Leadership Initiatives

• Built shared services organization providing technology services to...
• Introduced new cost recovery and financial management model for...
• Innovated and built highly effective, profitable, and..
• Created high-performing, cohesive IT organization that successfully...

Built shared services organization providing technology services to more than 100 unique lines of business.

Managed strategies and action plan to create the new SSC organization and encourage adoption across a diverse range of brands (distinct business units). Drew on exceptional ability to establish trust and credibility to gain buy-in for this radical change in IT service delivery. Cultivated lasting business relationships, demonstrated strong business competence, unified teams under a common vision and purpose, and executed with consistency.

Results: Enabled the company to exploit economies of scale that contributed to reducing IT spend a minimum of 10% year-over-year, trimming complex application portfolio from over 1,200 solutions to fewer than 400, and save more $150 million in the last 4 years. Provided a significant competitive advantage by enabling smooth on-boarding of M&A acquisitions in a rapidly consolidating industry.

Insights: Deploying shared services is never easy, and this case was further complicated by the sheer volume of unique brands being unified in an industry that prides itself on individuality, uniqueness, and differentiation. My ability to yield financial and performance results in this area is truly unrivaled.

"Shared services is an integral and important part of the Publicis Groupe strategy. Our ability to lead the industry in optimizing finance, administration, and technology have helped us create, and ultimately exploit, several advantages over our competition; without question, our margins are among the best in the industry and our ability to acquire and integrate new businesses is unparalleled. To say that Christian has been instrumental in achieving these capabilities would be an understatement. He has effectively led the IT organization in a manner that has allowed us to not just achieve the aforementioned results, but to do so while improving the shared service center’s relationships with its many constituents. A truly remarkable accomplishment."
- John Betley, Chief Executive Officer, Sources Americas (Shared Services Division of Publicis Groupe)

Introduced new cost recovery and financial management model for IT investments.

Developed and implemented new model that created business transparency for investments and provided strong focus on business value. Achieved 100% of projects classified as investments and presented to brand leadership and governance committees for sponsorship. Implemented process discipline and rigor in financial, program, and project management.

Results: Shifted technology spend tilt from utility focus to innovation and market differentiation with 14% increase in percentage of budget allocated to value-add solutions and new development in 18 months. Also increased project success from under 50% to over 90% in just 6 months.

Insights: Shifting from a commodity IT focus to one increasingly fixated on business value is the definition of success for any CIO. To achieve this shift, I combined a fundamental understanding of the business, its needs, goals, and challenges with skill in communicating to a business audience the value of IT in fulfilling stated business strategies. This enabled me to create trust, credibility, and technology advocates across all lines of business.

"While serving as guide and advisor to Christian Anschuetz and Publicis over the last 3 years, I have witnessed great and important changes within the business’ technology organization. It has transformed itself from a ‘black box’, secular IT organization that provided unclear business benefit, to one that is fully transparent and capable of demonstrating its value with each of the many services it provides. Today the many and varied brands that IT supports understand what they get from technology, why it is important, and the cost it takes to deliver. This transparency has resulted in vastly improved decision making where funds are siphoned from services that provide lesser returns to those that contribute to quantifiable top and bottom line improvement."
- Steve Weber, VP, Executive Partner, Gartner, Inc.

Innovated and built highly effective, profitable, and market-differentiating technology solutions.

Leveraged knowledge of the business, industry, and technology capabilities to identify, strategize, and lead development of technology solutions that provided substantial operating and competitive advantages.

Results: Representative IT innovations include: 1) project portfolio management application which immediately reduced agency working capital costs by approximately 30%; 2) media analytics – market transforming application resold to clients at 25% margin which provided unprecedented competitive analysis capabilities and was specified as the differentiating service capability in being awarded two major client contracts in 2007; 3) patented media television buy versus actual aired application which revolutionized the matching process resulting in over 40% efficiency gain within media accounts payable department; and 4) agency supply chain solution that digitized workflow, thus reducing print production costs 64% for Groupe’s largest client (P&G).

Insights: These are examples of the intersection of business, industry, and technical knowledge. By being able to translate these opportunities into business terms with quantifiable ROI, I “sold” these solutions to key business decision-makers. This was also proof of my ability to deliver top- and bottom-line business value in an extremely tough, competitive industry typically perceived as a late-adopter from an IT investment and capability perspective.

"Technology has become core to our business, and today it drives unparalleled efficiencies that bring measurable value to our clients. It is because of the “business first” IT organization that Christian has created that we have achieved many of our best and most recent advances. From the implementation of a supply chain solution that digitized workflow and reduced print production costs over 60% for the Groupe’s largest client, to championing a portfolio management process that will allow Leo to make optimal use of its resources, technology has never been more important to our continued success. Under Christian’s leadership the partnership with IT has never been stronger, and our business is better for it."
- Tom Dudreck, Chief Operating Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide

Created high-performing, cohesive IT organization that successfully attracted and retained star talent.

Provided clarity of vision and action to design a highly desirable team environment. Specific strategies included clear alignment of objectives/performance/rewards, competency-based career paths, performance management programs, personal performance and skills growth plans, and associate/peer-driven reward mechanisms.

Results: Reduced attrition from 25% per year to less than 10% currently. Additionally resulted in an IT organization that consistently delivered superlative results for the business.

Insights: Building a high performance organization and reducing chronic attrition are notable accomplishments. Even more important as a CIO, is the rare ability to establish a business-focused IT team that becomes an advocate for the needs of the business.

"Under Christian’s leadership, Publicis Groupe created its highest performing technology team in its history. Quality of the associate base increased dramatically and the team became a truly cohesive organization.  By implementing effective performance management, competency-based career paths, and numerous other tools, Publicis “raised the bar” for its associates.  The result – providing quality services and a strategic partnership with the business units to leverage technology as a competitive advantage, and not just a utility."

"Christian is an energetic, passionate leader and one of the few IT executives I have worked with that can perfectly balance the ever-increasing demands of the business and the overall technology strategy, while at the same time empowering the work force to achieve uncommon results."

- Brian Wolf, Vice President, Human Resources, The Northern Trust Company (Former VP of HR, Publicis Groupe)