In this episode, we discuss:
Among a variety of other topics.
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In this episode, Mojgan discusses the company’s commitment to making innovation part of its DNA and the strategic pillars the company has put in place, which are focused on evolving the way the company works to drive integrated teams to push the blurring of lines between business and technology. First, the company leverages design thinking methodologies and always starts with the customer and works backward, and it has small multifunctional teams of technologists and business experts. Second, the company has developed a strategic architecture, driving modernization and simplification where appropriate. Lastly, but most importantly is talent, which the company considers its advantage multiplier. Mojgan cites that Travelers drives new skill sets and engineering talent in a variety of ways. We also discuss Mojgan’s view on the future of women in technology, and the revolution she sees happening in that regard, how Mojgan looks at the company’s 160-year old history as a position of extreme strength, how Mojgan’s diverse career path has colored her experience at Travelers, and a variety of other topics.
457: Oshkosh CIO Anupam Khare outlines the company’s five strategic pillars, which are being people-first; running digital technology as a business; modernizing and innovating; building advanced capabilities in analytics and process automation, among other areas; and securing the organization in a way that reduces friction and makes experiences better for its employees, customers, and partners. We also discuss how the company has been able to recruit new employees, how the team has mixed retraining with bringing in new people externally, how the Information Technology function has rebranded to “Digital Technology” to change its perception internally and externally, among other topics.
456: Equinix CEO Charles Meyers discusses the trend for organizations to get out of the data center business, which puts Equinix in a solid position to support CIOs in their digital transformation journey. Charles cites that companies are noticing that building, operating, maintaining, and ensuring that data centers are equipped to meet their go-forward needs is not in line with their differentiation and their capability nor is it the best use of their capital. Instead, they have looked for highly distributed IT infrastructure to meet a variety of needs, and the cloud is playing a large role. We also discuss the benefits Equinix gains from being an internal first user, how the CIO role has evolved to be more customer-facing and strategic, Charles’ takes on AI, IoT, the Digital Edge, and 5G, among other topics.
451: Dow CIO and CDO Melanie Kalmar recaps the merger with DuPont, subsequent executive shuffle, and ultimately the spinoff that resulted in Dow and two other publicly traded companies, Corteva and Dupont. The new Dow is a material science company that heavily invests in research and development and collaborating with customers to drive innovation. She notes that mergers present an opportunity to invest in future capabilities, and that Dow invested heavily in its digital transformation. We also discuss the expansion of her role to include the CDO title, the three anchors of Dow’s digital and IT strategy, her interest in artificial intelligence and Dow’s artificial intelligence competency center, and a variety of other topics.
450: XPRIZE Foundation CEO Anousheh Ansari discusses XPRIZE’s Pandemic Alliance, a global coalition of corporate, academic, and non-governmental partners focused on accelerating solutions to the coronavirus pandemic. In the short-term, that means expanding visibility into solutions underway in areas such as remote care and access to testing. We also discuss the XPRIZE Data Collaborative which provides access to exclusive data sets and AI capabilities, how XPRIZE facilitates resource and idea sharing between alliance members, and why XPRIZE is well positioned to bring together uncommon partners to tackle this historic challenge.
To learn more and get involved, click here
To hear our interview with XPRIZE Founder Peter Diamandis, click here
447: In this interview, Ajeet discusses the value of transparency within a company. In his time in Silicon Valley, Ajeet has noticed situations where there is a disconnect between how executives are thinking, what is happening in reality, and how much the board gets to know. However, Ajeet has built a culture with absolutely nothing to hide, as he notes. He has chosen to invite all the employees to board meetings because he claims that employees should know everything that is going on in the company. Further, he cites that this has given young engineers the opportunity to present to some of the most respected investors in Silicon Valley. We also discuss Ajeet’s goal for 10 unicorns to come out of ThoughtSpot, the benefits Ajeet gains from taking a personal off-site alone frequently to contemplate the company’s priorities, the partnerships ThoughtSpot has formed with a variety of different companies, and brainstorm new ideas, among other topics.
446: World Fuel Services COO Jeff Smith discusses the form that digital transformation has taken at World Fuel Services. Jeff talks about how the company’s updated data systems now allow for customer and supplier information to be processed digitally and how applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning are improving the company’s operating margins and the customer experience. We also discuss how Jeff went about evaluating what needed to change in the company, and how he used the concept of job content to attract the necessary talent to drive change. We end our discussion with Jeff’s outlook on the importance of cloud capabilities in digital transformation.
444: In this interview, David lays out his three strategic pillars as CEO. First, David is focused on driving an organizational and strategy shift from product to platform. Second, he is looking to move the company’s products from on-premise to being cloud-first, and third, he is focused on a business model shift to move from perpetual licensing to a subscription model. We also discuss how Citrix’s technology allows the company to be a virtual organization, the challenges of attracting the right employees and retaining them, the partnerships Citrix has developed over the years, among other topics.
443: In this interview, Sanjeev discusses how AES is applying its digital vision and strategy across the core business, specifically technologies such as strategic data platforms, artificial intelligence, IoT, and robotics. Sanjeev also elaborates on AES’s three strategic dimensions and five specific themes in their plan for digital transformation. Additionally, Sanjeev shares how he developed the framework for growth when he arrived at AES Corp in October of 2018 and how far AES has come since then. We also discuss the importance of cultural transformation, the customer experience, Sanjeev’s experience as a board member, among other topics.
Previously: Listen to our interview with AES CEO Andres Gluski.
