BATTLE CREEK, MICH. — In order to evolve and adapt to ever-changing consumer expectations, businesses need to take an end-to-end approach toward digital solutions, said Lesley Salmon, global chief information officer at Kellogg Co.

Ms. Salmon recently published an article that offers advice on doing business in a digital world and suggests that companies focus on a few key areas of improvement in their end-to-end approaches.

She said the first and foremost focus should be on attracting and retaining talented people that can offer digital solutions.

“For me, it's all about people — having the right people delivering through great partnerships with the key stakeholders across the business, understanding their needs, pre-empting, and then responding to them,” she said. “To attract and retain the right people, we need to satisfy their hunger to experiment, fail fast and learn.”

She also pointed to the importance of integrating technology that is customer focused, citing Kellogg’s use of NaviLens technology in 2020 as an example.

After learning about the millions of people in the United Kingdom that experience sight loss and their difficulties reading packaging information, Kellogg launched a successful pilot that incorporated NaviLens into its packaging, allowing consumers to access the information with their smartphones’ accessibility tools.

Ms. Salmon also placed a large emphasis on data-driven decision making. According to her, Kellogg’s combination of data and analytics with marketing resources has allowed the company to create a rich omnichannel experience that precisely tailors product offerings, prices and messaging to consumers’ needs.

“Data has always been available but never in the abundance that it is today,” she said. “Freeing data from silos is critical to meet consumer needs and preparing for the future consumer experience.”