Adolfo Dominguez

About Adolfo Dominguez

Adolfo Domínguez is a recognized brand in the fashion retail sector, with a value proposition that combines design, creativity, and a strong brand identity, something that carries real weight in every detail within this type of industry. In Mexico, the operation is made up of a team of approximately 100 employees distributed between corporate offices and points of sale across the country. This creates a diverse, agile, and constantly moving organizational dynamic, where each store functions almost like a small universe connected to the whole operation. The company’s culture is deeply focused on teamwork, results orientation, and key values such as creativity, excellence, and kindness. These elements not only define the internal experience, they also shape the way the brand relates to its customers every single day. Every interaction, both in stores and at the corporate level, seeks to reflect these principles, consolidating a coherent and differentiated brand experience, because in fashion retail the operation behind the scenes matters just as much as the product itself.

The team is made up of different strategic areas such as sales, operations, marketing, ecommerce, finance, and human resources, all working cross functionally to maintain an aligned operation, although in practice this requires constant coordination between teams and locations. This collaboration between corporate offices and stores helps maintain consistency in execution, but it also brings real operational challenges, especially when communication and internal processes depend on multiple locations operating simultaneously. As the company continues growing and expanding into different states across the country, the need for more structured, visible, and efficient processes became increasingly important, because without operational clarity growth can quickly become difficult to manage. In a geographically distributed retail environment, having control and visibility over information is not simply helpful, it is what keeps the operation running smoothly.

What challenges were they facing with payroll and Human Resources?

One of the main challenges the company faced was the lack of centralization and visibility in payroll and personnel administration processes, especially considering its operation distributed across multiple stores, where every location adds another layer of operational complexity. This fragmentation created greater dependence on manual processes, increasing the workload for the Human Resources team and raising the risk of errors during each payroll cycle, something that becomes more sensitive as teams continue growing. In addition, response times were affected because information was not always immediately available or centralized in one place, which translated into friction in daily operations. This impacted both internal efficiency and the employee experience, particularly in sensitive processes such as payments, incidents, and requests related to employment information, where clarity and speed matter a lot more than people sometimes realize.

“There came a point when operating with manual processes and isolated tools was no longer sustainable for the size and complexity of our operation.”

The need to move toward greater digitalization became evident, not only to optimize resources, but also to create a stronger operational foundation capable of supporting business growth without generating additional administrative burden for the team.

How did Runa help them?

The implementation of Runa marked an important step forward in the company’s digitalization process, and the impact became visible very quickly in day to day operations. The platform made it possible to centralize information, significantly reduce manual processes, and gain much greater visibility over the entire payroll and personnel administration operation, something especially valuable in an environment with multiple points of sale operating simultaneously.

With Runa, the team was able to gain a clearer and more organized view of information, making decision making easier and improving operational efficiency without depending on so many intermediate steps or disconnected processes. “Today, we can manage payroll with much greater clarity and control, which is essential when you have distributed teams,” explains Fernanda Acosta. This improvement not only impacted the Human Resources area, but also employees, who now experience more agile, clear, and reliable processes that reduce confusion and operational friction. In addition, task automation freed up operational time, allowing the team to focus on more strategic activities related to talent development and improving the employee experience, which ultimately becomes one of the most important priorities in a retail organization with distributed teams.

Why did they choose Runa?

The decision to choose Runa was driven by the need for an intuitive, flexible platform aligned with the needs of a growing operation, without adding unnecessary complexity to the process. Compared to other alternatives, Runa stood out for its ease of use, adaptability, and clear reporting capabilities, all key elements when the goal is not just process compliance, but true operational efficiency.

Another determining factor was the support model. Since the company works with outsourced payroll processing, having account executives who closely accompany the process became an important differentiator, especially in situations where quick resolution and immediate follow up are necessary. “The support has been key to ensuring everything works correctly and to feeling backed up at every stage,” Fernanda highlights. The combination of technology and human support made it possible not only to optimize processes, but also to build confidence in daily operations, something fundamental in an area as sensitive and critical as payroll, where mistakes can quickly impact the employee experience and operational trust.

Where will the company be in 10 years?

Looking ahead, the vision is to consolidate a stronger, more efficient company prepared to continue growing without losing the essence of the brand, something especially important in fashion retail, where identity and customer experience are deeply connected. The goal is to build an increasingly robust operation, with a larger number of employees and highly professionalized processes capable of supporting long term growth in an orderly and sustainable way.

The company seeks to continuously strengthen its internal operation, ensuring that both the employee experience and the customer experience evolve together, because ultimately both sides are directly connected. Along this path, having clear, efficient, and scalable processes will continue to play a key role in supporting the development of the business over the coming years.