Brochure - Brown-Forman 2018

Brown-Forman’s

digital transformation for the future

Brown-Forman 02

03

w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

Brown-Forman may be better known for its iconic repertoire of spirits and wines, but the American company is also earning its stripes as a digital trailblazer

F 04

rom Jack Daniels to Woodford Reserve, Old Forester to Canadian Mist, today Brown-Forman’s brands

are a mainstay of any bar or cocktail cabinet.

The American wine and spirits company was founded almost 150 years ago when the founder, George Garvin Brown, created Old Forester, a brand that is often cited as America’s first bottled bourbon – and it seems that this pioneering approach is still present today.

The century-old company is keen to preserve its long-lasting legacy but it isn’t naïve enough to think that the alcohol market will be untouched by the latest wave of digitization.

In fact, Brown-Forman has put its weight behind a root-and-branch digital transformation that hopes to cement its brands as household favourites for years to come.

“ We look at every employee as a tremendous brand builder” — Tim Nall, Senior Vice President and CIO at Brown-Forman

05

w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

In this transformative Age, the opportunities that emerge from disruption are ready to be seized. ey.com/betterworkingworld #BetterQuestions

The skill to make things work.

The savvy to make things bloom.

IT solutions to help design and implement new technologies. Managed services to help support and maintain your IT department. Deep knowledge, creativity and experience. When you need forward-thinking solutions, there's only one provider to think about: Data Strategy. data-strategy.com

Š 2018 Ernst & Young LLP. All Rights Reserved. ED None.

Is the most transformative perspective the one you don’t have?

07 With over 18 years of experience at Brown-Forman under his belt, this job has fallen partly into the capable hands of Tim Nall, Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Data Officer (CIO/CDO). With an acute understanding of the inner workings of the American company, married with a continuous improvement mindset, Nall and his team have ensured that IT no longer plays a back-end function but rather is a key strategic driver of Brown-Forman’s operations. “Brown-Forman used to be a traditional place where IT was viewed as a back-office function,” observes w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

Nall. “But a few years ago, we began to look at what tools Brown-Forman needed to really advance in this data economy. We began to view IT as an enabler and business partner, a function that could provide true solutions not just for the back office but for production teams, sales teams and marketing teams.”

This has been a seismic shift in mindset for Brown-Forman, but it is undoubtedly an essential step for any company wanting to remain at the top of its game in today’s digital economy.

Storytelling and brand building are the 08

backbone of a successful food or beverage brand, and it is a skill which Brown-Forman has honed for decades. “We absolutely believe the consumer is king,” observes Nall.

“Our ultimate goal is for our consumers to understand our product – we want them to make educated choices, we want them to be fans of our brands.” How best to connect with these consumers is a pressing question for any food and beverage business, and Nall believes that technology could be a key part of the solution. “Whether you’re communicating on social media with that consumer, whether you’re creating interactive tools for that consumer, how you’re targeting that consumer – it all requires technology,” he explains.

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘WHO IS BROWN-FORMAN?’ 09 Over the past few years, the Jack Daniels maker has implemented a slew of technologies to become a more digitally savvy firm.

These include everything from cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools to a modern data stack. “First, we realized our existing data stack was not adequate enough for us to really gather, harmonize and interrogate our information. We knew we had to modernize, so we started looking for a modern data ingestion platform that our employees could leverage and we settled on Talend as our partner working with the Talend Data Fabric,” explains Nall.

“We knew we also wanted a modern, robust w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

“ We want our consumers to know the stories behind Brown-Forman. We want them to engage with us so that we can tell them about Old Forester, the first bottled bourbon. We want them to understand our recipes so that they can create the perfect Manhattan” — Tim Nall, Senior Vice President and CIO at Brown-Forman

10

warehouse for all this information to go into so we chose to work with Cloudera. Then we asked ourselves how our employees and our partners would really interrogate and examine the information that we give them. We wanted to ensure that we had modern toolsets out there as well, so we looked at different products and settled on Tableau as our visualization platform and RStudio as our analytical, statistical modeling platform.” Through these cutting-edge technologies, BrownForman has sought to democratize

11

data and its analytics so that employees from all departments can utilize this for their own ad hoc analyses every day.

Gaining the data is only the beginning. For this tool to really earn its stripes, Nall points out that you need to gain true insight and analysis of the figures. “We’re always cautious to say that, in a way, the data isn’t doing anything,” he explains. “It’s the insights we’re gleaning from the information that are important.

Data without analysis is wasted money. We’ve transformed how we look at the information; it’s w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

surfacing new ideas that are really driving positive action within the company.”

At Brown-Forman, data has been the bread and butter of the company’s digital transformation and it’s helping to deliver insights that drive tangible, real-life results, such as more informed pricing decisions. “It’s helped us see how our competitors are moving with regards to their price and how that affects us.

Over the past few months, we’ve been rolling out a revenue management application globally that’s been well received,” explains Nall. Data analysis 12

$3.25bn Approximate revenue

1870

Year founded

4,600

Approximate number of employees

has touched every corner of the American company, including the heart of its operations: its production division.

“We worked closely with the production organization and we saw that there

well known for its captivating market-

were issues that data analytics could

ing efforts but the company has taken

help resolve. Using data, we’ve taken

this one step further with its use of

a hard look at our barrel yield to see

data technology “We’ve engaged

what issues could be affecting it.

with partners like Salesforce to help us

Leveraging a lot of internal information

provide modern toolsets, and we’ve

and even external information like the

also looked at exact target marketing

temperature and other variables, we’ve

and consumer journeys so we can

provided dashboards that are really

better communicate with our customers

helping our production partners better

and deliver a better experience,” says

manage and forecast barrel yield.”

Nall. The wine and spirits firm has also

With its quintessential southern

made its first foray into chatbots and

American charm, Brown-Forman is

has used SMS text engagement at its

13

distillery tours. Additionally, as a sponsor

employees but are also viewed as

of the Kentucky Derby, Brown-Forman

brand ambassadors. “We look at every

says it can use a balance of marketing

employee as a tremendous brand

and data analytics to track whether

builder,” observes Nall. “We want our

event promotions have been effective

consumers to know the stories behind

and to forecast the success of its

Brown-Forman. We want them to

future campaigns. This, in turn, helps

engage with us so that we can tell them

marketing dollars go further and

about Old Forester, the first bottled

increases brand awareness.

bourbon. We want them to understand

The biggest tool for marketing, though,

our recipes so that they can create the

is undoubtedly Brown-Forman’s team.

perfect Manhattan. I think that’s the

With a 4,600-strong workforce world-

real benefit for the consumer: they get

wide, teams are not only seen as

this information and it’s digestible. w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

We view data and analytics as playing a significant role in our future successes.”

Over the past decade, technology has undoubtedly revolutionized the customer experience. With a few swipes and taps of our devices, we can get the goods and services we want when we want them.

Today’s consumers expect their experience to be seamless and indeed today’s workforces are no different.

“Just like we want to understand the expectations of our consumers, we also want to understand the expectations 14

our employees,” Nall adds. “Our employees expect a consumer-like experience.” Making working life simpler for staff in over 160 countries is not an easy feat, but by leveraging trailblazing technologies and processes Brown-Forman is hoping to bridge geographical gaps and bring its teams closer together.

“Whether it’s regarding their paycheques, their communications or their training, we want to make sure that it’s delivered seamlessly and that our employees have a great

15

w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

16

experience with it. We want to make sure

borders and time zones,” says Nall. As

that all our 160 countries are connected.

a Salesforce customer, Brown-Forman

You could do that by hopping on aero-

has not only adopted the firm’s customer

planes but that can be very costly and

relationship management (CRM) tool

so we are leveraging modern technology

globally, but is also using its Chatter tool

to help connect our team.”

that allows employees to keep in touch.

Pushing for better communication,

“Our employees are used to tweeting

Brown-Forman quickly got on board

and using instant messaging apps in

with cloud technology like Google’s G

their personal life so Chatter gives that

Suite platform and Cisco’s Webex tool.

to them professionally,” he adds. “It really

“We believe these tools help eliminate

allows all of these employees just to

17

“ We definitely believe that technology isn’t a solution, but it’s an enabler for change” — Tim Nall, Senior Vice President and CIO at Brown-Forman

w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

“ Data without analysis is wasted money” — Tim Nall, Senior Vice President and CIO at Brown-Forman

18

stay connected despite the time zones.”

As more and more technologies come to the fore, it seems it’s an exciting time to be in the alcoholic beverage space.

However, Nall is keen to point out the saying ‘if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ – that is, if a business relies too heavily on particular tools it may miss out on the perfect solution or idea. Instead, he suggests: “When we think about digital we always think about our stakeholders, our employees and our consumers. We definitely believe that technology isn’t a solution, but it is an enabler for change.”

w w w.bro wn- fo rm a n . com

19

General Counsel 850 Dixie Highway Louisville, Kentucky 40210 www.brown-forman.com