383: Symantec’s CEO In this interview, Greg argues that detection and automation are absolutely critical in the era of prevention. He cites that in today’s cyberspace, companies report as little as seven minutes between first infection and disaster, so it is critical that organizations be able to detect and automate the response to those threats. At Symantec, the company has used artificial intelligence to improve its ability to defend, as Greg describes in this interview. We also discuss Symantec’s four pillar cyber safety umbrella, the importance of having consequences for those who try to steal data, the value of zero trust infrastructure, and a variety of other topics.
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382: Workday CIO Diana McKenzie discusses the importance of understanding how the customer experiences the company’s product and the competitors’ products. Diana notes that CIOs have a unique opportunity to collaborate with customers, hear their feedback regarding what they hope to see from their products, and bring those insights back to the company. To better understand the product, the company has rolled out a Workday-on-Workday program, where IT is the first user of Workday’s product. This allows Diana’s function to influence how the product evolves and enables Workday to ensures that their product strategy always reflects what the marketplace is likely to need most. We also discuss Diana’s experience serving on a public board, the employee engagement survey Workday has rolled out, Workday’s acquisition of Adaptive Insights, among other topics.
381: Sequoia Partner Roelof Botha and Ethos Life co-founder and CEO Peter Colis dive into the major issues with life insurance and how Ethos Life can make a difference. A great life insurance company has not been built for 150 years, and while the existing players have massive amounts of capital, Ethos is relying on their speed of execution and digital advantage. We also discuss how Ethos is using behavioral science and product testing for ease of use, how Ethos is able to overcome the faster process, Roelof’s take on AI and voice technologies, why Roelof was determined to immigrate to the United States, among other topics.
380: TGI Friday’s Chief Experience Officer Sherif Mityas highlights the importance of intertwining strategy and technology, and he argues that because of the overlap between the two, that every CIO should serve in the Chief Experience Officer role. From his perspective, every CIO today is dealing with the experience of the customer because, from an experiential perspective, technology permeates everything that the guest does. Technologies, such as artificial intelligence and voice-assisted devices, have provided the company with ways to better understand and engage with their guests. By leveraging AI specifically, the organization has shifted from a one size fits all approach to a more specific engagement, which provides a more relevant, frictionless, and convenient experience for the guest. We also discuss the ways in which the company segments the guest journey, the use case Sherif’s sees for blockchain, and how companies need to engage with the consumer.
379: Estee Lauder CIO Michael Smith stresses the importance of talent and culture. On the talent side, Michael has brought in business leadership from several Fortune 500 companies, and he has helped open a new technology hub in Long Island City, New York, which is part of a two-campus model in New York that has formed after consolidating down from nine location. Michael notes that culture is Estee Lauder’s number one asset. We discuss how consumer expectations will change as technology evolves, the benefits Michael gets from being a consumer of his own products, among other topics.
378: Winnebago CIO Jeff Kuback argues that a strong IT team is an essential element in all industries, even non-technical ones such as RVs and boats. In the past, the industry has been hesitant to invest in IT due to its reputation for high fixed costs, and in fact, Winnebago did not have a CIO when Mike Happe joined as CEO. However, Jeff has worked to make IT more efficient, which includes spending the appropriate amount of money on cybersecurity and moving from an on-premise data center to the cloud. We also discuss how Winnebago has gone from a traditional RV company to focusing on the outdoor lifestyle as a whole, how Winnebago has leveraged Microsoft tools, what Jeff looks for in external partners, among other topics.
377: Last year, Equifax experienced one of the most devastating security breaches ever, which exposed the private information of 143 million individuals. In this interview, Bryson, who joined the firm after the breach, explains the company’s response and its goals to rebuild customer’s trust through security and compliance work, to build a sustainable future, and to constantly invest in new technologies. We also discuss Bryson’s take on blockchain and the cloud, how Equifax invests in artificial intelligence, his approach to obtaining the best talent, among other topics.
Bryson is the Chief Technology Officer of Equifax, one of the largest credit agencies in the world. As CTO, Bryson focuses on unifying all of Equifax’s technology teams around a common philosophy, a technology-driven culture, and a common architecture to accelerate product development. Before joining Equifax, Bryson was the CTO of IBM Watson and IBM Cloud. Bryson joined IBM when it acquired The Weather Company, where he was CTO and CIO.
376: Ocado CTO Paul Clarke has guided the company to differentiate itself by focusing not on how fast they can innovate, but on how fast they can innovate their system for innovation. Paul discusses the broad and deep technology estate that has enabled Ocado’s online grocery business to operate with scale, sustainability, and profitability. Through a focused but balanced approach to innovation, the company has developed a unique end-to-end operating solution for online grocery retail that includes massive automated warehouses and an e-commerce, fulfillment, and logistics platform. In a strategy that resembles Amazon’s AWS, Ocado is now making its technology available to other retailers through the B2B-focused Ocado Solutions arm. We also discuss Ocado’s roadmap for a frictionless customer experience, the advantages of its business model, its culture of disruptive innovation, among other topics.
Paul is the Chief Technology Officer of Ocado, the world’s largest online-only grocery retailer. In this role, Paul heads up Ocado Technology, whose 950+ engineers develop the cutting-edge technology that power Ocado’s operations and the Ocado Smart Platform. Given its vision of “powering the future of retail through sustained disruptive technology innovation,” Paul has guided Ocado to differentiate itself by focusing not on how fast they can innovate, but on how fast they can innovate their system for innovation. Before becoming CTO, Paul was Head of Routing, Simulations, Mobile, and Robotics. Paul has a Masters of Arts in Psychics from the University of Oxford.
375: MIT’s Max Tegmark, author of “Life 3.0″ and co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, asserts that the most important conversation in the world is the one about humanity’s future with artificial intelligence. Technology is a neutral force, and it is our responsibility to manage it wisely and steer it towards a beneficial future. As our technology becomes more powerful, so too do the positive and negative consequences. Max notes that we need to decide what type of future we want to have with AI so that its impact on society is beneficial, rather than harmful. We also discuss how governments, academia, and companies can help create a better future with AI, the comparisons between prior science advancements and today’s intelligence advancements, how Max became interested in AI, among other topics.
374: Equinix CIO Milind Milind stresses the importance of creating a positive customer experience. Equinix’s core value is to put the customer at the center of everything that they do, and the company has laid out a recipe for customer focus and success consisting of five major components. These components are treating their customers like assets, looking at the entire life cycle of customers, building a customer listening system to receive feedback, using a prioritization system to interpret that feedback, and delivering that feedback to the entire organization. We also discuss how Equinix’s annual revenue grew from $1 billion to $5 billion over an eight year period, the importance of culture in a digital transformation, and Milind’s view on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Milind is the CIO of Equinix, a global platform company focused on enabling the world’s leading businesses to directly connect with their customers, clouds, employees, and partners through their interconnection offering. As CIO, Milind has set five priorities, the most important of which is centered around information security and ensuring that Equinix’s IT infrastructure operations run smoothly. Prior to Equinix, Milind was the Director of Global IT Applications at Verisign.
