In this interview, we discuss Kevin’s upbringing in rural Virginia and why he felt he had to leave his hometown to pursue opportunity, how people can have successful careers by using sophisticated technological tools without having to move to technology hubs like Silicon Valley, Kevin’s thoughts on improving technology knowledge and expertise, the importance of teaching kids technology, how COVID-19 will make distance learning and working more prevalent, how AI and ML can be used for positive benefit with healthcare applications, such as disease detection, why everyone must play a role in shaping technologies future, not just a select privileged few, Scott’s take on synthetic biology, among other topics.
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In this interview, we discuss
In this episode, Mojgan discusses the company’s commitment to making innovation part of its DNA and the strategic pillars the company has put in place, which are focused on evolving the way the company works to drive integrated teams to push the blurring of lines between business and technology. First, the company leverages design thinking methodologies and always starts with the customer and works backward, and it has small multifunctional teams of technologists and business experts. Second, the company has developed a strategic architecture, driving modernization and simplification where appropriate. Lastly, but most importantly is talent, which the company considers its advantage multiplier. Mojgan cites that Travelers drives new skill sets and engineering talent in a variety of ways. We also discuss Mojgan’s view on the future of women in technology, and the revolution she sees happening in that regard, how Mojgan looks at the company’s 160-year old history as a position of extreme strength, how Mojgan’s diverse career path has colored her experience at Travelers, and a variety of other topics.
460: Syngenta Group chief information and digital officer Greg Meyers asserts that we are now heading into the third wave of technology change, which he believes can help reverse some of the effects that we have seen with climate change. Agriculture is responsible for about one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and it consumes about 70 percent of the world’s freshwater supply, which is 30 percent more than we can naturally replenish. This third wave entails bringing computer and data science to the farms to try to find these breakthroughs that allow farmers to continue to increase food production as the world population grows in a way that is more regenerative, keeps more carbon in the soils, and allows us to conserve more water. We also discuss the extreme difference between different market segments that the company operates in, the talent landscape in Switzerland, the evolution of IT going from trying to get IT on the agenda of management teams to extreme excitement around the function, among other topics.
459: ProntoForms Corporation CEO Alvaro Pombo gives valuable advice to other CIOs who would wish to follow in his footsteps to become a CEO. First, he notes that technologists can become too enamored with technology. He notes that since businesses ultimately care most about outcomes, he advises focusing on transformations that impact the broader business. He also underscores the importance of being proximate to customers, noting that they care most about outcomes that are scalable. We also discuss the genesis story of ProntoForms, how the company managed through the 2008 financial crisis, and other advice for CIOs who wish to rise above the role, among other topics.
458: TD Ameritrade CIO Vijay Sankaran discusses how TD Ameritrade approaches innovation. The company looks to apply a systematic design thinking process to innovation and seeks to understand the problem it is trying to solve. It then determines what the internal or external consumers pain points are , apply a disciplined discovery approach to understanding those pain points, experiment with what the best possible solution is for that pain point, and then experiment through a set of tests, develop a minimum viable product, and generate feedback to cultivate a solution that best addresses those pain points for the consumer. We also discuss the Discotech incubator, how Vijay used his experiences at a complex organization such as Ford to be successful in his new post at TD Ameritrade, how the company uses artificial intelligence, among other topics.
457: Oshkosh CIO Anupam Khare outlines the company’s five strategic pillars, which are being people-first; running digital technology as a business; modernizing and innovating; building advanced capabilities in analytics and process automation, among other areas; and securing the organization in a way that reduces friction and makes experiences better for its employees, customers, and partners. We also discuss how the company has been able to recruit new employees, how the team has mixed retraining with bringing in new people externally, how the Information Technology function has rebranded to “Digital Technology” to change its perception internally and externally, among other topics.
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.
455: Commvault CEO Sanjay Mirchandani covers a variety of topics, including the company’s strategic plan, which focuses on simplification, execution, and innovation, how his time as CIO of EMC prepared him for the CEO role, how data has gone from something companies only use when they absolutely need it to being at the forefront of the business, the tech landscape in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, his take on AI/ML, automation, and DevOps, among other topics.
454: Unity Technologies CIO Brian Hoyt discusses how as enterprise becomes more consumerized, employees gain autonomy and the nature of IT work changes. He cites his and his team’s focus on employee productivity. We also discuss the merging of business operations and IT, what it’s like being in a CIO within a tech-centric business, how to manage a fast-growing organization, among other topics.
