How to Drive Digital Transformation the Tyson Foods Way

Digital transformation is crucial for the growth and success of the rapidly evolving consumer goods industry in order to achieve true agility, collaboration, and innovation. For Danyel Bischof-Forsyth, chief technology officer with Tyson Foods, taking part in one such transformation was a key reason she joined Tyson Foods nearly five years ago, and the company's commitment to investing in digital growth has paved the way for much success. Bischof-Forsyth recently joined a CGT Fireside Chat to discuss both the power of digital transformation and some leadership lessons in driving growth and innovation in CPG. In her conversation with Kathy Bieler, customer success partner at Infosys, Bischof-Forsyth noted that Tyson’s ability to leverage technology through investing in digital growth was highly appealing as a reason to join the company. She joined the company as a technology leader supporting their poultry business — one of their three main businesses — and later expanded her role. Bischof-Forsyth was named CTO in January and now persistently encourages her friends to join her at Tyson for the opportunity to implement the technology they’ve only read about. The Tyson tech leader noted that success really comes down to the people and how they collaborate to solve problems more than the technology itself — something she highlighted as the easy part. The more complicated part is figuring out ways for the right people to be in the room to come together with varied ideas and figure out the best solutions for the organization, making sure they are not jumping to solutions too fast and have different perspectives represented. The company has had a clear focus and vision around technology transformation, focusing on three distinct areas: platforms, analytics, and automation. To focus on these areas, Tyson has leveraged partners in various ways, including partnering with Infosys for support of their applications and platforms to help accelerate the transformation of their business models. In touching upon the challenges faced during the pandemic, which was around the time they formed the partnership with Infosys, Bischof-Forsyth commented that it was impressive to see the teams rally together remotely to continue moving forward with that strategic vision — though in a way they never expected. Tyson relied on technology to solve various issues they were experiencing, doubling down on analytics and internal and external data to view and solve problems surrounding the supply chain, including sourcing ingredients differently or incorporating recipes that could be adjusted based on supply. But it was truly the people coming together that was critical: “It takes all of us to come together and make great things happen." Watch the full video to learn more leadership lessons from Bischof-Forsyth.

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