(*) As a measure of confidentiality, the identity of the interim manager and the client are changed
1. BACKGROUND
We are in 2015 in Switzerland near Basel.
A manufacturer of innovative, high-quality color chemicals, the company has nearly 3,000 employees at 25 production sites in 35 countries. In 2014, the company was incorporated as a spin-off of CLARIANT. In particular, it has one year to structure its own information system. While the Application part is quickly migrated, the Infrastructure part has significant shortcomings and is not at all autonomous at the end of the one-year period. This undermines future plans for operations.
The company must react quickly to rectify the situation within the given deadlines, it takes the decision to leave its CIO immediately and to call on WAYDEN to urgently use an experienced Interim IT Department to restore the situation of autonomy vis-à-vis CLARIANT as soon as possible.
2. DISPOSITION
Very absorbed by this post-carve-out integration period, the Group’s HR Director only communicates to WAYDEN a very low level of information on the challenges of the mission.
Benoît DURAND-TISNES must call on his experience as a former director of a high-tech consulting group to quickly understand his expectations and find the right manager. However, he immediately thought of Paul KOFONET, a senior CIO specialising in crisis management, digital transformation and process optimisation. He is one of the best specialists in France in the operational turnaround of CIOs, of course in a good position in WAYDEN Sélection.
Focus on the Manager journey
A graduate of ESME and HEC Executives, Paul KOFONET stands out for his very dynamic career. Every two years, he changes companies to gradually move up in rank, going from Sales Director at ECONOCOM MAINTENANCE to General Manager at TELMA RETARDER USA and then Group Deputy CIO at LABINAL. In 2000, he took over the reins of AUTOMOTIVE MARKETPLACE, known for being the pioneer of the distribution of automotive spare parts on the Internet in France.
Paul KOFONET, then embarked on a long career as an interim manager where he successfully solved several large-scale missions in multi-cultural and multi-site environments. We remember in particular his time at INOPLAST during the acquisition by PLASTIC OMNIUM, and EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY to lead the digital transformation of the company.
3. MISSION
In close collaboration with the client’s CFO, Paul KOFONET deploys his operational expertise at 4 levels:
- Steering of the Information Department
- Finalization of the deployment of the infrastructure, in a global context (35 global sites, IT hub based in Barcelona….)
- Change management with multicultural teams
- Participation in the recruitment of the future Chief Information Officer and organization of the transfer of power
For its part, WAYDEN provides close monitoring to compensate for communication that has been undermined by the numerous trips of the interim manager (headquarters in Switzerland, IT Hub in Spain, 35 global entities to be aligned, etc.).
4. ASSESSMENT
After successfully stabilizing this IT crisis situation in less than 6 months, the client asked WAYDEN to organize and participate in the evaluations to identify and recruit the future CIO of the company.