Authors and Books Archives - Page 8 of 9

Among other topics, Brad discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

The similarities and differences between the cultures of Airbnb and Uber
Challenges and concerns faced by Airbnb and Uber
The influence of Jeff Bezos and Amazon on Airbnb and Uber
The successful balance of idealism and aggression as an indicator of a startup’s success
Growing pains experienced by startups as they attempt to transition to public companies
The importance of startups having a strong executive team around a CEO
Travis Kalanick’s and Brian Chesney’s leadership styles
The role of tech companies in managing the cultural anxiety caused by technological advance

Brad Stone’s Biography

Brad is the author of the recent release The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World. Brad’s previous book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon was both a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and won the 2013 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Brad is the senior executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News, a $9 billion global news and information organization. He oversees a team of 50 reporters and editors that cover high-tech companies, startups, and internet trends around the world. Brad also co-hosts a weekly Bloomberg podcast, Decrypted, and contributes to a morning email newsletter on technology called Fully Charged.

Previously, Brad was a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek and a technology correspondent for the New York Times.

Brad holds a bachelor of arts in English from Columbia University.

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Among other topics, Peter discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

Peter’s interest in space and technology innovation, and how these common themes run through his various companies and initiatives
How Peter divides his time and delegates responsibilities across his organizations
The accelerating pace of technological change and the challenges and opportunities this presents for companies
Best practices for corporate innovation, including scaling at the edges, experimentation, and more
How companies can anticipate the disruptive forces in their industries and respond accordingly
Peter’s views on artificial intelligence, and why he believes the opportunities outweigh the risks of the technology
Where Peter sees the greatest innovation taking place over the next one to three years
Peter’s thoughts on radical health and life extension

Peter Diamandis Biography

Peter is a serial entrepreneur and an international pioneer in the fields of innovation, incentive competitions and commercial space. Some of the companies that Peter has founded or co-founded include XPRIZE, Singularity University, Human Longevity Inc and Planetary Resources. He is also a prolific speaker, author of two New York Times Best Selling books, investor, and advisor to business leaders and startups.

Peter has been a lifelong entrepreneur, founding his first organization while he was still an undergraduate. He has founded well over a dozen companies, with many of his earlier ones focused on opening the space frontier for humanity. These earlier organizations include International Space University, Zero-G, Space Adventures LTD, BlastOff! Corporation, the Rocket Racing League, and several others. Diamandis sits on the boards of several companies, including Hyperloop One, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Economist’s Innovator of the Year, the Arthur C. Clark Award for Innovation, the Lindbergh Award, and many others.

Peter hold an undergraduate degree in Molecular Genetics, as well as a graduate degree in AerospaceEngineering, both from MIT. He received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

I recently caught up with Peter over the phone and our conversation covered World Class IT Principle One, People, as we discussed how he chooses his business partners and the roles they play in his organization, and Principle Three, Project and Portfolio Management, as we discussed the importance of diversified product portfolios and the need to disrupt one’s own offering. We also covered Peter’s interest in space and technology innovation, and how these common themes run through his various companies and initiatives, how Peter divides his time and delegates responsibilities across his organizations, the accelerating pace of technological change and the challenges and opportunities this presents for companies, best practices for corporate innovation, including scaling at the edges, experimentation, and more.

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Among other topics, Peter discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

Impact of the recent election on the theses in his book regarding global markets, security and demography
History of the United States’ role in global security and trade
Factors related to the United States’ dominance as a market power
U.S. foreign policy and its impact on global trade and security
The U.S.’s future position given global changes in geopolitics, demography and energy
Sectors of the U.S. economy that will impacted most by these changes
The advantages Mexico enjoys and Zeihan’s predictions for its growth given the recent election

Peter Zeihan’s Biography

Peter is a global energy, demographic and security expert whose worldview marries the realities of geography and populations to a deep understanding of how global politics impact markets and economic trends. Peter’s career has ranged from working for the U.S. State Department in Australia, to the DC think tank community, to helping develop the analytical models for Stratfor, one of the world’s premier private intelligence companies. Peter founded his own firm — Zeihan on Geopolitics — in 2012 in order to provide a select group of clients with direct, custom analytical products. Today those clients represent a vast array of sectors including energy majors, financial institutions, business associations, agricultural interests, universities and the U.S. military.

His freshman book, The Accidental Superpower, debuted in 2014. His sophomore project, Shale New World,will be released later this month.

Peter has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Truman State University and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand and the Patterson School of Diplomacyand International Commerce.

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Among other topics, John discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

The meaning and intent of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge
Why the constant drive for efficiency will undermine the requirements of economic success for the future
The importance of scalable learning and its implications on performance improvement
Practices for instituting enterprise wide transformations
Defining the “Passion of the Explorer” and how to unlock the passion of your employees
How the American school system inhibits the development of true passion among its students
Business strategies of the most successful tech-companies in Silicon Valley

John Hagel’s Biography

John is the Co-Chairman of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge. This Silicon Valley-based group conducts original research and develops substantive points of view on emerging business opportunities that should be on CEOs’ agendas. John has over 30 years of experience as a management consultant working both independently and with leading consulting firms. John is also a highly-acclaimed speaker and author. His latest book is “The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, can Set Big Things in Motion”.

John received bachelor’s degrees from Wesleyan University and Oxford University. He also received a J.D. and MBA from Harvard University.

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Among other topics, Angela discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

The definition of “Grit” and how she had made it part of her life’s work
How passion is something that must be found and how it contributes to “Grit”
The development of the “Hard Thing Rule” and what that means
The traits of gritty people: interest, practice, purpose, and hope
Her background teaching math in NYC and how that influences her thoughts on “Grit”
Lessons for organizations that have formulated a gritty culture
How you should factor grittiness into recruiting
The Character Lab in Philadelphia that she runs, and its mission

Angela Duckworth’s Biography

Angela is the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, a book that explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Angela has found that grit—which she defines as a combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal—is the hallmark of high achievers in every domain. She’s also found scientific evidence that grit can grow. In our conversation, we cover the applicability of this topic to parents and business leaders alike.

Angela is also a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Founder and Scientific Director of the Character Lab, a non-profit organization in Philadelphia whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development.

Angela was a 2013 MacArthur Fellow, and delivered a popular TED talk on the subject of grit.

Angela received a bachelor’s degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology from Harvard. She received a master’s degree in Neuroscience from Oxford University, and received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Among other topics, Gene discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

The concept of DevOps and its impactful presence in tech giants such as Amazon, Netflix, and Etsy
The transferability of the DevOps perspective across a wide variety of industries, sectors, and organizational models
Characteristics, as noted by Gene, that the best and most impactful leaders managing DevOps tend to have
The confluence of changes in technology, people, and processes that has led to the era of DevOps
Themes from Gene’s forthcoming book, The DevOps Cookbook
Eye on the Trends: Containers as a mechanism for rapid, automated testing by developers

Gene Kim’s Biography:

Gene is an entrepreneur and author, focused on IT operations, information security, and DevOps. He is most well-known for his co-founding of the software company, TripWire, a security and compliance software company that was recently acquired by Belden, a manufacturer of networking and cable products. Gene wrote the original version of TripWire in 1992 as an undergraduate at Purdue, eventually co-fouding TripWire Inc. in 1997. Tripwire eventually grew to a 350 employee company with a customer base of over 9,000 organizations.

During his time at TripWire, Gene began his passion of studying high performing IT organizations, eventually codifying his observations of good to great IT transformations into 2 books, The Visible Ops Handbook, and Visible Ops Security. In 2010, Gene departed his CTO position at Tripwire to start the next chapter in his life. This eventually led to several books including Gene’s upcoming book, The DevOps Cookbook, and The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping your Business Win; the latter reaching #1 under Amazon’s Business Management sub-category.

In addition to his books and work at Tripwire, Gene co-founded the IT Process Institute, an organization committed to improving the operating performance of IT organizations across industries. He has been voted as an up and coming IT individual by publications including InfoWorld and ComputerWorld, and was given the Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2009 by Purdue University’s Department of Computer Sciences.

To receive updates about The DevOps Handbook release and receive an advance copy, please sign up here.

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Among others, Peter discusses the following topics:

The importance of building a strong IT core
The need for IT to partner with the customer facing parts of the organization
The need for IT to build up an R&D mentality
The advantages of better leveraging a company’s ecosystem of partners
The need for IT to ensure it speaks the language of the business
The need for IT to recognize that there is only one customer – the end customer

Purchase this book from

About the book

While function, innovation, and design remain key elements to the development and management of IT infrastructure and operations, CIOs must now think beyond their primary purview and recognize the value their strategies and initiatives will create for the organization. With Implementing World Class IT Strategy, the roadmap to strategic IT excellence awaits.

Praise for Implementing World Class IT Strategy

“The CIO role has evolved into one of a true business leader. CIOs must be focused on the company’s business strategy and find ways to deliver value, not just by cutting cost, but by driving the top-line. Implementing World Class IT Strategy provides insights into how today’s CIOs must operate and behave through the experiences of those who are doing it.”

—BRUCE HOFFMEISTER, Global Chief Information Officer, Marriott International

“Technology is transforming business and industries and those that capitalize will grow and those that do not will be left behind. Implementing World Class IT Strategy captures the many dimensions required for the contemporary CIO to be successful.”

—TIMOTHY J. THERIAULT, Senior Vice President, Chief Information, Innovation and Improvement Officer, Walgreens

“In Implementing World Class IT Strategy, Peter highlights the difficulty in being both operationally focused and strategically focused. As a CIO you absolutely need to keep things running smoothly, but you also need to make sure your organization is prepared to take advantage of changes—changes in your industry, changes in your customer needs, and changes in technology to deliver your products and services. Peter’s insights around striking the right balance are invaluable.”

—BILL KRIVOSHIK, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Time Warner

“All IT strategy boils down to answering one simple question: ‘What do we need to be able to do tomorrow that we can’t do today?’ If we can answer that question in clear, concrete business terms, then we can build the right IT strategy. In his discussions with many IT thought-leaders, Peter High has set out to help answer that and many other questions along the way.”

—STUART MCGUIGAN, Chief Information Officer, Johnson & Johnson

“Peter takes the industry’s best thinkers and shares their patterns of success using IT to transform business.”

—KIMBERLY S. STEVENSON, Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Intel Corporation

“Peter High provides practical advice on how to embark on the journey from tactical CIO to strategic CIO, highlighting proven methods that he and many leading CIOs have used to become strategic advisors to their colleagues, ultimately driving tremendous value to their companies and customers.”

—GREG CARMICHAEL, President, Chief Operating Officer, and Former Chief Information Officer, Fifth Third Bancorp

“Peter does an exceptional job of cutting through the myriad aspects of our changing technology landscape, distilling the salient lessons for senior IT and business executives, and providing a superb framework for strategic decision making.”

—JIM WHITEHURST, President and Chief Executive Officer, Red Hat

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Among other topics, David discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

David’s background in music, and his gradual career shift from music to technology writing
David’s experience covering Apple during periods of significant transition for the organization
David’s path to joining the New York Times as a columnist in 2000, and how David focuses his writing on the intersection of technology with society and culture
The process by which David interacts with technologies he evaluates, and how at the end of the day he approaches the technology from the perspective of the layman
Eye on Trends: Portable touchscreens and how they will develop over the years, as well as technology that you wear such as glasses, wristbands, watches, etc.

Please see the video interview with David below.

http://youtu.be/p9NE0b_HLLE

David Pogue’s Biography

David writes the tech column for the New York Times every week and in Scientific American every month. He’s the host of “NOVA ScienceNow” and other science shows on PBS, and he’s been a correspondent for “CBS Sunday Morning” since 2002.

With over 3 million books in print, David is one of the world’s bestselling how-to authors. He wrote or co-wrote seven books in the “for Dummies” series (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music); in 1999, he launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes 120 titles.

David spent ten years conducting and arranging Broadway musicals in New York. He’s won an Emmy, a Loeb award for journalism, and an honorary doctorate in music. He’s been profiled on “48 Hours” and “60 Minutes.” He lives in Connecticut with his three children. His web site is davidpogue.com.

David graduated summa cum laude from Yale in 1985, with distinction in Music.

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Among other topics, Martha discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

How the CIO role has evolved over the years, from focusing purely on technology to focusing more on business innovation
The genesis of Martha’s book The CIO Paradox, and how it describes the various responsibilities that CIOs are frequently asked to undertake, and how these responsibilities often conflict with each other
The characteristics of successful contemporary CIOs, which include the ability to develop strong relationships with the business and further embed IT in the business
How CIOs will need to focus on developing and obtaining the right talent for their teams, which will mean having individuals with a blend of technological and business expertise
Eye on Trends: The need to meet consumer technology demands and the increased focus on data analytics

Purchase Martha’s book from

Martha Heller’s Biography

Martha is the President of Heller Search Associates, a Contributing Editor to CIO magazine, and the author of The CIO Paradox: Battling the Contradictions of IT Leadership. Her book was released in October 2012 to considerable fanfare.

In her role at Heller Search Associates, Martha specializes in helping companies hire CIOs and other IT executives across multiple industries. Prior to founding Heller Search Associates, Martha was managing director of the IT Leadership Practice at ZRG Partners, a global boutique executive search firm. Before establishing her career in executive search, Martha was co-founder and managing director of CIO magazine’s CIO Executive Council, a professional organization for CIOs. At the Council, Martha developed programs that allow CIOs to share leadership development ideas and hiring and retention best practices. Prior to that, Martha developed and directed the CIO Best Practice Exchange, a members-only network of CIOs from top-tier organizations, as well as CIO Select, a peer-to-peer program for IT executives. Before joining CIO magazine, Martha was the social sciences editor at Rutgers University Press.

Martha received her B.A. in English from Hamilton College, and her M.A. in English from SUNY Stony Brook.

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Among other topics, Susan discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

Susan’s perspectives concerning the potential of the role of the CIO, how it is under transition, and how the future looks really bright
How technology is too important to leave solely to IT, as it is an enterprise asset and should be treated as such, and how every organization has the IT capability they deserve, and business leaders should actively consider what their aspirations are for IT
Susan’s book 8 Things We Hate About IT: How to Move Beyond the Frustrations to Form a New Partnership with IT, and how it acts as a tool for CIOs to provide to business leaders, and provides an outside in perspective concerning IT, and presents opportunities to improve partnerships
How IT leaders need to communicate in business terms, and appropriately express what drives the costs of IT, as well as how IT adds value
Eye on Trends: How technology will be embedded in services and products, and that major trends such as mobility, cloud, web services, collaboration, analytics, etc. all really lock in together.

Susan Cramm’s Biography

Susan Cramm is an executive coach and president of Valuedance®, an executive coaching and leadership development firm. Over the past 14 years, Susan has coached executives from a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Toyota, Sony, and Whole Foods Markets. She is a frequent speaker, a blogger for the Harvard Business Review, and author of the Harvard Business Press book, 8 Things We Hate about I.T.: How to Move Beyond the Frustrations to form a New Partnership with I.T.

Susan is the former CFO and executive vice president at Chevy’s Mexican Restaurants, where she led the finance, business strategy, restaurant development, franchising, legal, and information technology functions. Prior to Chevy’s, Susan worked with the Taco Bell Corporation and held the positions of CIO and vice president of the Information Technology Group and Senior Director of Financial and Strategic Planning.

Susan received her master’s degree in management from Northwestern University, specializing in finance, marketing and quantitative methods and her BA from the University California, San Diego, summa cum laude, specializing in management and computer science.

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