Practitioner of the Week: Zac Gray

For Zac Gray, successful digital transformation starts with a simple principle: digital cannot sit apart from the rest of the business.

As General Manager of eCommerce & Digital at Motion Asia Pacific, Zac is helping shape the digital future of one of the region’s established industrial distribution businesses. His focus extends well beyond platforms and technology. It is about connecting digital with customers, branches, sales teams and the broader commercial strategy.

I didn’t want us to create a digital strategy that belonged only to the digital team. It needed to reflect how our customers buy, how our branches operate and how the whole business intends to grow.

Over the past year, Zac has led the development of DS30, Motion’s long-term digital strategy. It was built through extensive consultation with customers, executives and frontline teams across the region.

The result is a shared vision for making digital a much more important part of how Motion serves customers and grows its business.

One of its central ideas is moving “from order takers to order makers.” Digital is positioned as a channel that supports the branch and sales organisation, rather than competing with them.

“If digital growth comes at the expense of the branch or sales team, you create resistance.”

This approach addresses one of the most persistent challenges in B2B eCommerce: bringing the established commercial organisation along on the transformation.

Building leaders, not just technology

Zac has also focused on developing an internal digital capability with clear ownership across product, delivery, architecture and enablement.

His leadership style is reflected in the people around him. Members of his team have stepped into ownership of major initiatives and are increasingly leading their own areas of Motion’s transformation.

My job isn’t to be at the centre of every decision. It is to create the clarity and environment for other people to lead.

Motion’s digital team also works closely with the sales organisation, helping make digital a practical part of the customer relationship rather than a separate corporate program.

The team has introduced a disciplined experimentation culture. New initiatives are launched with clear hypotheses and measures of success, followed by open reviews of what worked and what should change.

This focus on evidence has helped Motion improve its digital customer experience and demonstrate the commercial value of its work.

Sharing the journey

Zac’s contribution extends into the wider B2B eCommerce community.

He partnered with the B2B eCommerce Association to provide digital training to leaders across Motion and used the Association’s Digital Maturity Assessment to support the organisation’s transformation planning.

Motion has also shared elements of the customer adoption approach that earned it the 2025 Best Customer Adoption Strategy award, giving other practitioners an opportunity to learn from the work.

Zac was named B2B eCommerce Leader of the Year at the 2026 APAC B2B eCommerce Industry Awards. The recognition reflects more than a successful year. It acknowledges more than 15 years of B2B digital leadership and an approach built around alignment, measurable improvement and developing others.

For Zac, digital leadership is not about making the digital team the hero of the story. It is about helping customers, branches, sales teams and emerging leaders see how they can contribute to what comes next.