Revolutionizing Consumer Healthcare with AI and Data Innovation with Bernardo Tavares, Chief Technology and Data Officer at Kenvue

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:25] Hey everybody, welcome back to The Beat Podcast, recorded live here at Health 2024. I'm excited to be with Bernardo Tavares today. He's the Chief Technology and Data Officer at Kenvue.

[00:00:49] He oversees the information technology and data science groups and, as key enablers of innovation and growth, leads the data and technology agenda by scaling digital capabilities to better serve customers and consumers. Bernardo, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Glad to be here, Saul. Hey, glad to be here with you. And so what brings you to health? Well, it's an amazing question. I mean, this is such a wonderful space. Growing up, I'm originally from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and growing up in a very large, curious, extended family.

[00:01:18] Grew up loving technology and what it could do. So as an engineer, I embarked in the tech industry back in the 90s, building up what today is this formidable digital capability. Then I moved on to, I fell in love with consumer goods, right? I went into the industry, I just loved the pace, the rhythm, the dynamics, and then had a long stint in healthcare. So it's this intersection of consumer, healthcare, and technology grounded on consumer needs. And at the core of all that is data.

[00:01:45] And that's what I love about how to bring that all together to serve consumers and elevate the standard of care. Wow. That's fantastic. Thanks for sharing that journey. Tell us about Kenview. Absolutely. Well, many of our listeners may not have heard about Kenview yet, but I'm sure that they will have experienced our brands through years in caring for themselves and their loved ones, and for generations even. Brands like Tylenol, Moultrin, Zyrtac, Aveeno, Neutrogena, Blisterine, Band-Aid.

[00:02:11] So a lot of brands that have been around for quite a long while, such a history of science-based innovation. What was amazing in our history really began in May the 4th, last year, when we had our IPO. And at that moment, we became the largest pure play consumer health company in the world. And it's an amazing opportunity to think of what we can do with that scale in reinventing ourselves digitally. That's fantastic. Wow. So all those brands that we all know wrapped up under one roof. Absolutely. That's fantastic.

[00:02:38] So, Bernardo, health is a special meeting, a lot of innovation, a lot of players looking ahead. And access to products that provide care solutions for daily needs across every stage of life, it's essential for health equity. How are you using data and customer insights at Kenview to create personalization while also retaining the privacy of the consumer? Absolutely. I think this is a vital question for all of us, for all of us at Kenview.

[00:03:06] So we serve 1.2 billion consumers every day through all our 90-plus brands in 165 countries. So you can imagine that consumer insights and understanding what they need to make their lives better at every age and stage is fundamental for us. And that's why to elevate that center of care, we really need to find and uncover the human truths behind it. And the way we do that traditionally is really to harnessing consumer insights and bringing that into our innovation process.

[00:03:31] Well, traditionally, that has always been a little bit slow and kind of rear view mirror based. But now we do have the power of data to really get a 360 view of what our consumers are doing. What we do a lot is create this data infrastructure that allows us to really sense what consumers are thinking and how they're talking about our brands in real time. And then harnessing that into what we call human-centered innovation. So there's a lot of examples in how we're using that ecosystem to drive personalization. So one example is Zyrtec.

[00:03:59] We have a companion product, AllergyCast, that helps people understand their symptoms, not just the pollen count and what happens around the environment, but how they're feeling about their allergy to help them treat better at their symptoms in a personalized way. Or with Nicorette, when we're helping people quit smoking, not just by applying a patch, but by helping them through the moments of craving in a personalized way, help them quit better in their own terms. These are examples of personalization, but you're right. We have to take privacy very seriously.

[00:04:27] You know, this is all data about our consumers, but first and foremost is data for our consumers to care for themselves. And we have a pretty high bar at CanView in collaboration across privacy, cybersecurity, in making sure that we protect our consumers' data. Well, it sounds like a very intentional approach and also very strategic where the consumers can benefit and you're really helping them through their journey. You're not just helping them buy more products. Yes, absolutely.

[00:04:51] You know, markets are conversations and our consumers want to engage and they want to be heard and we better listen. That's fantastic. Thanks, Bernardo. You know, let's hit the topic. Everybody's talking about it. AI. Of course. So AI has gone from a futuristic concept to an everyday business tool. How are you leveraging AI to further CanView's purpose of realizing the extraordinary power of everyday care? There's been such an overload on the use of AI and no wonder.

[00:05:20] I mean, never before we had such a coming together of advanced mathematics, incredible microelectronics, and the amount of data that we've never seen before. So when you bring that all together, you can solve the complex problems of our day. And I do believe that we all have such a responsibility if you're in the space to really advance how this can be used as a force for good. As we're shifting, I don't talk so much about AI. What I talk about is like we talked about digital 20 years ago. Today, we should talk about being more predictive.

[00:05:48] It's really about the next word that we start using more is about autonomy. So we're starting to see not just human-to-bots interactions, but bot-to-bots. And it's a whole new world that we have to learn how to bring it to life. And we bring it forward in a very principled way in how we serve our consumers, how we partner with our healthcare professionals, and our customers as well. So that's why at CanView, we have that principled approach. And we apply it in two ways today. First is really looking at the long-in fruit, which is how do we remove friction from our value streams?

[00:06:18] Nobody likes friction. We prefer the light, right? So how do we bring the light forward and take anything that's standing in the way of productivity performance? So the examples on how we use that is to improve our planning engine across the company. You know, often when we second-guess our forecasting, we make it worse. So how about partnering and helping the algorithms be smarter so they can serve us better by predicting problems before they happen? Another example is making our employees more productive. So, hey, end of the year, beginning of the year, time to set your goals.

[00:06:47] We created a Gen.AI-assisted goal setting tool that everybody loves because it helps them in context to really come up with the right smart goals for what they have to do. And it's a killer app. People will love it. I bet the managers love it. They love it as well. But it really engages people in the conversation that there is a co-intelligence here. That's awesome. I love that. And how we can collaborate together. So one is removing friction. The other one is about enabling growth. That's where we're the most excited about how we can mine data and monetize it responsibly.

[00:07:14] For example, how we partner with our customers in retail with very advanced ways to predict that a product is not going to be on a shelf when a shopper needs it and getting ahead of that with our customers. That's been a massive lever for growth. And also how we make our products easier to think of. And Gen.AI is really a big help in that sense, you know, creating more better content. But what we talk about is that we also have to be that human in the loop at all times to make sure we're supervising that power. And that's why at the center of the strategy that we have at CanView, trust is at the core.

[00:07:43] Because frankly, you cannot leave the sandbox of AI experimentations and go full production unless you have a good trust framework and a good architecture to make sure your models are not only save at go live, but they're always checked for preventing drift and other things that will make your models less reliable. No, I love that. All the applications from in the store to operations to employee development. You guys are definitely all in and forward thinking on these technologies. Absolutely.

[00:08:13] So sustainability is one of the most challenging issues facing consumer health companies today. How's your team using technology to further advance CanView sustainability goals? Absolutely critical point. So much that I can view we created our Healthy Lives mission. Because, you know, you cannot aspire to have healthy people if there's no healthy planet. And that's why I created a set of ESG goals that is addressing things like climate change, plastics, land and forest use, and so on.

[00:08:42] But what we found, the three ways that we addressed that issue is tech and data and a really cross-functional endeavor. Number one is really make sure we have clean, connected, complete data. You know, you cannot have a clean planet if you don't have clean data to represent what you're going after. So that was a major effort. We started to make sure we created our CanView data platform to really measure in real time our greenhouse gas emissions and so on and so forth. So that was a major undertaking that allows us to track where we are and that we keep our promises.

[00:09:12] The second area is related to sustainable innovation. So we are very excited that we created a capability or sustained innovation profiler that's helping educate and prepare our R&D innovators to future-proof our innovation in terms of their sustainability performance, whether it's about the ingredients themselves or the packaging. And all of our innovation is going to go through that process, which is really going to help us future-proof innovation.

[00:09:38] And lastly, not just educating internally our researchers and how we go to market, but educating our consumers and being transparent with them. So that's why in our digital platforms, we're also creating transparency about our ingredients so our consumers can make the right choices, whether it's with Neutrogena, we have our glossary of ingredients in our digital platform, or with Johnson's Baby Digital Transparency Tool, really engaging consumers in that conversation. And we are learning that they really appreciate that. And it increases trust both ways.

[00:10:07] Well, that's certainly a very clear direction with that plan. And I appreciate you sharing that with us, Bernardo. Thank you. You know, this year's theme is bold. And I'm asking everybody that we have conversations with to give us an example of how the organization, Kenview, is being bold and making healthcare better, faster, more equitable. Yeah, I love this topic of bold, given the responsibility that we have.

[00:10:34] And at Kenview, we recognize that healthcare can be a crowded, confusing, and often inaccessible space. And if we're trying to serve the next billion consumers, right, and empowering themselves to take care of their health, we really need to break down barriers, not doing what's popular, but by doing what's right. One example that comes to mind for me at Kenview that I'm really passionate about is our Versily platform. You know, Versily is a digital-first menopause platform.

[00:11:01] And it's a whole system that brings not only information, it's often a taboo space where women find very little help. So to bring curated, reliable, scientific information so they can make their own choices, to present them with a storefront with Kenview products, but also curated complementary products for them to care for themselves, and also to allow them to have care. So access to healthcare of professionals that are not only trained, but empathetic in addressing, making that a part of the conversation.

[00:11:29] So I think that's an example of how we're creating a category, really, and really changing the way we look at hormones, health, and menopause. And it's a much delayed action from companies. So that's an example of bold that I can think of. I would definitely call that bold. And it's a hot topic right now. You know, you got people like Oprah and Halle Berry, who's here at the conference, talking about these things. Yes, absolutely. It's front and center. So congratulations on staying at the front and center of what's most relevant to consumers,

[00:11:59] leveraging these technologies to really bring the best value to everybody that uses them, and those that are figuring out about the products you offer. We're closing out here, Bernardo. So just with this close, can you give us a call to action and the best place that people could learn about you and about Kenview? Absolutely. So to wrap up, I'll bring up three things that to me are really, really important and relevant if you're going through this journey as well. The first one is getting into a learning mode, which means unlearning, right? If we're making the shift to predictive, it's not intuitive.

[00:12:28] It requires a different way of collaborating with these wonderful machines we're creating, but always in service of care for people. So we're also learning that elevating your standards of technology, engineering is really important. Don't delegate that out to third parties. If it's at the heart of your business, you've got to relearn the fundamentals of taming the beast, as we call it sometimes. The second one is trust, right? We have to be the human in the loop always. There's no second guessing that. You have to create the parameters, the guardrails to make sure that you're doing that in a safe and responsible way.

[00:12:58] Kenview would like to say that we are in trust with science, the science of our products, the science of data, and the science of helping brands grow and meeting consumer needs. And the last one for me, which is really personal, is to bring your curiosity and sense of wonder into the space with an aim to doing better for people. There's never been a better place to really harness technology that we have in front of us. So how do we use this privilege and responsibility to empower consumers in elevating the standard of care?

[00:13:23] Now, you can find me at LinkedIn and you can follow us at Instagram or check us out at Kenview.com. Amazing. Bernardo, thank you so much for all the ways to get in touch. Everybody, you know how this goes. In the show notes, you'll find all the links, the short notes on our discussion today with Bernardo Tavares, Chief Technology and Data Officer of Kenview, making bold moves to make healthcare better for all of us. Bernardo, thanks for being with us. Thank you.

[00:14:11] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare-exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.