680: In this interview, we discuss the work Andres and his team are doing to advance artificial intelligence and its applications. Andres speaks to the historical evolution of artificial intelligence, the work being done to democratize access to AI algorithms, and the benefits and risks that AI can pose to society. Andres also provides a unique look at the hardware side of artificial intelligence, the trade-offs in complexity with its software counterpart, and how companies of all sizes can train and distill large AI models into smaller more applicable models. Finally, Andres explains how open-source communities are advancing the progress being made in AI and how citizen developers and people without engineering backgrounds can be easily trained to become familiar with the tools behind AI.
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679: In this interview, Chris and Jeff discuss their journey from the CIO role to COO. Jeff shares his method to operationalize culture and measure the productivity of his teams. Chris then talks about using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to gauge employee satisfaction at DXC. Finally, both executives opine on the mindset shifts as they entered the COO role and give their perspectives on the current supply chain challenges that companies are facing.
678: Anil discusses the remarkable work he has done over his tenure and the ascent of technology at the company. Anil covers the work he and his team are doing to humanize the solutions Elevance Health provides and make technology more empathetic as the pandemic has accelerated people’s willingness to engage with technology. He also talks about the way Elevance Health is leveraging artificial intelligence and how it is helping to bring about experience personalization across a variety of different constituents. Finally, Anil touches on how he structures and facilitates collaboration across the large team he leads, what trends in technology are on his radar for Elevance Health’s future, and what he sees were the keys to his career success.
This episode was recorded before Anthem, Inc. rebranded to Elevance Health on June 28, 2022.
677: Teddy and Ryan discuss how innovation ecosystems act as a source of growth for their respective companies. Teddy describes what Land O’Lakes’s innovation ecosystem looks like, IT’s role within it, and how those ecosystems interact. Ryan then talks about how he connects the dots across the business and influences innovation and why he believes single-instance tech applications are the right move for Thermo Fisher instead of firm-wide consolidation. Finally, Teddy and Ryan speak about how they interact with C-suite peers to work with these ecosystems and drive broader innovation across the company.
676: In this interview, Katya Andresen, Chief Digital and Analytics Officer of Cigna, discusses her impressive and diverse career path and the insights that she’s drawn from it along the way. She begins with an overview of Cigna’s business and the two sides of her purview as Chief Digital and Analytics Officer. Katya covers the company’s broader data strategy, the way she assembles and structures her teams, the overlaps present across the multiple teams she leads, and reflection on the acceleration of telemedicine with Cigna’s release of MDLIVE and more. Finally, she discusses the process of onboarding during the pandemic, orienting herself at the company, and what trends in technology are on her radar.
675: In this interview, four executives from the financial services industry give their perspectives on talent, data, and innovation at their respective companies and what the future of the industry looks like. Citizens Bank’s Michael Ruttledge discusses the company’s in-house engineering academies and training programs and how automation is helping with a more efficient self-service-focused customer experience. Comerica’s Megan Crespi covers the DE&I recruiting programs at the company and her thoughts on the “Amazoning” of customer expectations. Ally Bank’s Sathish Muthukrishnan talks about leveraging data to differentiate the digital-born company from its competitors. Finally, Truist’s Scott Case gives insight into the merger of BB&T and SunTrust that formed the company and how its Digital Straddle helped facilitate the merger during the pandemic.
674: In this interview, Paul Ballew, Chief Data and Analytics Officer of the NFL, discusses the role that data and analytics play in the most famous American sports, as well as the evolution of the disciplines associated with each from across his career. He reflects on the early stages of his journey in data and analytics, the limitations he faced throughout its evolution, and how it’s being used now for personalizing the customer experience across the NFL’s constituent groups. Paul also describes how the roles in data analytics have changed, why Chief Data Officer tenures tend to be shorter on average, and the way the teams and reporting relationships have changed throughout the years. Finally, Paul talks about how his background suits him well for a position on the board of Hyatt Hotels, trends in analytics that excite him, and the keys to success that he believes have led to his career ascension.
673: In this interview, Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive Officer of Google Cloud, discusses the future ahead for cloud technology. He begins with an assessment of where we as a society are currently in the evolution of cloud computing and how Google’s Cloud Platform differs from the rest of the players in the space. Thomas then describes Google’s ambitious mission of training 40 million people on cloud technology, why it’s important, and how Google plans on achieving it. Finally, Thomas looks ahead at the future of work and the role technology and collaboration tools will play in managing a hybrid workforce.
672: In this interview, Nick shares the remarkable work Avery Dennison and IT more specifically, are doing relative to environmental, social, and governance or ESG goals, a topic of great consequence and interest to many technology and digital executives currently. Nick shares the three goals in ESG and how each connects to both doing good and good business practices. He talks about the impacts of this ESG strategy on recruiting, IT, and the CIO role more specifically. Finally, Nick looks ahead at trends in sustainability and the work that he hopes to achieve at Avery Dennison in the near future.
671: In this interview, Chris discusses some of the necessary ingredients that he and his team have put in place in order to bring about the company’s remarkable transformation. Chris talks about the broader strategy of the company, the power of the CIO role in driving unique value, and how the company’s strategy contains both an internal and external lens. He addresses some of the impediments to transformation in the industrial sector, describes the process of recruiting and retaining top talent, and upskilling talent within and outside the organization to deliver the art of the possible. Finally, Chris looks ahead at the trends in technology and talent he has on his radar and the keys to his career success.
