Since joining Essilor in 2014, CIO Greg Ericson has helped transform the IT organization from a traditional back office group to one that plays a key role in generating commercial value for the ophthalmic optics and visual health company. "Our brand of IT service is focused on ensuring we have a strong innovation investment with my colleagues to support new digital opportunities," said Ericson, whose team has helped generate revenue for the company by optimizing its frame and lens channel.
For his work, Ericson was recently awarded the Dallas CIO of the Year Award in the global category from the Dallas CIO Leadership Association. In this interview, we asked Ericson to share details on his team's revenue-generating projects, the importance of connecting the company's mission to IT, and more.
The Enterprisers Project (TEP): You helped generate revenue by optimizing Essilor’s frame & lens channel, as well as creating several new products. Can you give a brief overview of how your IT organization came to realize these opportunities could pay off?
Ericson: As a leadership team, we partner with our customers to deliver the best consumer experience in the optical industry. One example is our Frame Dream program, which is targeting over $10 million in revenue in 2018. We partnered with our Chief Strategy Officer to start the program, which fundamentally transforms the optical buying experience by carrying a broad frame assortment in our optical lab. By keeping the frame assortment in our lab, we significantly impact the time to serve the consumer because we are not waiting to receive the frame from the Optical shop. It also reduces the cost of inventory typically carried in the Optical location.
We launched the program with the IT Digital Innovation Center in four weeks, and we are now serving over 1,000 locations. The Frame Dream program is an example of excellent cross functional partnership between business units, operations, and IT.
TEP: A constant piece of advice IT leaders are given when it comes to recruiting and retaining their talent is making sure employees see how their work connects to the broader company mission. How have you done this in your organization?
Ericson: Through our active CIO council, our team is actively involved with Essilor Vision Foundation (EVF), as well as the community. For the past four years, we have adopted an elementary school in Farmers Branch where we have raised thousands of dollars to assist children with basic school needs. We have team members who regularly volunteer at EVF events. Most recently we had a team that volunteered time to build a new engagement portal for EVF. In four weeks, the new portal processed over 4,200 orders for children's glasses.
The foundation recently crossed a significant milestone by outfitting more than one million children who needed vision correction with glasses. These connections allow our staff to experience the impact our organization can have on people's lives.
TEP: Key to your transformation was the strong partnerships between you and your SVP of Strategy. How did you forge those relationships? What have you found to have been successful to allow for cross-functional collaboration between different teams in your organization?
Ericson: I have the honor to serve with a very talented and engaged executive team, making partnership easy. Underpinning our partnerships is a strong alignment with our mission, passion about the optical consumer experience and loyalty, alignment around vision, strategies, and investment.
We laid the foundation for great results by introducing and hosting ongoing cross-departmental quarterly hackathons. We launched our Digital Innovation Center, and we introduced commercial IT capabilities (product management, rapid prototyping, agile). Historically, our partners would go outside for innovation. So we worked hard to demonstrate an ability to deliver innovative capabilities internally faster and in a more cost-effective way. And, we have fun along the way.
TEP: As a CIO, what is something that you hear people say that you wish they’d stop saying – your biggest pet peeve about a phrase or word or expression used in IT?
Ericson: My private pet peeve phrase is the phrase “IT is a support organization.” Although support is a key aspect of what we do, from a leadership perspective, we bring a business lens and focus on what’s possible, providing a perspective that allows us to shape solutions that delight our customers and consumers.
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