The Challenges & Triumphs of Change with Tony Costella

This month, I spoke to Heineken’s Tony Costella. Tony was previously Global Head of Insight. But 7 months ago, he changed roles to Global Commerce, AI & Performance Transformation Director. A role which has change at its core.

Hi Tony, please tell me about your new role.

My new role is about two things. 1) Transforming how we do commerce, sales and marketing so we’re more performance driven. 2) Using AI and other tools to make all our work processes more effective and efficient. With the emphasis being effective – i.e. performing better by being smarter.

How did you come to be in this role?

What I’m really doing is embedding insight into the decision-making process. This will mean every decision we make is based on our best possible understanding of the consumer, the market and uses the best practices. I was already driving some of that in my old role anyway, so this new position is an evolution of that.

How would you compare the level of change you’re trying to implement in this role vs. the level of change you’d aim to implement at the end of a research project?

I think for many years, Insights has focussed on making sure that our work is impactful. And we’ve done this by ensuring stakeholders action our recommendations. In doing so, what we often find is that “not having a seat at the boardroom table” prevents insights from having the level of impact we want. 

But now what I’m working on is a total transformation of the way we work. This will mean we can embed recommendations, best practices, and optimal solutions without needing to be “in the room”.

Does the larger scale of change you’re trying to implement (compared to ensuring recommendations are actioned) mean you now have more moving parts to your role?

Absolutely. I'm going to shamelessly steal from Reckitt’s Elaine Rodrigo who is on a similar journey and speaks about the 70/20/10 of big transformations.

10% is about the technology side. Which everyone is discussing. But technology alone isn’t enough. 20% is the data. Because to have the best technology, you need to have the best data to get the best answers. And 70% is the people and processes. Because today and for the foreseeable future, people make decisions. 

This means we need to bring people with us as we transform. We must help them understand what the technology can/can’t do. We need to teach them what their role in the future will be. All while getting them excited and ensuring they aren’t afraid about trying new things.  

Our transformation is a total process transformation. This means its remit goes beyond people in sales & marketing. It extends to our agency partners. And this means understanding how different systems communicate. 

And does this mean you’re dealing with more parts of the business than you did before?

Yes and no. Typically, Insights has always had a hub and spoke type role across sales, marketing, trade marketing and finance. But I’m now deepening my connections with the IT and technology side of the business. 

Resultantly, I'm learning much more of the language that IT and technology use. But I’m coming at it from the angle of “how can I make this understandable for commercial people?”, while helping the IT teams understand what’s needed from a commercial perspective. And in many ways, this is an extension of Insight’s bridging role between functions, as opposed to an entirely new skillset. 

Have you had any specific training on change management to help with this new role?

In Heineken, we use a couple of different change models. We also have a transformation office that focuses on the change process and an HPO (High Performing Organization) model.

This model helps us to think beyond having a vision for change. Because alongside a vision you need the right structures, rewards, technology and training. And if you don’t have one of these, creating transformation is hard.

You mentioned your HPO model. Is this a general one? Or a bespoke one Heineken have created?

It’s a general model which we’ve adapted for our business. Models are important because they force you to think about things you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

How much of a challenge is it for you and others to implement change and transformation as well as doing “the day job” such as projects?

It's a challenge. And we trying to separate operational teams (who focus on projects) and delivery teams (who focus on overall change). It's difficult to focus on both at the same time.

I think there’s a danger that if you’re too remote and only focusing on the change, then you risk losing touch with the reality of what the day role is. But to make a significant transformation, you need to create a team of people who are dedicated to making change happen. And who can ensure it happens at pace.

Do you think, as a sector, more generally, we could do more to help insight professionals understand the nature of change management?

Absolutely. In Insights we're at our best when we're changing the ways of working. Whether it be optimising media plans, or reshaping what goes into great advertising.  

But systemic change – rather than change on a project-by-project basis – requires a higher level of change management ability than actioning insights. And this involves skills which often aren’t taught, some of which are more broad capabilities than specific skills.

One phrase which people are mentioning a lot is “change fatigue”. How do you overcome this? If indeed it exists!

It absolutely exists. But there’s some simple things we can do. Like making change exciting, celebrating the people who are making that change, and making them the heroes of change, not the technology or process.

But I think what's often forgotten is that we need to make changes feel as light as possible. Often, we want to make big changes that are noticeable. But it’s the big changes that create change fatigue. This means there’s a trade-off between: 1) making a change feel sizeable and noticeable and 2) making it feel light and therefore easy.

My last question is; what advice would you give to a Head of CMI who was shifting to a role like your current one, as you did, based on your learnings from the last 7 months?  

Firstly, don’t be afraid. I'm not the world’s greatest technical expert by any stretch. I’ve learned lots in this area recently. And I can have a detailed technical conversation with IT. But being a technical expert isn’t my role. And people shouldn’t focus on being a technical expert. Instead, focus on being that bridge. On being able to translate commercial needs into something that the technical folks can understand

Secondly, just start trying things. The danger with big transformations is that you plot what you want the end point to be. Then you start working back to where you are now. And before you know it, you’ve spent months planning things on paper at the expense of making tangible progress.

What you should do is start building some things. Collaborate with outside partners where necessary to get momentum. Because it's only when you start building things that change starts to feel real and you’re able to start seeing what practical challenges you’re going to encounter. And in some cases, how much easier things are than you thought they might be.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.