Jaroslaw Pietraszko – CIO – IFFCO

Rebooting A Multi-National Food Titan – With AI

As mentioned, IFFCO owns dozens of the largest consumer brands. In addition, they are in the shipping and packaging business, the beauty industry, and the agriculture industry. That is a lot of eggs in a lot of different baskets, and AI development has been helping to keep all of that in check. Since they are in so many industries, becoming more efficient is key to making everything run smoothly. Jaroslaw mentions they are in the pilot stages of “bringing the promotion management AI models to understand what is the efficiency level to not spend any more money on the promotion in this particular category.” That is to say, when you have a company this large, that has to run a wide variety of Ad campaigns, this AI model should help them to know when to transition from one campaign to another.

What Is Coming Next For IFFCO?

Now that we understand what IFFCO does and the changes it is making, we want to learn what long-term changes they are looking to make as we head into the second half of this decade. One of the changes that Jaroslaw mentions is maintaining continuity with their customer base. Jaroslaw mentions “The people are changing, and it is a bit of a challenge to manage that properly.” IFFCO wants to make sure that they always have what the consumers want, which is a daunting task remembering that they are in so many industries, in so many nations. But that is not the only thing IFFCO wants to adapt to, they are also looking to standardize more and more of their devices to maximize efficiency.

Embracing Change In A Dynamic Region

Jaroslaws personal reboot is a perfect example of how embracing something scary or challenging can do wonders for yourself. Before he came to IFFCO nine years ago, Jaroslaw was working at a very well-respected American firm. One of those firms that “people used to join them after university and stay till retirement” but Jaroslaw still decided to leave, as “when you have this kind of energy and flexibility, the Middle East is really the region to go.” Although it was not a choice without any regret, he had a life, friends, and a routine in America that he had to leave behind, which is no small task, especially when you are moving across the world in the process. These are the choices that you have to take a bet on sometimes if you want to see a real change in your life, and in the world around you. His sage advice “keep and open mind”.