IT Integration

The very basis of competitive advantage in the consumer goods industry is shifting. The next wave of breakout winners are building and leveraging capabilities rooted in analytics and actionable insights.

While maximizing ROI remains the most sought-after number for business leaders, Chief Information Officers (CIO), especially in the consumer goods industry, are experiencing an interesting paradigm shift.

L'Oreal Uruguay needed to modernize its IT environment to provide a secure and cloud-ready infrastructure that would be capable of meeting the company's business growth strategy.

At the end of the day, manufacturing a consumer product comes down to selling, servicing and delivering.What product? How many units? Shipped by when? Which customers? On which terms? These are the kinds of questions that producers of consumer goods are generally expected to address on a more or less real-time basis.

As we enter the second half of the year, the editors of CGT revisited the headiness that you read most. What do they tell us? You love a good list, especially if it predicts consumer trends OR ranks competitive products. Let us know what you think of these articles in retrospect. Did market predictions made ring true? Do the leading products still lead? Did key consumer trends take off or taper off? And what do you expect in the second half of 2013?

This facility will play a key role in developing the talent to lead Unilever, as it aims to double the size of the business, while halving its environmental impact and increasing its positive social impact.

The new VP and CIO replaces Barry Libenson who left the company earlier this month.

Lawrence Kurzius will also have the responsibility for several of the company's corporate functions, including IT, Supply Chain, R&D and Quality Assurance.