8/28/2018
By Peter High. Published on Forbes
Farmers Insurance has named Paul Wilson as its new chief information officer effective August 30, 2018. He comes to his new role with nearly 30 years of insurance knowledge and leadership experience.
In his role at Farmers, Wilson will serve as a member of the insurer group’s senior leadership team and oversee the development and application of all strategic IT initiatives.
“We are proud to welcome Paul to Farmers at an important time in the organization’s history as efforts continue in the area of technology innovation to better serve our customers,” said Jeff Dailey, CEO of Farmers Insurance. “With his extensive background in the insurance industry and IT leading transformational, digital and data-driven initiatives, we are confident Paul will be a strong asset to the Farmers team.”
To read the full article, please visit Forbes
8/27/2018
Rubrik, a Palo Alto, CA based company that delivers a single platform to manage and protect data in the cloud, at the edge, and on-premises, has named longtime VMware executive, Avon Puri, as its first chief information officer. As CIO, he has three mandates. First, to assemble the infrastructure to support the company’s growth to $1 billion in revenue and beyond. (In a release earlier this year, the company noted that it had achieved $300 million in global bookings run-rate.) He noted, “By infrastructure, I am referring not only to the technology necessary to support our growth, but the architecture, as well as the people and processes necessary to do so.”
His second mandate is based on the company’s leadership position in data management and protection. Puri noted, “We need to foster data intelligence in all that we do and remain top of the class.”
Understandably, we often read of former business stalwarts that become disrupted by digital native organizations, losing stature and market share along the way. Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta has written a book entitled Driving Digital Strategy, A Guide to Reimagining Your Business, providing a framework for businesses to follow to avoid this fate while thriving in the digital economy. Best Buy has gone from showroom for Amazon to a legitimate competitor with it within the realm of consumer electronics. Traditional media company, The New York Times has created a thriving digital product behind a carefully designed paywall. John Deere has formed a data-analysis arm to complement its farm-equipment business, substantially growing its business in the process.
(To listen to this interview in podcast form, please click this link. To read future articles like this one, please follow me on Twitter @PeterAHigh.)
Peter High: I would like to start with your new book, Driving Digital Strategy, A Guide to Reimagining Your Business. This is a topic that is on the minds of many technology executives who lead immigrant organizations as opposed to digital native organizations. The challenge these digital immigrants face is profound given the legacy systems they have in place and the enormous scale on which they need to be transformed. Where do you believe these executives should look to begin this transformation?
Sunil Gupta: For the legacy companies, it is a more significant challenge than for a startup since a startup begins with a clean slate. With these legacy companies, I compare this transformation to changing an engine on a plane that is on fire while it is flying. Established companies must strengthen their core business while simultaneously building for the future, which is a daunting task. In my last ten years of research, which culminated in my book, I have found that there is not a single place that you need to touch for digital transformation. Instead, there are four broad parts that organizations need to look at more closely.
I do not believe that there is one single part of the organization that needs to change, but instead all four of these parts eventually must come together to make that transformation.
Regarding where to start, I would always recommend starting with the end consumer. This allows companies to understand how the consumer trends are changing, how the company’s value proposition is shifting, and if the company can solve the consumer pain points in a different way than what was previously done.
8/20/2018
Steve Phillips has joined Alorica, a leading platform to manage customer interactions as Chief Information Officer. In that role, he is responsible for prioritizing Alorica’s business needs from an IT perspective and enhancing operational excellence. He was brought into this role based on his experience as a global technology leader for more than 25 years, with a special focus on customer-focused IT strategy, digital transformation, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
Alorica Chairman and CEO Andy Lee noted, “We can’t do what we do without technology. It’s through our technological capabilities that we’re able to empower our people to deliver insanely great customer experiences on behalf of the world’s best brands. Bringing on an experienced leader like Steve as our CIO demonstrates our continued commitment to developing innovative solutions under the right leadership to support our clients and their customers every day, in every interaction.”
Albert Hitchcock joined 174 year old Pearson as Chief Information Officer in early 2014, the company was already in the throes of a major transformation. It had moved its emphasis from publishing to education, and would announce a dedication to the latter the following year.
Hitchcock facilitated this change through a three-phased transformation, which includes radical simplification, platform strategy, and execution strategy. The radical simplification has included the consolidation of systems, moving from data centers to the cloud, and people and culture changes.
Now, under Hitchcock’s leadership, the company is moving toward a single platform, similar to Netflix for education, which will be highly scalable, global in nature, high-quality, and one that can deliver all of their experiences around the world to millions of learners.
Along the way, Hitchcock’s role has aggrandized, as he has moved from CIO to Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of the company. Now his purview includes IT and digital transformation, but also product development, procurement, supply chain, customer service, and real estate.
To listen to this interview in podcast form, please visit this link.
Peter High: You are the Chief Operating and Technology Officer at Pearson. You took on these responsibilities in 2016 after two years as the company’s Chief Information Officer. Could you talk about your current purview? Additionally, could you explain why you changed roles and the differences between the responsibilities the roles entail?
Albert Hitchcock: I have been with Pearson for just over four years, having previously joined from Vodafone Group where I was the Group Chief Information Officer for seven years. When I joined Pearson, I was especially interested in the mission of the company and the agenda it had to transform education through the digital medium. I joined the company as the CIO and took on the responsibility to look into how we transform the company into a digital enterprise. One of my first roles was to look across the business and see how the company was operating. This entailed searching for ways we could implement technology to both streamline the way the company ran and how we served our customers. What became clear quickly was the need to radically simplify not only the underlying technology but furthermore, the way the company ran all of its operational processes. Moreover, it became clear how we delivered a competitive digital experience to our consumers and our institutional customers.
Through that process, one of the things that became evident was that large chunks of the company, if not the entire company, needed to go through a radical change. I was asked to take on additional responsibilities through that, in terms of taking on the digital product development. This was because it became clear that the enterprise IT and the way we were developing digital products needed to be closely aligned. Previously in the business, these two were separate and were almost competing for technology functions. It was a belief on my part that we needed to have an underlying design, digital architecture, and a way of working that was compatible across both enterprise IT and product development. That group was one of the first groups to come in addition to my existing CIO role.
Approximately a year later, one of the things we embarked upon through this process was a common ERP system, a common CRM, common operations processes, and common data such as customer data, product data, and vendor data. At the time, we did not have a single operations function across the company. Operations tended to be embedded in our regional organizations and other functions around the business. It became clear that in order to drive the process of alignment, commonality in ways of working, and the drive to a common data model, we needed to bring those functions together. I offered to take on the operations responsibilities such as procurement, supply chain, customer service, and even real estate. This was in an effort to drive a common model around the globe for operations. Furthermore, I have subsequently added in additional shared services. These functions coming together has allowed us to rapidly drive a more cohesive change across the business.
8/14/18
When Alvina Antar joined subscription-based software company, Zuora, four years ago as the first ever CIO, she did so after having been a customer of the company when she was the Director of Mergers & Acquisitions for Dell Information Technology. From the customer’s perspective, she recognized that means of procuring technology was shifting in many cases toward software as a service (SaaS) models where companies paid only for what they used. Zuora has dubbed this model as the subscription economy. As Antar notes, “Modern consumers are shifting from traditional ownership and demanding new consumption models which allow them to subscribe to the outcomes they want when they want them.”
Antar has fostered a community of CIOs from across Zuora’s customer base to foster learning and collaboration in new ways. She is also changing the way in which the IT department does things, as she has developed a Zuora on Zuora program, where IT acts as the company’s first and best customer, offering insights into Zuora’s product offering. She describes her experience and the implications of the subscription economy in this interview.
(To read future interviews like this one, please follow me on Twitter @PeterAHigh.)
Peter High: Please describe Zuora’s business, and your role as CIO.
Alvina Antar: Zuora provides cloud-based software that enables any company in any industry to successfully launch, manage, transform, and thrive as a subscription business. Our vision is simple: we call it “The World Subscribed.” It’s the idea that one day every company will be a part of the Subscription Economy. My belief in our vision and seeing it first-hand as a customer is the reason I joined Zuora four years ago.
Our mission is to enable all companies to be successful in the Subscription Economy and our solution is purpose-built for dynamic, recurring revenue business models. Zuora Central is the system of record for subscription businesses. It functions as an intelligent subscription management hub that automates and orchestrates the entire subscription order-to-cash process, including billing and revenue recognition.
8/13/2018
When Ann Dozier joined Southern Wine & Spirits as an information technology executivein 2013, the company was already one of the largest private companies in the United States, with revenue in excess of $11 billion. Thanks to growth of the company, and the acquisition of another major wine and spirits distributor, Glazer’s, Forbes estimates that the company is approaching $18 billion in revenue. As such, it is the largest wine and spirit distributor in North America. To say that Dozier has had to manage through complex times is an understatement.
Dozier rose to the role of chief information officer in early 2015, and the deal with Glazer’s was announced about a year later. The acquisition provided an opportunity to rethink IT practices and technologies,l. As part of a broader digitization of the company, Dozier has modernized people practices, processes, and technologies. Chief among her digital priorities has been to ensure that customers and supplier-partners can interact with the company on their terms. Also, despite all of the growth and the changes to processes and technology, the experience for customers has been nearly seamless. Here is her story.
(To listen to a podcast version of this interview, please visit this link. To read future articles like this one, please follow me on Twitter @PeterAHigh.)
Peter High: For those not familiar, could you tell us about Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits? Additionally, could you provide a brief description of your purview as Chief Information Officer of the organization?
Ann Dozier: Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits is North America’s largest wine and spirit distributor with over 21,500 employees, operating in 44 states as well as the District of Columbia, Canada, and the Caribbean. We currently have approximately 12.5 million square feet of warehouse space and 2,700 trucks in our fleet. Additionally, we have over five thousand brands, as we are the premier distributor for the majority of the beverages of choice in the alcohol industry.
8/7/2018
Greg Meyers has joined $13 billion revenue Syngenta, as chief information officer (CIO) in Basel, Switzerland. Greg will now focus on leading information technology for a global agricultural innovator that is helping improve worldwide food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. The company aims to “to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities.” Syngenta has over 28,000 employees in over 90 countries.
Meyers also led a digital transformation that reshaped how the company works with direct customers and channel partners to drive growth via eCommerce, enable customer-self-service, and enable the future of our smart public safety software and services portfolio.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Syngenta,” said Meyers, “Agriculture innovation and farm productivity is increasingly enabled by IT systems and the ability to manage Big Data. In fact, IT has been transforming both farm operations and companies, like Syngenta, that support them. I look forward to contributing in this exciting environment that is ultimately helping feed people around the world and making our planet more sustainable.”
Mark Patrick, CFO of Syngenta said, “We are in the midst of a new era of innovation in agriculture – in breeding seeds, developing crop protection products and delivering digital solutions – for farmers around the world. Harnessing the power of IT is important to our success and we are looking to Greg to lead us into the future of IT. Greg has a strong IT track record in multiple industries – both technically and as a leader; he will help us better manage our business and serve our customers.”
Previously, Meyers served as CIO of Motorola Solutions for the past four years. In that role, he successfully led the largest technology transformation in Motorola’s history (and the largest ERP project in the world in years 2015-2017) by consolidating seven ERP instances and more than 600 supporting applications to one ERP instance and less than 250 applications across Finance, Supply Chain and the go-to-market functions.
8/6/2018
Bask Iyer has always had a different orientation as a chief information officer. As a divisional CIO at GlaxoSmithKline, then as the Group CIO at Honeywell, and as the Group Senior Vice President of Business Operations and the Chief Information Officer of Juniper Networks, he developed a close relationship with the businesses that he was a part of. He believes that is one of the key factors in his rise at Dell and VMare.
Iyer has the rare distinction of being both the CIO and chief digital officer of both companies in addition to being the Executive Vice President of Dell Digital. As such, he has leadership roles in two publicly traded companies. (Dell has a majority ownership stake in VMware.) He began his tenure with the companies as the CIO of VMware alone, when Michael Dell asked him to take over the same responsibilities at Dell. To Iyer’s surprise, he was not asked to relinquish responsibilities at VMware.
As such, he has led dramatic digital transformations of two very different companies: a Silicon Valley software company and a much larger and more traditional technology company. Iyer notes that the key to his success has been focusing on people and process before technology. He highlights the changes he has ushered in and the methods he has used in this interview.
Peter High: You are the Executive Vice President of Dell Digital as well as the CIO and CDO of both Dell and VMware. Could you unwind all that you do and describe what it entails?
Bask Iyer: I was the CIO of VMware for a long time and had additional digital responsibilities. Nearly two years ago, the Dell-EMC merger happened and Michael Dell and the executives in the Dell-EMC family asked me to help with the integration. They were bringing two cultures together, two different CIOs together, and two IT teams together. Little did I know that my role helping out would turn into a job.
I have a challenging and interesting job. VMware is an independent company and therefore Dell owns only 80 percent of VMware. Additionally, Dell is big partners with a great deal of their competition, and because of this, VMware has to have that independence. It is an independent company with its own audit committee among other independent entities. Because of this, I have to think of it as two separate jobs. As the CIO for VMware, the audit committee asks me questions to ensure that my job for VMware is not being compromised. Moreover, the Dell audit committee and management ask me the same questions.
At Dell, part of the role is the traditional CIO, which covers all infrastructure, all IT, all end-user applications, the program management office, and security, among other areas. Additionally, I am part of the executive team on both sides, so I can understand the strategy and translate it. An interesting part of the digital side of the job, which is a little unusual for IT, is that Dell’s E-Commerce team is supported and run by my team. All the product developer people for e-commerce, who are not necessarily IT employees but instead are product development employees, are a part of it. It is a robust e-commerce platform, it is growing, and we want to put more products for our customers on the Dell e-commerce services. That part of the job is certainly interesting and creative. Similarly, with VMware, we are going to a digital subscription model. My team at VMware works closely with [research and development] to ensure that the products and subscription models we develop can be built and have visibility to end customers. Additionally, the subscription model is a product that IT develops to go in part and parcel with the offering that VMware has. Overall, it is both digital, and it is traditional IT that people understand, but it is two separate jobs. That being said, it is a family of companies and therefore it is a friendly environment. While both executive teams always make fun of me as both believe I am not with them, they have always been supportive. I could not have done it without the support of the two CEOs, presidents, and executive teams.
7/30/2018
Mayank Prakash was a chief information officer multiple times over at private sector companies such as Avaya, Sage UK, and iSOFT. He also was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for Global Wealth and Investment Management Technology.
Four years ago, he pivoted dramatically, taking on the role of Chief Information and Digital Officer of the United Kingdom’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is the largest public sector organization in the country. He has found a motivated workforce up for the challenge of digital transformation in order to enhance the services that the DWP offers. Moreover, he has seen great advantages to being a more mature company inasmuch as there is ample data to run diverse, mature analytics on data sets that span several decades. He has also found that the significant challenges and opportunities that he and his team have been tasked with tackling have been a magnet for talent that is up to the challenge. He indicates that the greatest joy he has taken from this experience has been the opportunity to impact 22 million British citizens’ lives.
Peter High: Could you describe the United Kingdom’s Department for Work and Pensions?
Mayank Prakash: The Department for Work and Pensions is one of the largest organizations in Western Europe, and it is the largest public-sector organization in the United Kingdom. The best way for me to describe the DWP is from the perspective of the 22 million people who drive the change. Everybody in the UK has come across our services in their lives as we touch all citizens. We support children when their parents are separating to ensure that they have a better quality of life. We look after employed people who are of working age to make sure that they have fulfilling lives and that they are working. We look after disabled people to allow them to explore their potential. We look after retired people, who are typically living longer lives. We do all of this in an effort to produce better outcomes for them and for society.
High: Given the diverse array of people sho you deal with, ranging from millennials to older citizens of the United Kingdom, how do you think about the different personas or different experiences in which your citizenry wishes to interact with the DWP?
Prakash: We work with diversity on every dimension, ranging from age and gender to geographical footprint and social background. Like any large organization with a diverse footprint, we do not employ a one size fits all strategy, but instead, we use active segmentation of our customers to make sure we target our services to get the best impact. Additionally, we do not look at these customers as the cohorts. Instead, we ask ourselves what is the problem that we are trying to solve. The purpose is to work with people of working age to ensure that they are, in fact, working. That purpose leads to the need to get more people into work, which leads us to why some people may not be working. This leads to active segmentation and better delivery of targeted services.
