San Francisco-headquartered denim and casualwear company Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co) recently hosted what its chief financial officer, Harmit Singh, described as its most expansive hackathon thus far. 

In essence, the firm-wide, virtual event - which involved employees from outside the technology team for the first time - constitutes a problem-solving competition, during which participants share ideas and work to apply their solutions to the LS&Co business. 

This “hacking” strategy is intended to improve the efficiency of company-wide systems and processes.  

Mr Singh stated that a record 35 teams from 11 countries took part this time around. The previous three iterations have all taken place in-person (“we missed the energy and excitement of bringing teams together under one roof,” he said), but the latest, all-digital hackathon allowed for a more globalised collaborative effort. 

While the “solutions” presented during the most recent hackathon were not shared, Mr Singh did describe how company innovations including chat bots and in-store self-checkout had all come about as a result of prior hackathon events. 

“I was personally impressed by the level of creativity we saw from each of the teams this month and want to congratulate all of the employees who participated. I know you will continue to drive our digital transformation journey and I can’t wait to see the winning ideas become a reality,” he concluded. 

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