CIO interview – Jawaz Illavia tailors the data fabric for PZ Cussons – diginomica

PZ Cussons is an early adopter of the new Fabric data platform from Microsoft, and as its CIO, Jawaz Illavia tells us, the technology fits comfortably with a new team and strategy that has been shaped by the growth mindset of team members and the organisation. The London Stock Exchange-listed consumer goods company has been busy refocusing its operations into three core areas and the new data technologies are part of that clean focus. 
PZ Cussons focuses on the UK, Indonesia, Africa and Australia. Since CEO Jonathan Myers took the helm in 2020, stepping up from a COO role at beauty firm Avon, he has worked with the Board and leadership team to move from a trading mindset to brand-building. Complexity has been reduced with three core categories: baby, beauty, and hygiene. The firm is best known for its brands Carex, Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh and Radiant dishwashing products, St.Tropez tanning brand, Sanctuary beauty products, and many more. Competing against global giants such as Unilever of the Netherlands, P&G of the USA, and the UK’s Reckitt, PZ Cussons is described by the CIO as a ’big small company’. 
Illavia, who has previously worked at Reckitt, sees the size of the business as an advantage. With 2,600 staff, it can often be easier to execute change:
By looking at it as a ‘big small company’ it reframes how you look at problems. Yes, we don’t have the economics of scale, but that means we can and have to think differently. The challenge is to hire people that are strategic, but will also roll their sleeves up, so you don’t want to always hire from the traditional big companies. We have had to pay a lot of attention to the growth mindset of our hires.
Illavia joined PZ Cussons from Walgreens Boots Alliance, the pharmacy retail chain, in 2023: 
I was brought in to help create the digital vision and strategy and said we have to start with the data.
It is a story that mirrors his career at Danish brewing giant Carlsberg, between 2017 and 2020. At both organizations, he has found enthusiasm for digital methods but a need for data modernization in order to create long-term success. This is of particular importance as organizations look to adopt AI. He says: 
Gartner calls it AI-ready data, and that has been one of the principles. If we are going to have a data strategy to underpin the digital strategy, what platforms do you use, and what approaches? Most companies have data issues, and they have been saying this for the last 15 years. 
For PZ, I didn’t want to build a big data team, but a small, really smart team with a growth mindset. I hire people with a mindset of ‘can you create from nothing?’ So you have to define what you need really carefully.
For many, the absence of a data platform would have been an issue, but Illavia saw this as an opportunity. The business has a single enterprise-wide, cloud-based instance of SAP ERP; it just hadn’t developed a data culture and, therefore, utilized the latest generation of data tools. He says: 
We didn’t have a shared data platform other than what sat in SAP and other applications, so we were not making use of joined-up data.
Having spun up a small data team, Illavia needed a data platform and decided to use the strong relationship PZ Cussons has with Microsoft to be a very early adopter of its Fabric data analytics platform, as well as Azure Databricks. Illavia picks the story up: 
We did a very rapid one-week exercise to stand the platform up, move the data into it, and develop the first use case, which was in the Revenue Growth Management area.
As Fabric was so new on the block, PZ Cussons couldn’t validate the technology with other users, but given the business case of their project, they were able to get Microsoft to invest and put the firm on the customer board, he says: 
This means we punch above our weight and get access to Microsoft’s product team as a result. We are a Microsoft ecosystem, so it connects well to the tools that everybody in the business uses.
The first use case for the data platform is Revenue Growth Management, a key subject for consumer goods firms and decision-making on pricing, pack size, and promotions. Illavia explains: 
Can we use data to make products the consumer really wants? Can you use data to influence the retailer in where they put your products on the shelves? Can you understand what promotions to run? What works best, and at what time of year? 
A lot of CPG firms use a spray and pray method, but with data, you can be targeted based on real facts and drive decision-making.
The data platform quickly informed the sales and marketing teams of PZ Cussons and led the firm to cancel some data service subscriptions as they could unearth the insights in-house, Illavia says: 
The data firms have a subset where you cannot connect to other data sets as part of the terms and conditions, so it is a data silo.
Looking ahead, Illavia says one lesson from his previous roles is to ensure that each subsequent project builds on the previous iteration; he says:
You need to be very conscious of what you have already done and build on that so that you build scale and momentum. It is not about who shouts the loudest.
With the data platform and strategy in place, the digital transformation of PZ Cussons can now begin, the CIO says. While companies over the years have struggled to define what digital is for them, with the categories and markets that PZ Cussons operates in, the real opportunity for digital is to use data for decision-making, research and development and retail partnering to become what the market calls category captains. In essence, digital and data will enable the firm to do things faster, better, and more efficiently. 
New data technologies are important, and we will watch the development of Fabric with interest. However, as this story shows, for organizations to succeed it is about the people and process first and foremostly, then the technology. It has always been thus. 
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