877: Kellogg’s has become a household name in cereals and snack foods. When the company spun off its snack food business as Kellanova in 2023, extensive IT efforts were made to preserve the company’s culture and brand identity. In this episode of Technovation, Lesley Salmon, SVP and Chief Digital and Information Officer of Kellanova, joins Peter High to share insights from her 11-year tenure, detail the challenges and innovations involved in the spin-off of Kellanova from Kellogg’s, and provide a deeper look at the strategic priorities of the new company. She emphasizes the importance of a unified IT team, leveraging cloud strategy for seamless transitions, the creation of dual IT functions, and the integration of AI and machine learning to drive business value. Lesley also discusses fostering a culture of curiosity and innovation, balancing risk with compliance, and maintaining strong global collaboration despite geographical boundaries. She also talks about the unique talent development program YODA that drives this culture of curiosity and how it embraces new ways of working in a global setting. Finally, Lesley looks ahead at the future trends in digital twins and reflects on the keys to her career success.
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876: Despite extensive regulations and public health efforts, 1 billion people still smoke today, prompting companies like Philip Morris International (PMI) to develop better alternatives to continued smoking. In this episode of Technovation, Michael Voegele, the Chief Digital and Information Officer of PMI, joins Peter High to discuss the company’s ambitious journey towards creating a smoke-free future and the innovative role of AI and data in this endeavor. Michael talks about PMI’s transformation from a traditional tobacco company to a leader in smoke-free products, driven by significant technological and digital innovations. He shares insights into the role of technology in evolving business models, the importance of data governance in leveraging AI tools, and the people-first approach to fostering a fast-learning organizational culture. Michael also reflects on lessons from his previous experience as Group CIO of Adidas, offers advice on career growth in tech leadership, and looks ahead at trends in AR, VR, and generative AI.
868: As data becomes increasingly valuable, technology executives have the important task of ensuring the company’s data infrastructure allows for efficiency and scalability. In this episode of Technovation, James Rhodes, President of Morningstar Data Research and Enterprise Solutions and the company’s Chief Technology Officer, joins Peter High in a discussion about modernizing the company’s enterprise architecture and enhancing the client experience with improved personalization. James elaborates on the three hats he wears in his current role at the company and the approach he is taking to modernize legacy systems for scalability and efficiency. He shares insights on driving customer personalization at scale, leveraging AI for better financial advice, and establishing a Responsible AI Council to ensure the company retains its transparency and client trust. James also describes the evolution of their AI-driven digital assistant ‘Mo’ and how it will augment, but not replace, the financial advisor. Finally, James shares the technology trends on his radar including digital avatars for enhancing customer engagement and the advancement of cybersecurity measures, and the keys to success that he’s learned across his career.
848: The experience a company delivers to its customers is critical to its success, making it the number one priority for many technology and digital leaders. As such, a paradigm shift is beginning to emerge transitioning from being product-oriented to being experience-oriented. In this episode of Technovation, Ally’s President of Consumer & Commercial Banking Diane Morais and Chief Information, Data, & Digital Officer Sathish Muthukrishnan jointly discuss the digital financial institution’s journey and its focus on being experience-oriented. Throughout the conversation, both executives expand on the company’s digital capabilities they’ve developed and explain how the Ally Technology Operating Model (ATOM) was the answer to creating a better banking experience. Similarly, both Sathish and Diane share details around the One Ally initiative which aims to bring the company’s multiple customer experiences to a single platform powered by data and artificial intelligence. Finally, both executives reflect on the opportunities that have come from challenging times, the innovation process they’ve developed, and the culture of collaboration they’ve fostered to drive forward this experience-oriented mindset.
692: Jay discusses the way he collaborates and engages with his ecosystems, both internally and externally. He gives an overview of Clario’s business, the two sides of his purview, and his role’s impact on the company’s R&D efforts. Jay explains how he engages with the four constituent groups Clairo serves; clinical trial sites, sponsor organizations, patients, & internal customers; how he removes the internal barriers to collaboration, and how he retains company culture in a hybrid working environment. Finally, he weighs in on the benefits he has seen from his substantial social media presence, the trends that he is actively following, and the keys to his career success.
614: Carhartt’s John Hill joins Peter High in a discussion on digital agility and the digital transformation of Carhartt. John provides an overview of Carhartt’s business, his purview as Chief Digital and Information Officer, and the role of digital and sources of innovation at the company. He details what he sees as the keys to successful change management as a part of the digitization effort of the company and how data and analytics have impacted business outcomes. John also describes his field of study in his pursuit of a doctorate degree in Business Administration and the research he has done on organizational constructs and how they drive a firm’s ability to create digital capabilities. Finally, he talks about the hindrances he faced during the digital transformation and looks ahead at the tech trends that could impact Carhartt’s business.
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This episode is sponsored by Transmit Security.
599: In this interview, Dean Del Vecchio; Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and Chief of Operations at Guardian Life; focuses on the expansion of the CIO role in company innovation, customer experience, and infrastructure modernization. Dean provides an overview of his responsibilities as CIO and Chief of Operations and how his responsibilities have expanded over the course of his career. He discusses the company’s Guardian on the Go Strategy as it relates to enabling employees for successful remote work and the future of remote and hybrid work environments. He gives his perspective on how remote work leveled the playing field for employees and how this might work in a hybrid work environment. Additionally, Dean talks about how culture plays a critical role in innovation and how to develop and upskill talent to foster innovation, and areas where innovation is crucial including the evolving customer digital experience. Finally, he shares how his team looks at modernizing the company’s IT Infrastructure, how ecosystems can benefit efforts in innovation, as well as trends in technology he has his eye on, among other topics.
This episode is sponsored by Quickbase.
595: In this interview, Colleen Berube, Chief Information Officer and SVP of Operations at Zendesk, focuses on the customer and employee experiences. Colleen describes how tech, data, and process help to scale the business and provides insight into how she balances adding processes without adding unneeded bureaucracy. We discuss the role her team plays in enhancing the customer experience, how the customer and employee experiences are connected with one another, and how COVID has changed the way companies think about the overall idea of “experience.” Finally, Colleen shares her perspective on the state of women in technology leadership positions and trends in technology she looks forward to.
583: Chris Bedi, Chief Information Officer of ServiceNow, focuses on the topic of digital transformations within companies and steps organizations have taken to foster resilience during the pandemic. Chris shares his perspective on how companies are doubling down on digital transformations, how AI is being used to improve the employee and customer experience, and how virtual agents are augmenting reality to assist remote employees in areas where they would have normally asked co-workers in person. Additionally, he talks about the future of app development, its minimum requirements, integrating AI into the development, and leveraging the growth of low-code/no-code to encourage citizen app developers. Finally, he touches on the topic of structuring the IT team to equip non-IT team members to think about machine learning and take advantage of new evolutions in technology among other topics.
579: In this interview, Michael Taylor, Chief Technology Officer of World Wide Technology, focuses on how the company sees the future of digital and technology. He explains how he views the dot com bubble as the advent of the impact that technology could have on business and why a culture that encourages furthering innovation is crucial during a time of uncertainty. Michael talks about the strategic role he plays as CTO and how his focus is as he describes moving from “the art of the possible to the art of the probable.” He provides a few key themes of WWT’s Technology Strategy connecting technology to business outcomes, digital to physical worlds, and strategy to delivery. Additionally, Michael stresses the importance of engaging with employees during difficult and uncertain times as well as how the expansion of remote work and introduction of hybrid working models lead to more flexibility and invite the opportunity to attract a more diverse talent pool. Finally, he describes how he divides his time among his team, his customers, and his ecosystem to see from different lenses how organizations are thinking about disruption and taking advantage of emerging trends in technology.
