411: Greylock Partners general partner Sarah Guo provides perspectives on robotic process automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more. We also discuss what Sarah looks for when making investments, the benefits of having parents who are entrepreneurs, why Sarah believes that a company’s size and scale can prohibit its ability to remain current, and a variety of other topics.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
410: Humu Co-Founder and CEO Laszlo Bock describes the genesis, development, and deployment of Nudges, which were created to address that problem that great numbers of people are miserable in their jobs. Nudges are digital reminders that prompt the small actions that are most impactful when driving five factors: organizational performance, retention, individual happiness, inclusion, and innovation. In addition to using the product themselves, Humu targets large organizations as customers in order to make the greatest impact toward their mission and to ensure that they are developing products around data sets that are representative of the general population of workers. We also discuss the values that Laszlo draws from his time at Google, why he believes analytics, statistics, and computer science will drive a revolution in HR, and how immigrants, such as Laszlo himself, are fundamentally entrepreneurial in character.
409: McAfee CEO Chris Young explains how the cybersecurity industry faces a duel challenge of keeping up with the transformations that happen within core technologies and simultaneously tracking the innovative nature of cyber attackers. Staying current requires consistent research, collaboration within the industry, acquisitions, and partnerships. Chris describes some of the best practices he sees within the cybersecurity space, including red teaming and risk prioritization. We also discuss the future of advanced forms of analytics and AI within cybersecurity, Chris’s career path, the CEO’s advice to individuals on protecting their information, among a variety of other topics.
408: Tenet Healthcare CIO Paola Arbour describes the process of transforming Tenet’s IT organization from a cost focus to an investment focus. The transformation centered around 4 imperatives: enhancing the voice of the customer, changing the language of IT, building an innovation culture, and focusing on talent. Paola highlights the importance of transparency, communication, and collaboration among teams to successfully lead an organizational change of great scale. We also discuss Paola’s prior experiences serving CIOs, the need for greater mentorship for women in technology, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and a variety of other topics.
407: Hunt Consolidated, Inc. CIO and CDO Diane Schwarz describes her methodology for transitioning into new executive roles using her arrival at Hunt to explain the 90-day process. Extensive planning, learning the business and stakeholders, meeting the company, and, lastly, focusing on suppliers develops the extensive knowledge of an organization needed to effectively lead it. Diane emphasizes the importance of understanding company culture to successfully rally support for changes to foundational pieces of IT, which she did at Hunt after careful investigation and planning. We also discuss the agile skills required for employees working in technology today, Diane’s journey to her leadership role as a woman in a male-dominated field, and the future of women in STEM.
406: CBRE CDO/CTO Chandra Dhandapani breaks down the process of digital transformation through her experience of modernizing technology and rapidly creating agile teams at CBRE. She explains that technology is at the core of any business model, making it crucial to insource the talent necessary for software development and understand the ecosystem of technology trends. Dhandapani describes how building collaboration between product designers and clients yields entrepreneurial services, such as the new flexible spaces and tenant experience lines at CBRE. We also discuss a powerful WhatsApp group for women leaders in technology, the difference between digital and technology, the value of efficient leadership teams, and various other topics.
405: Royal Caribbean Cruises CIO Martha Poulter describes the growth minded business strategy of Royal Caribbean which places emphasis on differentiating products, gaining value from scale, engaging employees and guests, and reducing business risk. The company responds to the distinct needs of diverse demographics of guests and creates unique brand experiences on each cruise, a task that requires the collection and optimization of data from numerous sources. Poulter explains how data drives the innovation of systems and technologies that support all of Royal Caribbean’s operations. We also discuss Poulters own experiences on Royal Caribbean cruises, the unique features of IT organization in the industry, and exciting trends such as algorithmic intuition and miniaturization.
404: Align Technology Senior Vice President of Information Technology Sreelakshmi Kolli discusses how the company is leading the evolution in digital dentistry by transforming the industry from analog to digital. Kolli claims that there are over 300 million consumers that could benefit from teeth straightening, and the only way to reach all of them is through digital technologies. Because of this, Kolli cites that everything the company does is dependent on digital and that IT is the central nervous system for the company. Through this transformation, Kolli is focused on delivering great treatment outcomes with data science, driving consumer demand to doctors’ offices, helping with conversion as customers become Invisalign patients, using global scalable infrastructure to support real-time ordering from over 100 countries, and manufacturing over 400,000 customized aligners per day. We also discuss Kolli’s take on IoT and blockchain, Align Technology’s value proposition to potential employees, how being a consumer of the product helps the company better understand the customers’ needs, among other topics.
403: Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes discusses the five attributes he looks for in an entrepreneur. These five attributes include their ability to raise money beyond the early stages, their ability to attract talent, their ability to generate momentum, if they come prepared, and their ability to tell their story. In terms of what Mark looks for in a company, he cites that there needs to be a technology platform shift or a business model innovation that is applicable to something that they are doing. We also discuss Mark’s accidental path to the VC community, the CXO Advisory board Sierra has started, the importance of approaching investing from a bottoms-up and top-down approach, among other topics.
402: UPS CIO Juan Perez details how the company has taken data from simply being an input for descriptive analytics to prescriptive analytics, which goes beyond predictive analytics. Juan has played an integral role in developing the company’s on-road integrated optimization and navigation system [ORION], which helps optimize the delivery paths that the company’s drivers take to make sure that they efficiently satisfy their service commitments to its customers. Juan also describes an advanced big data analytics project, which is designed to constantly take the massive amount of data points the company collects, learn from them, and use them to better predict what volume is going to come into their operations. We also discuss UPS’ strategic pillars, Juan’s take on artificial intelligence, the cloud, drones, and robotics, how UPS is using digital to enhance the physical experience that the customer receives, and a variety of other topics.
