Season 3 | Episode 7
Stepping Into an Omnichannel Future with Javier Castillo, Empresas ADOC
Join SugarCRM and Javier Castillo for Fuel Growth Podcast’s S3E7 and learn the importance of understanding and responding to customer needs to achieve omnichannel success.
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About the Episode
Javier Castillo is the CEO of Empresas ADOC, a leading Central American manufacturer and reseller of footwear and apparel. He has driven the company’s expansion and solidified its market presence through strategic innovation and operational excellence.
On this episode of Fuel Growth, we dive into the strategies behind Adoc’s omnichannel success, the importance of understanding and responding to customer needs, and how the company’s commitment to social responsibility changes lives.
Get the recap of this episode, or check out the site for more episodes, and information about the Fuel Growth podcast, brought to you by SugarCRM.
Guest
Javier Castillo CEO of Empresas ADOC
Javier Castillo is the CEO of Empresas ADOC, a leading Central American manufacturer and reseller of footwear and apparel. He has driven the company's expansion and solidified its market presence through strategic innovation and operational excellence. Under his leadership, Empresas ADOC has ventured into new markets and emphasized corporate social responsibility, actively engaging in community development and environmental sustainability. Known for his inclusive and forward-thinking leadership style, Javier is a respected figure in the business community, advocating for ethical practices and sustainable business development across the region.
Transcript
Clint Oram
Hi, this is Clint,
Lizzy Overlund
And this is Lizzy.
Clint Oram
Our guest today is Javier Castillo, CEO of Empresas ADOC, a leading manufacturer and reseller of shoes and clothing in Central America.
Lizzy Overlund
Javier is our first guest who's the CEO of a manufacturing company and CEO of a company based in Central America.
Clint Oram
Javier took over running the company in 2020 and is definitely driving change across the board. Customer-centricity across brick-and-mortar, online sales, marketplaces, and even WhatsApp are all part of how Javier is guiding his company into the future.
Lizzy Overlund
What's special about ADOC and Javier is their passion for social impact, doing good for the community with the profits that ADOC earns.
Clint Oram
To learn more about Javier and fuelling growth in the shoe industry, stay tuned and enjoy today's pod! Thanks for joining us today on the Fuel Growth Podcast!
Lizzy Overlund
What is the right growth equation for your company? Is it pipeline?
Clint Oram
Brand?
Lizzy Overlund
Products?
Clint Oram
Customers?
Lizzy Overlund
Employees?
Clint Oram
Join us as we interview CEOs, entrepreneurs and seasoned executives to explore what it takes to propel your business into growth. Today we have with us Javier Castillo, the CEO of Empresas ADOC, a leading Central-American footwear and apparel company. He has been instrumental in driving the company's expansion and solidifying its market presence through strategic innovation and operational excellence. Under his leadership, Empresas ADOC has ventured into new markets and emphasized corporate social responsibility, actively engaging in community development and environmental sustainability. Known for his inclusive and forward-thinking leadership style, Javier is a respected figure in the business community, advocating for ethical practices, and sustained business development across the region. Welcome, Javier! Great to have you with us today!
Javier Castillo
Thank you for having me here! It's a pleasure to be here with you!
Lizzy Overlund
We we are most excited to have you here. And we want to get to know you a little bit better before we get started. Where are you joining us from today? Where are you calling in from?
Javier Castillo
Well, our corporate office is based in El Salvador, in Central America. But we have offices in every single country in Central America. So, we have offices in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua. And we also have a lot of relationships, as you may know, with people from all over the world, especially Nasha, for the manufacturing process that we have in place. And in Central America, the Caribbean, we have other customers for the wholesale business that we have.
Lizzy Overlund
Yep. Well, in getting to know you today, before the interview, I learned that your joy is your family. You tell us about recent family vacation, where did you go? And what did you do?
Javier Castillo
We love to travel together. We don't necessarily travel outside the country where I am originally from. I'm from Guatemala. In Guatemala we have a place called Tikal. Tikal is a place where you may find a lot of parks in the middle of the jungle, there are a lot of old cities, and the Mayan poettry. We had the opportunity to travel to one of those parks and have a trip in a boat, in the middle of a river, in the middle of the jungle. We had the opportunity to go travel together; we need to we needed to figure it out how to deal with the boat and, and it was a totally weird experience. Because you were in the middle of the river with we literally not settler for nothing more than the border of the river. And we went to a place that has a river it is like a place that has no border where you can swim in the middle of the jungle. You swim, you have to be close to the boat because there is no beach or something to walk on; it is basically the boat and you're in the middle of this kind of what they say is like the top of a volcano, so you don't have a bottom. We had to swim in that place. Get to the boat, which is a very difficult thing when you are in the middle of the jungle. We had to figure it out to get out of there; that was a little bit stressful, because it started to rain. So they've kind of thing. I've been to traveling together with our families; that is something that we enjoy a lot.
Lizzy Overlund
How many people were on its boat Javier? From your family?
Javier Castillo
I have two daughters, one son, my wife, myself, and my two in-laws. That's seven people.
Lizzy Overlund
Incredible story and very, very inspiring. Thanks for sharing that!
Clint Oram
Well, let's get to know you a little bit better professionally. Tell us about the career path that led you to becoming the CEO of Empresas ADOC.
Javier Castillo
Well, I have 25 years of experience in retail. But my family owns restaurants since I was born, probably before that. So, we have been into the restaurant business as a family. But in the shoe industry, I have more than 22 years of experience. I used to work at Sephora, fast food company, before joining the shoe industry. So, I have been my entire life in retail. So, that's what I know best. I started as a little kid, because when you are part of a family that owns something, you have to work in that business, right? So, I started very young, my academic background includes a Doctorate in Business Administration, and I have an MBA and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I love technology. And that's why I know a little bit of technology, of everything that you do. And I have that this vision of having a digitally transformed company. And that's the way I drive retail. And in my personal ambitions, I love to read and write on leadership and entrapreneurship. That's what I liked the most. And my passion is people. I really Love developing people to the best they can be personally and professionally. And I also like to teach. I teach at one of the universities in Guatemala, the Masters and Doctorate level. And that's why I study a Doctorate degree, because otherwise, you don't need to do that. I enjoy teaching at the University. That's what I liked the most.
Clint Oram
You are quite well-accomplished. That's, that's an amazing resume you have there. I very much identify with everything you're doing, there. Except for getting the Masters and getting the Doctorate part. I didn't do that. But probably other topics. That's very cool. Neat. So, tell me, you became the CEO of Empresas ADOC in 2020. Right?
Javier Castillo
Exactly one month before the pandemic.
Clint Oram
Haha, that must have been quite the 'Welcome' to the company. Well, tell me what kind of initiatives in change that you brought to ADOC; you mentioned digital transformation sounds like that's been a key-focus.
Javier Castillo
Well, there have been many changes as a result of the pandemic in the company. We basically operated in a very different way of how we operate right now. Generally speaking, something that we put a lot of attention on, whilst the digital transformation: being focused on our customers, being focused on those markets where we operate, and being focused also on how we can operate serving our customers, but being very, very profitable to be able to overcome another pandemic, if you want to call it that way.
Clint Oram
I'd rather not, no more pandemics for me. I'm done.
Javier Castillo
No more pandemic. That's something I constantly think all the time. But in general, I wanted to be prepared for whatever may happen. But there were a lot of disruptions in his like chain. In the way we take care of customers, in the y we work. Right now, we work in a in a hybrid format, in a hybrid schedule. So, learning how to work remotely in a retail company that has seventy years at all the time used to work at the office, that's fairly challenging. We also have a manufacturing business. So how we can deal with that piece in a very convulsed environment. All those things drive us to put a lot of emphasis on becoming a real customer-centric company. And that made us start working in a digital transformation towards that piece. And the changes that we saw, well, the first thing was to really be committed to be a customer-centric company and have all the tools that we need to really be a customer-centric company. And that's how we discover SugarCRM. And that was the first step that we took to become a real customer-centric company. Of course, there were other things that contributed, like becoming an omnichannel company, a company that may be able to really take care of our customers on any channel that we may have, and how to optimize that omnichannel environment to the maximum.
Lizzy Overlund
Can we focus in on that? I mean, I'd love to talk about the CRM, but when you think about the optimization of an omnichannel presence, how does ADOC use omnichannel technology to get closer to your customers?
Javier Castillo
Well, there are several things. The first thing that we do with CRM is really get to know our customers. What the customers are buying, what our customers want, how they behave when they buy something from us, what they say. Those kinds of things have helped us a lot to really get to know our customers and really be able to take care of our customers. That engagement with our customers is fundamental.
Lizzy Overlund
If you think about omni channel, by definition, you're engaging through many different channels, so your customers are able to connect with your teams at ADOC through what types of channels? Or are we talking about...?
Javier Castillo
Well, we have different channels, like the brick-and-mortar stores that we have, we have online stores, we have a WhatsApp selling application, because in Central America, not all people buy through a website. Most people like to use WhatsApp to buy, then a website; they use websites as a brochure as digital brochure, if you want to call it that way. Of course, some some customers buy through our e-commerce websites, but most of them go to our WhatsApp application. And what they want is a personalized type of service. That's another channel that we have.
Clint Oram
Obviously, there's a human on the other end, it's not automation, but a human, a salesperson who's interacting with the customer on WhatsApp.
Javier Castillo
Exactly! And we also use bots, but we need to take care of those customers and keep track of them, especially because of the conversation that we have with them. That could happen or not at the same time, not at the same day, but through our different days, even, depending on what they are buying or or they want from us. We also use social media as a way of selling, we have catalogs that show personnel that we have, so we also need to keep track on those interactions. And of course, we have marketplaces, and we receive a lot of feedback from our customers, every single customer that buys something from us can leave us a survey, we like to measure a lot the Net Promoter Score. So we try to measure that in every single interaction that we have. All those areas are involved within the what we call the 'Customer Service Center', where we mainly use CRM as our most important tool to take care of our customers or keep track of everything that we are doing.
Lizzy Overlund
How do you divide customers by differing segments? Do you look at it by geography? Are you looking by product line? Can we spend a few minutes talking about that?
Javier Castillo
Well, we look at the customers in two ways. The first is the format that they buy from us, we have five formats; we have five companies so to say. The first thing that we have is what format we are taking care of. And that's because customers are different, they belong to different stratas, they have different interests. And then we look at the territory, but not necessarily at the country level, but at the cluster level. Because we have different climates, we have different behaviors identified between each country. That's the way we look at our customer. We understand what customers like and what are the needs in that specific cluster. Or if we are having situations with with products, with customer service, etc., that we have within the company in order to be really a customer-centric company, because that's the base of everything.
Lizzy Overlund
It's lot. And I want to, if we can go back to the voice of the customer aspect, because you're collecting data through, it sounds like many of these channels, and that information is flowing back into the Empresas ADOC teams. What are you doing with that information? How does that function within the business? Yeah, I like that, "without without being obsessive", right? Speaking of tracking, I'm curious if you have a customer that comes to you first on the, we'll say online storefront, and then through WhatsApp next, how do you know it's the same customer? Do you know it's the same customer?
Javier Castillo
Now, the first thing that we are doing is making sure that we are serving well. Thaat's the first thing, that's the main purpose of all the collection of information that we have in place. We want to really make sure that we have a NPS above eight, which is very, very difficult. So, that's something that we'll measure all the time, if we are not achieving that we start to dig into the information that we have available. We also have other methods so to say, to really get to know what's going on in certain territory in certain market, sector, cluster. So we basically dig into that information to see what our customers are saying, what are the needs, what's happening with those markets where we can not sell something? What are they telling us when they have a problem, if we are serving them in the right time, within the right timeframes that we have said to serve customers; what our agents are doing, because sometimes these are issue, not customization, and we start digging into that to the point that we know when customers are asking for certain products that we don't have available so when we go back to our commercial area to see what's going on with the inventories, or if we don't have a product that we need to develop or we need to bring into the market, because that's becoming something very important. So that's what we do with the data but the main thing the main thing is that we're serving our customers in the right way, and try to track everyhting. Because we try to track everything that we can without being obsessive, but being focused on those things that are important. We don't know, we don't know. When they get to your website? Well, it depends if the customer has an accounting or website or not. Most of the time, if they have an account, we will know who the customer is and what he cares about. And we will start an interaction from that point. If it's a new customer that goes directly to WhatsApp, that will be a different instrument, we start building base out on the phone number, start building a history; if that person is already a customer base out on that phone number. Well, we know what has happened previously, we tried to get from there. So that way we use that information.
Lizzy Overlund
I have to say it's so impressive, it just sounds like your team has had some very sophisticated model down to take insights and use those to help support the customers and also to help make sure that, to your point earlier, ADOC is profitable. So, kudos to the team! That's It's really impressive.
Javier Castillo
Thank you so much. Well, we are trying to make our best effort to be really a leading company in the region for customer service. That's, that's basically what we aim to. Yeah.
Clint Oram
Well, let's build on that for a second here. At the beginning, in your introduction, we talked about how the company is focused on social responsibility, sustainability, environmental impact. What does that mean for ADOC? Specifically, can you unpack that topic for us a little bit more and how that fits into your business?
Javier Castillo
The first thing is being responsible with the communities where we operate. That's one of the most important things, because we know that that's something that creates this social capital for companies. So being responsible with the communities is very important for us. That drives us to basically do initiatives that we have very well implemented a model, you know, throughout the years, because we started probably 50 years ago, and we were born as a company with a social focus. We wanted to be that company that was going to be able to provide shoes at the right price to underprivileged, people. That's how we started. So we were born with that social responsibility in place from the very beginning.
Clint Oram
That's really cool. I just gotta pause there for a moment. And I appreciate how you kind of combine the business side with the humanitarian side when you said social capital, or aid. That's a that's a very businesslike term, but has something to do that's all about the human side of doing business. And and the way you're bringing business and humanitarian focus together is just so impressive. I commend you and the company.
Javier Castillo
Thank you so much. Now, for us, this is something that we better proud of. When I first started with a company, that was probably the thing that was more attractive for me to come to work with ADOC. Because for me, whatever you do, you have to have a purpose. Otherwise, you're just working, right? You don't have a purpose in life. That's something very important for me. So this is a company that has a purpose. And that's something that that I really appreciate a lot. A very fundamental piece of culture is to counsel socially; we want something that we say that's the mission of the company and is that we want to make the world a better place. We want to make the world walk better. That's why we say.
Clint Oram
Make the world walked better. I like that.
Javier Castillo
That's the mission of our company. So, make the world walk better. Walk better in every sense. And that starts with our communities, we can impact community. So, we have a president that gives shoes for free to underprivileged people; that's something that we constantly are looking for. We have budgets for that, we produce shoes, we try to help all the people that we can; because believe it or not, there are a lot of people that don't have that new pair of shoes, or not even have shoes. So we try to help all the people that we can afford, but that's very expensive. And we need to you know, constantly also be searching for those right places to help. Because sometimes you are not helping anybody even though when you think you are.
Clint Oram
It's such a foundational component of who we are as humans. I mean, it's not just a health topic, but it's a personal self-value topic: having a nice pair of shoes; it starts your day, it shapes the way you walk, you think, you act throughout the course of the day. I never really thought about until you started talking about it this way, about how shoes are just a foundational component of who people are.
Javier Castillo
Yeah, that's something that we have discovered throughout the years. Shoes give you a sentiment of stability, of comfort, of feeling better. That's why there are a lot of shoe companies around the world. And I will say that that's in part because we feel safer and better when we have a very nice pair of shoes for whatever reason that I don't clearly understand. But that's a sentiment. That's why we have a lot of customers that have a lot of shoes.
Lizzy Overlund
I was just gonna say: let's not give any of our listeners ideas that their obsession or addiction to shoe is a good thing. But maybe it is. I actually I have a friend who has a very similar mindset. She has been doing haircuts for free for underprivileged communities. And that same sense of the refreshed feeling. And I don't know that I wouldn't use the word stability for that. But there's just little things that humans feel better having: new shoes, new haircut, new hairstyle. It's just little things that make a big difference and how we feel.
Clint Oram
Changes your outlook on life.
Javier Castillo
Yes. Because you need that strength to continue with life. So, you need to feel better. And if you are in an underprivileged situation, you need to feel better in order to continue getting out of that situation; because that's part of daily life. So that's, that's why we love making shoes, because we feel that we are making them better person. So they may continue with whatever they need to do in order to get out of that situation. So we know that is not the solution. But they know that is a very fundamental piece to change, to change their mindset, mainly. And then we also believe a lot in education as, as a company, we have a socio branch that supports education for underprivileged. So what we do is that we have worked with USA, and also with Microsoft, another another institutions to pay these young people that is on, I don't know how that works in the state. But let's say that they are in 9th grade or 10th grade, something like that, they are getting ready to start their senior years. So we have a program that selects young people out of marginal and underprivileged cities and neighborhoods. And we put them in a special program to teach them three things. The first one is a second language. So we teach them English as a second language, but in a very intensive way. We also teach them technology. So when they end the program, they are they are basically programmers, and they understand very well what's going on with the technology industry. And we also get them behind how they can change their mindset to get out of poverty, through education. And we prepare them to gain scholarships at the best universities, in-country and outside the country. So some of them even got to study to the US, they get scholarships. And when they come back, they also have other jobs, people, but they mainly help their families to get rid of of poverty; because we believe that is not just a matter of giving money away. We have this commitment of working with them three years to prepare them to get a scholarship and get a university degree and get out of the poverty. Yeah, it's incredible, Javier. And I think I have to believe that if there's that much investment in the community, and the social good that ADOC is doing, that probably transcends to your employees as well. And you probably have pretty low employee attrition and really happy employees. Is that a fair assumption? At least ew say so. Yes. Net Promoter Score about 80.
Lizzy Overlund
Oh, that's incredible. That is something to be proud of, for sure. Well, here let's let's take a look at your extensive business experience through a different angle. I had to believe that of all of the years prior to ADOC and then joining ADOC, especially going through digital transformation initiatives and working on what I pretty sure was a pretty expansive omnichannel, I'll call it project. Can you describe two to three mistakes or learnings of yours over your entire career that stand out for you that maybe our listeners can learn from?
Javier Castillo
Yes, definitely. The first thing will be not having a clear understanding of customer needs. Very early in my career, I used to work for companies that basically used to travel without any clearer norm on what they needed to do. You are not top management where you are not a senior leader, that's a total house; because you really don't know what do you need to do in order to be aligned with the strategy of the company and I basically used to be a man and yet that used to drive my people with I'm not even asking, well, what's the right direction? And that was the cause: a lot of frustration, a lot of rotation, all the bad things that you can can imagine.
Lizzy Overlund
I love the humility there! But I am interested to know from you what tips or 'Aha!' moments were helpful for you to get to know your customer. Was it serving? What other things did you do?
Clint Oram
So that's sounds like an existential crisis.
Javier Castillo
I think it was the sentiment of not been doing anything productive. Because there is a point in time where you say, you know, I'm having a lot of conversation with customers, I really don't know what I'm doing. I know my job. But I don't know, what's the purpose of all these I don't know. And I cannot do anything to fix it. That's when you realize that you have that 'Aha!' moment and you say, "I will never do that, again in my life if I had the opportunity to avoid.
Clint Oram
Living life with a purpose, not just living life with a purpose, but putting purpose into your career, and focusing on your customers to find that purpose. Yeah,
Javier Castillo
Yes, the second thing is, when you overrite that piece, and you start having a purpose, and you have information, not doing anything with that information, that's another mistake.
Clint Oram
Well, isn't that true, so many companies collect data, collect information, and then they don't do anything with it.
Lizzy Overlund
It's the most frustrating. It's an absolute 'No!', slap on the wrist, absolutely not.
Javier Castillo
Exactly! So now you know that you're having a problem, but you are not doing anything with that, or you have an opportunity, but you don't really have a plan to get that opportunity. So that's frustrating, too. That's when you say you need to have that mace. That information, and that purpose. So that was the second thing that was an 'Aha!' moment for me, that I said, "When I get the opportunity to be a leader of a company, that will not happen to me." And because that's, that's part of life, right? That's the result of all the experiences that you have in your life. And then a third thing is how leadership can make a difference between an organization and understand that leadership is not just about being born a leader; that is more about, in my opinion, to learn how to be a good leader, and throughout experiences, but also through the developing other leaders because that's like, your legacy, right? I am a firm believer that you name bold when you teach something, when you develop somebody and something, when you learn something out of training, or a book or something. So having that thing, leadership role in place and teaching people why leadership is important, and teach them how to be a good leader within the culture that you make up. Because it varies depending on the company, depending on the on the territory. That's the fundamental thing to develop a real nice place to work. Because otherwise, it's just a name, right? Everybody wants to have a nice place to work. But in reality, is it a nice place to work? Is it a nice place to work with, with nice people that you want to work with? Excatly! And you will never respect somebody that don't give you anything? Because leadership is an election. Right? You decide who is going to be your leader based out on the benefits that you get out of that person. That's reality, not because somebody will come and tell you listen, this is gonna be your leader. Is the person going to be your leader?
Clint Oram
You can't be a leader if you don't have followerst. And I think a lot of people forget that they feel like oh, I've earned the title, or I have the title. Somebody gave me the title. But does that make truly make you a leader? Because again, you're not a leader if you don't have followers.
Javier Castillo
Exactly. So you have to learn how to gain followers. That's very difficult.
Lizzy Overlund
Yes, absolutely. I love these lessons that you've learned you're able to summarize them so succinctly.
Clint Oram
It's very deep, too. I love this this ADOC is not just a manufacturer of shoes in Central America, it sounds like a movement, it almost sounds like it's a leadership in the community, and it's just so much more than just another company; that's because of your leadership I believe. Now, for our last question of the day, Javier where can our listeners find you and learn more about you?
Javier Castillo
Well, you can find me throughout LinkedIn; my LinkedIn profile is Castillo Javier, like my last name with my first name. Why? Because that was the only one available when I created my LinkedIn profile. And then I have a website Javier Castillo dot ORG, like an organization; and I also have my email; my direct email in the company JC @ empresasadoc dot com. I'm very happy to receive feedback. Tell me whatever you want to know about my company, and anything that you might need from me, because we really believe in that seervant principle that I was talking about.
Lizzy Overlund
Yeah, leading by example, here! Wow, Javier! You're giving your your email address out on the podcast, how bold! I love it!
Clint Oram
Wow, I find these interviews so fascinating, Lizzy, because you can meet people who seem like they're the same on the outside, you know, a successful business person, a CEO, a leader in manufacturing, but when you get to know them, they're just people and the people-side of it is just, it's inspirational, Javier.
Lizzy Overlund
Yes, Javier, this has been, this is one of the very few episodes, I think that's going to touch more on the human side of things, which is, I really respect and appreciate that. I think the world needs more of that right now. Honestly, we get a little bit too serious on some of these podcasts. I love them all for different reasons, it's just that this is extra special.
Javier Castillo
No, I really appreciate that. And you said something that made me think clearly: we are really a movement. You know, this thing of being a doctor is a movement. Everybody's very out of it. You can you can tell when you talk to people, I know that that's something that many people have said and that's something that inspires me a lot. Because I think that I'm passing it back among people. That's what I really want. That's the magazine. Because in business, that's the only thing that you go the people that really remember you for something good.
Lizzy Overlund
Oh, I like that. That's the legacy. All right. Well, this has been awesome. I love the conversation. You've definitely helped to reinforce some things that I personally believe in, and especially the purpose-driven mindset that I was just telling my daughter about yesterday, in fact. Thank you, Javier, for taking the time. This has been amazing.
Clint Oram
Thank you, Javier! We enjoyed having you on the podcast. It's so inspirational, to learn about a person and a company that's doing good and doing well at the same time. Thank you so much for that, that leadership that you're providing.
Javier Castillo
Thank you so much and it was a pleasure to be here!
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