, for example. It was private and personal but in an inspiring way, and the other interviews on the podcast follow the same route.

We look forward to sharing even more relevant stories, interviews, insights and experiences from our Tech Hubble members. To stay connected, sign up and receive our newsletter.

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