Over the last decade, Philip Morris International has undergone a seismic transformation—with smoke-free products growing from comprising zero net revenue to more than 40% today.
Fredric Patitucci, group chief people and culture officer, has ridden the wave of change along with the organization.
“I’m a pure product of PMI,” says Patitucci, a 35-year employee of the company, which today employs more than 80,000 around the world.
He was working for Kraft in France when Philip Morris bought and spun the company off into PMI. He spent time in Romania overseeing operations in Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East for eight years, and later in Russia and Switzerland. Patitucci took on the CHRO role about three years ago.
At that time, the organization was several years into its smoke-free transformation, and Patitucci recognized the need for the cultural evolution to catch up.
He brought together 350 people across the company and the world to define what PMI’s culture stands for in the world of smoke-free products.
“We’re moving from one category that was very security driven to smoke-free product alternatives,” he says. The effort led to the establishment of three key values called the PMI DNA: “We’re better together. We’re game-changers. We care.”
It was a shift that has proven essential for meeting the moment of AI.
“It helped us reset the code of the behaviors in the company by, in particular, emphasizing one key element that is critical for AI: collaboration,” Patitucci says.
Two years ago, Patitucci’s team staged a “roadshow” to introduce employees around the world to the PMI DNA, and last year’s effort was focused on developing a growth mindset—another aspect he says is proving essential for AI integration, which was the emphasis of this year’s roadshow.
“These elements combined helped us to culturally embrace what AI will bring to the organization,” Patitucci says. “Because AI is not really a tech play—it’s a mindset play, a leadership play.”
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For AI to really “land” in a sustainable way, organizations need to leverage both culture and a learning mindset, while redefining workflows. It’s work that requires using a broad lens to look at the organization. Too often, Patitucci says, leaders aren’t seeing the bigger picture.
“People still, I have to be honest, are looking at their own functional vertical,” he says.
Planning to welcome AI into the organization has to be “agnostic of functions,” with global process owners stepping out of the day-to-day and taking an end-to-end view. That’s where a learning appetite—which can motivate the sometimes “painful” effort to look beyond your own function—can be critical. And it’s a mindset HR should take the lead on driving.
“That’s where HR can go,” he says. “(You have to) take the company perspective and try to disassociate yourself from your own stream.”
The mistake of going ‘faster, not farther’
For PMI, that work has involved redefining workflows across its 90,000-strong workforce—including complex geographies, job categories, functions and more—to see where AI will have the most impact.
Patitucci likened the effort to going to the dentist: “A bit painful but worth it.”
As AI works its way into processes at PMI, leadership isn’t necessarily after immediate efficiency gains. Rather, they’re taking the long view, he says—looking at the consequences of decisions five and 10 years down the line.
“Are we there? Are we seeing the impact on the efficiency? The answer is no, but I don’t think that the companies that are betting on efficiency gains will go far. They may go faster, but not farther,” he says. “We have to remain calm but determined to make the right decision for the business.”
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