CASE: Walgreens Boots Alliance
IT Director (Pharmaceutical Wholesale)
The Situation
We were asked to recruit an IT Director for the German pharmaceutical wholesale division of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Germany was a strategic and highly competitive market for WBA’s Wholesale operations business and maintaining growth and margin was extremely challenging due to a marketplace dominated by 5 key players. In response, WBA and McKesson agreed to create a German Wholesale Joint Venture. The business was set to be run by WBA in Germany, and we were asked to help recruit an IT Director to lead the venture.
The goals of the joint venture were to combine the strengths and resources of the two companies to create: an enhanced and more competitive service offering, more efficient distribution solutions and greater economies of scale, resulting in greater market share and margin improvement.
This was an exceptional opportunity for an experienced IT Director/CIO to integrate two IT organisations into a single entity, creating a new, modern IT organisation, transforming the culture, and reshaping the teams of these two market-leading companies in Germany.
The Opportunity
The role was set to sit as part of the Executive team, reporting to the CEO of the combined business. It was a highly challenging role responsible for transforming the culture from a traditional, reactive support function to one that was a true business partner to the newly integrated business.
The role holder would oversee the merging of the two business units, which was set to be a complex and challenging task. The size of the combined IT teams was around 100 people, but this team would need to be halved, involving a tremendous amount of careful planning and negotiation with the German works council.
Additionally, the systems used by both businesses were stable but outdated, and both lacked flexibility and agility. The successful candidate would need to prepare the IT department for a systems modernisation in the medium term. Digital transformation was also a significant goal post-integration - this required rebuilding the IT capability to improve digital skills as well as business analysis, project management, relationship management, and service operations.
What made this interesting?
The opportunity to work on an assignment for a business unit that was about to undergo a significant merger made this assignment stand out, especially as it was a joint venture involving two of the world’s leading companies in the pharmaceutical wholesale segment.
This was a very demanding role with a lot of complexity sitting underneath it, which made the project interesting as well as challenging.
What made this challenging?
We needed a very impressive candidate to fill this role, with a very specific set of skills and experiences, most notably in mergers & acquisitions and works council engagement.
Moreover, the location of the role proved to be a challenge. Germany has many vibrant and commercial major cities, and whilst this role was set in Frankfurt, which is a significant commercial hub itself, we found that many impressive candidates were unwilling to leave the other major German cities and relocate, which narrowed our talent-pool considerably.
The Digital Board Process
Our initial aim is always to set up as many stakeholder briefing calls as possible in order to develop a rounded understanding of the challenge and the profile we are looking for. Following these initial conversations, we brief our research team. Their process starts with defining our target list. In doing this, they needed to address a number of key elements:
Relevant industry experience- we needed to identify candidates with considerable supply chain/logistics experience to ensure a deep familiarity with the systems and processes they would be dealing with. Additionally, candidates needed to be accustomed to organisations of the scale and complexity of WBA and McKesson.
M&A and Works Council expertise- given the nature of the role, significant experience of managing mergers and acquisitions and working effectively with the works council was essential.
Change and Transformation experience- there were substantial plans to overhaul the systems and prepare the business for digital transformation following the integration, so the ideal candidate also needed experience of leading transformational IT change.
We developed a list of over 50 potential candidates, eventually reaching out to a number of them and holding initial calls to gauge their interest and suitability.
We then began the first stage of Digital Board qualifications, holding 45-minute calls with candidates in order to assess: (1) reasons for interest, (2) fit to brief, (3) key achievements, (4) culture alignment and beyond.
Candidates then progressed to formal interviews with Bryan (our CEO and Founder) who has been working with the Group leadership team of WBA for over 10 years. He conducted a deep-dive leadership and culture assessment, using our proprietary leadership diagnostic tool.
Throughout the whole process, our research team continued to work on generating new candidates just in case anything went wrong with our shortlist.
Success Story
The successful candidate was an excellent match, with significant supply chain expertise from time spent at three leading logistics organisations, experience of leading several mergers and integrations, and substantial team reduction and works council experience.
Moreover, they found the client’s situation familiar, having previously led IT transformations on both a technical level and a cultural one, to ensure that the department was partnering with the business effectively and delivering value.
The candidate was an effective communicator and a strong people leader, who was well-liked by their teams and known for improving team performance. They felt a strong connection with the client stakeholders during the interviews, and their leadership qualities likewise made an excellent impression on the stakeholders themselves.