This article was written by Marjorie Freeman.
A data strategy is a plan of action to manage an organization’s data assets across its technology, processes, and people. In practice, that entails understanding how data is generated, where and why it is consumed, and how its use helps organizations achieve strategic objectives.
On Metis Strategy’s Technovation podcast, Peter High has interviewed many global, digital-forward CIOs about their data strategies. Below are insights from those leaders about how companies can use enterprise data assets to their fullest potential.
Artificial intelligence has been top of mind for many organizations, even more so in 2023 with the rise of ChatGPT and increased discussion around generative AI. This has prompted a multitude of conversations around AI’s core facet: data, and how it can drive the business forward.
During the February 2023 Metis Strategy Digital Symposium, Krzystof Soltan, the Chief Information Officer of Vulcan Materials Company, and Anupam Khare, the Chief Information Officer of Oshkosh Corporation, shared their experiences building data strategy into complex, scaled organizations.
At Oshkosh, Khare leads with the question: “How do we extract financial value from data by bringing people and data together?” The company is working to become what Khare calls a predictable enterprise, using four fundamental principles to guide the journey:
For Vulcan Materials, data strategy is linked to the organization’s technology strategy. “It always comes back to business value, the time to value, how fast we are able to provide the insights” Soltan said. Vulcan Materials’ looks to the following principles to guide its data and analytics work:
Both Khare and Soltan’s stories underscore the need to tie data strategy to business value, work toward a common tech stack, and engage people at every level of the organization in the data journey.
OneDigital, which provides customizable and cost-effective HR solutions to organizations and their workforces, acquires around 30 organizations per year. This is no easy feat, but CIO Marcia Calleja-Matsko strives to create a seamless experience for every organization that is onboarded.
When acquiring a new organization, especially one in a different vertical or industry, it is important to ensure there is a consistent record across multiple platforms, Calleja-Matsko says. Cue the single source of truth, or what she calls the “golden record.” Once that record has been created, it must be maintained.
Over the years, Calleja-Matsko has been working to build OneDigital’s data strategy in three key ways:
If data is the new oil and speed is the currency of business, then data governance is the link that fuses the two. For more, see Michael Bertha’s commentary: Data Strategy at the Speed of Business.
CIOs play an instrumental role in creating a common language around data and making sure teams across the enterprise have the tools and concepts they need to harness data effectively. To develop this data literacy, many organizations have built enterprise-wide curriculums and training resources.
Monica Caldas, the CIO of Liberty Mutual, which has its own professional development training programs, including one specifically geared toward executives, said it well:
“Technology is everybody’s responsibility these days in terms of understanding what it can do. … Everyone that sits around the table needs to be beyond, ‘How do I click this?’ and [be] somewhat well versed [in topics like] what can an API do, and why does that matter.”
Many organizations have launched digital academies to train employees on digital skills, including technology and data literacy. In 2019, for example, Toyota launched an academy to knock down the invisible wall often found between IT and the business and give end users greater knowledge of the software they use every day. “The idea was to not just train IT, but everyone across the organization.” said then Chief Innovation, Strategy and Digital Officer, Vipin Gupta. The approach has empowered associates across the business to truly understand how to capitalize on the tools, data, and processes at their disposal.
Data literacy is also key to enabling citizen development, an approach that encourages those outside IT to contribute to software development, often via low-code/no-code tools. Paired with increased data literacy, this can make it easier for teams across organizations to apply data and analytics to their work and accelerate time to insight.
Chief Information and Digitization Officer of Reckitt Benckiser Group, Filippo Catalano encourages executives to create opportunities for properly governed self-service data access:
You want to also make sure that, as much as possible, everybody in the company becomes a data scientist. … Get out of the way so you can unleash creativity, empower people everywhere in the organization to do what they need to do on data and analytics, but also to do it on the right platforms so that things are done in a fair way, but also in a safe way.
CIOs, CDIOs, and CDOs are in incredible positions to influence the change they’d like to see within their organizations. Directly engaging individuals in the company’s data journey through hands-on learning opportunities can not only build knowledge and morale, but also can catalyze new competitive advantages.
Any successful data strategy needs a compelling, ambitious vision and a clear path to success that resonates across an organization. CIOs, then, need skillful storytelling to get buy-in from multiple stakeholders and create forward momentum.
Telling the story effectively means, once again, putting business outcomes front and center. “I can talk all day about ‘hey, you should have data governance and you should think about a data lake or a single view of the customer,’” said Dak Liyanearachchi, Head of Data and Technology at NRG Energy. “All of those are really interesting, but what does it really mean to the organization?”
One useful move includes thinking about data as an enterprise asset that requires strong partnership across every part of the business. While companies can notch small wins leveraging data within silos, the real benefit comes when that great work logically connects across the organization.
“If you think about connecting the dots across the value chain, that’s where you start to see some significant business opportunities,” Liyanearachchi said. When that happens, “the value you bring multiplies at a faster rate.”
Our next Digital Symposium is just around the corner. Join us on September 20 as technology executives and business leaders from across industries share insights on high-priority topics including data as an enterprise change agent, developing and scaling AI-led products, new approaches to talent development, and the future of customer experience, among other topics.
C-level technology leaders, to reserve your spot and stay tuned for agenda updates. We look forward to seeing you!
(Click here for highlights from our most recent Digital Symposium, and stay tuned to our YouTube channel for videos of our panel discussions.)
12:00 – 12:10 p.m.
Welcome and Introductions
Welcome and introduction to the Metis Strategy team.
Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
Strategic Automation Across the Enterprise
Amy Brady, Chief Information Officer, KeyBank
Ryan Kean, Chief Information Officer, Total Quality Logistics
Moderated by Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
12:40 – 1:10 p.m.
Developing and Scaling AI-Led Products and Services
Dak Liyanearachchi, Chief Data and Technology Officer, NRG Energy
Salumeh Companieh, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Cushman & Wakefield
Moderated by Michael Bertha, Partner & Central Office Lead, Metis Strategy
1:10 – 1:25 p.m.
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Domino Data Lab
Nick Elprin, CEO & Co-Founder, Domino Data Lab
1:25 – 1:55 p.m.
The Future of the Digital Customer Experience
Fahim Siddiqui, Chief Information Officer, The Home Depot
Kristie Grinnell, Chief Information Officer, DXC Technology
Moderated by Alex Kraus, Partner & East Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
1:55 – 2:25 p.m.
Data and AI Strategy as an Enterprise Change Agent
Rajan Kumar, Chief Information Officer, Intuit
Sesh Tirumala, Chief Information Officer, Western Digital
Moderated by Chris Davis, Partner & West Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
2:25 – 2:55 p.m.
Talent Strategy in the Age of AI
Lakshman Nathan, Chief Information Officer, Paramount
Shubham Mehrish, Global Vice President, Mars
Moderated by Steven Norton; Co-Head Executive Networks, Research, and Media; Metis Strategy
2:55 – 3:00 p.m.
Closing Remarks and Adjourn
Click here for highlights from our May Digital Symposium, or watch the panels on our YouTube channel. We look forward to seeing you!
Sastry Durvasula has an unusual title and remit at TIAA. As Chief Information and Client Services Officer of the Fortune 100 company, with more than $1.2 trillion in assets under management, he manages global technology and client services, including all the front office, middle office, back office functions and shared services of the firm that serve the company’s clients. Thus, Durvasula and team build solutions on the technology side that are used by colleagues on the other sides of his organization that serve the clients across the businesses, including retirement, asset management and wealth management. This responsibility gives him an opportunity to see the positive impact of his team’s work first-hand. The clients represent four constituent groups:
Therefore, Durvasula and his team support customers that include business-to-business, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business-to-consumer models. There is a fintech ecosystem that he helps bring to life: RetireTech, focused on building solutions for retirement participants on the accumulation side, and SilverTech, focused on the decumulating side. Managing through the complexity of different constituent groups, representing different generations together with a century old company that has forged contracts across decades is extremely complex. “The mission statement for my organization is ‘Power the business’ strategic shifts, fuel the innovation, while transforming the core,’” he noted. “The transforming of the core is as important and complex as fueling innovation and powering it. These strategic shifts enable us to provide lifetime income, delighting our clients and strengthening how we operate.”
Given TIAA’s size and breadth of offerings, Global Technology is divided up to reflect that breadth. “We have the unit CIOs that face off to the CEOs across our primary businesses in retirement, asset management and wealth management. Same thing with our client services side of the house where our client services officers are serving these specific business units, ” Durvasula explained. “Then we have global technology shared services like information security, data, AI, infrastructure and architecture, as well as shared client services like fraud and financial crimes management, serving all business units and affiliates. That’s my organizational grid. We have verticals and horizontals.”
Guiding these teams is a six-pillar strategy:
Durvasula notes that client-obsessed products and services refers to products both on the technology side as well as on the client services side of his responsibilities. “Whether it’s 403(b) solutions and products in the Higher Ed and Healthcare markets, or on the 401(k) side that we are getting very active on from a retirement perspective, as well as wealth management and asset management and so forth; that’s where we are focused on building those next-generation products and services,” he offered.
Digital first refers to modernizing a heritage company for the digital age, building the next generation of digital platforms, and providing solutions and client experiences, working closely with the company’s chief digital and client experience officer, Jessica Austin Barker.
To bring to life the integrated data and AI strategy pillar, Durvasula hired a chief data and AI officer, Swatee Singh, who’s focuses on that, to build the next generation of the data foundation and providing AI solutions to create those experiences for plan sponsors and participants.
Building the talent and culture needed to operate effectively includes key hires, like the ones noted already, but also creating a learning culture that strives to build the skills that will bring to life the digital vision he has articulated.
The best-of-breed ecosystem helps rethink the mix of buy versus build versus partners decisions across the technology landscape. “We want to build for differentiation, but we also want to buy and partner for parity,” Durvasula noted. “While I do that, obviously I have to uplift the technology ecosystem which is a big job for our teams.”
Finally, like all CIOs, he must do all the above while being secure by design and be on top of the regulatory and compliance demands. Given the emergence of numerous cyber threats, he must remain vigilant to ensure that the most valuable asset: the company’s data, does not get into the wrong hands.
Durvasula lingered a bit longer on the data piece, given the sanctity of sound data practices in a company that is awash in data. “The advantage we have is, because we have been at this for a long time and we are a highly regulated firm, we do have a number of data assets that actually are within the firewalls of TIAA that we can capitalize on,” he said. “How do we bring all the data from our global data assets and build that platform? While we do that, obviously we want to be cloud-first as we do.” Durvasula and team focus on leveraging open-source tools wherever possible. They have also focused on developing what he referred to as “killer use cases” that are powered by AI for each of the aforementioned constituent groups that TIAA serves. “As an example, we forged a strategic partnership with Google AI that we are now actively deploying solutions starting with our client services area,” he said. “It’s made it easy to deploy at scale.”
Additionally, Durvasula and team use conversational AI solutions to minimize client wait times. He believes this is a major customer enhancement, removing friction from their experience. Many of these new solutions are conceived in TIAA’s client tech labs, which leverage a multi-cloud/hybrid cloud environment to pilot ideas, work with clients to co-innovate and test beta versions of solutions, course correcting some to optimize them while canceling others that prove to be of insufficient value for customers. For those that go into production, Durvasula and team proceed with greater confidence.
Durvasula and TIAA more generally work closely with universities as strategic partners. “We want to have a different level of engagement and conversation with [universities],” he noted. “As an example, we have a partnership with NYU where we have launched programs, and we have over 70 cyber graduates that are going to be graduating from NYU – employees of our own – who are going through this coursework. We have something similar at [the University of North Carolina], but we also have a robust internship program. As an example, at the client tech labs that I mentioned earlier, we’ve had over one hundred interns actively hacking in our client tech labs and coming up with solutions. Some of them are winners of our hackathons and have opted to continue with us during their semesters as well. That’s is representative of the strategic advantage we have to build [a strong] talent pipeline.” By giving interns interesting work, the program has proven to be a rich source of full time recruits. This has developed a solid, long-term talent pipeline for the tech and digital team.
The connection with students and professors at universities are critical for the company given its history in the industry. (TIAA is an acronym for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America.) “When it comes to client co-innovation on emerging technology and research projects with faculty and their students because that’s what we do for our business,” Durvasula offered. “With client advisory councils that we have, we open doors for our clients where faculty and students can come and conduct research with us and partner with us on a number of ideas. That’s exciting because it not only adds more talent to our pipeline, but it also opens the dialogue with our clients in a differentiated way for impact.”
Finally, Durvasula has taken a much longer-term view in the development of female talent in technology by serving on the board of Girls in Tech, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech. “I’ve had the opportunity to learn and benefit from the wisdom of the board as well as the founder, Adriana Gascoigne, who started this several years ago with a few thousand people in the West Coast,” said Durvasula. “Now, it has grown almost 100,000 members across 50 different countries. I’ve had the privilege to work with Adriana and the leadership team and the broader chapters to grow the impact of Girls in Tech.” He notes that the power of the organization is to foster empowerment, learning, communications, networking and especially mentoring. He believes Girls in Tech will be a pathway to building the diverse and inclusive tech workforce the world needs. He also forged strategic partnerships with non-profits including Blacks in Technology Foundation, AfroTech and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
Durvasula has enacted remarkable, long-term change across TIAA in a relatively short amount of time, and he and his team remain ambitious about the future.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the 13th Metis Strategy Digital Symposium. As 2023 approaches the halfway point, leaders convened to discuss the rapidly changing economic, technological and geopolitical landscape and its impact on strategy in the months ahead.
Highlights from the event are below. Stay tuned to the Metis Strategy Youtube channel and Technovation podcast in the coming weeks for recordings of individual panel discussions.
As tensions continue to escalate around the world, technology leaders must understand and prepare for new geopolitical dynamics. Jared Cohen, Co-Head of the Office of Applied Innovation and President of Global Affairs at Goldman Sachs, argued that the notion of hyperglobalization ended before the COVID pandemic and that the world now faces a reorientation of supply chains and capital flows.
Technology executives are playing close attention to changing value chains and alliances. “Technology is changing geopolitics, and geopolitics is changing technology,” said Cohen. One of the biggest areas where technology is currently influencing geopolitics is in the area of generative AI, which Cohen dubbed as the “most disruptive experiment in anarchy” since the internet. He warned about the risk of people deploying large language models for “bad use cases” to cause real problems in international systems. While there is significant discussion around which companies have superior large language models, he noted a desire for the conversation to focus more on the implications of generative AI for the world.
George Lee, another Co-Head of the Applied Innovation Office at Goldman Sachs, said generative AI is dominating discussions with boards and management teams around the world. While its rapid growth offers many fascinating possibilities, it has also disturbed the human desire for order and linearity. Lee noted how creators are being constantly surprised as the emerging technology develops. “Anyone who tells you they know where this is going, how fast it’s going, and what our destination is, is just wrong.”
While conversations around generative AI have taken the world by storm, technology leaders today play a key role in translating the hype into reality. That means not only vetting new use cases for the technology, but also educating their teams about the benefits and risks of generative AI and creating policies that encourage innovation while ensuring responsible use.
“It takes courage to take a step back and say, maybe let’s not fall into the hype, let’s go about this in a methodical way,” said Digi-Key Electronics CIO Ramesh Babu. Babu created a community of practice around AI that includes stakeholders from across the organization and a list of key terms with consistent definitions to keep everyone on the same page. He also created a network of influencers within the company that serve as “education ambassadors” for the organization.
Allen Smith, CIO at Baker Tilly, recommended leaders approach generative AI like they would any other technology. “There is a difference between home runs and singles. Singles in this case are your front. Go do something, show it, have a tangible example,” he said. “Now, it can be used to fuel the really good ideas.” He also expressed concerns about the security and privacy risks that generative AI poses, noting the dangers that may arise from inputting sensitive data into services like ChatGPT and the need to identify and mitigate potential bias.
As companies continue to navigate an increasingly complex and competitive landscape alongside shifting customer demands, innovation will be a key source of differentiation for industry leaders. Many organizations find that design thinking frameworks help to formulate the strategy and direction that will help ensure they can harness that innovation effectively.
Michael Newcity, Chief Innovation Officer at ArcBest and President of ArcBest Technologies, highlighted the importance of empathy and deep listening to uncover unsaid user needs. To advance design thinking, Newcity has sponsors responsible for thinking through ROI, teams, timing, and other tactical factors that will help gain executive sponsorship and drive innovation initiatives forward.
Rob Krugman, Chief Digital Officer at Broadridge Financial Solutions, discussed the importance of understanding the value proposition for their customers’ customers, then working backwards to deliver value for Broadridge clients. “If we can solve the needs of that end customer, our client’s customer, the likelihood of us being correct is more likely than not,” he said. Across the ecosystem, “we’re all generating value, and we have a much better understanding of how to actually present and tell that story around value.” His team also works with the VC community to stay on top of emerging technologies and asks hypothetical questions to try and understand their impact on Broadridge.
Krugman laid out two different types of innovation: sustainable innovation, led by the product organization, and disruptive innovation. The key to both: “iteration, iteration, iteration, all based on validation.”
No matter the scope of a change initiative, whether adopting an emerging technology or implementing agile ways of working, leaders must act as role models for change within their companies and drive cultural transformation from the top down.
Hyatt Hotel Corporation’s CIO Eben Hewitt, who is working to nurture a product mindset and drive enterprise-wide behavior change, said engagement starts with the CEO and executive board. “When you see a boss acting that way, then you act that way,” he said. “You have to model it.” Hyatt also uses a “people playbook” to easily guide teams to resources they need for specific use cases, and Hewitt has encouraged the development of high-level cultural principles that inform behaviors throughout the organization.
Ultimately, culture is the most important driver of any organizational change. While many are familiar with Peter Drucker’s quote,“culture eats strategy for breakfast,” Ascension Chief Digital Officer Rajan Mohan added that “culture eats transformation for lunch.” At Ascension, Mohan has helped lead a transformation that includes a digital product orientation, end-to-end accountability and a focus on Ascension’s mission to reach underserved communities. With that shift has come a new mindset, as well as metrics that are more closely tied to business outcomes. “We’re not just measuring for measurement’s sake,” he said. “It is to demonstrate and deliver continuous value.”
Kathy Kay, CIO at Principal Financial Group, said driving cultural change requires leaders first and foremost to be their authentic selves. That includes a willingness to be vulnerable. “If you can’t show vulnerability…I think it sets a tone for people feeling less open,” she said. In addition to bringing that openness to her role, she works with peers at Principal to ensure leaders are giving teams necessary support, removing blockers, and helping them understand how their contributions matter. Kay also discussed the importance of adapting communications to local norms, particularly when working with teams across the globe.
Building a high-performance culture is of course linked to finding and developing the best talent. World Fuel Services CIO Josh McLean said some of the best people typically look for three things in their work: aspirational goals that give a sense of purpose; challenging work that helps them learn and grow; and being surrounded by other highly talented people. “I try to make sure those things are all present and in harmony, or a work in progress to get there.”
Our next Digital Symposium is just around the corner. Join us on May 11 as technology executives and business leaders from across industries share insights into how their companies are approaching high-priority topics including artificial intelligence, sustainability, and talent retention, among other topics.
CIOs and other technology leaders, to reserve your spot today and stay tuned for agenda updates. We look forward to seeing you!
Applying a Product Mindset to Advance Digital and Technology Capabilities
Rajan Mohan, Chief Digital Officer, Ascension
Eben Hewitt, Chief Information Officer, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Placing Smart Bets and Scaling Innovation
Jared Cohen, Co-Head, Office of Applied Innovation & President of Global Affairs; Goldman Sachs
George Lee, Co-Head, Office of Applied Innovation, Goldman Sachs
1:10 – 1:40 p.m.
Design Thinking in Ecosystem Business Models
Michael Newcity, Chief Innovation Officer, ArcBest; President, ArcBest Technologies
Rob Krugman, Chief Digital Officer, Broadridge Financial Solutions
1:40 – 2:10 p.m.
Driving Practical Progress on Your AI Journey
Ramesh Babu, Chief Information Officer, Digi-Key Electronics
Allen Smith, Chief Information Officer, Baker Tilly
2:10 – 2:40 p.m.
Sustaining a High-Performance Culture in Times of Change
Kathy Kay, Chief Information Officer, Principal Financial Group
Josh McLean, Chief Information Officer, World Fuel Services
2:40 – 3:00 p.m.
Click here for highlights from our February Digital Symposium, or watch the panels on our YouTube channel. We look forward to seeing you!
Now a household name in personal finance, Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook. The company’s four decades of success — the company reported 2022 annual revenue of $12.7 billion and a portfolio of valued products including TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, Mint, and Mailchimp — has been possible in part by the company’s dedication to innovation. Innovation is necessary for modern businesses to maintain a competitive advantage, meet evolving customer needs, and attract top talent. Prioritizing innovation can also improve the IT-business relationship by positioning the IT organization as a partner that is uniquely suited to evaluate ideas and pursue those most likely to succeed.
Two conversations on Peter High’s Technovation podcast with Intuit’s Chief Information Security and Fraud Prevention Officer, Atticus Tysen, and Chief Data Officer, Ashok Srivastava, show how Intuit has reinvented itself through IT-driven experimentation driven by a desire to solve real business problems and foster a strong IT-business partnership in the process. These interviews show how a formalized test-and-learn process, a set of practices formalizing the steps taken to ideate, conduct pilots, analyze results and scale valuable ideas across an enterprise, can be used to systematically scale innovation and deliver a range of benefits. Among them:
–Change the culture of the IT organization to encourage more frequent ideation and support team members in voicing ideas they might not have previously
–Empower the IT organization with data and agility that allows it to show up as a true business partner
-Increase the influence of the IT organization to build trust and credibility with the business
-Eliminate silos and encourage expansive thinking to ensure the creation of durable, enterprise-grade solutions
Intuit’s innovation journey highlights these improvements in action, as we’ll see below. We will also share Metis Strategy’s 10-step test-and-learn process that you can implement in your own organization.
“At Intuit, experimentation is everyone’s job,” said Brad Smith, Intuit’s former Executive Chairman. Building a culture of experimentation and innovation requires creating a safe space to allow risk-taking and encourage more people to bring ideas to the table. Intuit’s IT organization prides itself on its hypothesis-driven testing culture designed to pursue new ideas with clear business outcomes rather than rely on legacy solutions, bolstering the IT organization’s strategic value.
Solidifying a test-and-learn process positions IT organizations to play a more active role with business teams, understand customer needs, unlock innovation opportunities, and change the culture of IT from reactive order-takers who “just” keep the lights on to partners who help shape the future of the enterprise. At Intuit, the test-and-learn process is guided by the company’s two innovation competencies, Customer Driven Innovation and Design for Delight, which drive all solution development and ensure strategic focus throughout the ideation process. These defined principles, outlined and enforced by the Intuit labs, help narrow down and develop winning ideas by ensuring new solutions unlock value and solve real problems.
IT leaders must be change champions to ensure the successful adoption of a test-and-learn process and the subsequent shift in culture required to improve the IT-business partnership. Broad participation in the test-and-learn process happens when the process is accessible and engagement is encouraged across all roles and tenures.
Intuit’s technology leaders incentivize innovation by giving employees unstructured time for ideation and solutioning, which fosters their participation in the test-and-learn process and refines the company’s ideation muscle outside of day-to-day responsibilities. Other incentives used to ensure test-and-learn participation include the Scott Cook Innovation Awards, which recognize employee innovators; mentorship programs to guide new participants through the test-and-learn process; rotational development programs to upskill employees; and workshops to refine critical thinking skills.
By enabling test-and-learn experimentation, IT leaders can begin to change their organizations’ culture and empower the IT organization to become a true business partner. Intuit notes that the test-and-learn culture has enabled a durable competitive advantage that allows the company to differentiate itself from competitors while focusing on what matters most to its customers.
In a recent survey, 63% of CIOs reported that they struggle to communicate IT’s business value to business partners. Formalizing a test-and-learn process can improve that communication by giving IT leaders the data needed to tell their innovation story and tie new ideas to tangible business outcomes.
Test-and-learn experimentation produces data surrounding the feasibility and value of scaling an idea. Ideas that are ultimately chosen to scale are backed by data on their projected success and business impact. IT organizations can also provide their business counterparts with data on risk mitigation and projected costs based on the initial testing.
Tysen names data as the primary enabler for successful test-and-learn experimentation as it creates opportunities to take calculated risks. Tysen and Srivastava work together to break down data silos and democratize data so teams can more effectively derive and deliver insights.
Pairing test-and-learn with agile delivery methods can promote a culture that rewards failing fast, iterating, and delivering value in the shortest sustainable time. Intuit focuses on lessons learned from experiments rather than if one was a success or a failure.
Intuit’s innovation competency, Design for Delight, further showcases agile ways of working by prioritizing constant customer feedback, quick prototypes, and iterative solutions to ensure initiatives pursue maximum customer value.
Since experimentation often happens on top of day-to-day responsibilities, transparent and realistic expectations must be set to prevent under-delivery or delays and preserve working relationships. Tysen manages business expectations by ensuring that the IT organization outperforms traditional IT metrics as a prerequisite for experimentation. Operational excellence builds trust between IT and business partners and creates space for test-and-learn experimentation that builds that trust further via successful ROI-generating innovation initiatives.
The typical IT delivery muscle must be refined, and often rebranded, to position the IT organization as an innovator rather than an expensive bottleneck. Tysen says his organization builds credibility with the rest of the business by leveraging business metrics and KPIs, not just IT metrics, when evaluating ideas generated through the test-and-learn process. Applying business metrics to IT-generated ideas ensures that the IT organization and the business are being held to the same standard and can help ensure fair appraisal and understanding of each initiative’s value.
In a recent survey, fewer than 5% of CIOs reported that they spend time talking about business outcomes or measuring the business outcomes created by the technology they deploy. This is a significant oversight preventing buy-in and limiting the IT-business partnership. Tysen emphasizes the importance of listening to partners to ensure his organization accurately understands their problems so he knows what is needed to create relevant soultions. The consistent use of business metrics across Intuit also ensures the appropriate acknowledgment of IT’s test-and-learn successes.
Test-and-learn experimentation breaks down traditional business silos and seeks to prevent ad-hoc ideation, eliminate repetitive solutioning, and facilitate cross-functional collaboration. It also promotes enterprise thinking, a practice of monitoring cross-functional requirements, scalability considerations, and long-term needs such as reducing future rework and technical debt.
Srivastava notes that Intuit’s process for test-and-learn experimentation relies on conducting deliberate tests that solve specific and identified problems rather than needless, temporary solutions. Test-and-learn experimentation not only brings MVPs to life with speed but also facilitates deliberate and intentional conversations about long-term considerations and dependencies during the product creation process, ensuring that the final product meets as many consumer needs as possible.
When working with clients seeking to streamline and scale innovation, we use a 10-step test-and-learn process to govern the intake of ideas, manage stakeholder expectations, accurately reflect capacity, and capture data to inform a solution’s journey. This process helped a recent client identify and eliminate silos that hindered collaboration while elevating the IT organization to the status of a business partner rather than an order taker.
Implementing a test-and-learn experimentation process enables an organization to narrow an infinite number of ideas and pursue only those that will deliver the most value. The IT organization is uniquely positioned to facilitate this process and help the business identify winning ideas due to its digital testing capabilities and data collection methodologies.
Working closely with business partners can help teams across the organization avoid placing big bets on ideas that may drain their resources without delivering the needed value. Prioritizing resource allocation based on test data and iterating throughout the solution development process creates a virtuous cycle where the business will increase its speed to market for winning ideas while guaranteeing maximum customer satisfaction.
The benefits that come from implementing a test-and-learn process will not be realized overnight. A structured approach to change management and user adoption is needed to ensure an effective transition. It makes sense to start small. With support from internal change champions, consider piloting a beta test-and-learn process, secure quick wins, and use that momentum to facilitate a broader rollout.
Once adopted, an enterprise might face execution hurdles that prevent maximum value realization. For example, a company may not have the discipline needed to define the hypotheses that drive testing, resulting in the creation of tests that do not produce the needed information.
Alternatively, existing data collection and analysis capabilities may not be sufficient to derive conclusive test results. An enterprise may also suffer from “analysis paralysis,” which can create stagnation when a test fails and lacks ownership over revisions. To learn more about avoiding these experimentation pitfalls, see this article that outlines how business experimentation frameworks can help mature a test-and-learn culture across an enterprise.
Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the 12th Metis Strategy Digital Symposium. As access to AI and other technologies becomes increasingly ubiquitous, CIOs and their peers are working closer than ever with peers across the organization to develop technology-led products and services. Leaders continue to explore emerging technologies like ChatGPT while connecting digital initiatives to clear and measurable business value. Amid a backdrop of cybersecurity challenges and economic uncertainty, leaders remain focused on developing both new and existing talent and leveraging analytics to better serve customers.
Highlights from the event are below. Stay tuned to the Metis Strategy Youtube channel and Technovation podcast in the coming weeks for recordings of individual panel discussions. In the meantime, click here to request an invitation for our next virtual event on May 11, 2023.
Among the discussion topics at February’s Digital Symposium:
Working backward from the customer and proving the value of technology investmentsTechnology leaders balance a portfolio of priorities and initiatives that have the potential to transform their companies. As artificial intelligence and other technologies evolve, executives are finding use cases that deliver value quickly in order to build momentum and secure long-term technology investment.
At clothing company Levi Strauss & Co., Chief Global Strategy & Artificial Intelligence Officer Katia Walsh sees cutting-edge technology as a way to maintain a competitive advantage. The starting point for any AI investment, Walsh said, is improving the customer experience. “If customers do not feel the impact of investment in AI, then it’s not worth doing.” After defining a strategy for AI, she noted that leaders must simultaneously establish the people, process, data, and technology building blocks necessary to execute on that strategy while delivering tangible business value. “It is absolutely essential that anyone embarking on this today delivers value immediately.”
Doing so requires engineers and others in IT to develop a strong business understanding, an increased commitment to customers, and a focus on business outcomes. To drive what he calls the biggest cultural shift at the organization, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti has implemented practices that require teams to work backwards from the customer when developing new solutions, thinking from both a technology and a product management standpoint to better understand what customers want. “The trick is to measure technology with business KPIs, because at the end of the day it’s all about outcomes,” Argenti said.
Upskilling talent and diversifying employee skill sets
As organizations continue to navigate ongoing social, economic, and geopolitical changes, technology leaders are seeking new opportunities to supercharge their talent strategies and prepare teams for whatever lies ahead. TIAA’s Chief Information and Client Services Officer, Sastry Durvasula, underscored the need to provide cross-functional opportunities for people to apply their strengths across the business while learning new technical and leadership skills. Durvasula launched internal gigs where employees can “major” in their current role, like analytics, and “minor” in a different role, such as cybersecurity. Giving individuals exposure to multiple fields creates a more skilled and flexible talent base and better prepares both individuals and the organization for the future.
As Oshkosh Corporation continued to enhance its data-rich culture, CIO Anupam Khare recognized the critical role talent would play in ensuring a successful pivot. However, like many other technology organizations, Khare had to contend with a shortage of data science talent. He decided to take a homegrown approach, identifying opportunities to develop internal talent within the organization. He recalled a member of Oshkosh’s legal team who was passionate about data, went through training, and is now one of the best data scientists at Oshkosh. Khare also brought data science education to the leadership level and received support from the CEO around creating digitally savvy leaders.
Exploring the potential use cases and threats of ChatGPT and generative AI
Over the past several months, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, amassing millions of users globally and sparking conversations about how this new phase of generative AI can be used to unlock new business opportunities and create new products and services. It also means the demand for AI applications is growing significantly outside the IT department. George Brady, CIO at loanDepot, said loan officers are “experimenting like crazy with ChatGPT,” using the service to lower barriers for first-time homebuyers and provide more education to customers before they have their first conversation with a mortgage officer, thereby driving better engagement, decisions, and outcomes.
At the same time, this next phase of AI may present a number of risks. “A lot of us are in a position where we can’t get too excited about the positive applications [of ChatGPT] and have to think about guardrails so that bad actors don’t use this technology to cause harm to our companies,” Fannie Mae CIO Ramon Richards said. By putting appropriate guardrails in place, monitoring advancements, and leveraging those advancements safely, Richards is helping to protect the organization while positioning it to take advantage of this emerging technology as it evolves.
Aligning with business partners and strategies
Truly transforming an enterprise requires tight alignment across different organizations to advance business and technology strategies in parallel. Technology leaders play a key role in making connections across teams and using technology tools and new processes to enable business partners.
At Vulcan Materials Company, CIO Krzysztof Soltan is refreshing the company’s data strategy by tying it to the corporate business strategy and connecting it to each business function. By making real-time data accessible and available across the business, Soltan is able to better support Vulcan’s business processes and make more informed strategic decisions. As the needs and desired outcomes of the business change, so too will the data strategy and its success measures.
As Cardinal Health went through a reorganization, CIO Michelle Greene took the opportunity to drive “enterprise thinking” and solidify the organizational change by establishing key roles specifically focused on alignment with the business and its needs. The tight alignment has blurred the traditional lines between technology teams and others in the organization. “When sitting in a room, you might not be able to know who’s business and who’s IT,” she said.
Exploring continued opportunities for professional growth
Technology’s expanding influence across the enterprise is enabling leaders to gain new responsibilities and avenues for professional development that may have not been on their roadmap.
At Cenlar, Rob Lux first held the CIO role before transitioning to the COO role when the former COO departed. He then took on the co-CEO role when the company’s CEO retired earlier than expected. “I’m an accidental COO,” said Lux. “It wasn’t part of my career or succession plan.” He explained that the path from CIO to COO can work because CIOs are one of the few C-suite positions that are able to see across the breadth of the organization. For those that want to move beyond the CIO role, Lux advised getting out of the comfort zone and taking risks, even if just for a period of time. “Don’t be accidental like me,” he said. “Build a career plan so you’re prepared.”
Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s Mark Wassersug went through a number of title changes himself, most recently from COO to “accidental CIO.” Through these roles, Wassersug was able to oversee a number of successful acquisitions and ensure early communication, bringing corporate tools together, and solidifying culture throughout the organization. The CIO and COO roles have been particularly useful when overseeing mergers and acquisitions, allowing Wassersug to not only bring the required tools and technologies together, but also to ensure smooth transitions by being transparent about changes and strengthen the culture by having expertised colleagues work side by side with new colleagues across the organization.
Wassersug also discussed the importance of developing a relationship with the company’s board, and finding opportunities to educate on foundational technology and operations. By doing this quarterly, “there was a much deeper understanding during board meetings [that] made conversations much more meaningful and productive.”
The recent system failures at Southwest Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration caused major disruptions for travelers, pilots, and cabin crew across the country. It also underscored the importance of prioritizing technology modernization initiatives, data integration, and the management of technical debt as the aviation industry races to make updates that many consider long overdue. This article will give a brief overview of both incidents and share lessons technology leaders can take to their own organizations.
In late December, a winter storm and frigid temperatures impacted airlines across the country. While many airlines bounced back relatively quickly, Southwest did not. Cancellations mounted and the company was unable to address them in a timely, automated way.
Southwest’s flight and crew scheduling is managed by a mainframe-based software that was built decades ago and is nearing the end of its life, according to the airline. When the system is overwhelmed, employees have to resort to manual processes. As the backlogs grew in December, “there just was not enough time in the day to work through the manual solutions,” Southwest COO Andrew Watterson said. By December 25, the Southwest team decided “the only way to pull the airline’s operations back from the brink would be to cancel even more flights: around two-thirds of its schedule for several days.” Nearly 17,000 flights were canceled, disrupting the lives of about two million customers.
The company is working with GE Digital to add new functions to its mainframe-based software, Crew Optimization (formerly known as SkySolver), to improve the flight and crew scheduling process. GE Digital owns the Crew Optimization technology. Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines’ CEO, said the technology and processes worked as designed but “they just were all hit by overwhelming volume.” A GE spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that its software isn’t an end-to-end solution, but rather a backend algorithm that airlines can supplement with other software to manage disruptions. Southwest and GE Digital are working together to develop a new release for the software to address past problems to reduce the need to do so manually.
Unions at Southwest have been urging the company to modernize the antiquated scheduling technology. “We’ve been harping on them since 2015-ish every year,” Southwest pilots union vice president Mike Santoro told CNN. In 2022, the Southwest flight attendants union wrote a letter to management prioritizing “modernization of the antiquated reserve system” and “improved communication tools to alleviate long scheduling hold times” over pay increases. Watterson said that Southwest was working through multi-year system upgrades, and had focused on maintenance and group operations ahead of crew-scheduling updates.
As a result of the disruptions, regulators and lawmakers have called for investigations and penalties against the airline. Additionally, the company’s board has created an operations review committee and the company has committed more than $1 billion of its annual operating budget to maintaining and upgrading IT systems as part of a five-year strategic plan. The events have cost Southwest Airlines an estimated $725 to $825 million, and the ripple effects continue to be felt.
Just weeks after the Southwest meltdown, the FAA’s system experienced an outage that led to thousands more travelers experiencing flight delays and cancellations. Like Southwest, the FAA’s outage originated from systems scheduled for upgrades. The affected system, Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs), is a critical tool for alerting pilots about conditions that could impact flight safety and for real-time information on flight hazards and restrictions. Pilots are required to consult NOTAMs before every flight.
Due to safety concerns and to address the outage, the FAA grounded departures nationwide for the first time since 9/11. “Today’s FAA catastrophic system failure is a clear sign that America’s transportation network desperately needs significant upgrades,” said Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “Americans deserve an end-to-end travel experience that is seamless and secure. And our nation’s economy depends on a best-in-class air travel system.”
The FAA has identified a damaged database file on systems scheduled for upgrades as the cause behind its system outage, and found no evidence of a cyberattack. Investigations are ongoing to prevent any similar disruptions to travelers in the future.
New tools are being developed, some originating from startups, to modernize and automate processes and systems in the airline industry that are manual, siloed, and outdated. Executives at a number of major airlines have reaffirmed their commitments to investing in technology modernization and operational infrastructure during their January quarterly earnings calls.
The examples above serve as cautionary tales on the potential dangers of not addressing needed system upgrades in a timely manner. Technology leaders can keep the following points in mind as they build organizational resilience amid a fast-changing technology landscape:
Don’t put modernization efforts on the back burner. CIOs and their organizations are constantly balancing a shifting portfolio of initiatives. Challenges at Southwest and the FAA illustrate the heightened risk and serious consequences of waiting to make critical upgrades or letting technical debt pile up. If your team doesn’t have a strategy for chipping away at that technical debt, it’s time to address it.
Connect the dots between internal systems, employees, and customers. Long-reliable legacy systems may be an afterthought for many organizations (until they stop working, that is). Incorporate maintenance and upgrades into short-term and long-term business and technology strategies with an emphasis on how these systems ultimately affect employee and customer outcomes.
Have a backup plan and prepare for the worst. Develop and regularly test response plans with teams to reduce risk and ensure the organization is prepared to navigate potential mishaps.
Leverage cloud-based systems where appropriate. Partnerships with cloud providers are expected to help airlines improve their technologies. A shift to cloud solutions is no simple or risk-free task, and successful implementations go well beyond simply installing the technology, but strategically scaling these technologies can create greater operational agility, help automate processes, and make data integration more seamless and secure.
Continue to enable real-time data and communication that can take place across teams and organizations. Where possible, eliminate silos that can slow and reduce the quality of data sharing and, at worst, bring operations to a halt. Ensuring accurate and accessible data enterprise-wide is not a small task and often requires a robust data strategy to execute effectively, but its benefits can extend well beyond helping with crisis response.
Continue to gather and listen to feedback. For executives especially, careful listening and communication are key to empowering teams, creating an effective digital experience, and ensuring they have the tools needed to do their jobs.
Our next Digital Symposium is just around the corner. Join us on February 16 as technology executives and other industry leaders discuss how AI is transforming their companies, the role of technology in driving sustainability initiatives, and how to build a culture of innovation in trying times.
CIOs and other technology leaders, register here to reserve your spot today and stay tuned for agenda updates. We look forward to seeing you!
12:30 p.m.
12:40 – 1:05 p.m.
Establishing a Data Strategy in Complex Organizations
Krzysztof Soltan, Chief Information Officer, Vulcan Materials Company
Anupam Khare, Chief Information Officer, Oshkosh Corporation
1:05 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Talent’s Strategic Role in Making Transformations Stick
Sastry Durvasula, Chief Information and Client Services Officer, TIAA
Ramon Richards, Chief Information Officer, Fannie Mae
1:30 – 1:55 p.m.
From CIO to COO: Tech Leaders’ Expanding Operational Purview
Rob Lux, Chief Operating Officer & Fmr. Co-CEO, Cenlar
Mark Wassersug, Chief Infromation Officer & Fmr. COO, Intercontinental Exchange Inc.
1:55 – 2:20 p.m.
Becoming an AI Company
Katia Walsh, Chief Global Strategy & Artificial Intelligence Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.
George Brady, Chief Information Officer, loanDepot
2:20 – 2:45 p.m.
Cultivating an Enterprise Mindset
Michelle Greene, Chief Information Officer, Cardinal Health
Marco Argenti, Chief Information Officer, Goldman Sachs
2:45 p.m.
Closing remarks and adjourn
Click here for highlights from our December Digital Symposium, or watch the panels on our YouTube channel. We look forward to seeing you!
As we enter 2023, many technology executives are preparing their organizations for a possible economic downturn. In addition to pursuing growth and transformation initiatives (though perhaps with a tighter budget than before), they are exploring ways in which technology can deliver efficiency and resilience.
In a recent episode of “Forbes Talks”, Peter High joins Diane Brady to discuss the growing role of the CIO and technology in the workplace, as well as the evolving technology landscape in 2023 and beyond.
Watch the Forbes interview with Peter High below:
