Splicing digital into Bayer's DNA: an interview with CDO Jessica Federer
Jessica Federer tells Danny Palmer how she's driving a digital strategy at multinational pharmaceutical firm Bayer
The concept of "going digital" probably seems simple to any organisation founded in the age of the internet.
From day one, you have the most up-to-date technology available at your fingertips and, in all likelihood, you've built the company's infrastructure using outsourced storage (and possibly also compute and platform) services from the likes of Amazon, Google or Microsoft.
Your chosen staff will have been brought in because they're good at getting the most from the latest digital developments and are flexible enough to innovate and adapt to transformation.
However, if your organisation was founded over 150 years ago and developed into a massive multinational corporation classed as one of the leaders in its sector and has 120,000 employees across the globe, shifting towards digital isn't necessarily so easy.
That was the problem facing Bayer, one of the largest chemical and pharmaceutical businesses in the world, which is why the company appointed Jessica Federer as chief digital officer (CDO) in October last year to take "a much more strategic approach" to digital.
"From there it's been a crazy, very exciting eight months," she tells Computing. The core of that digital strategy, she explains, is people.
"We're basically bringing together and connecting the dots in digital. The value you get from digital is from the connections, from the synergies; how do we bring these platforms together?
"How do we bring these teams together so we're not duplicating the work?" says Federer, outlining some of the key questions she has to grapple with.
"It was really only recently that digital let us capture this synergy, create new value, become more efficient and create new business models. So it started from the people and went from there," she says.
One area in which this approach has already reaped rewards are the partnerships that Bayer has with technology providers of all sizes.
"Through our new work in digital we're taking a very strategic approach to our partnerships because Bayer is a chemical company and we create new innovation. So we're partnering with digital leaders," says Federer.
Bayer's partners include "pretty much every tech company you can imagine", including the likes of Google and IBM.
Those companies "work with us across our business and we are really establishing a clear partnership approach to how we develop talent together, how we develop a better understanding across their technology field and our science field," Federer explains.
Breaking down silos
Federer sees digital at Bayer as an enabler. "It's not something separate, so rather than creating a separate digital silo, digital is how we do what we do," she says, outlining how "instead of creating digital goals, we say here's our business priorities and how does digital help us do that faster or better".
One of the ways digital is aiding with this is through the use of big data analytics. Federer believes advancements in analytics are playing an increasingly important role in the development of new pharmaceutical products, but the benefits also go way beyond this side of Bayer's business, she adds.
"Advanced analytics is really important to the future of every industry," she says. "There are a few big clusters that come and that's what we're taking a focus on across the businesses; what are the digital enablers that go across all of Bayer?"
The answer isn't just applicable to a single silo or country-specific Bayer team; it's something that draws in information from the entire global organisation, allowing data analysis to provide better outcomes.
"We're not going into one brand team or one country, we're asking how do we look at the architecture and the infrastructure across the whole company and make improvements that enable the whole business to excel," Federer explains.
Federer admits that implementing a digital transformation at Bayer isn't a simple task, because "in a 150-year-old company nothing is really easy", but adds that the staff have proven to be very open to new ways of working.
"This is a company full of scientists who love to experiment, who love to improve and to have iterations. So when we do roll something out or make a change, there's so much consensus and alignment on clear processes," says Federer. "Once you steer the ship in the right direction, it goes on its own, there's a lot of momentum."
Better, faster, more efficient
The potential of digital could make a huge difference to efficiency at Bayer, a company which has to be accountable to customers, shareholders and the wider public.
"If we can do something better, faster and more efficiently and take an approach that is more adaptable using digital technologies, of course we're crazy about doing that," Federer says.
"You see the benefits [of going digital] internally a little faster because sometimes it takes longer to get the digital innovations to your customers and see the external impact. But internally you can make some improvements for efficiency gains, for synergies, transparency and sharing that have a nice impact on the business," she says.
"We deal with a lot of sensitive data as an innovation company," Federer says. "We have a data privacy officer who works very closely with compliance and pays very close attention to policy developments and data privacy, because this is a rapidly evolving area from a policy and regulation perspective. As a big organisation we have to be very, very cautious."
The shift towards digital requires a lot of end-user education and training, she says.
"Digitisation has changed how we all work... We need to make it easy and accessible for all our employees and help them to adapt to work in a digital way and to develop great digital skills and stay competitive," Federer says. "Digital is a people topic, not a technology topic, because it's about how we work together with technology."
For Federer, the key question around going digital is "how do we take the workforce we have and empower them to work in a new environment?".
"You have a great workforce with wonderful capabilities so how do we help them to continue to develop to mirror the needs of the marketplace?"
Federer tells Computing that she is fortunate at Bayer because there is an enthusiasm for the adoption of new digital ways of working both at the grass roots and at board level.
"The people we have on the ground have been responding to the digitisation they see around them; social media, analytics tools, they've been responding to the media around them," she says.
"As you go up in the company, the senior management is also aware of the investment, the risks, the opportunities, from selling a product to selling services," Federer adds.
Looking to the future, Federer tells Computing that she is taking a "phased approach" to the digital rollout.
"In a big company you have to first emphasise the importance and strengthen the capabilities and then really dig it in," she says.
"So then you get away from talking about digital marketing and you just talk about marketing and communications and digital is integrated into our DNA and how we work."