4- IT & Business Partnership Archives

575: In this interview, Scott discusses Wyndham’s investments in the cloud and various platforms, how the company leverages them to meet the needs of various constituent groups, and how the insights his team draws from them help drive the broader business strategy. Scott also explains the technology implications behind Wyndham’s spin-off, the acquisition of La Quinta, the pandemic, and how the company managed and changed at such a rapid pace throughout these major points in his career. Finally, we discuss what the future looks like for the hospitality industry and some of the trends he sees coming out of the pandemic.

Also available on YouTube:

_____________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Tanium.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

487: Ryder senior vice president and chief information officer Rajeev Ravindran discusses

An overview of Ryder and Rajeev’s purview as CIO
The IT function’s four strategic goals
The company’s approach to eliminating technical debt
The COVID-19 pandemic, including:
- Why Ryder was prepared for it
- How the company has created a sense of community throughout it
Rajeev’s take on a variety of rising trends, such as AI modeling, robotics, and autonomous vehicles

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

486: Emmet B. Keeffe III, Operating Partner at Insight Partners and founder of Insight IGNITE, discusses:

The three parts of Insight’s investment thesis
An overview of the company’s digital acceleration program, Insight IGNITE
The challenges of communication between IT and the rest of the business
How Insight Partners can save IT leaders many trips to Silicon Valley by finding tech globally
How the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many of the areas the company has invested in
The four types of boards that exist based on the size and maturity of those companies and the assistance each needs from its directors
The increased importance on creativity for humans with more AI and automation
Emmet’s take on IoT, the cloud, automation, 5G, and RPA

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

476: Unqork CEO Gary Hoberman discusses:

An overview of no code
Why Gary left the CIO rank
Why the metrics that gauge success or lack thereof for IT departments are flawed
How companies need to reward their technologists based on the value they achieve, rather than being on time and on budget
Why Gary believes that you can always improve a big company,
Advice Gary has for others looking to leave large companies and start their own
Some of the groundbreaking things Unqork has done with large enterprises

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this interview, Intel CIO Archana Deskus discusses,

Archana’s purview as the global CIO of Intel
Archana’s experience coming up to speed in the role
Intel’s response to COVID-19
How COVID-19 will impact the future of work
How her team has been enabling the shift to remote work.
The company’s data-first mindset and their Corporate Data Office
How the company is using artificial intelligence
How the CIO role has evolved in Archana’s 17+ years in the post

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this interview, we discuss

Atish’s career path and his experience as CIO of a technology giant
How the CIO role is more similar to CTO roles that he has held in the past
The three main functions he oversees
His thoughts on the two biggest ways COVID will change the business world
The value an executive with technology expertise can bring to a corporate board

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this interview, we discuss

Vittorio’s purview as CIO
The three principles that are guiding the company through COVID-19
How COVID-19 has accelerated the company’s technology plans
Vittorio’s first 100 days as CIO
The two-pronged approach to P&G’s digital transformation
The importance of building and maintaining internal expertise
The evolution of the CIO role
Vittorio’s take on deep learning and machine learning

Among a variety of other topics.

_________________________________________

This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this interview, we discuss

Insight from Mik’s book, Project to Product
The IT productivity discrepancies between digitally native organizations and legacy enterprises
The economic impact of technological revolutions,
The value of product orientation over project orientation
Why IT must measure the value they create and not simply if they deliver on time and on budget
The importance and shortcomings of traditional project management
What legacy enterprises can learn from both startups and tech giants
Among other topics

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

460: Syngenta Group chief information and digital officer Greg Meyers asserts that we are now heading into the third wave of technology change, which he believes can help reverse some of the effects that we have seen with climate change. Agriculture is responsible for about one third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and it consumes about 70 percent of the world’s freshwater supply, which is 30 percent more than we can naturally replenish. This third wave entails bringing computer and data science to the farms to try to find these breakthroughs that allow farmers to continue to increase food production as the world population grows in a way that is more regenerative, keeps more carbon in the soils, and allows us to conserve more water. We also discuss the extreme difference between different market segments that the company operates in, the talent landscape in Switzerland, the evolution of IT going from trying to get IT on the agenda of management teams to extreme excitement around the function, among other topics.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download