The Twin Cities Business Show

The Twin Cities Business Show

Real conversations with the builders and leaders shaping Minnesota’s economy, from legacy industries to the frontiers of innovation. The Twin Cities Business Show is produced by the team at Twin Cities Business.

  1. May 27

    The AI Playbook Behind General Mills’ Digital Transformation

    AI is going to transform every workplace, and that makes a lot of people afraid. At the first live taping of The Twin Cities Business Show, we asked Jaime Montemayor, the Chief Digital, Technology & Transformation Officer at General Mills, about this fear. No, he does not think AI is going to wipe out millions of jobs – but he thinks it will change them. It will change how businesses work, and the people that can use it to reinvent business processes will drive a lot of value in the months and years to come. He also believes that it will create new categories of jobs that don't yet exist. If you want to drive change at your organization with AI, you need to have a human in the loop. Jaime shared that at General Mills, there are processes that require more human touch than others, but the bigger the decision, the more critical it is to have someone making the final call. Their company has overhauled its tech stack and built an internal AI tool called MillsAI which contains a toolbox of approved, secured tools that their employees can use. Finally, he shared that cats are one of the biggest growth areas for General Mills. Cat ownership is growing faster than any other pet in the U.S., and Jaime shares how the company is capitalizing. They expanded from human food to pet food with the $8 billion purchase of Blue Buffalo in April 2018, and increased their footprint by buying Tiki Cat for $1.45 billion in late 2024.

    34 min
  2. May 14

    Tens of Millions of Hourly Workers Have No Healthcare - River Health Wants to Fix That

    There are 75 million hourly workers in the United States, and many of them are not eligible for employer sponsored health insurance. In this episode of The Twin Cities Business Show, Kobby Amoah, CEO of Minneapolis-based digital health company River Health, wants to help close that gap. His company is building digital health plans for hourly workers. They work with companies like Taco Bell and Raising Cane's to bring new healthcare options to their hourly employees. River Health relocated to Minneapolis after participating in a local health tech accelerator program because they viewed this market as a perfect one to build a health tech company in. Kobby shared more about why they decided to move the company and build it here. Standard health plans in the U.S. can cost upwards of 30% of an hourly employee's salary, which is often unaffordable for business owners, so River Health is attacking the market for tens of millions of these underinsured or uninsured workers to help bring them better options. Building a company is all about knowing your user – and for River Health, that meant learning as much as possible about what hourly workers need from a health plan. One key feature this led them to build was around subscription delivery. Kobby shared how this particular pain point is the type of thing that's invisible to many white collar workers. If you don't have a predictable schedule or work late shifts, it can be hard to find the right time to swing by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. That's why their company has focused on delivering drugs directly to the homes of the workers that they serve.

    46 min
  3. May 13

    Protein Frenzy: How Hormel is capitalizing on protein's big moment

    On this episode of The Twin Cities Business Show, we sit down with Hormel Foods President John Ghingo for an in-depth conversation about where the company is heading. The company runs top food brands like SPAM, Skippy, Planters, Applegate, Herdez, and more.How did the protein frenzy take over America? He shared some details on the long-running consumer trend and how people have recently been looking more at the full range of health benefits offered by protein, including aging, bone health, weight management, and more. Hormel does protein "the old fashioned way", which Ghingo thinks is what sets them apart. People used to eat three square meals – today, they're more likely to eat five smaller meals. This trend has been driven by a number of things, including an increase in working from home. At the same time, snacks used to be about treats, but now they're more about fueling the body for the day. Hormel is focused on driving their brands towards fueling people during those snack windows, like expanding Skippy peanut butter from sandwiches into portable snacks. How does a company like Hormel predict what people are going to eat five years into the future? When thinking about supply chains, marketing, branding, and more, they need to know what people want way before they ever think about heading to the cupboard. Ghingo shared how they've mapped out consumer behavior across their day to find moments where they can meet them, then use that data to predict how people will be eating in the years to come. Come see us LIVE at Minneapolis Club this May 19th from 3 - 6 pm for AI Unleashed, where we'll host the first ever live episode of The Twin Cities Business Show with General Mills Chief Digital, Technology and Transformation Officer Jaime Montemayor. Tickets & Info: https://tcbmag.com/events/ai26/

    30 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Real conversations with the builders and leaders shaping Minnesota’s economy, from legacy industries to the frontiers of innovation. The Twin Cities Business Show is produced by the team at Twin Cities Business.

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