highlights
Transforming Process Efficiency through Strategic Automation Leadership
As the IT leader for Estée Lauder's new Global Business Services (GBS) organization, I led a transformative initiative to introduce and scale process automation across the company. This project drove significant operational efficiencies and cost savings while showcasing my leadership in managing complex, innovative programs. Here's how I achieved over 400,000 annual hours of productivity and $9 million in savings.
I faced three significant challenges when bringing an Intelligent Automation COE to life and growing it for scale at the Estee Lauder Companies:
Balancing Immediate vs. Enterprise Needs
New Technology Stack and Ways of Working
Limited Investment due to COVID-19
While the GBS organization urgently needed process automation, there was an extensive need within the enterprise, requiring a scalable and strategic approach.
Implementing RPA was a significant challenge as it required building new systems and processes from scratch, with no prior experience within the company.
The pandemic severely restricted new incremental investments, necessitating cost-effective and self-sustaining solutions for process automation.
Innovative Leadership
Strategic Leadership
Capability Building
Strategic Relationships
Collaborative Leadership
- Promoted an inclusive culture by integrating automation efforts into the IA COE.
- Created a centralized portal for automation submission & discovery.
- Developed an ELC-tailored strategic roadmap.
- Established a central Intelligent Automation COE with dual roles in build and governance, balancing practicality with oversight.
- Lowered entry barriers by introducing a consumption-based pricing model.
- Established a steering committee with senior leaders, including the CFO.
- Built awareness and demand stakeholders via direct engagement.
- Empowered employees via a citizen developer program.
- Ensured scalability and cost efficiency by negotiating a vendor engagement model focused on value.
+
900
Citizen developers building 3k automations & evangelizing across ELC
8
Eight teams within the IA COE developing enterprise grade automationglobally
150
+
Automations delivered by the Intelligent Automation COE
$
9m
Direct bottom line savings to the enterprise across automations delivered by the global team
400k
annual productivity hours saved
