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.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Podcast Index | Deezer | Youtube Music | RSS | More
449: In this interview, Julie discusses how the IT team has evolved its approach and positioned itself to mirror the business organization by embedding its people within the business units, Julie’s approach to creating new value streams, and how IT has grown in strategic importance inside the company. We also discuss the OnCommand intelligent vehicle platform and how Navistar uses insights from the platform to change internal processes, trends in telematics and connected vehicles, and a variety of other topics.
431: MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research Principal Research Scientist Jeanne Ross lays out the three characteristics companies must have to implement a successful digital transformation, which are experimenting repeatedly, co-creating with customers, and assembling cross-functional development teams. The experiment aspect involves recognizing that the digital economy is making new directions possible, but for companies to succeed, they need to find the intersection between what they can do and what their customers will pay for. Co-creating with customers, which solves the same problem, entails starting a workshop where everybody puts the issues on the table and are asked, “What can we do to creatively solve this?” Lastly, cross-functional teams are about recognizing that you do not want to simply throw all your money at your R&D or IT unit and ask them to get it done. Instead, Jeanne argues that it is an iterative process that requires many teams. We also discuss the evolution of the CIO role, why companies should not get so hung up on set roles of what a CIO or CDO should do but look to get away from structure, why having only 5% of revenue come from digital is actually an accomplishment, among other topics.
418: GSK’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer Karenann Terrell discusses GSK’s 40, 50, 10 framework for thinking about technology and digital’s impact. The company spends 40 percent of its efforts on digital as usual, which involves its ability to change its landscape of looking cross-enterprise for strikes in value. It spends 50 percent on digital through a reinvention window of its existing business, and it spends 10 percent on the true disruption, which entails the high-end innovation of how digital is disrupting the business that the company works in. We also discuss the benefits Karenann gains from board membership, why GSK’s CEO added the CDO role as a remit to the technology organization, rather than separately, how GSK has looked to mix an infusion of talent externally with skilling the folks in a transformative way internally, among other topics.
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.
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.
