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L'Oréal Brazil Accelerates Digital Transformation With New Leadership

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L'Oréal's Brazil has hired a new chief digital officer (CDO) to drive internal and external innovation while continuing to develop a digital culture across the business.

The new CDO, Andrea Iorio, has joined the company's professional division last month from Tinder, where he served for nearly five years as Latin America head. The executive is leading a digital transformation strategy that covers the areas of e-commerce, marketing, analytics and digital branding.

Introduced four years ago, the digital leadership role is accountable for a multidisciplinary team that applies digital thinking to daily operational activities across the four core areas. This is carried out via an open innovation approach, so the combination of internal and external capabilities.

"The question for any company nowadays is no longer whether to implement a digital strategy or not, but rather how to implement such strategies," the executive told FORBES, in his first interview on the job.

"In that context, the CDO has a dual role: as well as bringing a technical vision about digital into the company, the role is also responsible for bringing a digital culture into the DNA of departments," he added.

Going digital-first

In 2019, Iorio will be using his experience driving digital success - Iorio grew Tinder's market in Brazil from virtually zero into the world's second largest market for the company  - to accelerate change, with projects aimed at increasing sales or operational efficiency.

Priorities include maximizing e-commerce results for the professional division, while improving brand positioning and engagement with salon owners and hair professionals through digital channels, such as the firm's beauty content portal.

To develop these initiatives, Iorio's intention is to also introduce a data-driven ecosystem, so that initiatives can be compared and based on metrics.

In addition, the CDO will lead an agenda of digital training for staff and supporting their development as the transformation progresses. "The expectation for the long-term is that L'Oréal will be able to have a seamless experience for all stages of the customer journey online and offline, so a fully integrated omnichannel experience," Iorio added.

"However, we want teams to adopt a digital-first mentality and not separate offline initiatives from online, since that division is progressively disappearing."

Technologies Iorio believes will gain traction and might be applicable to his plan for L'Oréal's professional division include artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and 3D printing.

"Those technologies are reaching greater maturity levels as well as transformational power within our market. We are also seeing [innovations] such as big data enabling companies to understand the profile and behavior of each consumer in detail and the sharing economy changing consumer behavior," the CDO said.

Augmented reality is another area where the division will continue to invest to build on the acquisition of Modiface, first company acquired by L'Oréal to support digital innovation. The firm has developed projects such as Style My Hair, an app using augmented reality to test hair colors prior to application.

Avoiding common mistakes

Adjusting to transformation pressures can be challenging for established organizations, so the executive will be drawing on his own experience - and blunders seen elsewhere - to lead the digital plan:

"There are many ways to structure digital transformation, and I have seen some common mistakes happening, such as the creation of small initiatives or independent [innovation] units within the company," Iorio pointed out, adding that such internal cells often struggle to extend their successes to the entire organization.

"The implementation of multiple experiments or independent digital projects within the organization is another mistake I have seen happening - this often generates inefficiencies and prevents initiatives to scale," he added.

Another common misconception Iorio observed in such strategies is the tendency to use of technology exclusively as a means to reduce costs and improve efficiency. "Even if [cost reduction through technology] is important, it is not the same as digital transformation."

But companies want bottomline results. In order to deliver tangible outcomes while keeping up with the pace of transformation, the CDO will need a great deal of ability to execute - fast.

"The uncertainties presented by digital transformation mean that in the short-term, the organization has the ability to quickly react to changes in the market or to consumer demands, while maintaining consistency regarding long-term objectives," Iorio said.

"For traditional companies, this is a challenge and at the same time, a huge opportunity for the professional division to reinvent itself, develop new skills in its teams and take advantage of everything that digital transformation can offer."