CASE: Walgreens Boots Alliance
One IT Services, VP and Directors
The Situation
Walgreens Boots Alliance wanted to create a Group IT Services function or ‘One-IT’ that served both the interests of Walgreens as well as the ‘International’ business of Walgreens Boots Alliance.
This entailed the IT infrastructure and services that were common to all the businesses that comprised WBA as a group. These services include: Network Services, End-User Computing, Data Centre Services, and other broader operational support services. None of these services were specific to the individual businesses and WBA were hoping to improve efficiency, reduce complexity, and lower costs by creating a distinct IT services business to serve the needs of all the international/non-US business divisions.
The Digital Board was retained to recruit three senior individuals to this new capability: A VP, One-IT to design and lead the function, and two Directors to sit beneath them: a Director, End User Computing and a Director, Connectivity & Networks.
The Opportunity
Throught their history, the companies that comprise WBA had been through a series of acquisitions, and after each one there had been an attempt to create a group IT services, but for different reasons each time the effort had been paused. Due to these efforts, there were some common services in place, but this was the first time that WBA in its existing form had attempted to create a One-IT division. WBA wanted to bring the various attempts that had been made at common services into a single integrated area of leadership. Their plan was to create one Group Services division for Walgreens in the US and another division to service their international businesses outside of the US. The international division that we were working with involved a significant cluster of businesses (about $40b turnover) comprising Boots (UK & Ireland), Alliance Healthcare, Global Brands, and International Retail.
The VP was set to spend some time initially surveying the businesses, assessing their IT capabilities and deciding what was needed to create an efficient and cost-effective IT services group. After defining the strategy, this role would be about driving the implementation. The VP would work closely with the CIOs of the business as well as a number of the senior executives of the individual businesses.
The Director, End User Computing would be responsible for identifying, developing and deploying global end-user technologies. This included developing strategies and roadmaps as well as analysing, developing, recommending and forecasting global end-user experiences for both customers and employees. The Director, Connectivity & Networks would similarly ensure the Connectivity organization was securely, predictably and measurably delivering resilient and scalable/elastic technology infrastructure & services for all users. Both directors would oversee considerable change management from local/ divisional activities to a global strategy and set-up.
What made this interesting?
This search involved the setup of an entirely new division and the task of filling out its three most senior roles really made this search unique. We had to look for individuals who would work effectively in the WBA environment, but we also had to consider how well they would be able to influence some senior (and at times) resistant stakeholders to giving up control of some of their IT capability.
Each role also required a very specific set of skills- in addition to having a firm grounding in their specific areas, all three needed to have strong change management and integration capabilities. Moreover, they needed to be well-equipped to operate effectively in WBA’s distinctive matrix set-up. The role required substantial empathy to communicate well with the various stakeholders and understand how the consolidation that they were driving would affect their end-user experiences.
What made this challenging?
Taking on three hires at once was testing. We agreed to slightly stagger the roles so that we could hire the VP first and have them involved in the process of recruiting the two directors below them.
The search was also complicated by the appointment of the VP of the Walgreens One-IT division in the US who was actually appointed to lead this effort globally. This occurred midway through our search and impacted WBA’s plans for the international businesses division. The VP and directors of the international businesses division would now also report to the new VP in Chicago as part of a vision to merge the two divisions into a global One-IT function in a couple of years time. These changes meant that the new US VP would also become a stakeholder involved in the hiring process, whilst the exact remit of our roles was also altered by the expectation to move towards a global division.
The Digital Board Process
We began the process by speaking to key stakeholders at WBA and gaining a thorough understanding of the roles and the kind of individuals they were looking for.
For the VP, we highlighted the following attributes as essential:
A GM level operator- someone who operates with a business mindset, yet has the combination of large scale, complex programme management skills combined with a depth of expertise across a wide range of IT Services domains
A good strategic IT leader- someone who has probably come up through a technical area, such as End-User Computing, and progressively taken over responsibility for multiple IT areas, is a good ‘big picture’ thinker, a good explainer and good manager, who will be able to survey the IT landscape, then design a strategy for common services.
Excellent communication skills- to work effectively with divisional CIOs and manage key stakeholders including internal and external partners.
And for the directors, we focused on these attributes:
Relevant project experience with large-scale end-user computing platforms, applications, automation and end user services implementations / deployment and management of large enterprise networks, network services, connectivity services, and enterprise management systems.
Ability to manage large global programs from idea inception to delivery in collaboration with external vendors.
Proven change management experience and expertise at large federated companies.
Our research team then identified over 50 potential candidates for each role, soliciting interest and assessing initial fit.
We then began the first stage of qualifications, holding 45-minute calls with a number of candidates, concentrating on: (1) reasons for interest, (2) fit to brief, (3) key achievements, (4) culture alignment and beyond.
Candidates were then formally interviewed by The Digital Board, with a few eventually being shortlisted for each role.
Throughout the process, our research team continued to identify backup candidates whilst the interviews were being conducted.
Success Story
The Digital Board provided successful candidates for all three roles.
The successful VP candidate had excellent experience, having created comparable One-IT functions at leading telecommunications and airline companies with their own complex matrix set-ups. The client warmed to the candidate for their passionate, can-do attitude and their enthusiasm to take on the challenging role.
The Director, End User Computing also boasted impressive relevant experience from a long spell at a major multinational pharmaceutical company, where they had been responsible for running the global technology services and driven considerable change. Likewise, the candidate hired as the Director, Connectivity & Networks had outstanding transferable experience from leading supermarket retail, automotive and pharmaceutical companies, where they had also overseen significant transformation initiatives.