I became the lead of the European application development and support team, and installed a PMO to introduce a formalised tollgate process for development and deployment of any IT solution. Establishing formal processes always requires change management. Associates typically question the need for more formalised deliverables, but need to understand that this is to support the thinking process, allowing for calculated risk management instead of forcing deliverables for the sake of it. Just before I got appointed Europe Group CIO, I was Deployment Services Director for two years on a worldwide bottling programme. Th is was critical for me to gain bottler experience which I did not have so far. I have travelled around the world – Australia, China, the Philippines and South Africa – to drive process, data and system standards in a culturally very diverse environment. That was truly positively impacting my skills and experience to grow into my current role. I have always been a passionate and energetic person, typically satisfied when truly achieving something that drives the business forward. I would strongly encourage people that want to grow to focus on company interest versus personal interest – do the right things for the company and you will be rewarded – and, step out of your comfort zone to experience something totally new which is enriching and preparing you for the next step. Never be happy with what you have achieved, raise the bar for yourself and the people around you on a continuous basis. Th is is critical. What were your priorities when you became CIO last year? SE. IT globally was in the midst of a transformation when I started, and Europe had to contribute US$1.9 million savings – a key driver of this was the renegotiation of our technology and end user computing outsourcing contract. It included moving our outsourced IT service desk from Toronto to Manila and at the same time reducing the number of languages from six to one – English only. Also our outsource provider moved the back office monitoring activities mostly from Brussels to Voronezh in Russia. For the local presence in the 28 European locations to deal with end user computing incidents, we moved from a staff augmentation to service based contract. That all resulted in achieving the required savings. At the same time, big transformation programmes were run in Finance and HR that needed much of IT’s attention. Our team stepped up and started playing an ‘integrated planning’ role, not just planning IT but all business activities, and that across the different functions. Th is effort was, and is still highly, appreciated by our clients as it allows us to oversee the full impact of
the transformation and to manage the risks. In parallel, we need to prepare the team and its skills for moving from back office IT support to enabling the business to grow through IT enabled innovation in the areas of consumers, customers and bottlers. Another key focus was to build a strong relationship with senior management in Europe, and be included in their routines. It is important to be able to listen to our internal clients when they discuss their specific business challenges. From these discussions, I picked three areas for us to drive innovative change as to how IT can contribute to business growth including driving and executing a far advanced collaboration strategy. At the same time, we had to uplift the credibility of IT as an organisation. Due to restructurings, outsourcing and off-shoring, headcount was reduced by 80 percent over the past 10 years, the operating expenditure by 60 percent. I have made that picture clear to our management team and obtained the ‘go’ for increasing the investment in IT for the fi rst time in 10 years. Here at Coca-Cola we have a global IT environment. I had to learn to balance the global needs of globalising IT and fi nding synergy and cost savings with the local requirements of the business. It’s about managing expectations for both the business here in Europe and our IT counterparts in Atlanta [the Company’s headquarters].
Above: Sabine Everaet
How has the recession affected Coca-Cola Europe? Have budgets been cut and are you being expected to do more with less? SE. Even before the recession hit us, we had a mandate from our CEO to save US$500 million by different functions over three years – 2009 through to 2011. Therefore, we had initiated the transformation initiatives in IT, Finance and HR, as I mentioned before. Yes, on one hand we are doing more with less, we saved 40 percent on our technology and end user computing outsourcing contract. But as of 2010, I’m convincing the business in Europe and Global IT management to reinvest in IT, less into the back-office part but more to drive front office programmes and reinforce the business partnership. Do you think this tough period has given you the opportunity to be more innovative? SE. Yes, absolutely. There are different dimensions to innovation. On one hand, we look at it from an IT operat-
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