CASE: Walgreens Boots Alliance
Group Chief Technical Architect
The Situation
We were approached by our long-term client Walgreens Boots Alliance to recruit a Group Chief Technical Architect. The role would report to the VP of Group Enterprise Architecture and have overall responsibility for the Technical Architecture across all of the global business units, with a collective revenue of $140 billion.
This was a role that required a wide range of skills and that would wield a lot of influence throughout WBA’s architecture functions.
The Opportunity
WBA are on a journey to transform the Group Enterprise Architecture function from one that supervises governance into one that drives innovation, change and growth. This is part of their wider objective to move towards a ‘One IT culture’, in which many of the platforms and services will be delivered through centres of excellence in order to promote best practices and global coordination.
The Group Chief Technical Architect was set to be co-accountable for establishing the future state enterprise architecture for the company, with a focus on all domains across infrastructure, devices, middleware, network, cloud, and collaboration.
As each business unit had its own architecture function, the role of Group Chief Technical Architect was not to dictate the entire architecture but to serve as an essential central function with oversight of all the business units, defining a common vision, a set of standards and roadmaps, and ensuring that all the business units were aligned.
In addition to someone with exceptional technical strength, the company was looking for a strong and influential leader with broad and varied technology experience who would be able to survey the entire architectural landscape and produce a plan for simplifying complexity. An individual with an understanding of the unique conditions of a global matrix and the capability to drive transformation across a global business. The role holder also needed exceptional interpersonal skills in order to build important relationships across the organisation and foster a culture of collaboration.
What made this interesting?
The specifics of this role made for an interesting search. We needed someone who had really deep technical architecture skills across networks, end user computing, datacentre rationalisation, application rationalisation and transition to cloud services in addition to carrying impact and leadership skills.
It was also a stand-alone leadership role, there was no direct team, so the emphasis was on team leadership through influence in a highly matrixed structure versus command/control. We had to find someone who was prepared to give up managing a large team to take on this role, so it wasn’t going to appeal to everyone.
What made this challenging?
On top of the challenging nature of the role, the hiring manager also changed mid-way through the search. The incumbent VP of Enterprise Architecture was retiring and a replacement joined. Therefore we had to establish a new relationship (at speed). This had an impact on the role we were recruiting, particularly on its location. Initially the client was open to the position being based in the US or the UK, but when the new VP joined, the decision was made that the role would be based in the US, so we had to focus on that demographic and conduct some more research to deepen the US pool.
The Digital Board Process
We began the process like all other searches, by conducting a number of stakeholder interviews in order to gain a thorough understanding of the role and the kind of leader that they were looking for.
We highlighted the following attributes as essential:
Matrix experience- a leader with an understanding of the fragmented, distributed state of a federal model.
Broad technical acumen- Someone with a wide understanding of technology and a generalist who could connect the dots across the architectural landscape.
Mentally agile – can quickly and accurately make connections between issues and discern important information.
Self-confident – someone who had courage to challenge and influence the status quo, with the aim of reaching the best solution for WBA.
Our research team then identified over 60 potential candidates for the role, soliciting their interest and assessing their initial fit.
We then began the first stage of qualifications, holding 45-minute calls with 24 candidates, concentrating on: (1) reasons for interest, (2) fit to brief, (3) key achievements, (4) culture alignment and beyond.
11 of these were formally interviewed by The Digital Board, with 2 eventually being shortlisted.
Throughout the process, our research team continued to identify backup candidates whilst the interviews were being conducted.
Success Story
The successful candidate brought a high level of technical acumen to role, having deliberately set out to gain a wide range of experience in IT. Their former titles included roles as varied as: VP Global Infrastructure, Network and Telecom, Senior IT Manager Hosting Services, and Senior Manager Application Infrastructure Services at leading companies in the consumer services, automotive and professional services industries.
In addition to their broad technical expertise, the candidate had significant experience of leading enterprise architecture at global matrix organisations.
The candidate had a strong interest in the role on offer, being particularly attracted by the prospect of working in the healthcare industry and solving technical challenges around integration. This enthusiasm came across in the interviews, and the WBA stakeholders bought into their drive and passion.