CTO of Wayfair, Jim Miller: What's Your Legacy Going To Be?
Jim Miller currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Wayfair, an American e-commerce company that sells furniture and home-goods. He has spent his career scaling operations in executive roles at innovative tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Intel, and Cisco. Before joining Google, Jim Miller was the Executive Vice President of Sanmina, one of the world’s largest electronic manufacturing service providers, where he spearheaded their industrial, cleantech, multimedia, and automotive businesses. He now serves on the board of directors for multiple private companies and an advisory board member of the Retail Management Institute here at SCU. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University and his M.S. from MIT.
We invite the CTO of Wayfair, Jim Miller, to discuss the lessons he's learned from his time working for hyper growth companies such as Amazon, Google, and Intel, where his passion for technology blossomed, his role as a board member for various companies, character traits that make a great leader, fostering diversity in the workplace, and cultivating a memorable legacy.
Interview Highlights
1:15 - Could you provide us with a high level overview of your career and interest in technology?
4:24 - What is it like working in an environment with innovative founders such as Jeff Bezos?
8:00 - Where did your interest in technology come from? Was it something you discovered as a child or did it grow in college or beyond?
13:42 - So now that you are the CTO of Wayfair, can you elaborate on what this role entails? What does a typical day look like for this position?
17:25 - In the elemental stages of working with these e-commerce companies, how important was the idea of implementing data collection for your strategy?
20:44 - Taking a step back, what are some of the key things you’ve learned from working at hyper growth companies such as Google and Amazon?
28:43 - Throughout your success in the corporate world, what qualities and/or personality traits have you identified in great leaders and why are these traits impactful?
34:21 - As someone who holds multiple board positions, can you tell us more about the responsibility of a board member and how you made the decision to join the board for the Retail Management Institute?
38:20 - After accomplishing so much throughout your career, as you look back, what do you believe has been your biggest impact and what motivates you now at this stage in your career?
42:08 - If you didn’t choose the path of technology, what would you be doing?
44:40 - Turning back the clock to a young Jim Miller who just graduated from Purdue University, what advice would you give yourself entering the professional world at this time?
48:30 - VoSC custom questions.