When have you had to solve a problem without all the information you needed to do so?
Your interviewer is curious about how resourceful you are and is hoping to learn more about your approach to taking risks when confronted with a difficult situation. How you answer will inform them of whether you are responsible for the company's resources or if you take the easiest path out of a tricky situation without fully considering the impact of your actions. It also stands to inform them a little more about your brand of innovation. As Stephanie Gallo, the Chief Marketing Officer once said, "As you accelerate and as you grow in your career, the decisions become harder, and you have to make tough decisions each and every day. The only thing that will get you through it is if you can go to bed at night, and you can put your head on the pillow knowing that you made the decision in accordance to your own personal values."
"In my current company, we saw a decrease in clients due to the pandemic. Just like the rest of the world, we were in unchartered waters. We knew most of our retailers didn't qualify as essential workers, so I approached my bosses with the idea of offering a discount wine box subscription. We weren't allowed to distribute directly to the public, but I suggested we come up with a subsidiary business model online only, and if we fast-tracked it, maybe we could generate a portion of the revenue we were losing. They gave the go-ahead on the research side of it, what it would take, and the best route, so we started. I made some calls, and with the rest of the team, we produced some initial numbers of what we might be looking at. Then things moved forward, and we did quite well. We called it, The Middleman Wine Club."
Think of a time that you solved a problem, creatively. Were you happy with the outcome? What were the steps that you took to ensure your success? Does the example align with what E. & J. Gallo is looking for in their target talent? "Our success has been driven by people who challenge the status quo and continue to ask 'What's next?' That's why you'll find innovation around every corner at Gallo."
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