How Swire Coca-Cola Turned Governance Into an AI Growth Engine

**Bharathi Rajan** (0:00)
Governance is not red tape. It is important if you want to make decisions with the right data, you need to have governance. You have to have the quality data flowing in.

**Cindi Howson** (0:18)
Welcome to The Data and AI Chief. I'm your host, Cindi Howson.
Every time you open a perfectly chilled Coca-Cola, or in my case, Diet Coke, on a hot day, you're tasting the end result of a massive data-driven operation designed to refresh your world without a hit. If you're a data leader trying to get AI off the ground, chances are governance feels less like a seatbelt and more like a roadblock. But what if flipping that script is the exact secret weapon you need to unlock massive business outcomes? My guest today has done exactly that. Bharathi Rajan is Vice President of Data, Digital, and AI at Swire Coca-Cola, one of the top five Coca-Cola bottlers in North America.
Over the course of Bharathi's career, she's built data and AI across manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare, saving companies millions of dollars, and turning data governance into a genuine growth lever. In this episode, you'll learn how to bring digital data and AI under one leadership, and how that drives standardization across the enterprise. Bharathi, welcome to The Data and AI Chief.

**Bharathi Rajan** (1:43)
Thanks, Cindi.

**Cindi Howson** (1:45)
Where are you joining us from today, Bharathi?

**Bharathi Rajan** (1:48)
I am based out of Salt Lake City, so Utah. I'm joining from the wonderful state of Utah with all the beautiful mountains.

**Cindi Howson** (1:57)
Awesome. Why do I forget that? Maybe because I often meet you at a conference somewhere, but we'll be in Salt Lake in August.
Yes, we're going to have to meet in your backyard.

**Bharathi Rajan** (2:11)
Yes, absolutely. I'd love that. Let me know when you're here. I'd love to meet you here and show you around Utah.

**Cindi Howson** (2:18)
Yeah, definitely. Normally, I'm only there for skiing, so summer will be a new experience. Now, Bharathi, when most people hear Coca-Cola, they're thinking of that iconic red can or the beautifully shaped glass bottle and the brand. But the machinery behind to get that into customers' homes is where Swire comes in. Tell us a little bit about that.
Sure.

**Bharathi Rajan** (2:49)
Swire Coca-Cola is one of the bottlers for the Coke company here in the United States. Our parent company is based out of Hong Kong and UK, and we also manufacture and distribute in Asia as well. Our focus here is manufacturing and distributing that iconic bottle or the iconic can and the bottle as well.
So we have six manufacturing plants here in the US, and then we have about 60 plus distribution centers that distribute the Coke across the American West.

**Cindi Howson** (3:25)
Yeah.
I feel like I have to share two early career highlights, if you will, where Coca-Cola influenced me. One is like as a third grader, I drew a Coca-Cola bottle and the branding, and of course that won a prize. Now I'm down to stick figures. But the other thing is when I was thinking I would do journalism in college, I did an investigative report on how Coca-Cola protects its brand. The news anchor dubbed it Coca-Cola Police, that goes in and make sure that if they're ordering a Coca-Cola, it's not a different brand, which I think is really cool.

**Bharathi Rajan** (4:12)
Yeah, branding is such an important part of what we do, and having that red color in the bottle and the can. Everything around branding is so critical for us. Again, there's a reason why Coke is known everywhere, because of that branding and how we position that branding. So it's so important.
Yeah.

**Cindi Howson** (4:33)
So I feel like I should ask you on a hot day, what's your go-to beverage?

**Bharathi Rajan** (4:38)
It's Coke Zero.

**Cindi Howson** (4:40)
There you go.

**Bharathi Rajan** (4:41)
Okay.

**Cindi Howson** (4:42)
Now, of course, your career is not only Coca-Cola and Swire, but it spans Goldman Sachs, healthcare.
What drew you to CPG now? What are the skills that transfer and what did you have to relearn?

**Bharathi Rajan** (5:03)
So what drew me to CPG? It's about four and a half years ago. I was sort of not sure what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go next. And one of the reasons that drew me to CPG or to Coke specifically is just, again, the branding and it's just such an iconic company to work for. And I'm like, here's a fun fact, Cindi, Coke is the second most well-known word in the world after OK.

**Bharathi Rajan** (5:33)
So why wouldn't I?