Fortune 500 Archives - Metis Strategy

581: In this interview, Michael Wondrasch, EVP & CIO of Avantor, provides an overview of Avantor’s business and the digital and technological aspects behind its mission of accelerating the speed of science. Mike explains how he sees the barriers between suppliers and customers are fading, why the technology implications that arose during the pandemic are likely to stay, how Avantor implemented and navigated a hybrid work environment during the pandemic, and how the merger with VWR helped consolidate its e-commerce platforms and focus on being more customer-centric. He also describes how the differences between the CTO and CIO titles tend to be company-specific and some of the trends in technology he is looking forward to.

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577: In this interview, Janet Sherlock, Chief Information Officer of Ralph Lauren, explains her purview as CIO and how the company’s Flexible Work Arrangement and virtual stores put the company in a stronger position going into the COVID-19 Pandemic. Janet debriefs some of the learnings and silver linings from the pandemic, specifically on how it accelerated a streamlining of processes; why those changes won’t go away any time soon; and how ingenuity, innovation, architecture, and agility are key to Ralph Lauren’s continued success. She emphasizes Ralph Lauren’s strategic focus on experience, data, and automation. Finally, we discuss lessons on recruiting for board-level positions, balancing her doctoral candidacy with career and family, and trends that she is looking forward to.

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This episode is sponsored by Tanium.

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574: In this interview, Rashmi Kumar, CIO of HPE, offers her perspective on the HPE’s digital transformation, the benefits of moving HPE’s headquarters to Texas, and the company’s focus on what she calls “digitalization to the core.” She talks about how HPE acting as customer zero for many of its offerings allows for a better understanding of technology’s limitations and leads to honest communication with HPE’s customers. Additionally, we discuss how HPE assessed its ability to transition 60,000 employees and 20,000 contractors to work remotely and why focusing on company culture was critical for the transformation. Finally, Rashmi offers advice on recruiting for a board-level position, ways for companies to sponsor and foster diverse organizations, and a look into some of the trends in IT that HPE is focused on.

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572: In this interview, Barbara Lavernos, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Research, Innovation, and Technology at L’Oréal, discusses the intersection of technology and cosmetics and the evolution of what Barbara calls “Beauty Tech.” We cover how L’Oréal aims to develop personalized and innovative beauty products, services, and devices at scale through the use of artificial intelligence, data, and virtual reality. Barbara shares how the pandemic was a catalyst for digital transformation, e-commerce, and virtual customer experiences, and why business leaders are becoming more tech- and data-savvy. Finally, we discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion in leadership positions.

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This episode is sponsored by Tanium.

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565: In this interview, Rhonda discusses the four key focus areas for IT at Stanley Black & Decker once the pandemic struck and how COVID has given Stanley Black & Decker the permission to change and accelerate. Shankar discusses the stakeholder prioritization framework Verizon adopted during the pandemic in which it puts its employees first, customers second, society third, and its shareholders fourth, some of the innovative ideas Verizon has adopted during the pandemic, how Verizon has accelerated its digital transformation during the pandemic, among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Apptio and Tanium.

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563: In this interview, we discuss what drew Shaleen to Schneider, ways Schneider has disrupted itself over the years, why Schneider considers itself the Moneyball of trucking, and how the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of frictionless experience platforms at Schneider. We also discuss the importance of using familiar language when discussing digital transformation, the importance of embracing business agility, and getting used to the unknown, Atif and Shaleen’s take on the state of autonomous vehicles, among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Apptio and Tanium.

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561: In this interview, Ken Lamneck, President and CEO of Insight, discusses how cyber attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated, and four ways companies can protect themselves from these attacks. He discusses the importance of companies embracing the seriousness of cybersecurity, why cyber has to go from being buried in IT to being part of the fabric of the organization, and how governments are starting to take on a greater role in cybersecurity. Lastly, Ken discusses why he thinks IT is going to explode in the next 10 years, how all companies are becoming IT companies, among a variety of other topics.

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558: In this interview, Richard Cox, Chief Information Officer of Cox Enterprises, and Rick Rioboli, Chief Information Officer of Comcast, discuss how both executives are rethinking the employee experience for a new world of work. Rick shares his view on the future of work and why he thinks Comcast will work in a hybrid model once the pandemic is over, the cultural differences Rick has noticed between product development teams and IT teams, and how Rick went after the culture in IT when he joined Comcast and sought to transform the way the function worked. We also discuss how Richard defines leadership, why Cox Enterprises is putting cybersecurity at the top of mind for all of its employees, not just those in IT, among a variety of other topics.

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554: Rob Carter, the Executive Vice President of FedEx Information Services and the Chief Information Officer for FedEx, and Steve Randich, the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of FINRA, discuss the role of technology in creating a nimble enterprise. Rob shares the story of how technology that once provided FedEx with a competitive advantage had become outdated, and the massive effort the company undertook to overhaul and modernize its legacy technology. Meanwhile, Steve discusses the benefits of being an early adopter of the cloud, how FINRA is pushing up against the limits of Amazon Web Services, and FINRA’s use of advanced analytics and machine learning to better identify fraud and bad actors.

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This episode is sponsored by Apptio.

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552: Shailesh Prakash, the CIO and Chief Product Officer of the Washington Post, and Chintan Mehta, the CIO and Head of Digital, Technology, and Innovation for Wells Fargo, discuss strategy and its role in driving growth and innovation. Shailesh discusses how IT and engineering went from being a cost center to being a strategic differentiator and driver of business growth. He goes on to share the story of Arc Publishing and Zeus Technologies, which grew from internal solutions into sizable revenue drivers with over 200 customers. Meanwhile, Chintan shares his view on the importance of long-term strategic planning and how the company’s Strategy, Digital Platform & Innovation (SDI) group set strategy across the organization.