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Yasir Anwar is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Digital Officer of Williams-Sonoma. He refers to the company as a house of brands, which include Williams-Sonoma, Williams-Sonoma Home, West Elm, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teen, Pottery Barn Kids, Mark & Graham, and Rejuvenation. Technology and digital are the central nervous system of the company, Anwar notes. “We are the world’s largest digital-first, design-led and sustainable home retailer. For that, you have to bring the whole world together to serve the customer needs.”
Anwar sees the evolution of the head of technology role as key in this transformation. He notes that “traditional” CIOs have an internal operational focus. The merging of technology and digital in his title and responsibilities implies a focus on technology projects but also on outcomes. What value is being driven? “It always has to start with the customer experience,” Anwar says. “This is the merger of the technology strength, powered and coupled by customer experience, digital experiences, and the power of digital that has been unleashing in the world as we speak.”
The results speak for themselves. Williams-Sonoma has a 70% e-commerce revenue penetration, Anwar said, up from 58% prior to the pandemic. Achieving that from a technical perspective begins with a global multi-tenant platform and a modern e-commerce platform. “We are building on top of not just microservices, but micro front-end, which would allow us to have more nimble, small, modular services,” noted Anwar. This allows the company to go to market much more rapidly. The platform is used across all of the company’s brands, which gives the company an edge when it comes to innovation. The platform allows the company to test a new idea or feature on a single brand, gather data, and quickly roll it out to others if it is successful.
As with many other companies, the pandemic accelerated digital innovation. For example, Williams-Sonoma associates use a tool called Room Planner to help advise clients on what furniture fits best in which rooms. The pandemic pushed for a faster release of a customer-facing version of the tool, which enables a customer to use the measurements of a room in their house, and then fill the space with furniture from across Williams-Sonoma’s brands. This proved to be a game changer at a time when so many people focused on updating and upgrading their homes to make them more conducive to both work and personal life. The tool also provides a connection to a professional when a customer wishes to get advice or ask questions.
When asked for Williams-Sonoma’s points of differentiation, Anwar believes one of the biggest examples is the company’s in-house design. “Many other marketplaces…sell home furnishing items,” he said. “They [typically procure] those items. They’re sourcing those items from different vendors across the world, but they do not own the design of those products.” By contrast, each of the Williams-Sonoma brands have high-performing, passionate and inspirational designers. “We own and we design everything and then we work with our in-house manufacturing locations, which we have here in the U.S.,” said Anwar, “We make in America, and then we also go to our partners, wherever we need to get the quality and diversity of design manufacturing…. I don’t think there is a company that could claim that they have such a deep ownership of the design, freshness of the design, and then the quality of the design.”
Anwar and his team have focused on two key cultural pillars in their transformation. First was moving a culture of “managers managing managers” to “experts leading experts.” This entails upskilling the team dramatically to greater levels of depth of knowledge. The second was going from a focus on output to a focus on outcomes. The result has been a transformation from a traditional retailer to a true hybrid between traditional retail and retail tech. “Our business is completely running on the rails of technology,” Anwar said. “Our goal in the next few years is to [reach a point where] tech front-loads the business propulsion and growth.”
The “house of brands” approach works for Williams-Sonoma because each brand serves different phases of an individual or a family’s life. The stores, themselves, reflect those nuances. A Pottery Barn Kids will have a different look and feel from Williams-Sonoma. That said, there are many commonalities and best practices that the unified Stores team can apply across the brands. Technology reflects a similar strategy. “If you have brands which are running on different platforms, different versions, there is a ton of costs,” he said. “If you have tested something great in one brand, you cannot go live [with] another brand because there are so many nuances.” Anwar noted that at least 85% of the company’s technology stack is common for all the brands.
Each of these trends served Williams-Sonoma well, and the stock price of the company bears this out, as it has risen more than 450% since March 20, 2020, from roughly $36 per share to the current price north of $164 per share.
Anwar is proud of the degree to which the tech and digital team fostered nimbleness in the company. “The teams were ready, the infrastructure was ready, the websites were ready, the supply chain fulfillment operational teams were ready,” noted Anwar. “It is a unique situation for all [retailers]. As they say, everybody is going through the same storm, but on different types of ships.” Anwar and his team have helped Williams-Sonoma build a ship to withstand the storm, steering more readily toward opportunity and away from danger.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written two bestselling books, and his third, Getting to Nimble, was recently released. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
LoanDepot has named George Brady Chief Digital Officer, effective July 6. LoanDepot has funded more than $300 billion in loans since its founding in 2010 and currently ranks as the second-largest retail nonbank lender and one of the leading retail mortgage lenders in the United States. LoanDepot is an approved seller and servicer for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae.
Brady will oversee all of loanDepot’s technology capabilities, including the leading proprietary platform, mello, with a specific focus on spearheading loanDepot’s technological innovation. Brady will report directly to loanDepot Founder and CEO Anthony Hsieh. LoanDepot’s technology team, led by Chief Information Officer Sudhir Nair, will report to Brady.
“Pushing the technology envelope is in loanDepot’s DNA,” said loanDepot founder and chief executive officer Anthony Hsiea. “Since our launch in 2010, our technology-powered products and services have changed the game for both customers and originators by providing an exceptional experience they can’t get anywhere else.”
In describing Brady’s hire, Hsiea went on to note, “George is a world-class talent whose unmatched knowledge, skills and leadership adds incredible horsepower to an already exceptional team. Under George’s leadership, I’m confident we’ll drive our world-class platform, mello, to new heights and continue to cultivate a culture of innovation and technical excellence. We have a tremendous opportunity to not only continue our innovation path as a category leader, but to shape and change the entire industry.”
“LoanDepot has a deep understanding of how technology can push the boundaries to enable both consumers and originators to seamlessly and successfully navigate the lending process,” noted Brady. “Between its remarkable track record of digital innovation, the talent and passion of its outstanding team, and the commitment of a visionary CEO to stay on the cutting edge, loanDepot is in a unique market position. The time is right to set the new standard for technological excellence and expand our capacity to meet the changing expectations of our customers.”
Brady has spent most of his career in financial services at companies like Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, and Deutsche Bank. He was most recently the Chief Technology Officer at Capital One.
The company now known as Cox Enterprises was founded nearly 120 years ago by James Cox, a man who would become the Governor of Ohio. It began with his first media property, the Dayton Daily News, and developed into a media conglomerate covering many cities. It is now a $20 billion private, family-owned company with 55,000 employees. Cox Enterprises operates across three business categories: Communications, which includes Cox Cable; Automotive, which includes Manheim Auctions, Kelley Blue Book, and Autotrader; and media, which dates back to the company’s founding. Much of the media business was divested in 2020, though the company still owns the Dayton Daily News and a few other properties. Much of that part of the company was divested in 2020, though the company still owns the Dayton Daily News along with a few other properties.
The company’s chief information officer is Richard Cox (no relation to the founder). He joined the company in 2013 as part of the Autotrader.com team and took on the CIO role in October 2019. However in 2018, he took a break from his ascent in Cox Enterprises to join the City of Atlanta as Chief Operations Officer, which proved to be a seminal experience for him. The current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was early in her administration and called upon Cox to help her set things up. “We went to high school together,” recalled Cox. “I hadn’t talked to her in 30 years, so it was just this really interesting opportunity. Cox [Enterprises] allowed me to go help her at the City of Atlanta for about a year and a half. I was an executive on loan.”
During his first week in that role, Atlanta experienced the largest ransomware attack in its history. This was a few months before Atlanta was to host the Super Bowl, making the situation all the more impactful and stressful. In retrospect, Cox sees it as a blessing in disguise. “I am absolutely convinced if we had not gone through that, that Super Bowl would have been [all the more] challenging,” remembered Cox. “We were on high alert during the Super Bowl. We were being scammed on a regular basis, but because we were really prepared [due to the earlier cybersecurity attack] it was seamless. We didn’t have any security issues at all, and the city now is in a good posture.”
Cox says his time in government accelerated his progress as a leader. “During those times, you can’t pretend to be a leader, you have to prove it,” he noted. He brought back much of what he learned in taking on the CIO role at his old employer. Cox encouraged open dialogue across the team to understand how the company could improve. That led to a group called Action Speak, which increased Cox Enterprise’s focus on diversity and inclusion. “Now we have paid time off for people to vote,” Cox said by way of example. “Regardless of what your political views may be, you will be supported to vote. We’re being more intentional in terms of making sure that we look across all levels in how people of color are represented across not just our front lines, but (also) middle management and the executive ranks.”
Cox has also focused his team’s attention on reducing the complexity of the company’s diverse set of businesses. “We have worked on making sure we take a step back and build a strategy that is holistic,” he said. “In the past, we just had this tendency to work in silos.”. An early way in which he accomplished this was by conducting numerous interviews and surveys to understand how customers viewed technology. By doing more together, Cox reasoned, the customer’s experience would improve.
This approach extended to the technology that the customer might not immediately notice. For example, Cox focused on creating a comprehensive cloud strategy and incorporating better data and analytics capabilities. These priorities have improved reliability and resiliency and helped Cox identify new ways to improve customer experience.
These priorities were part of a three- to five-year plan that accelerated dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. For Cox, the pandemic was a chance to improve. “In these times of crisis, you can take a step back and regret what you didn’t do along the way, or you can look at it as an opportunity,” he said. “We have looked at this as an opportunity for sure.”
Communication is the essential element to pursue during these times of great change, Cox said. “What’s non-negotiable: you have to communicate. You have to be proactive, and you have to communicate relentlessly.” There are several formats that have worked best. With groups of 10 to 15 at a time, he met with every member of his team to communicate plans and listen, noting their concerns, hopes, and the like. Additionally, town hall meetings and more impromptu “ask leadership” sessions have added to the frequent opportunity for conversations and learning.
With each challenge and crisis he has faced, Cox has gained lessons and confidence for the next one. Though he hopes he won’t be tested again, Cox knows he and his team have what it takes to guide Cox Enterprises through turbulent times.
Johnson Controls has appointed Vijay Sankaran as vice president and chief technology officer, a new role aimed at accelerating product software engineering development and expanding customer solutions. This will expand upon the company’s OpenBlue digital platform, which allows the company to connect all building systems and to optimize interior environments by learning from the data the systems share. Johnson Controles is a global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings. Sankaran was most recently chief information officer and head of innovation at TD Ameritrade, with responsibility for digital strategy, customer platforms, software engineering, technology operations, cybersecurity, data management and analytics, and enterprise innovation.
“Vijay brings a wealth of strategic software experience to Johnson Controls and is ideally positioned to strengthen our solutions and market competitiveness through world class software engineering,” said Johnson Controls chairman and chief executive officer George Oliver to whom Sankaran reports. “In this new, enterprise-wide chief technology officer role, Vijay and the software engineering team will accelerate our innovation, solve for unique customer outcomes and deliver for our customers on the key secular trends of sustainability, energy efficiency, and healthy, safe and connected smart buildings.”
Sankaran’s is a newly created organization, with software engineering team members from across Johnson Controls global portfolio reporting into it. His team will accelerate and unify the product software engineering development efforts creating common software architecture to further drive the enterprise software technology strategy.
“Vijay’s role as CTO will be pivotal in driving continued growth and expansion for our OpenBlue digital platform as all of the elements of a building’s operational technology become connected,” said Johnson Controls Chief Customer and Digital Officer Mike Ellis. “Through OpenBlue, that connectivity enables us to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as edge computing technologies, to predict patterns and trends, and provide positive customer outcomes for sustainability, energy efficiency, security and healthy building environments.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to have this opportunity to lead customer facing engineering as no other company has the breadth of capabilities to provide healthy, smart, sustainable building environments,” said Sankaran upon reflecting on this new opportunity. “The Johnson Controls team already successfully developed and rolled out an outstanding platform, OpenBlue.”
Sankaran’s role is to integrate software engineering across the company in a holistic way so that we can further expand the capabilities of OpenBlue and leverage the breadth of the company’s building systems portfolio. When asked about the technologies that will be most important to this journey, he noted, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and connectivity, each of which he referred to as “game changers” to help customers meet their goals on sustainability, energy efficiency and healthy, smart buildings.
Prior to working at TD Ameritrade, Sankaran held executive roles at Ford Motor Company from 2001 to 2013, including IT Chief Technology Officer, Director of Application Development, as well as leadership roles in architecture, emerging technologies, data and analytics, and enterprise transformation programs.
Sankaan has a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. at Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
The $8.4 billion revenue network infrastructure provider CommScope has promoted its vice president of digital transformation, Praveen Jonnala, to the chief information officer role, effective immediately. Jonnala has been with the company for more than a dozen years.
In his prior post, Jonnala led all aspects of strategy, development, and delivery of the company’s digital transformation efforts partnering with sales, marketing, supply chain, manufacturing, finance, HR, and quality.
CommScope is focused on developing its next-generation wireless networking and communications infrastructure businesses. In recent years, CommScope grown tremendously through acquisition, requiring simplification of business processes and enterprise systems. This has included steps like consolidating to a single, global ERP to improving operational efficiency and improving customer experience digitally. Areas that Jonnala and his team will focus on in the near-term include enhancing the company’s product catalog and better tracking of product orders. The business teams will have access to more artificial intelligence capabilities to build better revenue projection models and predict and manage global supply chain risks.
“Working for a leading edge technology company in the networking equipment space, CommScope’s CIO plays a critical role in not only optimizing our own operations, but also serving as a test bed for cutting-edge technologies and new customer solutions,” said Alex Pease, chief financial officer. “Through advanced analytics, automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, Praveen will help us optimize our business operations as well as serve customers better. With his depth of experience and broad knowledge in advanced technologies, Praveen is uniquely positioned to drive value both within CommScope and externally.”
“Establishing the role of IT as a business and innovation partner is critical given the rate of change in our business and customer expectations,” noted Jonnala. “I believe we have a great opportunity to add value through technology across CommScope—by providing an exceptional digital customer experience, partnering with product teams to drive more software capabilities into our products, and transforming our factories and supply chain for improved quality and reduced costs. I am excited about Artificial Intelligence and its transformational potential, particularly in our product development, manufacturing and customer service operations. Building hybrid AI teams made up of both IT and business partners will unlock new opportunities for CommScope and our customers.”
CommScope has Global IT capability centers in the U.S., India and China. Having global IT centers enables the company to tap into the best talent across the globe.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written two bestselling books, and his third, Getting to Nimble, will be released in March 2021. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
A little less than 20% of chief information officers in the United States are women. That roughly mirrors the percentage of women enrolled in engineering programs at universities in the U.S. Although progress has been made in the roughly 40 years since the inception of the CIO role, more needs to be done to create pathways for women to grow careers in technology.
One of the organizations that has done a remarkable job in mentoring women and working behind the scenes to help women land CIO, chief technology officer, and chief digital officer posts is T200. The group was founded by roughly ten women in 2017, and in less than four years, has grown to roughly 160 members. As founding member, Suja Chandrasekaran, currently the Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Digital Officer of CommonSpirit, noted, “We go past peripheral connections. Since our inception, we connect with depth, diversity and strength.”
Chandrasekaran spoke at a T200 event today to mark International Women’s Day and to announce a new program called the Lift Platform which sets bold goals to foster new opportunities for the next generation of women leaders in the technology and digital realm.
The Lift Platform is designed for women in technology and digital roles who report directly to CXOs. They will be vetted for fit with T200’s principles, and they will represent diversity of industry as well as race, creed, sexual orientation, geography, and more.
The Lift Platform drives networking, mentorship and sponsorship. Mamatha Chamarthi, the CIO of Stellantis, said, “We want to elevate the next generation [of women leaders]. We will identify leaders who have a willingness to contribute and give back; a willingness to volunteer to uplift other women.”
Pizza Hut CIO Helen Vaid went further in saying, “Half of the world is women. Therefore, half of the resumes we see should be from women.”
The group listed the following goals in the materials shared in the kick-off event this morning:
12 initial members of the Lift Mentorship program have been identified, though their names were not shared at the kick-off event. 16 mentors have been assigned, as well. They include the CIOs, CDOs and/or CTOs of American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Align Technology, Citrix, Zoetis and Clark Hill Law, along with Chandrasekaran, Chamarthi and Vaid, among others.
T200 leaders hope to drive outcomes to include supporting women to thrive in their existing roles, while driving explicit growth and professional learning goals for the mentees, creating visibility for the next generation of leaders for additional opportunities and to progressively improve outcomes each year.
T200 leaders have set the objective to have five mentees become CIOs in 2021. The longer-term objective is to be a driving force for women in technology to grow to parity globally across all industries. Ambitious women who strive to follow in the footsteps of the 160 extraordinary women who currently make up the T200 should take note that there is a clearer path for them to follow!
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. He has written two bestselling books, and his third, Getting to Nimble, is out this month. He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on Twitter @PeterAHigh.
We are so thankful to all who took their time to participate in the 2020 Metis Strategy Digital Symposium. During this period of heightened uncertainty, it was especially encouraging to hear perspectives from global CIOs, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and investors about not only about how they are navigating the current challenges, but also how they are seizing the tremendous opportunities that have arisen.
Here are a few takeaways from the event:
The digital acceleration goes beyond the #WFH pivot. The pandemic forced many companies into to speed up their digital initiatives as they pivoted to remote work, bolstered cybersecurity measures, and began to automate a broader range of business processes.
In a poll of roughly 100 global CIOs who attended the Symposium, 42% said their digital initiatives have accelerated significantly, while 30% said they saw some acceleration. We have heard many CIOs say that digital projects that would have taken years under normal circumstances were completed in a matter of weeks, if not faster.
That acceleration appears poised to continue. CIOs noted that their firms have an increased appetite for transformation as they think about how technology can prepare them to emerge from the pandemic in a position of strength, armed with the digital tools that allow them to seize future opportunities.
This transformation requires more than automating tasks or cutting costs, however. Teams are now thinking about the broader changes across people, process, and technology that will make these transformation efforts stick.
People come first. Speakers noted that it is critical for leaders to openly acknowledge the human element of the crisis and the fact that people at every level of the organization are facing new challenges. Leaders continue to focus on ensuring their teams’ safety while working to create a sense of belonging.
It is critical for leaders to be visible and lead their teams with empathy, speakers noted. Overcommunicating – even to the point of sounding like a broken record – is essential, particularly while managing a largely remote workforce.
As the crisis wears on, many CIOs are also thinking about how to keep their teams motivated and productive, remove obstacles, and unleash their ability to innovate. That includes providing employees with the technologies they need to work productively and creating opportunities to gain skills that will help them thrive in the new normal.
Let customer needs guide new initiatives. A common refrain during our sessions was the need to focus relentlessly on the customer. This is particularly true in IT, where technology sometimes is deployed for its own sake rather than solving a particular customer need. CIOs noted that when they allowed customer needs to be a beacon for new initiatives, payoffs were often more immediate. They reiterated that a solution doesn’t need to be sexy to be effective, as long as it solves a key customer issue.
A customer obsession at the enterprise level, particularly with strong buy-in from the CEO and the rest of the C-suite, can also help break down organizational silos and provide a common cause for teams to rally around. CIOs noted that driving this customer-centric mindset requires a culture shift and new governance structures, but that the work is paying off.
Get the basics right. The quick and massive shift to remote work amid the pandemic changed the way many CIOs think about business continuity and scenario planning. It also created a heightened focus on security and spurred new discussions around the technology needed for employees to do their jobs effectively.
These discussions have driven home the need for companies to have a solid foundation in order for new digital initiatives to thrive. As companies plot their paths forward, many CIOs are seizing the opportunity to make sure the basics are as good as they can be. That includes reassessing enterprise architecture and evaluating systems and partner ecosystems.
Adaptability is a new core competency. Many CIOs noted the remarkable speed and adaptability shown by their teams as they pivoted to work from home and quickly shifted business processes to adapt to the new business landscape. Facing an uncertain future, the ability for organizations to quickly assess changing market needs and shift gears accordingly is becoming a must-have skill.
CIOs noted that in many cases their teams are more productive and moving faster than they ever thought possible. A key question now is how to maintain that momentum in a sustainable manner and ensure teams are chasing the initiatives that help the company meet its strategic goals. To that end, extreme focus and ruthless prioritization are critical, as is broad alignment across the enterprise.
As one CIO noted, it is important that technology leaders gain alignment with the rest of the organization rather than chasing new revenue opportunities for revenue’s sake. A shift to product-centered operating models is helping to drive that alignment, dissolve organizational barriers, and increase agility.
Look for the silver linings. While executives expect it will be many months before a return to some version of normalcy, speakers underscored a number of silver linings, including a renewed focus on strategic imperatives, an openness to new ways of working, and an increased appetite among corporate leadership to drive growth through digital.
While it is difficult to know with certainty what the weeks and months ahead will bring, there is nevertheless a strong push to identify and seize new opportunities.
Technology executives continue to tackle urgent tasks related to the COVID-19 pandemic, from supporting a surge of remote workers to keeping critical business systems running. But as remote work becomes the new normal (at least for the next few weeks), many CIOs are also grappling with larger cultural questions, primarily how to keep teams engaged and productive while working from home.
Below are a few practices leaders can take to maintain a culture of engagement and prepare their teams to emerge empowered on the other side of this crisis.
This is a time of immense uncertainty for both companies and individuals. Personal and professional routines have changed overnight as people make the shift to working remotely. Regardless of job title, everyone on your team is making an adjustment. One of the easiest ways to help create stability is to acknowledge that adjustment and do what’s possible to help the transition go smoothly.
A small but concrete way to do this is to provide training sessions on how to use various collaboration tools. While an IT team may be proficient in making calls on Zoom or communicating with Slack, others may using the technology for the first time. (One technology executive I spoke with recently said a training session for Zoom drew more than 5,000 sign ups.) Developing these opportunities is a simple way help your teams navigate the change and get to work faster.
“Every CIO knows change is not just about technology, it’s about people, process and technology,” Citrix CIO Meerah Rajavel wrote in a recent blog post. The company’s IT team worked closely with HR to craft the company’s work-from-home policy and develop a list of resources. “We decided to lean in and take a walk in the user’s shoes and collect feedback along every step of their journey that could be used to deliver a superior experience that would enable them to perform at their best.”
When visiting corporate innovation labs in recent years, it has been increasingly common to see a company’s leadership principles hanging poster-size on walls throughout the building, a not-so-subtle reminder of the firm’s cultural tenets. With the switch to remote work, it is now more incumbent upon executives to ensure those principles remain top of mind. Consider posting your team’s strategic priorities in prominent places across virtual channels and reference them when communicating with team members. Doing so can serve as a reminder that just because employees are no longer in the office, the company is still guided by the same vision.
While CIOs should continue to share frequent business updates with their teams, they can also magnify key wins and lessons learned. When working together in an office, it can be easier to see and celebrate victories, or to notice when something doesn’t work as it should. Without a shared physical space, CIOs can help develop cohesion by broadcasting the stories of teams solving challenging problems or otherwise rising to the occasion during the crisis.
Regardless of the message you are communicating, be clear and tailor it to the platform you are using. A request delivered “face to face” via video conference may come across differently than a terse message on Slack. Also, while it may sound dated, don’t be afraid to use the phone. While there is a plethora of communication tools at our fingertips, sometimes an old fashioned phone call can help you deliver a message most efficiently.
It is easy to think about remote work as an isolated activity, but it’s worth considering how it can help create new connections. As Adam Ely, deputy chief information security officer at Walmart, said in a recent LinkedIn post: “I spoke to one company that said this drove (security teams) to have better relationships with people in business lines they didn’t know.” Those teams now have a better understanding of their colleagues’ business processes and plan to work more closely with peers across the business. It is a potential silver lining for IT, where strong relationships with business partners are increasingly critical to growth.
The surge in virtual communication tools can help foster these connections. Virtual coffee chats, lunch breaks and happy hours have sprouted up both inside and outside the office as people look for new opportunities to connect. At health technology firm Cerner Corp., which has 27,000 employees working from home, teams are using collaboration tools in new ways, such as creating specific channels for discussing health-related topics, sharing work-from-home tips or sharing photos of their home offices.
While many companies are still in crisis response mode, it is increasingly important for CIOs to think about how their teams can emerge from the crisis in a position of strength. This presents an opportunity to bring a variety of voices into the conversation, working with colleagues across the organization to research the technologies and trends that are likely to rise in importance over the coming months. Even if your organization is unable to invest in those technologies today, exploring business cases now can prepare you to move quickly when the time is and give people a role in shaping the organization’s future.
As the shift toward remote work continues, leaders will be tasked with creating an inclusive work culture that also encourages productivity and innovation. Prioritizing health and safety, equipping employees with the right tools and fostering new forms of collaboration can go a long way toward making it happen.
The Metis Strategy team was honored to participate in the 2019 Forbes CIO Next conference, where chief information officers, technology and operations leaders, VCs, and artificial intelligence experts shared their insights into the evolution of AI in the enterprise and gave us a glimpse of where things are headed in 2020. Here are a few lessons we brought home:
“Digital immigrant” companies leverage their strengths. Organizations not born in the cloud, often referred to as “digital immigrants,” continue to face challenges that many of their digital native competitors do not. But as legacy firms upgrade their technology environments and make progress on digital transformation efforts, they increasingly are able to make use of their inherent advantages: stockpiles of valuable data, decades of industry expertise, and the scale to enter new markets quickly.
At Rockwell Automation, for example, the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) and an increased focus on data has helped the company improve its on-time delivery, optimize and automate many internal processes, and shift its business model toward services such as telemetry and predictive maintenance. At insurance firm Travelers, aerial photos paired with geospatial data and claims information help the company quickly assess potential losses and deliver help to customers.
In 2020, we expect digital immigrant firms will continue to use their data and scale advantages to optimize internal processes and deliver tech-enabled products and services that can compete with their startup rivals. New technology investments will focus on business capabilities that truly differentiate companies from their competitors.
New ways of working take hold, but developing talent remains a challenge. The line between IT and the business has all but disappeared as firms embrace cross-functional, agile product teams. Many executives noted that this way of working has allowed them to respond more quickly to market changes and provide better customer experiences. We expect this cross-functional collaboration to increase in the year ahead.
At the same time, the battle for talent shows no signs of slowing down. Conference attendees listed talent as a top priority for 2020 as they look to recruit, hire, and retain new people while re-skilling existing employees for jobs of the future. Executives said they continue to seek and develop “T-shaped” employees who have a breadth and depth of skills that span technology and operations. They also recognize the need to create work environments that promote continuous learning at all levels.
We’re still in early innings with AI. Enterprise adoption of AI and machine learning is accelerating as companies explore new use cases and pursue applications that drive concrete business value. In the year ahead, we expect many companies will work to hone existing use cases and develop mechanisms to scale advanced analytics capabilities across the enterprise. Indeed, as many traditional organizations called themselves tech companies in recent years, some panelists suggested we might start hearing them refer to themselves as AI companies.
But significant work remains to be done. Companies continue to invest in their core data infrastructure, and executives are looking for new ways to measure and communicate ROI for their AI initiatives. There are also fundamental issues yet to be resolved, such as how to create explainable algorithms, how to reduce inherent bias in data sets, and whether certain AI technologies should operate without a human in the loop.
The pinnacle: using data to drive growth. Both winners of this year’s Forbes CIO Innovation Award used their companies’ rich data sets to develop new services and drive tangible financial growth:
As we enter 2020, we expect CIOs to play an increasingly visible role in the development of corporate strategy. Many are likely to expand their purview as organizations look to new technologies to drive operational efficiency, deliver top-line growth, and create a differentiated customer experience. CIOs also will continue to be agents of cultural change as they foster new ways of working and develop technology talent across their organizations. We look forward to the year ahead!
Kristine Grinnell has been promoted to Global Chief Information Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer of General Dynamics Information Technology. She had been the CIO and Vice President of Technology & Supply Chain. In addition to her previous responsibilities, Grinnell is now in charge of GDIT’s Technology Shared Services, which focuses on delivering directly to the company’s customers, while continuing her role overseeing Enterprise IT and Supply Chain.
Grinnell noted, “Delivering directly to the customer puts a different spin on IT delivery. The same principles of high-quality IT service management applies, as they do for the enterprise. However, it ensures you are providing IT capabilities that will accomplish the customer’s mission. I’m excited to bring together operation excellence, combined with customer focus. As GDIT continues to ‘innovate everywhere,’ this presents a significant opportunity to make a difference. This is as exciting as it can gets for a CIO!”
