Coworking: Dafne Guisard sets the ‘North Star’ for tech at Kraft Heinz

Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?

My job is to take a successful food company and transform it into a leader at the intersection of food and tech. At Kraft Heinz, this means setting the North Star, defining an investment strategy focused on growth and innovation.

To truly transform, we need to transform ourselves first by breaking old routines and habits. The best part of my role as chief strategy and transformation officer is positioning digital as the key enabler of our transformation, exploring cutting-edge technologies, and choosing to scale the capabilities that best serve our purpose, customers, and consumers.

What’s the most compelling tech project you’ve worked on, and why?

We are moving fast to deliver on many emerging tech projects as a team right now. One I’m proud of is the recent launch of our Tech Innovation Lab. Our goal is to create an ecosystem connecting all our digital products to give Kraft Heinz the ability to react in real time to any new signal impacting logistics, supply chain, operations, sales, and marketing.

This real-time farm-to-fork approach will help us predict the best set of actions to better serve our community, both B2B and B2C. Most importantly, I love having our entire suite of digital products at our fingertips, so we can learn and pivot our plans with agility. It’s a dream of ours to democratize information and empower each Kraft Heinz colleague to act as if the business were their own.

What technologies are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?

I have a background and passion for computer engineering and design and have been closely following the ongoing developments of generative AI, quantum computing, and hyperautomation. What intrigues me most about generative AI is the brain-power relief and ability to unlock new forms of creativity. The evolution of generative AI has been incredible, and I’m excited to see what positive food and beverage disruptions it can create for a better tomorrow.

Now, a trend that keeps me up at night is tech security. It’s becoming harder to stay away from scams, phishing, smishing, and other hacking that results in harm to people and companies. It’s also becoming more difficult to distinguish what’s legitimate from what’s not.

What’s the best tech-related media you read/watch/listen to?

I’m a diehard podcast listener. Here are some of my favorites: 99% Invisible, Decoder, and Pivot. When it comes to books, I have three top picks right now: The Unicorn Project, Humanocracy, and Women of Color in Tech. I love to constantly listen to and learn from leaders in a diverse set of industries where the common theme is human-centric and experience-led design.

What’s something about you we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?

I’m fascinated by the mind-body connection. When I’m not at the office, you can usually find me on very long runs. I’m currently training for a 200-mile trail race with high hopes to be one of the finishers. I enjoy the accomplishment that comes from any big challenge. That time spent running gives me an ability not to sweat small things, focus on what really matters, and challenge myself in a different way by pushing my own limits. It’s an outlet for me, which allows me to be present and think about things from a different perspective.

What do you think about when you’re not thinking about tech?

When I’m not thinking about tech, I’m usually thinking about how I can connect with people in a more meaningful way, which usually involves sharing a meal together. I’m a born extrovert and love meeting new people, listening to their stories, and trying new things with them.