551: Marcello Damiani, the chief digital and operational excellence officer of Moderna, has been a major part of Moderna being at the forefront of the COVID vaccine development. In this interview, we discuss how Moderna is using messenger RNA to prevent and cure diseases, such as COVID-19, aspects of Moderna’s data strategy, and how the company has used data to run the most effective clinical trials possible. We discuss how Moderna is building a digital environment and how COVID accelerated the company’s digitization. Lastly, we discuss the emerging technologies Moderna has used in its digitization journey, the importance of being agile in how you adjust your day-to-day tactical activity to the strategy that you are building, among a variety of other topics.
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550: Melanie Kalmar, the CIO & CDO of Dow, and Shamim Mohammad, the chief information & technology officer of CarMax both have experience modernizing large organizations. In this interview, Melanie discusses Dow’s adoption of agile and DevOps practices, offers insight into how she has reoriented IT around service delivery, and gives her take on how to innovate at scale. Meanwhile, Shamim discusses CarMax’s shift from a project orientation to a product orientation and why the traditional way of delivering IT projects does not work anymore. We also discuss how transforming to a nimbler organization has helped CarMax during the pandemic, among a variety of other topics.
549: Seth Cohen, the global CIO of PepsiCo, leads IT for one of the largest beverage companies in the world. In this interview, we discuss the main difference between digital and analog companies along with PepsiCo’s digital agenda. We discuss how data strategy has evolved over the past 5-10 years, and a bit about PepsiCo’s own data journey. Lastly, we discuss cross-cultural communications lessons Seth has learned from living all over the world, the benefits of an East to West innovation path, PepsiCo’s experience switching to an entirely remote workforce, among a variety of other topics.
548: Kimberly Johnson and Rob Alexander have both been part of massive transformations at Fortune 100 companies. In this interview, we focus on people and talent strategy. Rob discusses how Capital One’s talent transformation was critical in supporting the company’s massive technology transformation, which has included insourcing IT and building technology internally as well as moving its data centers to the cloud. Meanwhile, Kimberly discusses the importance of teamwork in driving innovation, and how Fannie Mae rapidly responded to enable teams to continue collaborating during the COVID pandemic.
547: Lee Crump, the former CIO of Rollins, represents a unique case in which he hand-picked his successor Thomas Tesh, the current CIO of Rollins. In this interview, we discuss Thomas and Lee’s working relationship over the past 23 years, why Lee picked Thomas to replace him, and what Thomas believes are Lee’s greatest strengths as a leader. We discuss Rollins’ M&A Strategy and the only two things Rollins always takes over when buying a company: security and payroll. Lastly, we discuss Rollins’ strategic priorities over the next few years, why Thomas believes we will see all computers go away in the future, and a variety of other topics.
546: General Stanley McChrystal has decades of leadership experience. In this interview, we discuss the importance of adaptability and agility, and General MyChrystal’s view that nimbleness is a continuous journey. He notes that cross-functional collaboration is not automatic, and organizations must be deliberate in fostering trust in a distributed environment. To do this, he suggests that transparency, vulnerability, individual empowerment, and a common purpose are all critical ingredients. We also discuss the characteristics of a resilient organization and which lessons from the military he sees as most applicable to the business realm, among a variety of other topics.
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545: Metis Strategy president Peter High discusses his new book, Getting to Nimble. In this interview, Peter shares how he got to the title Getting to Nimble, why he decided to put people as his first principle, and the critical importance of change in any IT organization. He also discusses how data and analytics are rising up many organization’s priority lists, his take on the chief data officer role, and why competition has changed from company versus company to ecosystem versus ecosystem. He also shares the four sets of ecosystems he recommends partnering with, how many CIOs are moving beyond the CIO role, the growing trend of CIOs joining boards, among a variety of other topics.
544: Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of GE, spent over 15 years running one of the world’s largest companies. In this interview, Jeff discusses his experience growing up professionally at GE, Jeff’s relationship with his predecessor and legendary CEO, Jack Welch, and Jeff’s story ascending to the CEO role. We discuss why Jeff decided to write the book about his time at GE, two things Jeff would have done differently if he had the chance to do them over again, and the digital push Jeff made as CEO. Lastly, we discuss what Jeff misses most about his time at GE, Jeff’s views on the global economy going forward, Jeff’s advice to younger individuals at the beginning of their careers, among a variety of other topics.
543: Sandeep Dave, the chief digital and technology officer of CBRE, knows a thing of two about digital transformations and innovation at large companies. In this interview, we discuss the five elements of CBRE digital transformation, why the future workforce is likely to be distributed, and why innovation labs that sit far from core operations do nothing to transform the core business. We also discuss the approach that CBRE uses to innovate, how CBRE leverages AI/ML, the power of bringing emerging technologies together to solve real-world problems, among a variety of other topics.
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542: Steve Phillpott is an expert in change management having overseen change at one of the largest computer data storage companies in the world. In this interview, we discuss the importance of organizations investing in change management and how he approached change management at Western Digital. We also discuss trends in cloud and DevOps, the crucial importance of building up your peer and executive recruiter networks, among a variety of other topics.
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