456: Equinix CEO Charles Meyers discusses the trend for organizations to get out of the data center business, which puts Equinix in a solid position to support CIOs in their digital transformation journey. Charles cites that companies are noticing that building, operating, maintaining, and ensuring that data centers are equipped to meet their go-forward needs is not in line with their differentiation and their capability nor is it the best use of their capital. Instead, they have looked for highly distributed IT infrastructure to meet a variety of needs, and the cloud is playing a large role. We also discuss the benefits Equinix gains from being an internal first user, how the CIO role has evolved to be more customer-facing and strategic, Charles’ takes on AI, IoT, the Digital Edge, and 5G, among other topics.
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453: In this episode, Anima discusses the synergy of working in both academia and in the industry, from her previous positions at AWS and University of California, Irvine, to her current research at NVIDIA and Caltech. She shares how AI can accelerate scientific discovery with engineering capabilities, such as powerful GPUs, that continuously push AI forward at a very fast pace. We also discuss what is known as the Trinity of the deep-learning revolution: algorithms, data, and compute infrastructure. Anima shares insights on scaling, self-supervision techniques, embodied intelligence, and her thoughts on the future of AI. Finally, we end with a discussion of Anima’s mission of globally democratizing and diversifying AI.
447: In this interview, Ajeet discusses the value of transparency within a company. In his time in Silicon Valley, Ajeet has noticed situations where there is a disconnect between how executives are thinking, what is happening in reality, and how much the board gets to know. However, Ajeet has built a culture with absolutely nothing to hide, as he notes. He has chosen to invite all the employees to board meetings because he claims that employees should know everything that is going on in the company. Further, he cites that this has given young engineers the opportunity to present to some of the most respected investors in Silicon Valley. We also discuss Ajeet’s goal for 10 unicorns to come out of ThoughtSpot, the benefits Ajeet gains from taking a personal off-site alone frequently to contemplate the company’s priorities, the partnerships ThoughtSpot has formed with a variety of different companies, and brainstorm new ideas, among other topics.
444: In this interview, David lays out his three strategic pillars as CEO. First, David is focused on driving an organizational and strategy shift from product to platform. Second, he is looking to move the company’s products from on-premise to being cloud-first, and third, he is focused on a business model shift to move from perpetual licensing to a subscription model. We also discuss how Citrix’s technology allows the company to be a virtual organization, the challenges of attracting the right employees and retaining them, the partnerships Citrix has developed over the years, among other topics.
In this interview, Metis Strategy Central Region Office Head Mike Bertha interviews Art Hu, Atticus Tysen, and Srini Koushik, the CIOs of Lenovo, Intuit, and Magellan Health respectively who have pioneered the shift from a project orientation to product orientation. These CIOs share the challenges they have encountered during their transitions, such as finding product managers with the necessary skills and how to manage traditional perceptions of IT through culture changes. They also discuss the limits of product-based IT in specific situations where there are static goals, among other topics.
414: Comcast CIO Rick Rioboli details Comcast’s heavy focus on the customer experience and the unique focus of Comcast’s digital transformation. In addition to digital sales and e-commerce, the main emphasis of Comcast’s digital transformation is on self-service from a service and support standpoint, which involves enabling digital interactions and providing customers with a frictionless experience. We also discuss Comcast’s use of artificial intelligence, how the IT team partners with the rest of the business, an overview of the new Comcast Technology Center, among other topics.
398: Zoom CIO Harry Moseley discusses how collaboration needs are changing with new generations. Millennials and Generation Z make up about a third of the global population, and since these generations have grown up in a digital world, they have different expectations regarding how they collaborate in their personal, academic, and professional lives. We also discuss Harry’s view on artificial intelligence and 5G, his experience on the board of Rewards Network, his time as the first ever CIO of Zoom and his first experience as a CIO of a technology company, as well as a variety of other topics.
392: Ingram Micro CIO & CDO Tom Peck says that Ingram Micro is in race to win the customer experience. The speed in which IT is delivered has changed dramatically. In response, Ingram Micro has made massive changes around its IT team. These changes include shifting from a traditional waterfall approach to agile and scrum methodologies, changing its technology stack to be more reliant on microservices, getting people to collaborate in small teams, and showing businesses that a near-perfect product delivered in a short period of time is better than a perfect one in a long period of time. We also discuss Tom’s view on AI, IoT, and zero-trust architecture, why CIOs need to focus on strategy, ways in which the CIO role has remained the same over Tom’s several decades in the role, among other topics.
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390: LinkedIn co-Founder Reid Hoffman argues that companies should value speed over efficiency. In the modern world of network effects, being the first to scale often provides significant first mover advantages in creating a transformative company. While second place can be a decent consolation prize, Reid believes that if you are third or worse, you failed. However, while speed is important, Reid warns against having a blind adhesion to size as companies also need to determine which components put them in the best possible position. We also discuss the lessons Reid took from SocialNet, a company he founded before LinkedIn, his experience as a founding board member at PayPal, how China is able to move at such an extraordinary pace, among other topics.
