How CIDO Guy Peri Leads McCormick's Digital Transformation
Editor's Note: This article is a part of a CGT series that digs into leadership hires a year into the new positions, to learn how roles are evolving and how fresh eyes can transform business operations.
When Guy Peri joined McCormick & Co. last year, the company had declared its global digital transformation a priority, establishing the chief information and digital officer role (CIDO) to help support the effort through innovation, agility and reinvention.
As CIDO, Peri has been leading the enterprise's digital transformation strategy, which touches IT and operational tech, cybersecurity, data and AI, and all digital platforms across consumer experiences, retail partnerships, supply chain and product innovation.
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During his yearlong tenure, that strategy has only grown sharper, increasingly focused on consolidating complexity — from supply chain and product development to marketing and retail execution — for a company that serves over 150 countries globally.
"By integrating AI, democratized data and automation into our operations, we’re enhancing decision-making, streamlining processes and unlocking new opportunities for growth," Peri tells CGT.
The Task at Hand
It began as an initial mandate to implement a unified digital strategy, but this has become increasingly tactical as he's deepened his understanding of the company's needs and opportunities.
For example, what was first a high-level focus on foundational infrastructure, ERP modernization and data-led optimization has turned into a firm set of strategic initiatives that align with regional and functional plans.
"This reflects an agile, business-integrated approach to digital strategy: one that’s responsive to local needs while driving global scale and consistency," he says, adding that he's also working on refining the company's tech and transformation functional operating model to ensure alignment between tech and business outcomes and elevating cross-functional collaboration supported by improved governance and accountability standards.
"It’s about orchestrating a full-scale enterprise transformation as much as it is about leading digital strategy," says Peri. "It’s building and fueling a secure, resilient and delightful digital foundation that empowers our people to work differently and drives business performance globally."
AI at the Core
Many of the initiatives Peri leads have embedded AI as the core, enabled by a strong data foundation. One of the company's biggest priorities to date is the reinvention of its end-to-end planning and product innovation lifecycle, enabled by a unified and democratized data foundation, he says.
"Our AI models and agentic workflows run on top of this data foundation and are integrated into work processes. We’re enhancing our enterprise-wide data governance to ensure consistency across functions while also enabling self-service analytics, responsible AI and embedding digital fluency throughout the organization."
As part of this, the company recently launched its McCormick AI Platform, which was developed in-house through a cross-functional agile pod as a way to support employees with data.
"McCormick AI provides secure, cost-effective access to generative AI tools, and it’s a catalyst for reinventing how we work, enabling employees to use AI as a teammate for creativity, productivity and innovation," he says.
These digital initiatives work on top of the company's S/4HANA ERP transformation.
To encourage adoption and scale business use cases, McCormick ran an internal AI challenge, which resulted in over 50 examples of ways employees across regions and functions are using the platform to drive business growth.
"As we do this, upskilling is a key focus area," he says. "It’s not enough to make digital tools available to create a data-driven culture — digital fluency training and work process integration are essential."
Measuring Success
When it comes to tech capabilities and cybersecurity, the company sees these as business enablers that can manage risk in a way that keeps the company flexible without compromising the integrity of its data.
The transformation efforts go beyond IT, however. The upgrades impact how the company operates, innovates and creates a future-ready workforce through an enhanced digital backbone supported by a new competency model and learning programs that build fluency in data and tech.
"At the highest level, we’re positioning the IT function as a strategic growth engine. We will continue to keep our systems running, protect our data and maintain compliance. That’s critical, but it’s not sufficient," he says. "Our strategy is to spend even more of our energy on value creation, where IT actively drives innovation, agility and business impact. And our intent is to do this across the entire enterprise … with data and insights informing every step along the way."
As a result, the company expects to unlock faster decision-making, deeper consumer insights and more agile execution across its global footprint.
The wins will be measured using a balanced scorecard that aligns with the company's core pillars of performance, growth and people.
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"On the performance side, we’re targeting efficiency gains through process optimization. For growth, we’re tracking how digital capabilities help us win in key categories — whether that’s through personalized marketing, faster innovation cycles or better retail execution," says Peri.
Year-One Learnings
Alignment: "A business relationship model that connects commercial, function and technology priorities ensures that our digital strategy is not just top-down but co-created with business leaders to serve their needs."
Culture: "We’ve launched communications and culture initiatives (all-hands forums, informal conversations and programs like the CIDO Job Swap) to reinforce that every role in T&T contributes to our shared mission."
Value-Driven Execution: "Our strategy is focused on delivering measurable impact. We’re spotlighting digital moments across the company to celebrate new ways of working and recognize engagement with technology that creates meaningful outcomes."
Digital transformation is not just a technology journey, says Peri, it’s a business transformation powered by people, process and digital tools.
