My CIO Career: Neil Hampshire, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Ocean Spray Cranberries, on Cultivating Successful Relationships

Neil Hampshire dived right into his chief information and digital officer role at Ocean Spray Cranberries – figuratively and literally: Hampshire joined the iconic cooperative, where its roughly 700 cranberry growers in North America and Chile are the owners, at the start of a major digital transformation initiative. Hampshire has a long history of getting into the thick of things and leading transformations as an IT executive. He has served in numerous leadership roles at companies in multiple sectors, including fast food (Subway), supply chain technology provider (ModusLink), and consumer products at Avon, Wrigley and Gillette during his 30-plus years career in enterprise technology and organizational leadership.

To succeed, Hampshire says CIOs must be “business leaders who understand the discipline of IT as opposed to an IT leader who is working in the business,” In other words, they must be deep into the business, even if that means wearing waders instead of the conventional office gear.

In this August 2024 interview for the “My CIO Career” series, Hampshire shared his thoughts on leading transformation, developing relationships with board members, farmers and other stakeholders at the Lakeville, Mass.-based company, and building a successful career.

Mary K. Pratt: You have a great executive photo on LinkedIn. Can you tell me how you got that shot?

Neil Hampshire: Every year the company offers team members and their families a weekend opportunity for a photograph in the working cranberry bog at our Ocean Spray headquarters. That was around my second week of working at Ocean Spray—perfect timing to both wade in and meet a huge number of people all at the same time.

To me, using it on LinkedIn is a no brainer—showing the type of agricultural cooperative I work for—and I hope it shows that I don’t take myself too seriously.

How did you know that this role was the right fit for you?

This position had several things which appealed to me.

First, Ocean Spray had a major digital transformation going on. I enjoy working for companies going through major transitions and helping them through those, so I was looking for that challenge.

Secondly, I saw Ocean Spray as a place where I could add value and be successful, given the transformation that is going on. Helping lead through a transition is something I have done at Avon, Gillette and Wrigley, so I would be building on a position of strength.

I also saw this position as an opportunity to develop myself and learn. I was aware of Ocean Spray the brand and its products. However, I did not fully appreciate its cooperative structure. That was something new for me.

And I was attracted by the people and the culture. One thing that came across to me through the recruitment process, and has been borne out since then, is that Ocean Spray has great people and a very strong culture.

There is a huge link between our team members and the grower-owner community, which is part of what makes the co-op so special. There is a strong alignment with the company’s mission and making better lives for the farmers and their families. It is nice to have that higher purpose and be part of an organization that is mission-driven like that.

What have you learned so far in this role?

A lesson that I have learned in the last 10 months is the importance of engagement with our growers. They are our owners, we have a clear responsibility to stay connected with them. Whether that is through strong engagement with our board of directors, who represent our growing regions, or regular communications and presentations at the farm level to build relationships and build trust.

It is important to everyone at every stage of their career to develop good relationships. I think building relationships is even more important in this co-op than perhaps at other jobs I have had.

How do you build those relationships?

There is no substitute for spending time talking to people.

That is something I have always done: understand the business, the shareholders, their context and where they are coming from. At my prior companies, I spent time in manufacturing, in sales, and in other areas. It was like a bring-your-CIO-to-work kind of program. I would spend a day doing, for example, quality checks on production lines or selling to mom-and-pop stores on the streets of Guangzhou, China, so I could understand the whole length of the business.

Here at Ocean Spray, that means staying connected to and having a deeper understanding of what is happening at the farm level. At our annual grower meeting for example, I had the opportunity to sit with dozens of our grower-owners, hear their questions and concerns. It also allows me to share progress and details on our business transformation project—this is an investment for their cooperative—so all the more reason to ensure they believe in the project and its value to the company.

I am also looking forward this fall to spending time at one of our grower-owner’s farms. Being there, helping harvest with him and his family, it will be a phenomenal way to take a step away from the day to day and understand more closely who and what we are always working for each day.

Are you actually going to help with a cranberry harvest?

I will help with a small “h.” My objective is: First do no harm. I do not want to get in the way. But I am looking forward to spending time there on the farm, getting my waders on, getting into the bog and helping in any way I can.

Can you tell me more about the transformation happening at Ocean Spray?

It is a project we call xELERATE, which basically involves redesigning our processes, our technology underpinnings and our way of working.

As part of xELERATE, we have assessed and redesigned all the processes and capabilities that have run the business over the past 25 years and are implementing in its place a fully integrated environment. We are replacing at least 11 legacy systems with an integrated SAP platform that includes ERP (s/4), SAP Integrated Business Planning and SAP Analytics Cloud to run all our core planning, execution and reporting systems. This will standardize our data model, connect our processes and apply automation to reduce costs and effort and drive more informed decisions.

This is driving a lot of automation, process simplification and improved access to information. It is a material transformation in not just the systems’ capabilities but in how we work and how we unleash the power of the organization.

Our team members have told us that the systems and processes had been obstacles for them enjoying their work and being efficient and effective, so there is a lot of pull from our teams for a new way of working. They understand that this transformation will unlock a lot of efficiency, capabilities and benefits, and they are excited about that. They know that this is a platform for what is next for our business.

Although the project was in motion when I arrived, it has been exciting to put my fingerprints on decisions being made and partner across the business to shape progress and direction. Having led transformations before, I want to help maximize the chances of success and make sure we do it right.

What is required to make this transformation successful?

The first thing I put on the list is senior management support and engagement, which was already in place when I decided to take the job.

Then comes having the right team and the right resources on that team. Thankfully, we have a dedicated team that is made up of the business, IT and a systems integrator; instead of “three in a box,” we call it “three in a bog.” And we have that three-in-a-bog staffed full-time, because this transformation is not something you can do off to the side of your desk.

And the third component to success is having a really good understanding of change management and understanding that this is not about changing the systems but changing processes – how people work and how we adopt technology as an organization.

Then the next component, which has always been important but I think is increasingly more important in this era of AI and machine learning, is having a strong focus on the data, getting the data right and getting the data set up for success.

The fifth pillar for success is understanding the business impact and the business case, so that as we go through this, we continue to align activities and the change management to the business outcomes we are seeking.

How do you as a chief information and digital officer lead and influence?

I do that by focusing on business outcomes and what is right for the business.

Saying “Look at this great new large language model” is not going to get my officer peers excited about it. But if I show how we can use that LLM to optimize our service to retailers or how we can use it to improve the content we generate in marketing so that it leads to more consumer engagement and ultimately more sales, that then generates interest and excitement.

You have to be a strategic partner to your business counterparts, help identify technology-enabled opportunities and make the business case for what those opportunities can unlock.

Do you think most IT executives are skilled in the art of influence?

I think it is a muscle that is improving in technology leadership, but it is not intuitive, and it is not ubiquitous. As chief information digital officers, it is not something we should ever take our eyes off of.

What advice would you offer to aspiring digital leaders?

Stay curious. Keep engaged in the technologies because they are changing so fast, but make sure you understand your business context as well because when those two things come together, that is where the magic happens.

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