407: Hunt Consolidated, Inc. CIO and CDO Diane Schwarz describes her methodology for transitioning into new executive roles using her arrival at Hunt to explain the 90-day process. Extensive planning, learning the business and stakeholders, meeting the company, and, lastly, focusing on suppliers develops the extensive knowledge of an organization needed to effectively lead it. Diane emphasizes the importance of understanding company culture to successfully rally support for changes to foundational pieces of IT, which she did at Hunt after careful investigation and planning. We also discuss the agile skills required for employees working in technology today, Diane’s journey to her leadership role as a woman in a male-dominated field, and the future of women in STEM.
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406: CBRE CDO/CTO Chandra Dhandapani breaks down the process of digital transformation through her experience of modernizing technology and rapidly creating agile teams at CBRE. She explains that technology is at the core of any business model, making it crucial to insource the talent necessary for software development and understand the ecosystem of technology trends. Dhandapani describes how building collaboration between product designers and clients yields entrepreneurial services, such as the new flexible spaces and tenant experience lines at CBRE. We also discuss a powerful WhatsApp group for women leaders in technology, the difference between digital and technology, the value of efficient leadership teams, and various other topics.
405: Royal Caribbean Cruises CIO Martha Poulter describes the growth minded business strategy of Royal Caribbean which places emphasis on differentiating products, gaining value from scale, engaging employees and guests, and reducing business risk. The company responds to the distinct needs of diverse demographics of guests and creates unique brand experiences on each cruise, a task that requires the collection and optimization of data from numerous sources. Poulter explains how data drives the innovation of systems and technologies that support all of Royal Caribbean’s operations. We also discuss Poulters own experiences on Royal Caribbean cruises, the unique features of IT organization in the industry, and exciting trends such as algorithmic intuition and miniaturization.
404: Align Technology Senior Vice President of Information Technology Sreelakshmi Kolli discusses how the company is leading the evolution in digital dentistry by transforming the industry from analog to digital. Kolli claims that there are over 300 million consumers that could benefit from teeth straightening, and the only way to reach all of them is through digital technologies. Because of this, Kolli cites that everything the company does is dependent on digital and that IT is the central nervous system for the company. Through this transformation, Kolli is focused on delivering great treatment outcomes with data science, driving consumer demand to doctors’ offices, helping with conversion as customers become Invisalign patients, using global scalable infrastructure to support real-time ordering from over 100 countries, and manufacturing over 400,000 customized aligners per day. We also discuss Kolli’s take on IoT and blockchain, Align Technology’s value proposition to potential employees, how being a consumer of the product helps the company better understand the customers’ needs, among other topics.
403: Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes discusses the five attributes he looks for in an entrepreneur. These five attributes include their ability to raise money beyond the early stages, their ability to attract talent, their ability to generate momentum, if they come prepared, and their ability to tell their story. In terms of what Mark looks for in a company, he cites that there needs to be a technology platform shift or a business model innovation that is applicable to something that they are doing. We also discuss Mark’s accidental path to the VC community, the CXO Advisory board Sierra has started, the importance of approaching investing from a bottoms-up and top-down approach, among other topics.
402: UPS CIO Juan Perez details how the company has taken data from simply being an input for descriptive analytics to prescriptive analytics, which goes beyond predictive analytics. Juan has played an integral role in developing the company’s on-road integrated optimization and navigation system [ORION], which helps optimize the delivery paths that the company’s drivers take to make sure that they efficiently satisfy their service commitments to its customers. Juan also describes an advanced big data analytics project, which is designed to constantly take the massive amount of data points the company collects, learn from them, and use them to better predict what volume is going to come into their operations. We also discuss UPS’ strategic pillars, Juan’s take on artificial intelligence, the cloud, drones, and robotics, how UPS is using digital to enhance the physical experience that the customer receives, and a variety of other topics.
401: Express Scripts CTO emeritus Phil Finucane details Express Scripts’ integration with Cigna. While Cigna has a strong engineering organization, the two companies have different visions for how to execute a successful integration. Because of this, a large part of Phil’s job was to help Cigna understand how Express Scripts operated, to understand how Cigna operated, and to understand how the combined entity would interface with its business partners. From there, Phil looked to build a path that brought together the best of both worlds by bringing complementary strengths together. We also discuss the lessons Phil has pulled from his time in Silicon Valley, Express Scripts’ approach to eliminating technical debt, his take on artificial intelligence, and a variety of other topics.
400: Bestselling author Michael Lewis tells the story of his career and dives deeply into several of his most notable books, including Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and The Undoing Project. Despite being discouraged from his thesis advisor at Princeton to pursue writing and consistent rejections from publishers, Michael always had a passion for writing, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before he left Wall Street to pursue this passion. We also discuss how Michael organizes his ideas, how he has been able to defy pigeonholing his writing, how he is able to write about complex topics for those who are not expert in the topics, and a variety of other topics.
399: Intuit CIO Atticus Tysen describes how the company is looking to use data to give insights back to its small business owners and self-employed individuals regarding how their businesses are doing, as well as how the company can give consumers insight into their finances and help individuals file their taxes with more confidence using artificial intelligence and machine learning. While many believe that big data will only benefit large corporations, Atticus provides examples of how big data can help the little guy, whether he be a small business owner or a self-employed individual. We also discuss Atticus’ advice to CIOs looking to become more product-focused, Atticus’ take on AI and conversational user experiences, the evolution of TurboTax Live, and a variety of other topics.
398: Zoom CIO Harry Moseley discusses how collaboration needs are changing with new generations. Millennials and Generation Z make up about a third of the global population, and since these generations have grown up in a digital world, they have different expectations regarding how they collaborate in their personal, academic, and professional lives. We also discuss Harry’s view on artificial intelligence and 5G, his experience on the board of Rewards Network, his time as the first ever CIO of Zoom and his first experience as a CIO of a technology company, as well as a variety of other topics.
