427: Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman shares stories from his childhood, his time as an undergraduate at Yale, on Wall Street, and business school at Harvard, and his experiences at Lehman Brothers and Blackstone. These stories how he went from nearly failing in an English course in college to the Dean’s List, how he offered constructive criticism to the Dean of Harvard Business School while he was a student, how he led one of the biggest mergers in history to date as a fourth-year associate at Lehman Brothers who had never done a merger, as well as tales from the founding and growth of Blackstone. We also discuss the importance of having a strong culture and hiring the best people, how and why China bought 9.9 percent of the firm when Blackstone was going public, the Schwarzman Scholars program that he has developed in China, among other topics.
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426: UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla details the strategic plan he has led. While he cites that he found a great university when he arrived, he knew it was destined for greater things and he set out to create a vision to realize that goal. We also discuss how the University of California System schools interact and share best practices, why Pradeep preferred an 8-word strategic plan over a longer form plan, why he misses being a professor, among other topics.
425: UCLA Professor Ramesh Srinivasan discusses why and how we should look past Silicon Valley for innovation. He argues that innovation is happening all around the world, and he shares his experiences in countries like Kenya and Mexico. Citing how these countries are doing more with less and being resourceful, rather than feeling as if economic or infrastructural constraints are restricting their ability to act, he claims that individuals in these countries are innovating with constraints. Further, he cautions against creating a world in which the inequalities that we currently see are amplified by technological innovations that are only defined within the Valley. Instead, he advocates for an internet that lifts all of us up because it creates a win-win scenario. We also discuss Ramesh’s goal to have a digital bill of rights, his Lab’s attempt to bring a variety of scholars and researchers into contact with one another and share their learnings with the wider public through workshops, engaging with journalists, and writing books, companies Ramesh has seen emerge in the countries he has worked in, among other topics.
424: Workday’s Executive Vice President of the Planning Business Unit Tom Bogan explains the rationale behind the Workday and Adaptive merger. From Adaptive’s perspective, finding the right partner was about how the company delivered the most value to the market and its impact on Adaptive’s various constituencies. Tom cites that investors primarily care about the valuation, customers care about who the acquiring entity is, and the team cares about both. Because the company had the right valuation and is the leader in both human capital management and financial planning, Adaptive saw Workday as a tremendous partner. We also discuss the benefits of operating in the Bay Area, the elements that have remained the same and those that have changed since the acquisition, how having a broad range of experiences as an operator, executive, and board member helped Tom coming into Adaptive, among other topics.
423: AES’ President and CEO Andrés Gluski discusses how AES is transitioning into cleaner energy. While the company’s coal technology was among the best in the world, AES realized that was not a sustainable driver of growth. Under Andrés’ leadership, the company has reduced its generation capacity from 60 percent coal to 30 percent, it has become a big builder of renewables, and it is looking to reduce its carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2022. We also discuss the advantages Andrés has enjoyed being from a multicultural family, AES’ work in China and India, the value Andrés gained from his education, among other topics.
422: General Electric CIO Chris Drumgoole discusses the changes GE has made through a period of great change for the company. While the company led the way in outsourcing technology, Chris points out that that is not aligned with the digital world. Because of this, the company has decided to invest in IT talent and grow that capability within the company. Also, in an effort to modernize IT, the company has spent a great deal of time transforming end-user technology. We also discuss GE’s two-fold approach to attracting talent, how Chris looks to ride the fine line between standardization across business unit IT versus investing in solutions specific to one BU versus another. We also cover the cultural change afoot in the company and how the company is in the process of shifting from being a deep domain expert instead of a generalist, and a variety of other topics.
421: Steven Rogelberg, the author of “The Suprise Science of Meetings,” exposes the main reasons why meetings are inefficient and shares his tips on how organizations can improve the effectiveness of meetings. Steven points out that there are roughly 55 million meetings per day, and most of them are ineffective or at least suboptimal. He notes that part of the reason is that 20 percent of leaders ever receive any training on how to run a meeting, the training they do receive is not meaningful, organizations have no type of accountability on how their meetings are going, and no one in the organization is owning meetings. To improve meetings, Steven suggests that organizations consider shortening the meeting times, structuring meeting agendas around questions to be answered, banning the mute button for remote meetings, and limiting attendance at meetings to those who must be there. We also discuss the importance of being intentional in meetings, how Steven got the inspiration to write a book on meetings, how a positive mindset from the leader is the best predictor of the mood of the entire team, among other topics.
420: Blue Shield California CIO Michael Mathiasl discusses the company’s mission to move healthcare into the digital age, which is at the front and center of its agenda. Michael claims that as customer service is evolving, it is doing so around the digital experience, and since customers want to interact with the company in that way, that is what the company is driving towards. We also discuss how the CIO role has evolved to working more closely with the business, Michael’s take on artificial intelligence, Blue Shield of California’s enterprise architecture approach, among other topics.
419: Arity President Gary Hallgren highlights the three main issues in the transportation industry. Most importantly, driving is extremely inefficient as the average car is used for four percent of the day. Further, 40,000 people die on the roads each year, and driving is extremely expensive, both in time and money. To make a difference in these areas, Arity is working with shared mobility companies, insurance companies, and automobile companies to solve these issues. We also discuss why Gary believes fully autonomous vehicles are further away than many think, how the company mixes the stability, strength, and resources of a Fortune 80 company with the entrepreneurial spirit of a startup, how Arity attracts talent, among other topics.
418: GSK’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer Karenann Terrell discusses GSK’s 40, 50, 10 framework for thinking about technology and digital’s impact. The company spends 40 percent of its efforts on digital as usual, which involves its ability to change its landscape of looking cross-enterprise for strikes in value. It spends 50 percent on digital through a reinvention window of its existing business, and it spends 10 percent on the true disruption, which entails the high-end innovation of how digital is disrupting the business that the company works in. We also discuss the benefits Karenann gains from board membership, why GSK’s CEO added the CDO role as a remit to the technology organization, rather than separately, how GSK has looked to mix an infusion of talent externally with skilling the folks in a transformative way internally, among other topics.
