Another year has passed, and technology and digital remain on the ascent, as companies focus on each as sources of new revenue streams and resilience. The innovations were represented well in a variety of pieces throughout the year. Though it is impossible to fully represent the breadth of that writing, here are ten noteworthy pieces that provide greater context to advances made and issues faced in 2021.
The Cost of Cloud: A Trillion-Dollar Paradox
By Sarah Wang and Martin Casado, a16z.com, May 2021
Sarah Wang and Martin Casado of the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, argue that while cloud delivers significant value early in a firm’s growth, the costs it puts on the business may eventually outweigh the benefits. While primarily focused on startups, this article has been a useful thought starter for enterprise technology leaders as they continue to explore the long-term business implications of the cloud.
Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter
By Ted Chiang, The New Yorker, March 30, 2021
The notion of ‘the singularity’ has been tantalizing the tech community for decades, heralding a future with infinitely powerful artificial intelligence capable of independently improving itself. Even with the phenomenal computing advancements of the 21st century, it seems we are nowhere closer to actualizing this intelligence explosion. Is it truly possible for a computer program to surpass the intelligence of its human creators? Chiang offers an interesting counter-point to those who say yes.
The Technopolar Moment: How Digital Powers Will Reshape the Global Order
By Ian Bremmer, Foreign Affairs, November/December 2021
For centuries, nation states have been the primary actor in global affairs, but that is beginning to change as massive technology companies begin to rival them for geopolitical influence. Technology giants are increasingly shaping the global environment and wield tremendous influence over the technologies and services billions of people interact with daily. This piece explores the sovereignty tech giants wield over the digital space and beyond.
Moore’s Law for Everything,
By Sam Altman, SamAltman.com, March 16, 2021
As the CEO of OpenAI and former President of YCombinator, Sam Altman has a unique perspective on the future of artificial intelligence. In a recent essay, Altman explores the intersection between rapid progress in AI, politics and the economy, including global AI governance, wealth inequality and how AI could change the geopolitical balance of power. He ultimately concludes on an optimistic note, noting that the AI revolution “will generate enough wealth for everyone to have what they need, if we as a society manage it responsibly.”
The Outsider: How CEO-For-Hire Frank Slootman Turned Snowflake Into Software’s Biggest-Ever IPO
By Alex Konrad, Forbes, February 1, 2021
Former ServiceNow CEO Frank Slootman has branded himself as an unstoppable force in the tech industry, leading companies with an iron fist and demanding excellence from his constituents. Taking the reins as Snowflake’s CEO in 2019, Slootman has ignited another aggressive transformation to shift the cloud-based data warehouse to a multifunctional data hub capable of outracing the industry’s largest competitors. In this piece, Alex Konrad unravels Slootman’s playbook for turning Silicon Valley’s next cautionary tale into the fifth largest tech-listing in the United States.
How to Negotiate with Ransomware Hackers
By Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, June 7, 2021
This piece offers a clear-eyed look at the evolving cyber extortion industry through the eyes of the rare ransomware negotiation specialist. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a company gets hit with a ransomware attack, this article provides insights into how to fight (or, rather, negotiate).
Students Who Grew Up with Search Engines Might Change STEM Education
By Monica Chin, The Verge, September 2021
A generational divide in how we use computers is showing up in classrooms around the country. In an age where Google-like search interfaces are ubiquitous, many students today have little knowledge of, or seeming need for, file folders and directories. This is a compact but meaningful story about the confusing, though often humorous, situations brought on by technological progress.
What Ever Happened to IBM’s Watson?
By Steve Lohr, New York Times, July 16, 2021
A decade ago, IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Ken Jennings, the best human “Jeopardy!” player ever. IBM executives said that their artificial intelligence would transform industries, generate fortunes for the company, and start a technological revolution. In What Ever Happened to IBM’s Watson? New York Times Technology Reporter Steve Lohr traces the company’s missteps with Watson that have led IBM to settle on a far less ambitious AI strategy, suggesting that “the march of artificial intelligence through the mainstream economy, it turns out, will be more step-by-step evolution than cataclysmic revolution.”
For an Agile Transformation, Choose the Right People
By Rob Cross, Heidi K. Gardner, Alia Crocker, Harvard Business Review, April 2021
Researchers from Babson College and Harvard Law School find that while Agile methods can improve processes and increase speed to market, many Agile teams are not organized for long-term success. This piece examines where many Agile efforts go wrong and offers a revised approach to building strong Agile teams.
Epic Games Believes the Internet is Broken. This is Their Blueprint to Fix It.
By Gene Park, The Washington Post, September 28, 2021
The ‘social media era’ of the internet has stifled consumer engagement with commerce, leaving users’ brand exploration limited to the interests of social media moguls. Championing the internet’s freedom from exploitative herd advertising, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney lays out his plan for the metaverse, a revolutionary online ecosystem where users and brands can freely collaborate and seamlessly interact to transform the digital consumer experience.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written two bestselling books, and his third, Getting to Nimble, was recently released. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
Wesley Story has been named Chief Information Officer of Genesys, a global cloud leader in customer experience orchestration. As CIO, he will balance the day-to-day needs around operational efficiencies and scaling challenges that come from surges of rapid growth with new investments and the build-out of new capabilities that help the company position itself for continued future growth.
The company is going through what it refers to as its “Experience as a Service evolution,” and Story believes that IT has a significant role to play in the transformation to come. “Our Experience as a Service evolution…will be a central area of focus for me,” he said. “That means fostering and supporting our company’s cultural transformation that started a couple of years ago so that it’s genuinely baked into the DNA of our organization. Many companies have ‘values’ that are often printed on the back of their badges, posted on the walls in conference rooms, and perhaps used in annual performance reviews. But that can be a blind spot for an organization when it’s not baked into daily interactions. To me, that’s the goal. Our everyday decisions and behaviors should embody the culture.”
Genesys’ Experience as a Service is a new business model for the company. It was featured prominently in the announcement of the company’s most recent funding round of $580 million for a valuation of $21 billion. The round was led by Salesforce Ventures.
Story also noted the sanctity of data in this transformation, as data drives customer and market insights, providing a deeper understanding of how customers use Genesys’ products, fostering growth through better insights. “It’s one thing to have the data and perform analytics on it,” he said. “It’s another to be able to action the data by presenting it in the appropriate context for our employees, or, in some cases, use the data in a cognitive model to automate decisioning. Actions like this require intimacy with our cross-functional business processes like quote to cash, acquire to retire, and procure to pay, as well as customer experience metrics and business pain points so we can unlock value.” Story underscored that IT is a critical enabler in this regard, and he noted that IT will continue to forge tight relationships with the various functions and business units.
Story will report to Genesys Chief Financial Officer Brian Swartz, who noted in reference to Story, “Wesley is a proven leader with a deep understanding of business process improvements and building high-performing organizations grounded in customer experience and collaboration. As part of his responsibilities, he’ll work closely with product marketing, product engineering and many other functions as we grow and scale our business.”
Most recently, Story was an Enterprise Strategist at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he was responsible for providing strategy guidance at the Board of Director, C-suite and IT leadership levels to advise clients on their transformation efforts. Prior to AWS, he was the interim global CIO at Sysco Foods, a leader in food distribution.
The automobile is one of the most important innovations of the last century. It has not been an unmitigated blessing, however, as it has led to millions of deaths through accidents, and it is among the biggest sources of pollution.
Mamatha Chamarthi is the Software Business and Product Management Leader at Stellantis, a post that she took on in April of 2021. Stellantis was formed in 2021 on the basis of a merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA group. The combined entity has a bit more than $200 billion in annual revenue.
It is refreshing to speak with Chamarthi about the car industry because she does not wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to the issues that the industry has had, just as she is inspired and energized by the role that technology can play in rectifying those issues. “Millions of people are seriously injured every year in car crashes [around the world]. Last year in the U.S., there was a 7% increase [in serious injuries],” she said. She recognizes that autonomous driving is the key to driving down these issues because 95% of the fatalities are due to human error. Her goals is to augment human intelligence to reduce this radically. “There is a bigger, broader purpose and a societal challenge that we are going after with autonomy. That is why the technology industry is also so fascinated with this area of autonomy.”
To solve autonomy requires the development of an ecosystem around Stellantis, and, here again, Chamarthi is part of the solution. “We are creating an ecosystem, partnering with technology companies like Amazon and Waymo,” noted Chamarthi. “We partnered with Waymo for autonomy, and we are also partnering with BMW, another traditional automaker just like us, to create our level two-plus [autonomy, out of five levels ] with enhanced autonomy to level three, which is where your hands are off the steering wheel, your eyes are off the road for some time and your feet are off the accelerator and the brake.” The company has developed adaptive cruise control, emergency braking and Traffic Jam Assist, as three components to help get from level two-plus driving to level three and beyond.
Chamarthi notes the necessity of partnering with pure-play technology companies, as they have technology budgets that dwarf those of automotive companies. A company like Stellantis can offer industry expertise and loyal customers, and technology companies can develop a portfolio of technologies for the Stellantises of the world to leverage as it climbs the rungs toward greater levels of autonomy.
Global warming is another major issue for the automotive industry to solve. Chamarthi admits that transportation is one of the biggest contributor to air pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency notes transportation as the third biggest contributing industry to greenhouse gas emissions. Again, she believes digital innovation should drive better outcomes on that front, as well. “We have to find an answer to reducing the carbon footprint because that is part of our responsibility to leave a cleaner, greener planet for future generations,” said Chamarthi. This will be enhanced not only through autonomy, but also through greater levels of electrification and shared mobility.
Chamarthi asked a rhetorical question. “What percentage of the time do we use [a car]? 7% maybe at best. 93% of the time it is sitting on a driveway or in a garage or a parking lot. In our digital economy, what happens with an underutilized asset? We find some creative, innovative ways of using that asset and that is what gave birth to ridehailing shared mobility.” To fill this need, Stellantis launched Free2Move, which provides customers the option to lease or own a mobility experience for a few minutes through to multiple years in duration. This mobility as a service offering will not be limited to Stellantis’ automotive portfolio. The company will provide the products and services to bring this to life for competitors’ portfolios, as well.
Beyond the virtuous aspects of digital innovation, Chamarthi is also excited about the experiences that can be brough to life through the connected automobile. “Can I personalize the driving experience of the customer?,” she asked. By way of example, she noted, “I can provide a Jeep for an off-road trail [for a customer], planning an end-to-end trail experience for my customer.” She likens this to excursions for a cruise line. If a customer signs up for Free2Move, they can have access to multiple vehicles for different kinds of experiences, each with a level of education and curation to make them safe and interesting at the same time.
Prior to her current role, Chamarthi was the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer of Stellantis. She sees her evolution from CIO and CDO to running a profit center for the company as representative of the ascent of technology and digital across businesses more generally. Increasingly, “Technology is front and center,” she said. “It is exciting to be driving and shaping the automotive industry in these macro trends of autonomy, electrification, connected services and shared mobility. All of them are enabled by software, are all enabled by technology. It only makes complete sense to me that technology leaders are being asked to come lead from the front [rather] than leading from behind.”
Matthew Schmidt contributed to this article.
At the beginning of 2021, Metis Strategy highlighted key areas of focus for the future of work. The environment has evolved significantly since then, and indeed continues to change, as organizations navigate major shifts in economic and workforce dynamics. At the heart of many discussions has been a company’s most valuable asset: it’s people. Amid a fast-changing business landscape, we have seen a renewed focus on employee health and wellness, re-thinking talent strategies, and enabling productivity in a hybrid work environment.
While it remains uncertain how 2022 will unfold, one thing is clear: organizations must be nimble in order to respond effectively to whatever change is coming. Technology leaders are well positioned to be a catalyst for this enterprise agility. Almost 75% of attendees at the December Metis Strategy Digital Symposium noted that creating a culture that embraces uncertainty and has the ability to pivot quickly would have significant business impact over the next six to 12 months.
As organizations look ahead to an uncertain 2022, technology leaders will continue to drive agility while placing additional emphasis on talent and employee experience. In an era of unprecedented change, an iterative, test-and-learn approach will be key. Below are a few areas of focus:
Health and wellness continue to guide return-to-office plans
When we wrote our first article in early 2021, vaccines were not yet approved and there was little knowledge of the variants that extended the health crisis. Amid continued uncertainty about the path of the pandemic, health and wellness considerations still take priority while planning for the future.
Many companies have pushed back return-to-office timelines to minimize health and safety risks. According to a survey conducted by Gartner, over two-thirds of organizations have pushed back their return to office dates, including Google, Apple, and Ford. Some companies have opted to go completely remote, while others have announced they plan to return workforces to the office when it is safe to do so. Across all of these examples is a growing embrace of flexibility as companies discover and adapt to new ways of working.
No matter their return-to-office philosophy, leaders must remain up to date on new developments and recommendations from health officials while maintaining regular and open communication with employees about expectations moving forward. Firms that embrace agility will be able to flex quickly and communicate clearly when the unexpected occurs.
Organizations broaden their horizons for talent
Across industries and job functions, competition for top talent continues to grow. As a result of “The Great Resignation” or “Great Reshuffle,” companies have seen a shift in the makeup of their workforces, with more than 20 million people leaving their roles in the second half of 2021 alone. With an estimated 65% of employees actively looking for new opportunities, the competition to attract and retain talent has never been higher, giving leaders an even stronger imperative to find and retain the best people.
Organizational agility is the common thread among companies that have found success. During a recent event, Asurion CIO Casey Santos explained that her team is connecting to the talent market by emphasizing the strength of their culture and technology, becoming more flexible, and relying on less formal recruiting techniques.
Ralph Loura, the CIO of Lumentum, highlighted the need to focus on engagement and “think of people as people.” Roughly 35% of CIOs at the December Metis Strategy Digital Symposium chose reskilling or upskilling as their talent development priority in 2022, followed by enhancing the employee experience. In addition to attracting new talent, finding new and creative ways to engage existing colleagues can contribute to organizations’ success within the dynamic talent market.
Loura also noted that the war for talent is no longer based primarily on geography. Seeking people in different locations or creating positions that allow for permanent remote work can broaden the talent pool.
A new era of flexible work brings new opportunities for talent recruitment and development, but it is not without its challenges. Many leaders continue to grapple with the best ways to build and reinforce a cohesive culture when teammates have few opportunities to collaborate in a single space. As organizations continue to adjust their talent strategies and allow for greater flexibility, expect a renewed focus on culture building and employee development.
Taking an iterative approach to find the optimal hybrid model
In addition to building a cohesive culture in a hybrid environment, organizations must also find new ways to promote productivity and ensure teams are able to collaborate effectively. Doing so starts with providing an effective operating model.
Organizations should take an iterative, test-and-learn approach to find the model that best meets the needs of the business and its stakeholders. Some organizations are sampling the four-day work week, piloting meeting-free days, or encouraging flexible hours in an effort to increase flexibility and productivity. There have been few definitive lessons from these experiments as yet, and approaches vary based on the company implementing them. Nevertheless, this nimble approach allows teams to quickly test new frameworks and find the appropriate balance.
New collaboration models continue to evolve as well, particularly as organizations test a mix of remote and in-office teams. Providing an environment that fosters collaboration between in-person and remote employees is key to ensuring success in hybrid environments.
In interviews with more than 100 digital leaders on the Technovation podcast in 2021, executives noted artificial intelligence, cloud, and analytics among the technologies that show the most potential inside their organizations. Executives also noted the need to defend their organizations from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and efforts to scale automation efforts.
Below is a list of the top 10 technology trends on technology leaders’ minds in 2021, as well as a glimpse of topics rising in importance in the year ahead.
AI, cloud, and analytics remain top of mind
During an unprecedented year of digital acceleration, Technovation guests described the ways in which technology has become even further ingrained in the fabric of business operations, transforming the way customers consume products and services. “Every decision we make as executives has a fundamental aspect of technology in the discussion,” said Greg Carmichael, Chief Executive Officer at Fifth Third Bancorp, after seeing a sustained 20% increase in digital channel usage since the start of the pandemic. To navigate the operational changes required in an increasingly digital world, AI and data analytics have enabled organizations to deliver deeper insights with greater speed than ever before.
Alongside AI and analytics efforts, technology executives increased their focus on cloud. At Whirlpool, CIO Danielle Brown is taking a cloud-first approach for critical systems and data. “You are able to leverage data not just in functional silos, but across multiple functions within the business (and) across regions in a more easy and accessible way,” she said. Leveraging cloud analytics and productivity solutions has enabled Whirlpool to deliver systems and applications crucial to business on highly elastic infrastructure, which allows the company to grow and adapt quickly as business conditions change.
The shift to cloud has also created new opportunities for AI to transform business insights and operations. During a December conference, Target CIO Mike McNamara said he views AI and analytics as the key to his company’s success. AI “has been a really exciting avenue of discovery for the future and a great source of competitive advantage for the business,” he said. Applications across Target include demand forecasting, ordering, workload planning, pricing and promotions, among other tasks.
Looking to the year ahead, CommScope CIO Praveen Jonnala shared his plans to continue adopting AI and ML capabilities “to provide deeper insights that really unleash opportunities within the company and for our customers.”
The cybersecurity landscape grows more complex
The transition to remote and hybrid work presented many CIOs with an alarming increase in cybersecurity threats. As Pacific Life CIO Mike Shadle noted: “With the pandemic and with the hybrid workforce, you now have to be secure everywhere,” including well beyond the traditional four walls of a corporate HQ. The price for not being prepared is high. In 2021 alone, average data breach costs increased from $3.86 million to $4.24 million, a historic high, according to an IBM Cost of Data Breach Report.
In response to an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape, including steady reports of ransomware and awareness of new vulnerabilities across software supply chains, many companies accelerated their investments in security to protect valuable data and mitigate risk across distributed work environments.
We expect more investment in the year ahead, and anticipate that technology leaders will double down on efforts to make cybersecurity a key part of ongoing transformation initiatives. “Cybersecurity is not only the technology, the process, the detection prevention mechanisms, or the response recovery mechanisms,” said Ameren Chief Digital Information Officer Bhavani Amirthalingam. “Creating a culture of cybersecurity is extremely important.”
RPA accelerates automation opportunities
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) gained a foothold in many organizations over the past few years and has continued to scale in 2021. As organizations seek to automate a broader range of processes, tools like RPA are enabling employees to take on higher-order work. At Guardian Life, a program called “Automation for Good” seeks to do just that, with software taking over transaction-heavy tasks and freeing up technologists to tackle more complex issues. “Why not allow them to be able to self-automate and identify those tasks that they wish they did not have to do in the first place, and then create a much more fulfilling job for themselves,” said Dean Del Vecchio, Guardian Life’s CIO and Chief of Operations.
Beyond RPA, automakers like Toyota have taken advantage of automation on the factory floor. In an interview, Toyota Financial Services CIO Vipin Gupta said he believes “we will see a series of innovative techniques used by large enterprises to define these new workflows for IT that will become highly automated. So, for example, today in our Toyota factories over 90% of tasks to assemble a car are automated. IT will mature to the same levels this decade.”
Manufacturing companies like Advance Auto Parts have begun implementing RPA to drive automation efforts forward. While RPA is not a new trend, CIO Sri Donthi said, “it is a trend that we are really focused on, given we are building a lot of common platforms. Now, I can really apply more RPA as a capability to drive this hyper-automation that is really needed.”
Quantum computing cracks the list for the first time
Quantum computing, while still in its nascent stages, continues to catch the attention of CIOs. Recent developments from companies such as Intel Corporation suggest quantum may be closer to entering the mainstream conversation. For example, Intel Labs’s Senior Fellow and Managing Director Rich Uhlig said the company is exploring post-quantum cryptography and its implications for cybersecurity and data protection. “We are improving the algorithms, improving the accelerators for these algorithms and making them resilient against a quantum attack,” he said.
Another driver behind quantum’s growing recognition is its concrete use cases, particularly for analyzing large data sets. When considering use cases in pharmaceuticals, Merck Chief Information and Digital Officer Dave Williams says he thinks quantum could provide value by surmounting complex issues such as weather prediction, human biology, accelerating drug discovery and development, and encryption. He notes that use cases may be five to 10 years from the mainstream, but that quantum nevertheless “is going to be one to watch and really keep an eye on.” Blue Shield of California CIO Lisa Davis noted that it stands to fundamentally change the ways in which organizations solve problems and could allow organizations to find new ways to model and prepare for future crisis events.
Trends likely to rise in 2022
In addition to the topics noted above, other trends show signs of gaining traction in 2022:
As the world enters year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology leaders continue to adapt to new ways of working while managing a fast-growing digital agenda. Much of that work involves developing people, processes, and technologies that allow their organizations to adapt and pivot quickly as new challenges and opportunities arise. Stay tuned to Technovation in 2022 for more discussions about the transformative technologies driving organizations forward.
Our first Digital Symposium of the year is just around the corner. Join us on February 24 as technology leaders share their perspectives on scaling data and analytics initiatives, creating cultures of continuous learning, and the state of digital strategy in 2022, among other topics.
CIOs and other technology leaders, register here to reserve your spot today. We look forward to seeing you!
(Click here for highlights from our last Digital Symposium, and stay tuned to our YouTube channel for videos of our panel discussions.)
Noon
Welcome and Introductions
Welcome and introduction to the Metis Strategy team.
Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
12:05 – 12:20 p.m.
Fireside Chat: Bill Pappas, MetLife
Bill Pappas, EVP & Head of Technology and Operations, MetLife
12:20 – 12:40 p.m.
Panel: Creating a World-Class Digital Customer Experience
Charu Jain, SVP Merchandising & Innovation, Alaska Airlines
Sanjib Sahoo, EVP and Chief Digital Officer, Ingram Micro
Moderated by Chris Davis, Vice President and West Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
12:40 – 12:55 p.m.
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Rakesh Loonkar, Transmit Security
Rakesh Loonkar, President & Co-Founder, Transmit Security
12:55 – 1:15 p.m.
Panel: How Talent and Culture Enable High Performance and Enterprise Agility
Raghu Sagi, Chief Information Officer, Inspire Brands
Onyeka Nchege, SVP and Chief Information Officer, Novant Health
Moderated by Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
1:15 – 1:30 p.m.
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Sunny Gupta, Apptio
Sunny Gupta, CEO & Co-Founder, Apptio
1:30 – 1:50 p.m.
Panel: Building Resilient Digital Supply Chains
Gurmeet Singh, EVP, CTO and CIO, Big Lots Stores
Gary Desai, Chief Information Officer, Discount Tire
Moderated by Michael Bertha, Vice President and Central Office Lead, Metis Strategy
1:50 – 2:10 p.m.
Panel: How Data and Digital Capabilities are Shaping the Future of Work
Vince Campisi, SVP Enterprise Services and Chief Digital Officer, Raytheon Technologies
Edward Wagoner, Chief Information Officer, JLL
Moderated by Steven Norton, Co-Head Executive Networks, Research, and Media, Metis Strategy
Click here for highlights from our last Digital Symposium, or view the panel discussions on YouTube.
The fifth and final Metis Strategy Digital Symposium of 2021 is in the books. Thank you to the global CIOs, CEOs, and entrepreneurs who joined the conversation.
Looking to 2022, technology leaders said developing and maintaining strong cultures, motivating teams, and providing continuous learning and development opportunities are among their continued priorities. Also on the CIO agenda: maintaining agility and momentum following a period of significant digital acceleration. Additional highlights from the event are below. Check out our YouTube channel and the Technovation podcast in the coming weeks for recordings of individual panel discussions.
New ways of working enable agility and speed to market. CIOs noted that a continued shift to product-based operating models, paired with advanced applications of data and analytics, has led to greater enterprise agility. More nimble technology architectures also support more nimble operations.
Increased customer adoption of digital channels during the pandemic accelerated the shift to new team structures, roles and responsibilities and reinforced the need to deliver products and services to customers faster and with less friction. Michael Ruttledge, CIO at Citizens Financial, noted a 30% increase in the use of digital channels. Over the past year, his team has introduced more than 900 features in its mobile app. Citizens has leveraged advanced technology in those efforts, Ruttledge said, “but at the same time we’ve had to get that to market very quickly, and we’ve done that by changing our agile culture.”
Pairing new ways of working with agile, scalable technology architectures has helped the IT organization at Target move faster and deliver more value across the organization, CIO Mike McNamara said. Today, Target has hundreds of products across the business that can release updates daily or weekly. “The rate limiter is how quickly our business and our guests can absorb change rather than how quickly we can produce it,” McNamara said. “That speed and agility has just been a phenomenal benefit to the business.”
Fostering a strong culture is more critical than ever. As the war for talent intensifies and organizations embrace more flexible working arrangements, technology leaders are thinking about how best to foster a sense of connectivity and maintain innovative cultures as teams collaborate in new ways, both in the office and remotely.
Asurion CIO Casey Santos noted that her team is telling the company’s story in a more personal way, emphasizing the strength of their culture and technology, becoming more flexible, and relying on less formal recruiting techniques. Santos’ team is also training leaders at the company to be better coaches and sponsors so that they can help employees through their journey at the company. Asurion is also bulking up its internship, internal mobility, and rotational programs.
Underpinning many of those actions is a push to create learning and development opportunities for talent across the organization. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, “lifelong learning isn’t optional anymore,” said Sri Donthi, Chief Technology Officer at Advance Auto Parts. He shared the guiding principles he has followed while developing an engineering culture: creating a comfortable environment for employees to challenge themselves and excel; starting with the customer in mind while looking at the big picture; and keeping innovation top of mind. Donthi emphasized the need to lead with empathy and care, and encouraged fellow leaders to develop skills including crisis leadership, virtual leadership, and inspirational leadership.
Companies double down on upskilling and talent initiatives. Creating learning and development opportunities remains top of mind for CIOs in the year ahead, with 35% of participants noting reskilling or upskilling as their talent development priority in 2022, followed by enhancing employee experience.
Toptal Co-Founder and CEO Taso Du Val predicts that there will be a plethora of online courses that will allow employees to earn certifications. More meaningful content and a better user experience, among other factors, will make these programs more impactful than traditional education programs, he said.
Citizens Financial introduced academy programs that allow engineers to spend 10 days learning skills such as React, Java, Python, or learning APIs, CIO Michael Ruttledge said. The company also developed 38 different badging and certification programs across a range of technologies. At Discover Financial, the Discover Technology Academy runs a series of courses while also serving as a hub for multidisciplinary teams to share their knowledge and experience with others, encouraging collaboration and allowing innovation to scale more effectively.
Target CIO Mike McNamara said engineers at the company are expected to spend 20% of their time on learning and development, part of the framework Target has built to recruit, develop, and provide continued learning experiences for teams. He’s also proud that many leaders who have worked under his leadership have taken on CIO or senior executive roles at large companies around the world.
Common platforms enable data-driven customer experience at scale. Heading into 2022, leaders across industries continue to develop and refine platforms that allow their organizations to leverage analytics and AI across a broader range of products and services, deliver sufficient governance, and scale new solutions quickly.
At Experian, EVP & Global Head of Analytics and AI Shri Santhanam is leveraging a technical and commercial platform, along with the company’s vast troves of data, to develop more products powered by AI and machine learning. Common platforms allow Experian to bring in new data sets more easily and create more sophisticated models that give individuals, particularly those whose experiences may not have been reflected in traditional models, access to credit.
Anjana Harve, Global Chief Information Officer at Fresenius Medical Care, has focused on developing a platform that helps patients manage their care effectively and provides continuous insights throughout the user journey from early care to dialysis treatment. Through connected platforms, Fresenius can drive standardization, bring innovation and speed to end users, and guide workflows while providing the most relevant and personalized information for patients and clinicians.
Leaders continue to unlock new capabilities with data and analytics. Nearly 40% of attendees noted that they expect to see the most technology investment in data and analytics in the year ahead, and 71% noted that advanced AI is the emerging technology that holds the most promise for their organizations in 2022.
Discover Financial CIO Amir Arooni emphasized the importance of advanced AI in giving customers “actionable data that empowers them.” Applications of AI at Discover include real-time fraud detection and analyzing past spending data to advise customers on what to purchase and when, providing guidance on how to save more money and earn rewards.
Advanced analytics techniques are also making strides in the construction industry, which has begun to embrace technology as more digital tools, accessible via the cloud, went mobile. Turner Construction CIO Warren Kudman said the industry is “waking up to the value of data” and has used digital tools to visualize and manipulate environments virtually, reducing the likelihood of costly mistakes. Turner is also using data and ML to track and assess safety conditions at job sites, proactively identify interventions, conduct remote inspections, and track materials as they arrive on job sites.
Dean Del Vecchio, CIO and Chief of Operations at Guardian Life, discussed how the company is using data and AI to develop insurance products faster, easier, and with less friction for customers. Thanks to new tools and new ways of working, some processes that used to take 45 days have been cut to 30 seconds, he said.
General Motors today named two new technology leaders and said it would split its information technology organization into two groups, one focused on global IT and the other on software product development for customers.
Fred Killeen was named VP of global information technology and Chief Information Officer, reporting to CEO Mary Barra. He will lead the Global IT team, which is responsible for back-office IT support and using software to support growth across the company. Killeen most recently was GM’s Chief Information Security Officer and CTO, where he oversaw the automaker’s global information security and IT risk management programs.
Stacy Lynett will run the Digital Business Software group. Reporting to newly appointed Chief Digital Officer Edward Kummer, her team will be responsible for technology strategy and software product development that is geared toward delivering enhanced products and experiences for customers. She will also support global customer and dealer systems.
Lynett most recently was executive director and CIO of Global Product Development and Quality for GM IT, as well as CIO for Global Corporate Functions. In that role, she focused on the company’s Workday solution and supporting IT for the legal and communications functions.
Both Killeen and Lynett previously reported to CIO Randy Mott, who last week announced plans to retire.
The Global IT and Digital Business Software groups will be a critical part of GM’s plan to deliver $20 billion to $25 billion in software-enabled services revenue annually by 2030. In a press release, GM noted that both groups “will continue to collaborate on driving innovation, providing the best software and technology solutions to support the company, attracting and retaining talent, professional development, and more.”
“The new structure and dual operating model will enable GM to fully leverage its strong foundation in IT capability, talent and resources, as well as reduce complexity and improve speed,” Barra said in the statement. “Stacy and Fred bring unique backgrounds and experiences to help us seize the opportunities software plays in our business as we move from automaker to platform innovator.”
Vinny Hoxha, deputy CISO at GM, will take over as Chief Information Security Officer, reporting to Killeen.
PSteven Norton is co-head of CIO networks, research and media at Metis Strategy, a business and IT strategy firm. He previously was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal, where he covered the changing role of the chief information officer and the rise of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain. At Forbes, he covers new CIO appointments as well as the ways in which technology executives are developing the workforce of the future.
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Our final Digital Symposium of the year is just around the corner. Join us on December 9 as technology leaders across industries share their insights on talent strategy and upskilling, creating new pathways to innovation, and the trends and priorities guiding CIOs’ efforts in the year ahead.
12:00 – 12:05
12:05 – 12:20
Fireside Chat: Jim McKelvey, Square
Jim McKelvey, Co-Founder, Square; Founder, Invisibly; Author, The Innovation Stack
12:20 – 12:40
Panel: Scaling AI to Deliver New Customer Experiences
Amir Arooni, Chief Information Officer, Discover Financial
Dean Del Vecchio, CIO and Chief of Operations, Guardian Life
12:40 – 12:55
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Taso Du Val, Toptal
Taso Du Val, Co-Founder & CEO, Toptal
12:55 – 1:15
Panel: Fostering Agility Across the Enterprise
Warren Kudman, Chief Information Officer, Turner Construction
Michael Ruttledge, CIO and Head of Technology Services, Citizens Financial
Moderated by Alex Kraus, Vice President and East Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
1:15 – 1:35
Panel: Rethinking Talent Strategy for the Next Normal
Casey Santos, Chief Information Officer, Asurion
Sri Donthi, Chief Technology Officer, Advance Auto Parts
1:35 – 1:50
Digital Spotlight: Anand Birje, HCL Technologies
Anand Birje, Senior Corporate VP & Head of Digital Business, HCL Technologies
1:50 – 2:10
Panel: Digital Platforms as Strategic Growth Drivers
Shri Santhanam, EVP & Global Head of Analytics and AI, Experian
Anjana Harve, Global Chief Information Officer, Fresenius Medical Care
2:10 – 2:25
Fireside Chat: Mike McNamara, Target
Mike McNamara, Chief Information Officer, Target
Gartner, Inc. announced its top 12 strategic technology trends for 2022 and beyond. Analysts presented their findings at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2021, held virtually for the second year in a row, due to the pandemic. Gartner Research Vice President David Groombridge emphasized that just as 2020 and parts of 2021 found companies focused on survival, the future will focus on a return to the path toward growth. Just as survival required more creative use of technology, the path to growth will also emphasize creative use of technology, not so surprisingly. Gartner’s strategic technology trends for 2022 and beyond are:
Hyperautomation
Automation is a critical ingredient for digital transformation. Hyperautomation suggests a faster path to identifying, vetting, and automating processes across the enterprise. Gartner noted that areas to focus on in order to best accomplish this include improving work quality, hastening the pace of business processes, and fostering nimbleness in decision making.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Gartner notes an increase in interest and investment in generative AI in the past year. Generative AI references algorithms that enable using existing content like audio files, images, or text to create new content. Gartner predicts that in the next three and a half years, generative AI will account for 10% of all data produce compared to less than 1% at present. Case examples offered included supporting software development more generally, assisting companies in finding candidates to fill talent shortfalls, and identifying drug candidates more readily.
Data Fabric
Gartner defines data fabric as a design concept that serves as an integrated layer (fabric) of data and connecting processes. This fosters resilient and flexible integration of data across business users and platforms. The upshot is that it can reduce data management efforts substantially while dramatically improving time to value.
AI Engineering
The staying power and lasting value from AI investments have been mixed across many companies. An issue is that some companies deploy an AI model once and expect that value will accrue in perpetuity, Gartner notes that sustained efforts and model evolution must be driven to gain more from these investments. Groombridge noted that AI engineering adoption should lead to three times more value for AI efforts.
Autonomic Systems
Although it is early days in the life of autonomic systems, the next half-decade should yield increased value from it. “Autonomic systems with in-built self-learning can dynamically optimize performance, protect [companies] in hostile environments, and make sure that they’re constantly dealing with new challenges,” Groombridge noted. This trend anticipates greater levels of self-management of software.
Decision Intelligence (DI)
Decision intelligence aims to model decisions in a repeatable way to make them more efficient and to hasten the speed to value. It anticipates doing so through automation that enhances human intelligence. Gartner predicts that in the next two years, one-third of large enterprises will use DI for better and more structured decision-making.
Composable applications
The idea of composable applications highlights that the functional blocks of an application can be decoupled from the overall applications. The component parts can be more finely tuned to create a new application that is of greater value than its monolithic predecessor. Gartner notes that companies that leverage composable applications can outpace their competition by 80% regarding new feature implementation.
Cloud-native platforms (CNPs)
Gartner believes that cloud-native platforms, which leverage cloud technology’s essence to offer IT-related capabilities as a service for technologists, will provide the foundation for most new digital initiatives by mid-decade.
Privacy-enhancing computation (PEC)
Privacy has been an increasingly important concern and priority across the business landscape. Privacy-enhancing computation can protect a company’s and its customers’ sensitive data, protecting the confidentiality of data. Gartner hypothesizes that this is a pathway to maintain customer loyalty by decreasing privacy-related issues and cybersecurity events, and it believes that roughly 60% of large enterprises will leverage these practices by 2025.
Cybersecurity mesh
Cybersecurity mesh is a form of architecture that provides an integrated approach to security IT assets no matter their location. It provides a more standardized and responsive approach to cybersecurity by redefining the perimeters of cybersecurity to the identity of a person or a thing. This is a pathway to reduce the financial implications of cyber incidents by 90% in less than two years, according to Gartner.
Distributed enterprise
Gartner is a believer in the value of the hybrid approach to work, believing that those who enable it fully will achieve 25% faster revenue growth than peer companies who do not. This model allows employees to work in a geographically distributed fashion, opening up new pathways for talent acquisition.
Total experience (TX)
The pandemic has certainly led to an evolution, and in some cases a revolution in customer and employee experience, especially as it pertains to the digital versions of each. By managing each effectively, enterprises should drive better outcomes. Gartner suggests that natural silos relative to innovating around the customer, employee, and user experiences must be broken down so that a more holistic approach might be achieved.
