571: In this interview, Lisa Davis, SVP & CIO of Blue Shield of California, talks about Blue Shield’s mission of transforming the healthcare industry through balancing high tech with high touch, aligning the IT organization around portfolios and products, and engaging with the multiple stakeholders of Blue Shield. She also shares the lessons of authentic leadership, advantages of her experience as a CIO across different industries, advice for CIOs who wish to join boards, as she has, increasing diversity and inclusion in STEM fields, and the latest tech trends she is excited about in healthcare.
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570: In this interview, Ashok Reddy, CEO of Digital.ai discusses the intersection of digital and AI, why only 8-10 percent of companies are truly transforming digitally. We also cover why IT teams who are successful in truly transforming work jointly with the broader business to define value. Further, we discuss why IT should work with the rest of the business to run agile, why value streams are best derived by collaboration across the typical silos of the enterprise, how Ashok believes innovation is done best, and a variety of other topics.
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569: In this interview, Catherine Zhou, Global Head of Ventures for Digital Innovation and Partnerships at HSBC, and Megan Crespi, Chief Operations and Technology Officer for Comerica Bank, discuss how barriers to digital adoption are dissolving out of necessity, how Comerica has transformed to enhance the customer experience, and how Comerica is using the pandemic as an opportunity to break down barriers and reach new demographics as work becomes more remote. We also discuss three areas HSBC looks at regarding innovation and profit pools: big tech, the Eastern hemisphere, and FinTech, why it’s every person’s job to innovate at HSBC, not just the innovation team’s job, and a variety of other topics.
568: In this interview, Ramkumar Rayapureddy, Global CIO of Viatris, discusses how the IT team came together over one weekend and transitioned the entire company to virtual work with no business disruption, how COVID accelerated the pace of change for the entire organization, and steps Viatris has taken to keep its employees engaged throughout the pandemic. Ramkumar highlights some of the technologies the company adopted that it likely would not have had it not been for the pandemic as well as the improvements Viatris has made to its preventive maintenance program as it adopts new technologies. Lastly, we discuss how IT is becoming a bigger part of the initial strategic discussion within the company, why Ramkumar likes to hire people from the business into IT, and a variety of other topics.
567: In this interview, we discuss Williams-Sonoma’s digital transformation and how Yasir helped build a future-proof business model for the company that was able to not only withstand, but grow during the pandemic. He talks about the merging responsibilities of the CTO and CDO and what it means for the company to be “digital-first”. Yasir details how the company is focused on creating a frictionless customer experience, how digital and technology play a role in in-house design, and how Williams-Sonoma balances centralization with independence between their brands. Finally, we discuss what Yasir sees as the most salient trends in technology and digital coming out of the pandemic.
566: In this interview, we discuss the state of American politics and the role that technology plays. Dr. Fukuyama describes what he sees as the rise of populism in the U.S., the deepening polarization between voters, and how platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google have facilitated this polarization. He proposes the application of middleware to these platforms and provides possible benefits to such applications as well as criticisms that it has received. Additionally, Dr. Fukuyama gives his perspective on challenges arising from both Russia and China and provides an analysis of the current Biden Administration.
565: In this interview, Rhonda discusses the four key focus areas for IT at Stanley Black & Decker once the pandemic struck and how COVID has given Stanley Black & Decker the permission to change and accelerate. Shankar discusses the stakeholder prioritization framework Verizon adopted during the pandemic in which it puts its employees first, customers second, society third, and its shareholders fourth, some of the innovative ideas Verizon has adopted during the pandemic, how Verizon has accelerated its digital transformation during the pandemic, among a variety of other topics.
564: In this interview, we discuss The Premonition and how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evolved into an organization ill equipped to manage a pandemic. Michael shares anecdotes from the interviews he conducted and how the problems that the pandemic wrought began long before the Trump Administration. We also discuss how he developed the stories for his book, what his career as an author is like between books and a variety of other topics.
563: In this interview, we discuss what drew Shaleen to Schneider, ways Schneider has disrupted itself over the years, why Schneider considers itself the Moneyball of trucking, and how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of frictionless experience platforms at Schneider. We also discuss the importance of using familiar language when discussing digital transformation, the importance of embracing business agility, and getting used to the unknown, Atif and Shaleen’s take on the state of autonomous vehicles, among a variety of other topics.
562: In this interview, Orion Hindawi, Co-Founder and CEO of Tanium, discusses the evolution of IT Infrastructures and cybersecurity. Orion gives an overview of Tanium’s business and discusses the changing ways companies look at adopting IT. He also covers the digital and technological transformations, the importance of curating strong ecosystems, and future opportunities for the company. Additionally, Orion shares his perspective on applying business cybersecurity knowledge to maintaining personal cybersecurity.
