Kimberly-Clark’s Francesco Tinto on Leading AI-First Enterprise Transformation

0:00The real differentiation comes from executing seamless process, but to have the right understanding of the data that creates the right insight to take actionable decisions.

0:12Peter High: Welcome to Technovation. I'm Peter High, president of Metastrategy. My guest today is Francesco Tinto. Francesco is the chief information and global business services officer of Kimberly-Clark, one of the world's leading consumer products companies with approximately$16.5 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio of iconic brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, and Kotex. In his role, Francesco helps drive the company's digital transformation, operational excellence, and enterprise modernization efforts. He joined Kimberly Clark in 2026 after having been Chief Digital and Information Officer at Advantage Solutions, Global Chief Information Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and the Global Chief Information Officer of Kraft Heinz.

0:54Peter High: Francesco brings a depth of perspective on how technology, data, AI, and operating model transformation can help global organizations create competitive advantage while delivering greater value to consumers, customers, and employees. I look forward to discussing Kimberly Clark's Powering Care strategy, the convergence of technology and global business services, the role of AI in supply chain and consumer engagement, and the leadership lessons Francesco has learned while helping some of the world's most recognized brands navigate transformation, among other topics I'm sure we'll cover today. Francesco, welcome to Technovation.

1:27Peter High: It's great to speak with you today. Thank you, Peter. And thanks for hosting me today. Looking forward to our conversation. I do as well. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Today's episode is brought to you by Eleven Labs. Most enterprises trying to deploy AI agents hit the same wall. The agent itself is fine. The problem is that it sounds wrong. Robotic, flat, off-brand, and the moment a customer notices, the trust is gone. Eleven Labs develops the AI voice and audio models that give agents a human-level voice, the tone, the emotion, the rhythm of real speech, and wraps them in the full stack you need to actually deploy.

2:04Peter High: Knowledge integrations, workflow tooling, multilingual support, and enterprise-grade reliability. Build human-level conversational experiences into your products, services, and operations. Head to 11labs.io backslash technovation to get started for free. And now on to the interview. Well, let's begin with this robust business that you are a part of, Kimberly Clark. Describe the business in greater detail than I just had a chance to, if you would. So first of all, Iconic Company is a company that was created 154 years ago. So it's incredible the heritage and the resilience of this company that has been really in one century and a half has been becoming a global leader in consumer goods and personal care.

3:01As you said, we are in 175 countries, so we're really touching almost a quarter of the world population with a great portfolio of brands of which we have six billion dollar brands, which are Aggies, Kleenex, Scott and Kotex, just to name a few. to me it's impressive how this brand are really part of the day to day life of our consumer

3:36Peter High: and just they are becoming almost part of the way to describe the product for me it's impressive when we talk about Kleenex I will say hey can I get a Kleenex I will never say hey can I get a facial tissues. I had actually to Google to see what's the right definition of a Kleenex. For me, Kleenex is the product. So it's impressive. And it's a company that has always been reinventing themselves. And as you were mentioning, two years ago, Kimberly Clark launched this power care strategy, which is really a way to transform ourselves for the next chapter, creating a durable and sustainable growth.

4:28And this is the thing that is more exciting in terms of we are always thinking in terms of growth and sustainable growth, which means how we innovate in our product, how we keep understanding consumer needs, how we are becoming more and more efficient, but we never think in terms of only reducing cost or only innovation. It's really this concept of durable, sustained growth, which allow us to think in terms of innovation and in terms of efficiency. And we are really excited about the innovation that we have, the journey in front of us. And I think that I'm really happy to be part of this journey.

5:17Peter High: Amazing. Thank you for that overview. Let's talk a bit about your role, Chief Information and Global Business Services Officer. Talk a bit about what that entails, that combination of responsibilities that are suggested by that. Well, clearly, I lead the tech IT organization for Kimberly-Clark, where we are in charge of all the technical digital agenda for the company, starting from the IT infrastructure, cloud, all the data analytics, clearly all the programs for transformation in terms of ERP is the main one, sales capability in the market, marketing insight, marketing stack. And so all the NDAI, of course, that's all the tech agenda.

6:13The second function is about GBS, which is the share services for the back office operation, where we are really trying to optimize the services for our main function through an element of offshoring as much as possible, but more important in terms of business simplification, process optimization, and as well also the automation of the work. So more and more we start building the capability, especially through AI, to be more efficient in the work we are doing and transforming from a manual workforce to a digital workforce. And that's where I'm really excited about the role, because then you start already looking at how technology and GPS end in end.

7:09And this team, it's really playing a key role in helping the organization to be more agile, fast, and operating in consistency and efficiency, which is part of our Powering Care journey.

7:27Peter High: Yeah, fascinating. And talk a bit about the team that you lead. Are they divided across the two areas that you described? Are there combined roles, not unlike your own, within your team as well? Talk a bit about how the team is allocated across what you just described. So the combination of these two teams, putting these two teams together really started with my appointment a few months ago. So right now, I would say the team are really divided in terms of responsibility. And almost, I would say, the team are split almost equally between IT and GBS. The work that we are doing is it's really increasing the collaboration.

8:14Because as we said, I mean, the key power of GBS, it's really moving to the capability of bringing services that are highly automatized, driven by AI, and really the technology is a massive enabler. So having these two organizations together, it's making sure that the so-called global process owner in GBS is really working very, very close with the technical process owner in IT and to create a single roadmap. Right now, the two teams are collaborating and we are building a unified integrated roadmap where the technology is at the base of the work of GPS.

9:09Peter High: Fascinating. And you talked a bit about the strategy that the company is pursuing, powering care. Fascinating over you provided. I'd love to talk a bit more about the role that technology plays in enabling the vision you described. Yeah. So first of all, let me spend a couple of minutes on talking about powering care because the strategy was launched a couple of years ago. And frankly, I love the thinking and I love the strategy itself. and has been one of the key reasons also that I joined Kimberly Clark. The three main legs of the strategy are what we call out-innovating, out-marketing, and out-activating.

10:02So out innovating, we are really focused, consistently looking at innovation, new technology for bringing new product to our consumer. So that is really the key focus. We are driving, our R &D is made of engineers that are really looking day in and day out to creating new capability. We think that the product looks always the same, but the amount of innovation and new capability that we bring in this product is mind-boggling. How to marketing. I think how do we start to really understand the consumer needs? How do we create this connection with our consumer? How do we create this kind of moment of interaction with the consumer that allow us to build this kind of connection?

11:09And the last one is, and we spoke about the power of we are present in 175 countries. How we bring all this innovation, all this product to all the market, to all the channels with an incredible speed of execution. So that is a power in care in a nutshell. If you think about the technology is a key enabler of this strategy. I mean, think about in terms of innovation, you start thinking about analyzing, collecting, analyzing the consumer needs, getting the right insight that allow you to start really defining what are the needs and how you can drive the innovation. We talk about the consumer connection, so how you start creating this kind of dialogue and connection with our consumer, how you can create personalized messaging and storyteller with our consumer through digital tools, social marketing, digital marketing, campaign management, and so on.

12:23And then, of course, through the activation is a key element of how you have enabled the sales organization with the right technology inside pricing, analytics, and so on to help the implementation into the market.

12:44Peter High: And you mentioned at the outset such a critical point and a fascinating one, Francesco, of these iconic brands, billion dollar brands, as you pointed out. You talked about how Kleenex is not only a product name, it is the category name de facto. And I wonder, with your experience, how do you how does this come about? You talked a bit about, you know, product innovation. Obviously, these need to be great products. You talked about the importance of marketing. So you need to make sure that the marketplace is aware of it. Is there more magic that comes through Kimberly-Clark that enables the company to have built so many iconic brands like the ones you referenced earlier in our conversation?

13:23I think it's a little bit the two main element. The first one is, we spoke a bit in terms of this focus on growth, sustainable growth. So it's a company that has never been, I just cut costs or I want to create efficiency. It's really a company that wants to serve the consumer, to grow and to bring innovation. So this almost super focus on the consumer innovation and focus on product. The second one, I should say that the strength of our R &D department. So the focus that we have on innovation. So it's a company that is investing to grow and is really building for the future.

14:25Peter High: Yeah, I can see how those would be very important elements, certainly. Thank you for sharing that. You mentioned earlier the fact that part of your responsibility includes data analytics, artificial intelligence. Talk a bit about the ways in which you're applying some of that, for example, in changing supply chain decision making, an area of great complexity, especially in recent years. Talk a bit about the use of that to strengthen supply chains. Yeah. So first of all, I love the question because many times we always think in terms of supply chain, like, OK, bringing technology to streamline the process or how do you differentiate the process?

15:08It might have been at the end of the day, the real differentiation comes from executing seamless the process, but to have the right understanding of the data that creates the right insight to take actionable decisions. So I've been lucky enough to say that the company is investing a lot in creating a very strong data foundation where we are having a very leading edge capability in terms of data lake where we collect the data. We are harmonizing the data across different areas, and we are able really to scale those data and to start bringing insight as capability to every function. And we have also platform from AI that allow us to start building agents in different areas.

16:03Specifically in supply chain, I think we have been working a lot in different spaces. Clearly, there is an analysis that we do in the procurement space for raw material sourcing, analyzing a lot of work that we do in real time manufacturing line analytics for to assess product quality. And for example, we have recently developed AI always in the manufacturing space for predictive maintenance on the lines. So we have creative agents that have an understanding of the line utilization, and they are saying what are the indications that we are almost reaching some levels that require maintenance. So we give the right alert in a way that we can plan the maintenance in the best windows versus really being forced to have a maintenance at the last moment when it's unplanned.

17:10And this is create efficiency and is minimizing also the downtime time in the lines.

17:17Peter High: And how do you see now with this better foundation being laid, broader applications of artificial intelligence, ways in which it can impact consumer engagement, for example, or managing inventories or other topics perhaps you might raise that you think are outcomes of the foundation that you've built? So I would say, first of all, that the possibilities are limitless. Because I think AI is becoming more and more one of the transformations that is really changing the way of thinking. And for us, we are trying almost to start from redefining the process, having AI first mindset. And I think this is crucial.

18:07As you said, we are the traditional areas like demand management, demand planning. I think that's where you start looking at those variables, historical, but also predictive and try to predict the optimization of the right demand. How this is connecting to the capability of inventory management. So we are looking at optimizing the demand in a way that we minimize the inventory as much as possible. And we have different capability and agent that we built in this space of forecasting and inventory. Other areas that we are looking as well is in the space of the consumer. So we are looking at capability as well there for understanding consumer profile and to have better targeting of our messaging and optimize the demand.

19:09That is typical where we have agents. So I would say that the key power that we have right now is really the understanding of the foundation that we have built on our data. and we have a very strong backlog of use case that we are delivering through our platform for AI. So we are building an internal platform. More than build, we have assembled an internal platform for AI agent creation that we are really leveraging across the enterprise.

19:54Peter High: As I think about the decade we're in, Francesco, It's been one of enormous shifts and needs for nimbleness and resilience. You think about, of course, the pandemic as being perhaps the prime example of that. Oh, fun, man. Exactly. The supply chain issues we talked about a moment ago and opportunities associated with that, even artificial intelligence itself requiring a necessity to pivot towards opportunity. And let's face also away from issues that will result from advances in artificial intelligence as well. I wonder how you think about fostering some degree of resilience and nimbleness in the organization in light of some of these changes that seem to be coming at us faster.

20:39Yeah, I would say that the thing that I like about this company is that two things. One is that we have been almost been able to anticipate this trend, because I would say that for us has been from several times has been a focus on efficient and productivity, but also on resilience has been part of the culture and the operation. But the good thing is that we always look at the balance. So we don't want to go for extreme productivity or extreme efficiency that somehow also are at risk of lack of resilience. but of the other way around. We always are looking to making sure that we find the right balance between resilience on the operation, resilience on the technical side as well, but also efficient.

21:40So we want to be... And that's, in my opinion, is one of the winning formula because I've seen companies, unfortunately, many times winging on one side or the others. and this kind of make sure that you find the right balance between the two, I think is a key message for us.

22:04Peter High: You first became a global CIO at the Kraft Heinz 11 years ago. If I have my dates right, almost exactly 11 years ago, in fact. And I mentioned some of the other major brands that you've been a part of, from Walgreens, Boots Alliance, to Advantage Solutions, prior to joining Kimberly Clark. And I wonder, having spent a considerable time as a leader, how you think about history repeating itself? You've seen a variety of trends emerge across your career. You've led through numerous of them as well. Now we're through another period of great change. And I wonder what about the past helps educate you as to what's to come, the extent to which you think about things in that way?

22:49So, interesting question. So a very interesting question. So what I think is that I've seen that there are always been some triggers that probably being technology trigger or trigger, especially if I think about myself, is technology triggers that change the way you can think in terms of a technology transformation in an enterprise. I think about, and now we are editing myself, when we started from the different element of application, and then we start having the concept of an ERP, enterprise solution. Then we start moving into big data. Then we start moving into cloud. the iPhone, which is in the consumer side, brought a big transformation in terms of consumerization of technology and also started rethinking in the enterprise.

23:58And now AI. So AI is a massive, massive change that is pushing us. all these changes in my opinion have been a technology changes to me what I've learned is that the technology changes should be at the service of a business strategy and I need to make sure that when we do the change we start thinking just in terms of change and we look in terms of changing across people process and then enabled by technology. I can think about AI as a technology, but if I have a wrong process, AI is going to super quickly give me an outcome that is wrong. Fantastic. So I can optimize the wrong process faster than the human, but I don't think this is really the transformation.

25:04If I have bad data, the outcome of AI is going to be wrong results. And if I don't rethink my operating model, at the end of the day, I don't think that we are really changing the way the company is operating. And I also believe that the skill set of IT, but also the skill set in the enterprise, need to adapt. people should become more and more technology savvy. We see that all this technology allows everybody to build their own agent to be more productive. So how do we enable that in terms of making sure that we train the people, we certify the people, we provide the right environment where they can work, having their data secured, We have the right guardrail on the utilization of the data.

26:06The security is always top of mind. So I think it's, in my opinion, all this transformation become less of a technology transformation, more an operating model and enterprise transformation. And that is the way we need to think about it.

26:25Peter High: I love that framing and the necessity of getting the ingredients right before you can seek the right outcomes. The focus on operating model and skill sets on people change all make a tremendous amount of sense, Francesco. I want to double click on the operating model changes you're talking about and diagnose a little bit further the kinds of changes that you think are necessary in this age in order to succeed. Describe some more of those if you would. Well, I give you probably an example. So when you think we are trying to look at an end-to-end process, when if I have an end-to-end process, I start defining that this process can be automatized, can be guided through AI and agent.

27:18But also I need to start thinking if the current way we operate is the same in this process. And many times it's required, should I centralize the resources? Should I rethinking the role of these resources? Because probably the resources are spending less time in collecting the data and building reports. But now they really need to look at, I'm posing the right question. that the AI is answering me. And when I have the actionable outcome that the AI is producing, I'm enabling the right action at speed. And I don't want to go too much in example of areas because I think that's where you have to rethink how the people are working, the skills that are needed from the people because many times it's more interpretation of data, many times also is more strategic thinking and so on.

28:22Peter High: Yeah. And you would love to talk a little more about those, the skill changes. You talked about the necessity to interpret data. You also mentioned the necessity to upskill the entire enterprise. Yes. That this is not just the technical resources that members of your team, but provide training and certification, as you put it, for the broader organizations such that they're maximizing the value that they are getting out of it as well. I'd love to have you spend a little more time talking about that and the methods you're using in order to make sure that this is pervasive across, as you described before, a consequential large organization.

28:57Yes. So, first of all, we are still in the process and I don't think we have all the solution.

29:07But I don't believe that we can talk about Copilot. We can talk chat, GPT, Cloud. I can just assume that I provide a license to an end user and automatically the end user is going to take the best out of it. Now, having said that, we are always cases of people that are able to do it. And that's great. But I think if I talk about the broader implementation, I need to enable the people. And starting with explaining, one, really the technology, the power of the technology and the usage, and that we do through training. It starts also explaining where our data are, how they are structured, and what you can do with our data, and what you should not be doing with our data.

30:00Because there are elements that we have to protect certain IP. We cannot leverage the data in a different way and protect it, and also be respectful of the IP copyright. So I think it's a lot through education. I don't want to use too much the word governance, because it could be overstated, but it is an element of providing the right guardrail to the people to operate within. and when, always happen, it's not an if, it's a when, when you are in an area that are probably not contemplated in this guardrail, then we need to have a governance because we are learning something new every day. And that's where we adjust, we discuss, and then we change the guardrail and enlarge, restrict the guardrail, and so on, to cope with everything that is happening new.

31:05But I think this is in a way that helps us to really taking the most out of this massive technology transformation.

31:16Peter High: I'm very prudent and wise counsel there, Francesco. Thank you. Before I let you go, I wanted to see, is there anything you've recently read or listened to that you think is impactful enough to recommend to others? And likewise, what do you sort of consume in order to stay current on the topics we're talking about? Yeah. So,

31:41I think I consume a lot and I will not be able to tell you what is the source because I'm overwhelmed by information and probably I have my own agent that trying to navigate through. The constant thing that I start my day with the CIO journal from the Wall Street Journal. Yes, that's almost the thing that I find in my inbox every morning. But the key power, honestly, that I find is in addition to the reading and everything that got exposed through all the social network, through the LinkedIn, Forbes, CIO, and so on. I mean, just to mention a few, I think it's through the network of my peers. So I have a very strong network of peers and very strong network of partners.

32:46And I try to have a very broad connection with both of them. and I think probably you asked me what is important to share with others not something that I read, probably something that I learned. I leverage my network to learn and to share I'm not interested to be part of a network just to see how good my organization is but that I think is important but I think it's not the main objective the main objective is really to say I have a problem help me understanding how you solve the problem and then I bring that so that the more I learn is the more really to be part of this connection in a spirit of learning how I can bring innovation in my organization.

33:54Peter High: The wise counsel of others, of peers, of partners makes a lot of sense, Francesco, to leverage that during these times of great dynamism. And how we can build even sometimes a solution together, always respecting competition, confidentiality, and so on, but in terms of sharing the thinking, I think it's important. Well, Francesco, Tinto, thank you so much for a wonderful conversation. Fascinating to learn from you as to the ideas that have you most excited, the ideas that you're implementing within your current environment, certainly at Kimberly Clark, but also ways in which you're leveraging your great and vast experience from a number of scaled organizations.

34:32Peter High: Thank you for sharing a bit of your wisdom with me today. Thank you, Peter. Thanks again for having me today. Thanks for listening to Technovation. If you enjoyed this conversation, subscribe and leave a rating. It helps more leaders find our podcast. Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

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