Borja is a senior executive with over 20 years’ experience in blue chip multinational companies in the consumer goods and fashion/retail industries. He has a proven track record in senior business roles both with national and global responsibility with successful performance results.
We spoke with Borja to understand more about why he enjoys working as an independent consultant and to describe his experience using Talmix.
Talmix project:
I was brought in to help accelerate international growth through strong marketing leadership. When I joined the company, I realised this was not what the company really needed. The biggest challenge was the fact that the strategy to achieve growth was unhealthy and not sustainable over time. It represented a huge threat as the overall firm KPIs were very positive, but with a like for like performance, it was in very bad shape and it was only a matter of time that growth would stop.
The marketing and business opportunity was to make a fashion company shift from a “design only” focus towards a “consumer” focus, a full company reorientation. The challenge was to educate the company owner (and in a second phase all key executive committee colleagues) into a new way of thinking, ensuring that everything was being filtered by the consumer's eyes, needs and desires. The result was the kick off of a full transformation plan to build a customer-centric vision. It meant defining consumer core targets for the company for the first time in history, new product architecture with consumer product wearing occasions in mind, new merchandise strategy to provide fresh offerings to the consumer every month, a new brand DNA project to update the brand heritage, a new brand image campaign to bring to life the new DNA, a new store model based on this new customer and new brand DNA, a deployment into our a loyalty program which was built from scratch and a new bonus system for the entire company including consumers goals.
What makes a project successful?
The kick off point to success in any project is to have a clear diagnose of the current situation. Only from there can you define your objectives and identify a solid strategy to reach them. But beyond what is it that needs to be done, in the end people and leadership are the key to everything where talent, teamwork and attitude make the greatest difference to bringing a project to success.
Most significant accomplishment:
I have had many different business challenges and successes, in different industries and in different countries, but in the end, what has been more rewarding is to provide strategic business added value to company founders in an executive role. Both at Pronovias and at Desigual, I have been able to become a key partner to the company owner. It all meant providing strong proposals that never existed before I joined the company. These proposals have meant the beginning of a new way to doing business, helping them prepare the organisation for further growth. Persistence, putting strong pressure on their beliefs, flexibility, and patience have been instrumental to achieve these goals.
Best bits of being on the Talmix network?
Freedom of being independent and to choose the projects and the freedom to provide your recommendation without hidden agendas. Working as an independent consultant lets you work with so many great professionals from all different industries with a mix of skillsets. I also feel more ownership of a project when I get to choose what I am doing, in a traditional consulting firm you are assigned to projects whether you have an interest in them or not. Being able to choose your project means you work on things you are passionate about and want to give you full 100% attention to.
Why work with an independent consultant?
Companies get consultants with solid experience from who have the specific knowledge and skillset needed. It also allows the business more flexibility to kick off, accelerate or finish a project on their own time. It is also much more agile, projects can be completed quick without the internal politics and more efficient in comparison to a traditional consulting firm bringing in the same set way they run projects.
