A global cosmetics manufacturer

Interim support to drive momentum on IT supply chain strategy

Our client is a global leader in prestige beauty, owning a number of powerhouse brands. 

The company’s executive team needed interim leadership in a key senior IT role to serve as the link between the IT and the supply chain parts of the business. This role would be responsible for developing a three-year IT supply chain strategy and transformation roadmap, whilst operating the global function on a day-to-day basis. 

They needed an interim IT supply chain leader who would be able to define a holistic strategy, as well as build a global team to deliver it. A key goal of the IT strategy would be inventory synchronization across the end-to-end network, maximizing inventory availability. This would ensure that the right product is available at the right time for omnichannel consumption, delivering premium and personalized consumer experiences. 

The executive team also wanted someone who could foster deeper business partnering and ways of working with the rest of the organization, ensuring the IT function would be more aligned and forward-looking.
Following a recommendation from another of our clients, the company reached out to Berkeley for help.

Applying strategic foresight and stakeholder engagement skills

One of our partners stepped into the interim position, bringing core consulting skills to the role, such as strategic foresight, stakeholder engagement, and clarity over business value. They were able to marry big picture thinking with a pragmatic approach – connecting the dots to build tangible and executable plans. Our partner supported the team to co-develop the strategic roadmap with the business to ensure alignment around value outcomes and delivery excellence.

By appointing someone with a consulting rather than industry background, the company was able to benefit from a different approach and mindset – one that complemented their internal capabilities. Our partner’s style of collaborative and strategic leadership helped the client team to build on their operational execution capabilities, complementing them with more forward-looking solutions to deliver value aligned to the business’ goals and ambitions. 

Successfully building a team to execute a global IT project portfolio

Our partner led a team of 60 people to execute a global portfolio of IT projects with a value in excess of $160 million.

They defined a three-year IT supply chain strategy which focused equally on the resilience and security of the supply chain infrastructure as much as leveraging innovation to deepen insights, deliver with excellence and continually improve to meet the company’s transformation ambitions.

The work will play a key role in supporting the company’s aspiration to grow its worth from $16 billion to $25 billion by 2025.