437: In this interview, Adrian Gore discusses why and how he founded Discovery in South Africa in 1992. As the country was going through dramatic changes, Adrian saw an opportunity in the health insurance market as there was a shortage of doctors, extreme inequality, and a dramatic rate of medical inflation. Adrian set his company apart by using concepts of behavioral economics and incentives to create Discovery’s unique business model. Since then, Adrian reaped the advantages of being years ahead in behavioral data collection and has grown his organization beyond health insurance to life insurance and behavioral banking. We also discuss how Discovery went beyond South Africa and into other countries through strategic partnerships starting with expansion into the UK. Beyond that, Adrian shares his outlook and hope for the South African market.
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Nick Colisto discusses how Avery Dennison’s IT team shows its value to other functions by capturing, reporting, and then communicating how IT is contributing value to the company. This process starts by aligning IT’s goals with other functions and influencing how IT can help the company achieve its key strategic pillars over a five-year planning horizon. Moreover, the team has created an IT-value scorecard, which contains metrics regarding health, delivery, outcomes, and agility. Lastly, the team communicates the value it is providing through quarterly business reviews and a well written annual report that communicates the value across the spectrum. We also discuss the three parts of the company’s digital workplace strategy, the education program that the company has put in place, which has sent leaders to UC Berkeley and looks to improve digital literacy throughout the organization, Nick’s take on IoT, AI, and quantum computing, among other topics.
Tekion Founder & CEO Jay Vijayan provides an overview of the fragmented automotive industry, highlights the industry’s shortcomings, and describes how Tekoin is using advanced technology and their automotive retail cloud platform to create a win-win-win situation for the large OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], retailers, and consumers. Additionally, Jay discusses the importance of delivering a seamless customer experience, how his time as CIO of Tesla prepared him for his current role, Tekion’s global ambitions, among other topics.
Dilbert creator Scott Adams shares his story of leaving the corporate setting to become a cartoonist. While he wanted to be a cartoonist from a young age, this dream was temporarily put on hold at the age of 11. When he discovered that the corporate world was not for him, Scott took a chance and reached out to legendary cartoonist Jack Cassady for advice. Based on that conversation, Scott sent his work to the big magazines, but he was rejected and had all but given up on his dream once again. However, one year later, Cassady reached out to Scott to check in. This prompted Scott to try again and send his work to the major cartoon syndication companies, he got a contract with United Media, and Dilbert got published. We also discuss how Scott has made his life more efficient so he can fit more into his day, the formula Scott uses when turning a tweet into a joke, how people don’t think about the world productively, and why we need to think more like economists, scientists, and engineers, among other topics.
433: Xerox’s CTO Naresh Shanker discusses the three key elements of a successful digital transformation. Naresh cites bold leadership that has grit as the most exciting ingredient for transformation. Second, he describes the importance of culture in preparing for the future. As the pace of change accelerates, he notes that it is critical to bridge the established culture that sustains companies at scale with the next-generation culture that has the mental muscle of a startup. Lastly, he discusses the need for a team that is passionate, driven, energized, and exceedingly mission-focused. We also discuss the outside-in and inside-out approach Xerox is using to make its digital transformation, how Xerox uses AI and IoT, Naresh’s experience as a board-level CIO, among other topics.
432: In this episode Hunt Consolidated CIO/CDO Diane Schwarz and National Grid CIO/CDO Adriana Karaboutis explain how they are taking digital back in their respective positions. When they joined Hunt and National Grid, the CIDO’s met with board members to envision the future of digital in their organizations. Andi outlines the “North Star” that defines the direction of long term digital initiates that are developed in the NGDigital Labs. Meanwhile, Diane explains how Hunt’s Collaborative Resource Group is used to “frack for talent” that is motivated to be a part of digital initiatives. This panel also includes a discussion of AI and predictive analytics uses, the reasons digital strategies fail, and the challenge and utility of the two-in-one CIDO role.
431: MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research Principal Research Scientist Jeanne Ross lays out the three characteristics companies must have to implement a successful digital transformation, which are experimenting repeatedly, co-creating with customers, and assembling cross-functional development teams. The experiment aspect involves recognizing that the digital economy is making new directions possible, but for companies to succeed, they need to find the intersection between what they can do and what their customers will pay for. Co-creating with customers, which solves the same problem, entails starting a workshop where everybody puts the issues on the table and are asked, “What can we do to creatively solve this?” Lastly, cross-functional teams are about recognizing that you do not want to simply throw all your money at your R&D or IT unit and ask them to get it done. Instead, Jeanne argues that it is an iterative process that requires many teams. We also discuss the evolution of the CIO role, why companies should not get so hung up on set roles of what a CIO or CDO should do but look to get away from structure, why having only 5% of revenue come from digital is actually an accomplishment, among other topics.
430: Mayfield Fund Managing Director Navin Chaddha discusses what the company looks for when deciding which entrepreneurs to invest in and which do not fit the Mayfield model. The company looks closely into what the entrepreneur is doing, which entails determining what is driving them, what their values are, what their vision is, what their mission is, and if they are interested in creating a product company and flipping it or if they are interested in building an industry-defining company and changing the way people work, live, and play. To do that, the company must spend a great deal of time with the entrepreneur outside of the pitch meetings to truly understand what is driving and motivating them. Further, Navin cites that it is critical to find out who they are, which involves determining if they have high EQ and IQ, how hungry they are, and what their ethics are. We also discuss Mayfield’s work in China and India, three attributes of millennials and how to reach them, what makes for a great partnership between partners and the early-stage companies, among other topics.
In this episode, former Express Scripts COO Neal Sample and Mastercard President of Operations and Technology Ed McLaughlin offer a point/counterpoint on blockchain. Neal argues that there is no use case for which blockchain is an optimal solution, and that no matter the problem an enterprise is trying to solve, a better technology likely already exists. In many cases, he says, executives often look to blockchain because of the hype more than anything. Ed agrees that enthusiasm runs amok when people use blockchain to get funded or just to use it. However, Ed considers himself a highly skeptical and jaded enthusiast, and argues that blockchain can be useful, especially when dealing with trust across enterprise boundaries.
428: AI pioneer and UC Berkeley Professor Stuart Russell warns that AI is reshaping society in unintended ways. For example, social media content selection algorithms that choose what individuals watch and read do not even know that human beings exist. As AI becomes more capable, he suggests that we are going to see bigger failures of this kind unless we change the way we think about AI altogether. Stuart argues that to ensure AI is provably beneficial for human beings, we must design machines to be inherently uncertain about human preferences. This way, we can ensure they are humble, altruistic, and committed to pursuing our objectives even as they set their own goals. We also discuss why AI needs regulation similar to civil engineering and medicine, the impact AI is going to make over the next decade, autonomous vehicles, among other topics.
