CONVERSATIONS WITH CHANGEMAKERS - MERCEDES VIDAL LOBATO - GLOBAL IT, DIGITAL & COMMERCIAL EXPERT
Conversations with Changemakers….
Harveen Gill interviews….
My short monthly interview sessions focus on an individual who is known to me, has a connection to retail and whom I personally admire. In August I am delighted to shine the spotlight on Mercedes Vidal Lobato.
Introduction.
One of the “silver linings” in the global pandemic is the fact that we are all having conversations with individuals who we would not have met in the normal course of business. I connected with Mercedes some months ago through linkedin and have since enjoyed a number of conversations.
Customer obsessed, Mercedes has developed a combination of deep IT, digital and commercial expertise. Spending 18 years at Ikea, during which time the number of stores doubled, followed by a stint at Clarks, Mercedes is now highly sought after as an Advisor, NED and Speaker.
What is your current role / expertise and how did you secure this?
I was born in Spain and then moved between Spain and Sweden many years ago. I now live in Sweden. My father had a deep love of technology, he had a “big brick” calculator when they were first introduced, as a child I was fascinated by the 8 segment display. He purchased his first computer when I was 12 years old, and encouraged me to learn basic programming. This encouraged my love of IT and led me into this profession. I held the role of IT Director at a factory as a very young women and was inspired by the understanding of customers and how to build business tech solutions that were actually useful for customers.
I moved to Sweden n 1994 for love! My first role in Sweden was Director of IT at Ericsson. I was employee no 202, however there were many thousands of employees when I left 6 years later. It was an incredible time for the mobile phone industry. My father had been involved with the marine sector, I then joined an organisation in this sector building a marine market place– and this time was employee no 2 as Technical Director!
I joined Ikea in 2002. My career at Ikea began in IT as Chief Architect, I was responsible for the entire IT landscape application roadmap, there was much growth, many changes and hugely exciting. I had a pivotal moment in 2008, I had the opportunity to move to the retail side of the business. Working with an internal team and external Consultants, my role was to define and steer the global retail business development agenda, business processes and budgets across global communication, marketing and sales channels.
In 2011 I had the opportunity to participate in a huge business transformation, the multichannel program. My role was to lead and develop IKEA´s digital capabilities including IKEA.com, from an electronic catalogue to a transactional global Omnichannel platform serving customer in 42 countries and creating a new customer experience.
IKEA has a very strong vision and is a value driven company with meaningful purpose and soul. It was a huge privilege to be part of this brand for so many years.
After 18 years at Ikea, I rested – but only briefly and took the role of Digital Director at Clarks. It was great to experience work in the UK and in another product category as part of disrupting myself with the purpose to develop.
What / Who has been important to you in your career?
Many individuals have impressed in me values such as integrity and humility. As Chief Digital Officer at Ikea, the importance of communication was key. My background lay in IT, this had a “different language”, I realised that effective communication skills can explain difficult things in an easy way. Brand of course speaks through everything in a company, Ikea was the master in this.
My father developed my curiosity and passion for technology, my Mother developed my love of all things Spanish and connected to the home.
Can you pinpoint the most significant steps in your career?
Firstly, when I left IT and moved into the retail part of business at Ikea and secondly when I took responsibility for Ikea.com.
All of my roles have reinforced that solving problems and communicating to customers is the most important task - as sometimes it is easy to forget the purpose of what we are trying to do.
How do you think our industry will change given the global pandemic?
Like everybody, I am intrigued to see how our industry evolves…..
I believe life is very precious, health will be a top priority. Retail will focus on how we help consumers become physically and mentally healthy. This will play into the fact that resources are limited and we will have to make choices. Consumption will not be the same, communities will evolve and hopefully define better values.
Who do you admire and why?
There are many world leaders I admire, however Hans Rosling was a Swedish physician, who I was privileged to meet. He was the Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer software system. Hans was a collaborator with Ikea and helped to reinforce my belief of the complex should be understandable. He has influenced leaders from Melinda Gates to Fidel Castro, he was on a mission to save people from their preconceived ideas.
What advice would you offer to an individual wanting to secure a retail career?
Become obsessed with your customer more than the product, the product can be amazing but it needs to solve a desire / issue for your customer. The rest will just happen…..
Share a Secret.
I have a passion for flamenco dancing! It takes me back to Spain and my roots – a country that I love. I was missing my home country and took up this hobby 8 years ago.
Harveen Gill
MD, HGA Group
Aug 2020