A Sales Tech Ecosystem That Scaled to Ten Markets
Initial France + UK deployment scaled by the client to 10+ additional markets without redesign.
Theme Strategy, Vision & Transformation · Also Scaling
In brief
Situation. The international division of a Fortune 500 food multinational, based in London, wanted to start its digital transformation. Performance monitoring across multiple national markets was fragmented; decisions were made on lagging, inconsistent data.
Complication. Building a single data and analytics framework that worked across multiple national markets, each with its own quirks of distribution and consumer behaviour, was the kind of project that often dies a death by committee.
Resolution. I led the implementation across three blocks. (1) Cloud-based data infrastructure on Microsoft Azure and Databricks, with full ingestion-to-storage pipelines. (2) Data products to support decision-making and automate digital transactions: algorithms and analytical tools to improve operational efficiency and strategic insight. (3) Change management and data culture: mapping business processes to identify where data could move KPIs.
Impact. Successfully deployed in France and the UK first, demonstrating effectiveness. Subsequently scaled by the client to over ten additional markets, the strongest possible signal that the model worked.
The longer story
The single best signal in consulting is not the testimonial. It is the second purchase. When a client takes the thing you built and rolls it out to ten more places without asking you to come back and re-design it, you have built something durable.
We built the first version for two markets, France and the UK, and we built it deliberately portable. Every assumption that was country-specific was made explicit. Every assumption that was universal was hard-coded. The result is that the client’s own teams could take the framework into Germany, Italy, Brazil, and seven other markets, plug in local data, and have it work.
The lesson generalises. If you find yourself building something for a multinational, ask continuously: “would this work in a country I have never visited?” If the answer is no, you are building a project. If the answer is yes, you are building a product. Products survive; projects do not.