Adam Mendler recently went one on one with Scott Williams, CEO of Batteries Plus.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Scott: My story starts out in Kansas, which is where I grew up and also attended college, eventually graduating from the University of Kansas. After receiving my undergraduate degree, I pursued my MBA at Northwestern University in Illinois. Following that, I served in a number of companies, including PepsiCo, OfficeMax, and Sam’s Club, before ending up at Cabela’s, where I worked my way up from Chief Marketing Officer to President of Cabela’s Inc. I spent 6 years there before taking over as CEO of Batteries Plus in 2019.
Regarding challenges, I might be dating myself a little here, but during my MBA days, there wasn’t much being said about e-commerce and omnichannel, so my experiences in that arena were kind of limited when I got to Office Max; that all changed in a hurry. Suddenly, I was in charge of the marketing messaging for a Top 6 e-commerce site. I was definitely thrown into the deep end and had to do a lot of in-the-moment learning. It was a little scary at the time, but I grew immensely from the experience.