Episode 11: Building a Long-term Partnership With a Fortune 500 Client

Delivering Complex Projects and Building Long-Term Partnerships

What does it take to be entrusted with a large-scale, high-stakes project by a Fortune 500 company? In this episode of C&F Talks, Piotr Pielasa, C-level board member at C&F, shares lessons from one of the most ambitious projects in the company’s history: a multi-year digital transformation for a global pharmaceutical manufacturer. This project, launched with an undefined scope and unfolding across dozens of highly specialized manufacturing sites, demanded a new level of collaboration, agility, and trust. From aligning diverse operations to navigating compliance in regulated environments, our experts reveal what it really takes to deliver under pressure and why building long-term client relationships is the foundation of doing transformative work at scale.

In our podcast you’ll discover:

How to approach delivery when the goal is big—but not yet clearly defined

What it takes to win and keep the trust of global enterprise clients

How C&F helped a pharma giant streamline and unify operations across ~40 diverse manufacturing sites

Why an agile, collaborative model can succeed where traditional fixed-cost approaches fail

What strategies help overcome resistance to change in highly regulated environments

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Why this episode matters

Global clients don’t hand out massive transformation projects lightly. This episode shows how trust is built: over years, through consistency. Best delivery teams rise to meet challenges when stakes are high, goals are complex, and certainty is limited.

One Solution for Multiple Production Sites

The client needed a unified digital operations layer across dozens of global sites, each operating under different legacy processes and technologies. Learn how we tackled this complexity with tailored solutions that respected the client’s operational “flavors” while aligning them to a shared model.

Trust as the Foundation

Piotr shares why enterprise clients only invite partners into high-risk, high-impact projects after years of consistent, proven delivery. As he puts it, “it’s like Minesweeper”—one misstep can jeopardize everything. This episode explores how to earn the right to lead truly transformative initiatives.

Agility Meets Compliance

How do you deliver fast in an environment built for caution? C&F worked closely with the client to adapt agile methodologies (like SAFe) to strict pharma compliance standards—sometimes requiring months of negotiation and education to align deployment with regulatory requirements.

Managing Change from Within

Beyond the technology, success hinged on client-side ownership, stakeholder management, and end-user support. Piotr discusses the people side of transformation—how to help clients choose the right path, prepare internal teams, and sustain momentum through change.

Meet our Experts

Host: Maciej Kłodaś

Head of Analytics Experience, C&F

Maciej is a senior manager, UX/UI expert, researcher, and strong advocate for professionalizing companies’ approaches to enterprise software UX. He believes that when data meets the user, UX is crucial for the quality of insights and reports, serving as the foundation of data-driven decision-making. At C&F, Maciej is dedicated to delivering exceptional UX in every process and solution developed for clients.

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Guest: Piotr Pielasa

Chief Delivery Officer, C&F

Piotr is responsible for designing C&F’s services and products to address customer challenges, meet market demands, and seize new business opportunities. With 16 years of experience in technology, he has dedicated his career to the C&F team. Throughout his tenure, Piotr has worked in R&D, data warehouses, and Business Intelligence. Currently, he focuses on the Life Science business line, where he leads efforts to innovate and deliver solutions that drive success for C&F’s clients.