Coca-Cola eyes global boost with first chief data officer

Coca-Cola has recruited its first ever global chief data officer as the soft drinks giant looks to ramp up its digital and analytics operations and put data at the heart of its entire business.

Priya Raman is returning to the company from Microsoft to take up the role and will sit within a new Coke unit, dubbed Platform Services, which has been set up as part of a group overhaul, and covers data management, consumer analytics, digital commerce and social media.

Raman started her career at Kantar in 1996 as a trainee at the research firm’s New Delhi operation, rising through the ranks to become director of market research within five years.

She then spent nearly six years at GE Capital, initially leading its data analytics division and then heading up product marketing before switching to Coke India as general manager of strategy for analytics, insights and market research.

While at Coke, Raman built the data function from scratch, launching marketing mix models to address marketing and sales strategy. She also introduced concept tests to experiment new pricing, packaging, brand, occasion, channel mix; a strategy which it is claimed triggered growth of more than 25% in sales in new channels.

However, within two years, Raman had quit to join Nielsen in Singapore, leading on digital transformation strategies for retail clients and then moved to Chicago to become senior vice-president of data science and global solutions.

In 2016, she joined insurance group Hub International to build its data team and then moved to Microsoft in 2017 as chief data and intelligence officer.

Raman’s appointment, as well as the launch of the Platform Services unit, was revealed by Coke’s chief financial officer John Murphy at Morgan Stanley’s online global consumer and retail conference.

He said: “Platform Services will… really change the way we are able to leverage data. The new chief data officer will be a tremendous catalyst for the opportunity we have ahead in that space.

“The second part of the Platform Services equation is to be able to become a much more data-driven enterprise. And for that to happen, it’s work that I firmly believe needs to be centralised, needs to have one set of owners, and in order to have the foundations in place whereby you can then go and leverage it for whatever the business needs are. The new chief data officer will have a key role to play in bringing that to life.”

Raman will report into Coca-Cola’s chief information and integrated services officer Barry Simpson.