Accounting Disrupted

CHAPTER 1Accounting Disrupted

If you don't have the ability to navigate a new technology paradigm, you're not even going to be present for the future.¹

—Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

Unilever, the Anglo‐Dutch owner of brands like Marmite, Ben & Jerry's, Dove, and Hellmann's, spends 14% of its revenues on brand and marketing. It recognizes the rapid change in its customers who are becoming more digitally savvy and exhibiting different values from past generations. Consumers who are technophiles and are especially concerned about the company's social and environmental impact are on the rise. Campaigns have to resonate with the changing habits and values of the customer base. To achieve this, the company leverages machine learning tools to segment consumers in terms of their preferences and based on this, uses programmatic, data‐driven marketing to send them relevant messages via digital channels. Sensors are also embedded in every machine and building in order to provide digital representations of every process. This data is mined, and insights from AI systems and advanced analytics make possible predictions about quality concerns, malfunctions, and sustainability focused process issues. These automated systems enable Unilever to reach more customers in a targeted way, while reducing costs and freeing up employee resources to focus on other growth activities.

Alan Jope, Unilever's chief executive, notes that “the constraint is not money … but that the ability to manage the ...