Think Like a Startup: How AI Drives Innovation

To keep a closer connection with its clients, the drinks firm adopts a startup mindset. Ronald den Elzen, senior technology and digital executive of The Heineken the business, appeared on a recent episode of MIT’s and BCG’s Me, Myself, & AI. Boston College’s Sam Ransbotham and BCG’s Shervin, with whom Khodabandeh presented the show.

Despite being 160 years old, van Elzen considers Heineken to be a Startup. Additionally, they have recently begun using functioning, back-end artificial intelligence to help with transportation, managing revenue, and marketing efficiency. For externally oriented issues like managing the supply chain and consumer interaction, the business uses artificial intelligence algorithms and statistical analysis.

“Traditional analytic AI, Artificial Intelligence models, and automated forecasting account for 95% of Heineken’s revenue and a significant portion of our investments,” he stated at this time.

Innovation Mindset

According to van Elzen, the corporation encourages innovation and entrepreneurship methods in all of its global locations. The compelling feature of AI is that it enables Businesses to play around with sectors, activities, and other elements. “You can only succeed if you’re prepared to lose occasionally,” he stated.

He continued, “The only way out can-do attitude, that business ownership, and that flexibility of responding swiftly to local situations are part of our DNA.” However, he said that one of the company’s challenges is that “it seems like we have 80 startups” that must be managed globally.

“The price of failures will be coming down significantly” as a result of AI and technological advances, den Elzen added. “A lot of small tests can be conducted simultaneously.”

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AI-Driven Growth

Predictive algorithms for revenue administration, promotional efficiency, customer advertising in supermarkets, and business-to-company trade advertising are at the heart of Heineken’s AI efforts. “There is a lot of promotional and advertising work, as you might expect with an organization like Heineken—advertising, the entire economic mix, optimizing, and sales execution,” den Elzen stated. “So, what is the best course of action and products that we should propose next? Since we must be strong and succeed there, we focus a lot of our efforts on the commerce side.

Artificial Intelligence is also being used by the business in its transportation and production processes. He said that artificial intelligence is a reasonably effective method for streamlining truck operations, including truck loading. We are using data from the global web of things for production purposes. In every brewery we own worldwide, we collect data from our machinery and attempt to analyze it, forecast equipment actions, and, of course, maximize production.

To minimise the expenses of disappointment, to, as fast as achievable, acknowledge we need to halt and then say, “let’s take another choice & do it again,” is what den Elzen considers his responsibility.

He went on to say that part of this involves encouraging “a degree of willingness to take risks rather than simply risk aversion.” “It would be incorrect if individuals truly fear making errors because they believe it will harm their careers. Therefore, we must safeguard those who are willing to commit costly mistakes.

Because of the internet, “I genuinely think it’s simpler today than it was a decade ago since failing doesn’t have come at such a high cost.”