Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

Watch "Sadin on Digital," a monthly series that explores the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business and what approaches CEOs and boards must take to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. A series by Cloud Wars Live.

The Big Themes:
• The new Future CXO and Board channel from Acceleration Economy: Wayne is helping to lead a new content stream, and his tagline is "two minutes of tech talk for top executives." See more here - https://accelerationeconomy.com/future-office-of-the-cxo/
• Technical debt and what CXOs need to know: there are 3 main danger areas when it comes to technical debt and cybersecurity, and Wayne explains each of those and why non-technical CXOs need to understand them.
• "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is wrong: in tech, being proactive is the only way to stay ahead. Ignoring problems you can't see in front of you is going to cause massive problems, so CXOs must invest now.

The Big Quote: "The acceleration economy is accelerating, whether you are or not. And that's the message I want to give to the CEO, to the CFO, to the CMO, to the board executive: you've got to understand what this stuff can do for you, or do to you."

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This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.

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The Big Themes:

• Embracing opportunities created through change: The pandemic obviously disrupted how Sarah and her team collaborated with each other and with other parts of the business. Sarah says that it gave the finance team opportunities to think differently and learn new skills.
• The new role of a modern finance leader: rather than always responding to events, end-of-quarter requests, emails, etc. Sarah says that she is looking to unearth insights and action items in a proactive way, to help make the whole business better.
• AI's impact on planning and budgets: KAH has more than 40,000 associates and lots of physical locations, so using AI to analyze large amounts of data from lots of different sources in Adaptive Insights has been a game-changer.

The Big Quote: "There's not a one size fits all approach. And you really need to have a discussion with your entire team to understand what works for them, what motivates them—and really, you know, how can you help me be productive during these uncertain times?"

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This episode is brought to you by Workday.

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The Big Themes:

• Acceleration as key to digital transformation: Ajay says acceleration is about getting rid of constraints, hurdles, and manual processes within the business.
• Data democratization is nuanced: before pursuing "democratization," companies must make sure they're generating the proper transactional data, that it's readily available for people to consume, and that there's a shared language.
• The modern CIO role: it's about so much more than technology. The new CIO has to drive strategic thinking, by being joined at the hip with the business.

The Big Quote: Workday Adaptive Insights "is how we stay proactive, right? This is how we are able to weather these marketplace storms, and the roller coaster ups and downs, and just make sure that we continue to stay ahead."

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This episode is brought to you by Workday.

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The Big Themes:
• Oracle runs its end-to-end business on Oracle Cloud, which Doug says enables them to deliver improved experiences to customers and its own employees.
• The key outcome of the shift to a services-based business: As a cloud provider, Oracle’s culture has become one where everyone is expected to ask, ‘how can I help?’
• Doug is focused on removing friction points between the customer and achieving business value. For example, today, about 90% of Oracle’s customer contracts are executed through a fully-automated system, giving customers quicker access to its cloud services and a path to faster business outcomes.

Doug says it’s critical to have a “Relentless focus on continuously evaluating how you’re doing.” He emphasizes that transformation is never finished, and Oracle’s own cloud journey has given its people unique insight into customers’ challenges that they can use to help other companies achieve the same.

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This episode is brought to you by Oracle.

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The Big Themes:

• The lessons of the pandemic response - Stacy says she and her colleagues discovered that WSU as an institution could be much more nimble and fast-moving than they might have thought before
• Change management when moving to the cloud - Workday's systems revolutionized the employee experience at WSU, which involved some challenges but mostly major benefits
• Evolution in the CFO role and in higher ed in general - a need for flexibility and the breaking down of silos are key themes prompting change in both areas

The Big Quote: "Everything's going to involve money. It's all going to involve technology, high-level decisions about impacts, the need for data analysis and all of that... I think it's a welcomed change that those silos will be broken down, not just for the CFO, but for other leaders at the campuses."

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This episode is brought to you by Workday.

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The Big Themes:
• The Web3 breakthrough: basically anything that is built on the blockchain is considered Web3, and Chris believes that it represents a bit of a return to idealism in tech.
• Data is under hyped: it might sound crazy, but Chris says that the vast potential of data is still expanding and being discovered.
• Native Digitals vs. Native Analogs: the fact that people under 35 grew up with technology represents perhaps the largest change in the definition of what it means to be human, ever.

The Big Quote: "I don't know why this isn't being reported widely—in 2021 venture investors invested 15 billion into Web3 / blockchain."

This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.

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The Big Themes:
• What is talent intelligence? The application of data relating to people, skills, jobs, functions, competitors, geographies, to drive business decisions.
• What are the core data sets used for TI? The bread and butter data sets are demand, supply, and cost.
• Beyond the job title: TI can be used to source candidates based on skillsets that a company is looking for, not just specific titles.

The Big Quote: "If you ask any CEO, what's their biggest asset? It's their people. What's their biggest risk for the future? It's access to the right people."

This episode is sponsored by BMC Software.

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The Big Themes:

• CFOs looking beyond financial data - interconnected parts of the business like HR are equally important to understanding performance
• Data access is a game-changer for quick decision-making - the disruptions caused by Covid-19 forced WestMed to make huge calls about the business without delay
• Taking your time when setting up cloud-based systems - Anthony explains why he was so hands-on and methodical when implementing Workday systems

The Big Quote: "Workday was really the first big investment into a cloud-based offering that we had. It was definitely new to us, there was a lot of things we needed to understand about it. But once you're operating on it, you wonder why we hadn't done this sooner."

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This episode is brought to you by Workday.

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The Big Themes:
• Three tenets of data: (1) data volumes keep growing in size and complexity, (2) business leaders are always looking for new ways to extract value from data, and (3) it's all about data security and governance.
• John's predictions fall into two buckets: (1) the competitive landscape, and (2) the technology innovation and architecture
• Overall, customers are becoming a top priority when it comes to data, both in terms of understanding customers thru data and empowering customers thru new data-driven capabilities

The Big Quote: "The immovable objects are meeting irresistible forces, and by immovable objects, I mean, the incumbents, and by irresistible forces, I mean, the startups."

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This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.

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The Big Themes:
• The power of relationships: The deal between Thomas and Xometry probably wouldn’t have happened without a trusting relationship.
• Helping small and medium-sized companies grow: Xometry developed a way for smaller manufacturers to be able to take on bigger projects and grow their businesses.
• Digital transformation inevitably leads to business model transformation: For business leaders it's an important time to find ways to look at your business differently.

The Big Quotes:
• “We announced yesterday that Thomas has been acquired by Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing marketplace.”
• “The exciting union of these two companies will help accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing.”
• “If you embrace the idea that you could do things differently, or do things that you didn't before, I find that that pace of change is less frightening.”

This episode is brought to you by BMC Software.

Visit Cloud Wars for more.