846: Enterprises are rapidly accelerating their artificial intelligence strategies as new tools emerge, and the executives at these companies are constantly looking for ways AI can solve big problems that have plagued them for decades. Seeing this niche as an opportunity, Gustavo Sapoznik, the founder and CEO of ASAPP, has led the company toward building products that leverage AI/ML tools to solve the world’s most difficult problems. In this interview, Gustavo sits down with Peter High to describe the journey he went through starting up ASAPP, the value it provides companies, and what inspired him to start down the path of entrepreneurship. Throughout his career, Gustavo has gathered many unique insights on the evolution and potential of artificial intelligence and shares some of what he has learned throughout the conversation. More broadly, Gustavo discusses his personal entrepreneurship journey and his advice for those looking to follow in his footsteps.

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556: In this interview, Angela Yochem, the EVP and Chief Transformation & Digital Officer at Novant Health, and George Llado, the SVP and CIO of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, focus on the power of ecosystems. Angela discusses the importance of leveraging ecosystems to drive innovation at scale, and she shares the story of how Novant Health formed an “unconventional partnership” with Stewart-Haas to build ICU carts for overrun hospitals. Meanwhile, George discusses Alexion’s strategy of cultivating relationships with startups and venture capital firms to accelerate innovation, as well as his approach to strategic planning.

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494: SYKES Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Dave Pearson discusses

• An overview of SYKES, including its portfolio of capabilities, and the company’s partner network, and SYKES Digital. 
• Dave’s purview as CIO
• The OneTeam platform the company developed to support its work-at-home agents
• Why the company has had a virtual structure for many of its employees since before the pandemic and the learnings from that. 
• Dave’s take on the cloud and artificial intelligence

Among a variety of other topics.

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493: MGM Resorts International President of Commercial & Growth Atif Rafiq discusses

• Atif’s purview in his role
• MGM’s expansion into digital services
• Viva La Office, an offering the company has developed to encourage people to work and live from Las Vegas during the pandemic. 
• The company’s response to COVID-19, including the digital and contactless experiences the company has swiftly put in
• How the customer conveniences created by COVID are sticky and will remain long term
• The company’s Seven-Point Safety Plan aimed to keep customers and employees safe during the pandemic
• How COVID has resulted in far more agility inside companies
• CONBODY, a digital fitness started by a formerly incarcerated person with formerly incarcerated instructors

Among a variety of other topics.

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483: NetApp CIO Bill Miller discusses

• Bill’s purview as the CIO of NetApp
• How the company works with external partners to build capabilities
• How the company acts as an internal first user
• The Cloud One Platform and The DevOps framework the company has built 
• How the company works with external partners to build capabilities 
• Bill’s view on how COVID-19 will impact the world in the long term 
• The importance of CIOs getting advantages out of data 
• The biggest threats to CIOs today

Among a variety of other topics.

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480: Former Cisco CEO John Chambers discusses:

• John’s experience with previous financial crises 
• The playbook he is running with his 18 startups through the current pandemic. 
• Why John went into venture capital after his time at Cisco
• Why John is partnering with 18 startups, rather than just one 
• How the current crisis has impacted John’s investment theses. 
• The playbook John ran when making acquisitions at Cisco
• The successes and failures he has experienced with digital transformations
• The impact COVID is going to have long-term including how 
  • COVID has and will continue to accelerate the shift to digital
  • Why the top ten companies in each industry will be shuffled, and
  • Why we won’t have an environment where everyone works from home

Among a variety of other topics.

This episode was recorded live at the 2020 Metis Strategy Digital Symposium.

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479: Ocean Spray Cranberries Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Jamie Head, discusses:

• Jamie’s purview as Chief Digital and Technology Officer
• Ocean Spray’s five-year plan to transform from a cranberry business to a health and wellness business
• The company’s innovation plan, the digital hub his team is building
• The company’s relationship with the farmers who grow the cranberries
• How the company approaches external partnerships
• Jamie’s interest in the health and wellness space

Among a variety of other topics.

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475: Commonwealth Bank of Australia CIO Pascal Boillat discusses:

• Pascal’s 6-pillared IT strategy
• Advantages Pascal gains having technology and operations disciplines under his purview
• Some of the innovation efforts Commonwealth Bank is undergoing.
• Why working remotely due to COVID-19 was even more of a transition for Australians than other parts of the world 
• The tech landscape in Australia 
• How the company works with other FinTechs
• Pascal’s take on quantum computing, AI, and the cloud

Among a variety of other topics.

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In this interview, we discuss 

• Sandeep’s purview as the CDO of Mars
• The three pillars that drive Mars’ digital engine
• The five cultural principles that guide Mars as a company
• The extreme focus Sandeep has put on customer centricity
• Why Sandeep believes creating a culture of curiosity is as important as creating the right data infrastructure
• Mars’ movement to come up with 100 insights in the next 100 weeks
• The prevalence of AI in the company
• How the company is using Snickers to show gratitude to frontline workers

Among a variety of other topics.

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In this interview, we discuss 

• Atish’s career path and his experience as CIO of a technology giant
• How the CIO role is more similar to CTO roles that he has held in the past
• The three main functions he oversees
• His thoughts on the two biggest ways COVID will change the business world
• The value an executive with technology expertise can bring to a corporate board

Among a variety of other topics.

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