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How Suntory Achieved a "No-Heroics" Salesforce Pilot in Seoul
A case study in delivering complex enterprise software implementations through disciplined execution and transparent processes.
Challenge
Deliver a Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud pilot on-site in Seoul, aligning business, IT, and implementation partner Wipro across different environments and dependencies to avoid a high-pressure, chaotic launch.
Solution
Implemented a rigorous "delivery without theater" operating kit, including a public milestone board with one-line owners, a 48-hour decision SLA, a single change gate for late ideas, and a pre-tested rollback drill.
Outcome
The project achieved a calm, predictable cutover. Key signals of success included fewer blocked milestones, faster decision-making, and the quiet confidence that came from having a plan that could survive contact with reality.
The Challenge: Aligning Three Teams for a High-Stakes Pilot
In March 2024, the mandate for Suntory in Seoul was to deliver a Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud pilot. The core challenge was orchestrating three distinct groups—the business, internal IT, and the offshore SI, Wipro—to ensure that scope, data, integrations, and environments were aligned for a smooth go-live.
The goal was to avoid the last-minute heroics and high stress that plague complex launches. This required moving beyond traditional project management approaches to create a system that could handle the complexity of multiple stakeholders, time zones, and technical dependencies.
Business Stakeholders
Local Seoul team with deep market knowledge and specific requirements for consumer goods operations in the Korean market.
Internal IT
Suntory's global IT organization responsible for infrastructure, security, and integration with existing enterprise systems.
Wipro Implementation
Offshore systems integrator bringing Salesforce expertise and implementation methodology from their global delivery centers.
The Solution: An Operating Kit for Legible Delivery
Instead of relying on meetings and goodwill, I installed a set of durable, visible rules that made promises legible and costs clear. This approach transformed how the three teams collaborated and made decisions throughout the implementation.
Transparency Over Politics
Every decision, dependency, and blocker was made visible to all stakeholders. No back-channel negotiations or hidden agendas could derail progress.
Accountability Through Ownership
Each milestone had a single named owner, eliminating the diffusion of responsibility that often plagues multi-team projects.
Speed Through Structure
Clear processes and SLAs meant decisions happened quickly and predictably, rather than getting lost in endless discussion cycles.
"The operating kit wasn't about control—it was about creating a shared language for delivery that all three teams could understand and trust."
The Operating Kit Components
The operating kit included five key components that worked together to create a predictable, transparent delivery process:
01
Public Milestone Board
Every major task had a single, named owner, reviewed where everyone could see it. This eliminated confusion about who was responsible for what and when.
02
Visible Dependency Aging
Any task "waiting" for more than a few days was flagged, forcing a decision or a new plan—no items were left in limbo indefinitely.
03
Hard 48-Hour Decision SLA
If a decision was needed, it had 48 hours to be resolved or it was given a mandatory slot on the next steering call.
04
Single Change Gate
All late ideas or requests had to come through a single, visible door; back-channel requests were ignored completely.
05
Pre-Tested Rollback Drill
The cutover plan included a rollback path that was fully tested before it was ever needed, not just documented in slides.

Critical Moment: A key moment came when a critical engineer had a medical emergency during UAT. The offshore manager pushed to continue, but I made the call to delay 24 hours, putting the rule of "Health before haste" into practice as a scheduling decision. The Korean PM backed the decision, which bought trust and protected the cutover.
The Outcome: A Quiet Cutover and a Spine for Delivery
The project's success wasn't measured in applause, but in its absence of drama. Unlike typical enterprise software implementations that end in frantic all-nighters and heroic efforts, this pilot achieved something far more valuable: predictable, sustainable delivery.
0
Blocked Milestones
At cutover, compared to 12+ in previous implementations
18hrs
Median Decision Time
Down from 5+ days in traditional processes
100%
Data Checks Passed
All validation completed before pilot launch
The clearest signal of success was the calm in the project channels; the "Where is this?" pings stopped because the system provided the answers. Team members could focus on execution rather than status updates and escalations.
"We shipped quietly, leaving behind a decision cadence and a change gate that the teams could continue to use long after I was gone."
Lessons for Future Implementations
The Suntory Seoul pilot demonstrated that complex enterprise implementations don't have to end in chaos. The key is building systems that make work visible, decisions fast, and accountability clear.
Make Work Visible
Transparency eliminates the politics and confusion that derail projects. When everyone can see the same information, alignment becomes natural.
Speed Through Structure
Clear processes and SLAs don't slow things down—they eliminate the delays caused by unclear decision-making and ownership.
Plan for Reality
Testing rollback procedures and building in buffers for human factors like illness or emergencies creates resilient delivery.
The operating kit created for this pilot became a template that Suntory's teams continued to use for subsequent implementations across other markets. The investment in process discipline paid dividends far beyond the initial Seoul deployment.

This case study demonstrates that "no-heroics" delivery isn't about avoiding challenges—it's about building systems robust enough to handle them without drama or last-minute scrambling.