Resetting global digital and technology across 50+ markets

At a glance

• Organisation: Avon, then part of Natura &Co
• Sector: Global beauty and personal care, with a direct-selling model
• Scope: More than 50 markets, spanning diverse cultures and regulatory environments
• Role: Global Head of Digital Technology, CX & Innovation, January 2022 to January 2024
• Remit: Global digital commerce, customer experience, representative-facing platforms, ecommerce, mobile applications and CRM; global estate consolidation; operating model, sourcing and governance

Mandate and context

Avon's business runs on relationship selling across scores of markets, each with its own commerce, customer expectations, regulation and inherited technology. Over time the digital and technology estate had fragmented, delivered market by market on a demand-led basis. The consequence was duplicated cost, inconsistent customer and representative experience, and limited executive visibility of where investment went or what it returned.

The mandate covered both halves of the problem: what the estate should become, and how it should be built and run. That meant setting a technology destination capable of serving commerce, CRM and customer and representative-facing capability globally, and then reshaping the operating model, sourcing and governance that would deliver and sustain it.

Role, authority and accountability

James led global digital technology, customer experience and innovation across more than 50 markets, accountable for digital commerce, ecommerce, mobile applications, CRM and representative-facing platforms, and for the product and technology change beneath them. He was the senior interface between executive leadership, global business units and strategic technology partners.

He owned the target architecture direction and roadmap, the sourcing strategy, service-package design, governance, commercial terms, transition and run-state control, together with technology cost transparency, executive and Board visibility, and stakeholder alignment across the market footprint.

Intervention and critical decisions

A single shared foundation for a fragmented estate. James created the strategy and roadmap to migrate Avon's fragmented global technology estate onto a single shared Salesforce ecosystem. The intent was to remove duplication and establish a common global foundation for commerce, CRM, integration and customer and representative-facing capability, with Salesforce and MuleSoft as core strategic partners in that direction. This established the technology destination before any question of who would deliver it.

A value-stream, product-led model. The operating model moved from demand-led, market-by-market delivery toward value streams organised around products and customer outcomes, giving global capability a coherent shape rather than a queue of local requests.

Sourcing designed around the model. James designed the target operating model, service packages, retained accountabilities, governance and the commercial boundary between Avon and Infosys. Delivery and operational responsibility for IT transitioned to the partner, while a materially leaner retained organisation remained focused predominantly on vendor and service management. Delivery of the Salesforce ecosystem roadmap became one of the defined work packages within that arrangement — executed by the partner against a direction Avon had already set.

Governance and cost transparency. He strengthened technology cost transparency and executive visibility of investment and delivery performance, giving leadership a dependable picture of where money was committed and what it returned — the basis for governance that holds over time rather than a one-off saving.

Alignment across markets. With more than 50 markets affected, aligning transformation priorities across business units and regions was led as a senior discipline in its own right, not left to the programme.

Outcomes

• A defined global destination for the estate: a single shared Salesforce ecosystem for commerce, CRM, integration and customer and representative-facing capability.
• A redesigned operating model with clear service packages, retained accountabilities, governance and commercial boundary.
• Approximately $15m of OPEX reduction delivered within six months under the new model.
• A materially leaner retained organisation focused predominantly on vendor and service management.
• Improved technology cost transparency and executive and Board visibility of investment and delivery performance.
• A modernisation path away from fragmented legacy platforms, with Salesforce and MuleSoft as strategic partners.

Where this experience applies

• Global estate consolidation, setting a credible technology destination and roadmap for a business whose technology has fragmented market by market.
• Sourcing and operating-model design, including service packages, governance, commercial boundary and the transition to a controlled run-state.
• Restoring executive control of technology investment, with the cost transparency and reporting a Board or investor requires.

Closing perspective

Transformation on this scale is an operating-model problem with technology as its most visible expression. Avon shows both halves handled together: a clear global destination for the estate, and a sourcing and governance model capable of delivering it across more than 50 markets — with executive leadership gaining materially clearer visibility of where technology investment was committed and why.