Our India centre global innovation hub, not low-cost back office: Jayabalan

Jayabalan said the India GTDC is playing a crucial role for driving global innovations at the firm and the plan is to continue scaling up the centre both in terms of capacity and capabilities

Sreekanth Jayabalan, vice-president (V-P), transformation officer and V-P incharge of the Global Digital Technology Centre (GDTC) at global consumer goods firm Kimberly-Clark, said the India centre in Bengaluru is the growth engine for the company's global strategy. The firm, which is known for brands such as Huggies diapers, Kleenex facial tissue and Kotex feminine hygiene products, closed 2023 with over $20.4 billion net sales. In a video interview with Peerzada Abrar, Jayabalan said for the India GDTC, the plan is to continue scaling up the centre, both in terms of capacity and capabilities. 

Edited excerpts:

 

What is the strategic importance of the GDTC capabilities in India? 

 

This is an important and strategic centre for us. Kimberly-Clark's growth-centric strategy is hunched on three pillars. The first is accelerating pioneering innovation, implying, bringing in better products that meet consumer needs. The second is powering our margin structure to offer value-for-money products and play across market levels. The third pillar focuses on rewiring the organisation for growth, ensuring we leverage investments that we are making across the organisation. Now, underpinning this strategy and the core of these pillars is technology infrastructure, and the GDTC in India plays a critical role. Once digital innovations are developed, the GDTC ensures we can quickly deploy them across markets. The centre supports operational efficiency, ensuring our processes are streamlined. Bengaluru was chosen as the location due to its large talent pool and thriving technology ecosystem. I was part of setting up GDTC, when we started. We made an investment of $2.5 million, and it began as a small office. Over the past five years, the centre has grown eight times in size and is now the largest GDTC in the Kimberly-Clark world. As our business continues to roll out its strategy, the role of this GDTC continues to grow. 

 

Could you elaborate on the innovations that India teams are working on? 

 

Kimberly-Clark does not view the GDTC as a low-cost back office operation; rather, it is a hub for global innovation. The GDTC leads the rollout of global platforms, such as the SAP upgrade for our North America business, which is our largest business. On the supply chain innovations side, we do predictions and optimisation. We have built a global artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML)-based supply chain optimisation tool called Maestro, which saved nearly $20 million for Kimberly-Clark. The development, design and maintenance happened out of the Bengaluru GDTC office. We are also heavily investing in robotics for warehouse management space. We have built a warehouse automation robotics platform. It allows us to leverage robotics and automated guided vehicles. In the Western markets, we’ve implemented it. This is giving us a 70 per cent improvement in implementation time efficiency. The GDTC also leads initiatives in robotics, analytics and automation. These innovations are at the forefront, and the India centre is central to driving them. 

 

What are the plans to scale up operations in India and any opportunities you are looking to tap here?

 

We have GDTCs in other regions and commitments to continue investing globally, but we are very positive about the continued growth of our India GDTC. Our India strategy is underpinning IT capabilities. As the business evolves, we will continue to pivot and scale our capabilities to meet new needs. The last five years have positioned us as a growth engine for the company's global strategy. We are confident that investment will continue, both in capacity and capabilities. They will always be in correlation with the growing and new needs of the business. India is a massive market, especially because we know the large number of babies born each year here (currently over 25 million), which holds significant market potential. That’s why our ‘infant care’ category, particularly baby diapers, is one of the primary categories we operate in. We are one of the first international brands to manufacture diapers in the country. If you ask people about diapers, they are more likely to say ‘Huggies’ than just ‘diapers.’ From a business point of view, India is crucial, but from an IT and digital solutions perspective, it’s doubly important.

 

What is your strategy related to AI, automation, and other technologies for driving digital transformation initiatives?

 

Data and analytics, AI, ML, and Cloud technologies are three areas where we are extremely bullish. We are embedding AI into all aspects of our business, including driving automation. For example, we run a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Centre of Excellence from this (India) location. From here, we're generating AI-powered bots that automate operations across the enterprise. We recently organised a hackathon in conjunction with the leadership visit here, where teams presented their work on how they’re leveraging AI and ML. We had more than 130 ideas raised. Some of the use cases included identifying which consumers are most likely to switch to our products, analysing sentiment driven by advertising, and figuring out what makes videos go viral. We will incorporate these insights into our marketing materials. We are looking at how we can embed AI into various business functions, including sales, marketing, supply chain and finance. For a strong AI and ML practice, you need a solid data foundation. Kimberly-Clark is making significant investments to build that foundation. We have built a global data lake in our company to capture all data in one place, govern its usage, and enable all AI and ML efforts in the company. The entire IT leadership of Kimberly-Clark will be on-site in Bengaluru in the coming days, reviewing these initiatives and putting together plans for 2025. 

 

What are some trends you see shaping the industry over the next 5-6 years? 

 

People often say that data is the new oil, and those companies that build a strong foundation for harnessing and leveraging data will succeed. We see a strong focus on data foundations and analytics. However, having the right expertise to mine, curate, and maintain data is also essential. We expect data and analytics to continue to shape the industry, and we’re just scratching the surface of what can be achieved with data. A key enabler of this is AI and ML, which I see becoming embedded in all aspects of the business. For example, we are investing in AI and ML tools to improve productivity of our employees. We have also developed a tool called Fuel, which ingests decades of market research and crystallises that information into an AI tool, providing insights for marketers about consumer behavior and preferences. 

 

What role do your India operations play in global revenues?

 

As a global company, we have a strong and healthy financial performance. We closed 2023 with over $20.4 billion in net sales, and we are on a positive path on a successful 2024. The technology function—and by extension, the GDTC in India — is aligned with the business objectives. The business has set clear goals for growth and cost savings, and these objectives are underpinned by the technology capabilities we’re building here. However, it's not just about technology alone; it’s the combination of technology, business strategy, and execution that delivers results. We're also undertaking a massive investment to upgrade all of our core ERP systems and the associated technologies. We aim to implement this as a unified model across the entire Kimberly-Clark enterprise. With operations in over 50 countries, migrating everything to a single platform presents a major challenge in terms of scale. This is where our Bengaluru centre comes into play, as we leverage local talent and our vendor ecosystem to scale the solution across different markets.

 

Does your role also allow you to see the products that Kimberly-Clark makes in real life and take feedback?

 

I always encourage and urge my teams that, as much as their work permits, they should spend time in the market with our consumers and users to see how they interact with our products. A lot of great design happens in headquarters and in meeting rooms, but the real test comes when the product is being used by the consumer. There have been numerous cases where we’ve approached things with the best intentions, thinking that people would use something in a particular way. However, when we actually go into the field and observe how users are using or not using the product, we gain valuable insights that we can apply to unlock further value.