Innovation Calling

You don’t really expect to see a big green John Deere in the middle of the 2019 CES (Consumers Electronics Show) floor where companies from around the world gather to see next-generation innovations. What does farming equipment have to do with technology? We met up with Sona Raziabeegum with John Deere for a fascinating conversation on how John Deere uses technology and innovation to solve real-world problems that affect us all.

 

Throughout the history of the company John Deere has been innovative and we got a glimpse at just how technologically advanced farming and farming equipment truly is. This equipment helps farmers do so much more for a population that is growing. The efficiency and precision of the tech in this equipment are mind-blowing and results in less energy and other resources wasted. Sona gives us a picture of how John Deere uses technology and innovation to not only meet the current food and farming needs of the world but how they are looking towards the future with sustainability in mind.

 

Connect with Sona on LinkedIn.

 

Here’s the Official Breakdown:

 

00:00 February 5th Women in Tech Leadership Series.

1:38 CES with John Deere.

2:30 Introduction.

3:10 John Deere’s history at CES.

3:45 Building awareness of how technologically advanced farming is. Being the voice of the farmers and of the agricultural industry.

4:23 To make tech companies aware that John Deere has utilized AI, machine learning, etc for decades.

4:45 Innovation Calling highlighting cutting edge companies.

5:23 Self-propelled John Deere Sprayer.

6:00 What are you doing at CES?

6:33 Taking mainstream technologies and showing a real-world application that impacts everybody.

6:56 Helping farmers do a lot more with a lot less. Using technology to provide as efficiently as possible for a growing population.

7:10 Can you tell us about advancements inside the machine?

7:31 Internet of Things, predictive maintenance.

8:01 Remote management.

8:20 Connectivity in equipment.

8:47 IoT and the Self-propelled Sprayer. An ensemble with the latest and greatest tech coming together.

9:53 The result is a machine that delivers precise amounts of fertilizer, herbicide, etc.

10:32 Optimizing the energy makes farming more efficient and less wasteful.

11:14 Harnessing and leveraging technology to help the farmers do more with less.

11:40 A farmer’s economics. With the precision of the equipment that farmers are using their profitability, their margins are improving.

12:13 Sustainability and preserving the land.

12:32 Technology that solves real-world problems that affect all of us.

13:02 Crops are cleaner, less waste, less runoff into the water supply.

14:00 A look into the future, precision that reduces herbicide use by 90%.

16:14 How does John Deere overcome the challenge of rural coverage and utilize 5G and IoT in rural communities?

17:30 Building the computing power onto the machines themselves. Models are adjusted to be workable.

18:18 Other ways of connectivity. Global positioning system, one of five companies in the world that has it’s own satellite connection system.

19:00 Even with limited connection, farmers have choices in what they can use and data is collected off the equipment every 30 seconds.

19:17 Security of the data that is being collected.

20:15 From family farms to corporations,

When it comes to emerging technology, you may not think about the self-care industry as one who is pushing the envelope in innovation. However, if there’s anything we have learned over and over again is that if you’re a company of any kind, you have to embrace technology in order to not just thrive, but even survive.

truMedic is a market leader for high quality massage and self-care tools. They adhere to a core value for constant exploration of cutting edge technologies to enhance the customer experience. This drive to consistently innovate with each generation product is why they’ve been lauded by Oprah Winfrey for two years in a row. truMedic is truly bringing state of the art technology to homes.

Outside of greatly enjoying demonstrations of their exciting product line, we grabbed a few moments with Darren Lisiten, truMedic’s CMIO at CES 2020, and learned about their innovation strategy, which includes how they’re using data and AI to augment their products. There are a lot of great and unique products on the horizon for this amazing company.

Learn More About truMedic Here: https://trumedic.com/

Episode Breakdown:

5:15 - As TruMedic grows, how innovation is important to their business

7:40 - How creating a next level experience is so crucial to something as ‘basic’ as a massager

8:00 - What sets TruMedic apart from other self-care product companies

8:55 - What does the future of product development look like for TruMedic

12:55 - How can a company drive far beyond just products to truly build a large brand

14:15 - Why data is such a large component to their brand

We’ve all heard the saying, “it’s lonely at the top.” For many female C-suite executives, rising Vice Presidents, and entrepreneurs this isolation is compounded because these positions are traditionally held by men. Women working in these positions find themselves mentoring and serving others but they do not have a place where they can receive that same support.

 

We had the honor of sitting down with Lindsay Kaplan Co-founder of Chief, a New York-based private women’s network that provides a place for C-suite executives to connect, network, and grow. In this episode, we discuss what a Chief woman/person looks like. We talk about the need and benefits of having mentoring available to women and what that kind of support looks like at Chief. Join us as we learn more about Chief and the services they offer.

 

We hope you enjoy this episode, we are thrilled to learn more about Chief and are excited to see them grow.

 

Episode Breakdown:

 

5:09 Introductions, Chief the beginning. The need for a place for women climbing the ladder to find support.

5:27 Lack of women in leadership.

5:46 Chief exists to provide a service to women, not ask for service from them.

6:03 What is YPO?

7:18 Building something inspired by this idea for the woman sitting at the boardroom table.

8:20 Founding members, this is a place for you.

10:04 The waitlist and plans for expansion internationally.

11:09 Criteria. Who makes up the women of Chief?

13:10 Finding powerful women/people who want to learn, meet, and support others.

13:27 Bringing cognitive diversity to the table.

14:03 White feminism, diversity, and goals.

14:20 Bringing in underrepresented women.

17:08 Hard balance, naysayers, and accountability.

18:20 What are core groups and do the topics covered have a spin towards women?

1910 Facilitators are trained to guide groups, groups are not member lead.

20:45 The exercise-driven approach and key events members attend.

21:30 Members attend meetings in person.

21:44 Topics do not have a bend towards women but are designed with women in mind first.

22:49 Is self-care for women only?

25:06 Keeping women in power is harder than getting them there.

25:14 Expectations on working women.

25:33 Mindfulness is an important part of being a leader.

27:03 Optionality and variety within what Chief has to offer.

27:29 The Clubhouse design, inspired by greenrooms.

31:09 The Clubhouse is not meant to be a coworking space.

32:10 Plan of growth.

34:18 Speakers at Chief events.

35:58 Member run conversations and Q&A.

36:17 Off the record, private organization with no social media.

38:10 Confidentiality is something that is important to members and speakers.

39:12 Funding, investors, and the journey of finding funding.

42:09 Investors that know branding, membership, and diversity.

43:32 Who are you selling to, who is your competitor, what is your product?

46:33 Farewells. Getting women to a place of power and keeping them there.

It’s time for our highlights from CES 2020!

 

Over the  next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting our interviews throughout our visit to this year’s CES.

 

This interview was a perfect start as we had the honor of sitting down with CNET.com to discuss some of the biggest features and trends of CES.

 

We talked rolling screens, folding laptops, IoT, Smart Cities, and some of the most real computer generated people that you’ve ever seen.

Although the North Texas Tollway Association is in the Dallas area, it’s an organization impacted by the entire nation. We had the honor of sitting down with James Hofmann, Executive Director and CEO for NTTA, to learn about this organization that we all use every day.

 

It was amazing to learn all of the touch points and huge topics that are on the road map for organizations like NTTA. It’s not just about how to build roads and collect tolls, but they’re thinking about and planning for some of emerging technology’s biggest issues including IoT, AI, Autonomous Cars and so much more.

 

We dove deep into their organization, how they’re addressing some of these large issues we’re going to see as technology advances, and what are some of the things that consumers should know about this organization.

 

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we loved recording it because it was truly eye opening to learn about everything this organization does to keep the roads flowing and a top-notch user experience.

 

4:30 - What exactly is NTTA.org - is it a government entity, or is it privately owned? Plus the history of the toll roads and the organization.

8:00 - How exactly are new routes chosen, and how do this cities work with the organization to plan more roads.

8:58 - How much more demand is there for roads with the growth of DFW exploding? (This answer may surprise you.)

12:31 - Why is it that tolls are no longer an ‘in-vogue’ thing?

13:39 - Why was I-30 is no longer a tollroad, and will we see that in the future with the other toll roads?

17:06 - Why isn’t NTTA part of the new dual toll roads?

19:10 - The reason why we have one streamlined tag and bill when it comes to the tolls.

21:15 - How do all of the operations work when we have one integrated billing

23:06 - Going more into the agreements and the requirements to work with these other regions with their tolling.

24:02 - What technology is required to make all three different tagging systems work together.

26:54 - Is there a revenue sharing program set-up with the different regions?

27:48 - Smart cities is a huge topic, and what NTTA is considering and planning when it comes to this initiative.

31:40 - What kind of technology including application requirements are on the horizon for NTTA and connected vehicles?

33:20 - What type of safety features are on the toll way, that we, as drivers aren’t even aware of?

35:10 - Are cameras used for any other purposes?

36:40 - When new projects come up with non-toll roads how does responsibility of building and payment get determined?

37:56 - What will the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles change the tollway as we know it?

40:20 - Does NTTA need to adjust for the increased use of ride-sharing programs and upcoming generations not valuing having their own car as much?

45:00 - What kind of integration opportunities are companies like NTTA looking at when it comes to toll tags?

46:10 - Should companies like NTTA even care about ride sharing apps and trying to accommodate them?

49:46 - What part did NTTA having in helping in trying to bring Amazon HQ to Dallas?

 

Want to reach out to NTTA - NTTA.org - you can also register your business here —>

https://www.ntta.org/procurement/Pages/default.aspx

In a world of Millennial Mindsets and #okayboomer hashtags, we are divided when it comes to beliefs and expectations of life. There is no place that sees this more than the workforce, but companies like TrenData are working to make sure it’s not just a matter of opinion, but that the data is speaking for itself and helping to drive decisions.

TrenData’s VP of Product Management, Andrew Davis, joined us for a conversation where we discussed some of the biggest issues companies are facing today when it comes to hiring and building a workforce. It’s no longer a matter of whose thinking is right or wrong, but what the data is showing us when it comes to expectations in hiring and building a long-lasting and effective workforce.

 

4:00 - We jump into Andrew’s background in studying psychology to working within data

6:05 - What are some of the biggest shifts within the past decade in data analysis and how companies are using it

8:15 - Has user behavior changed in terms of trolling and how we treat others in business based on what we see with just the average usage on social media?

12:00 - How accurate is our data from older collection models vs. how we need to collect it currently, i.e. are Gallop polls worth watching and understanding?

14:38 - How social norms are affecting employment and other areas within society as a whole #okayboomer

17:00 - What things have shifted in mindset when it comes to job searching and what’s important to the current generation

18:34 - What TrenData does around people analytics (what’s happening and why it’s happening)

20:58 - How hiring has had to shift with the change in the new generation’s way of thinking (which is more transient)

26:10 - Will we see a difference in the millennial mindset because we are seeing this generation shift from young and little commitments to ‘growing up’ and having more responsibilities

30:50 - The shift in demand and need in terms of more in-person required work

32:10 - What are some of the biggest problems companies are seeing when hiring workforce and actually keeping the workforce (one being 50% of people leaving within year 1!)

36:10 - With the difference in how the workforce stays at jobs, how are companies looking at these resumes and hiring

38:15 - Is innovation inhibited because we’ve become this transient society, and what are we seeing on this topic from a global scale?

41:05 - Should accountability be brought back, and if so, how do we do that?

42:30 - When it comes to Gen X, why have we been overlooked, and are we truly the generation who has meshed with the other generations

48:25 - The pivot we’ve seen in society because of the Millennial Mindset and the companies they’ve started

 

Want to connect with Andrew - www.trendata.com - adavis {at} trendata.com

Creating a Workforce Driven To Learn and Grow

 

About this Discussion:

 

The future of work and culture in companies is evolving. Companies need to adapt to the changing demands from their clients, employees and society at large, particularly around learning and development. As has often been noted, technology improvements is changing the skills needed to operate a successful and modern organization. It’s not just about throwing instructional modules up at an employee base and hope they learn something new. It’s about understanding the needs of the individual, culture of the organization and fostering a supporting environment so employees want to learn and evolve.

 

Vidya Krishnan, Chief Learning Officer, Head of Global Learning & Development at Ericsson joins for the last Women in Tech Leadership of 2019. With over 20+ years in the Telecom+IT industry, she knows firsthand that operational excellence comes from having an entrepreneurial start-up culture where speed, agility, and creativity are combined with the experience, caliber, expertise, and know-how of an established organization.

 

You can reach Vidya on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vkrishnan73/

 

 

Here’s the Official Breakdown:

 

1:00 Vidya discusses her background in engineering, and how her curiosity got her to where she is today

3:15 - How Vidya’s personality has helped her to rise to the top from an engineer to her current role as a CLO

6:05 - What is a Chief Learning Officer, and what is Vidya’s role with Ericsson

9:10 - What is the Learning Industry all about? What are the goals of it, and how has it changed over the past few years?

12:15 - The importance of culture and how it’s interwoven within a company. Plus, Vidya’s role with culture.

14:43 - When it comes to purpose, is Vidya’s main goal to help guide people into new roles and challenges, or is she there to help just support those who are seeking that in their careers

17:23 - When it comes to learning, where on the spectrum of change and innovation does Ericsson stand

20:22 - What are some of Vidya’s biggest challenges to get to where they want to be

21:55 - Vidya’s been with Ericsson for 20+ years, and what were some of her most memorable mistakes as she rose in her career

25:30 - When it comes to women in leadership roles and the inability to decouple failure and shame, how does it affect our ability to grow in new roles

27:04 - How does one begin to teach a workforce not just to accept change, but to drive towards it

29:15 -  When it comes to weakness, with women being okay to show vulnerability and men not being as willing, does it help women grow in leadership roles. Is showing vulnerability a weakness?

32:10 - Is there a line between showing vulnerability vs. too much over sharing

34:20 - How do you promote a workforce to keep failing (in a good way — failing forward)?

36:40 - The millennial mindset, and what does this generation know about finding great work and purpose

42:16 - Wonder Woman - what made her so amazing and a Heroic Leader

46:06 - When it comes to the next generation of women leaders, how do we keep certain generations from falling behind?

What are we going to do when machines can do our jobs more efficiently, cheaper, and make our jobs redundant?

There is no denying that we are living in a world of automation and the exponential growth and value of data. While some may argue that automation, AI, Machine Learning and many other technology innovations will ring the death knell for many jobs, our guest, Dr. Angel Durr sees a way to keep the workforce relevant and employable through Data Science.

After earning her PhD at the University of North Texas, Dr. Durr quickly saw the gap and potential for a new generation of Data Scientists. The result is the only nonprofit organization in the U.S. that focuses on a life cycle approach to providing data science support: DataReady DFW.  The mission of DataReady is to expand data and data science knowledge among DFW area residents, especially minorities, women, and low-income individuals and eventually spread to cities globally. Her program is making waves and helping those who would normally be left behind, to carve their own path to answer the high demand need for Data Scientists.

 

4:20        Introductions

5:40        Dr. Durr's Political Science and transition into Data Science

8:05        Data Science's influence on politics and considerations around ethics

9:40        Two sides of ethics: Presention of Data vs. How the Data is Being Used

10:17     Can data be pure? Or is there always bias?

11:24     Statistics without context is meaningless

12:23     Data used in Marketing to prime consumers for a product/solution, not just recognizing customer preference

14:41     Definition of Data Science

17:37     Future of Data will be simplified with easier platforms

18:20     Will Data Scientists become obsolete as AI becomes more sophisticated?

20:47     What is DataReady DFW?

21:00     The two areas of focus: At Risk Communities and K-12 education

24:47     The many different Data Science Disciplines examples: Data Visualization, Data Mining, Data Governance, Data Integrity, Data Analytics

25:45     DataReady DFW Partnerships with Dallas ISD and Girls Scout of North Texas

27:24     Jobs will go away with automation, but DataReady DFW is preparing to train the underprivileged for a skillset that will survive automation

28:11     Dr. Durr's consulting and strategy conversations with businesses, particularly around CRMs

30:37     Biggest challenge is the financials to meet the demand on how to fund the efforts through partnering with both profits and non-profits

33:33     The great potential for corporations to leverage DataReady DFW for projects and in return, giving the students real world experience

35:37     Calling all recruiters to partner with DataReady DFW students as compelling Data Scientists into the city

37:03     Dr. Durr shares that although she is dyslexic and disgraphic, anyone who has an interest and abstract thinking skills can be a Data Scientist

40:13     Why are Data Scientists not IT?

41:33     Should Data Science fall under the Business and not CTO/CIO organization?

42:47     Dr. Durr argues that Data needs to fall under it's own organization because it overlays so many different aspects of business, a Chief "Data or Digital" Officer.

47:30     Diversity and Inclusion in Data Science and business in general

 

You can reach Dr. Angel Durr at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drangeldurr/

Website: https://datareadydfw.org/

Have you ever wondered how military units can basically, send out young kids into major missions and sleep well the night before? This is especially important, when most CEO’s of newer companies can’t sleep leaving some of the more minimal tasks in their business to someone else?

Well, Jim Murphy, Founder & Chairman of Afterburner, asked the same question after becoming an F-15 Pilot in the Air Force. He began to dissect the process and after leaving the service, determined this was something corporations needed to be able to incorporate to have more success.

Since then, his company Afterburner has helped thousands of companies including those within the Fortune 50 and even the Super Bowl-Winning, New York Giants, incorporate his Flawless Execution Framework.

We had the honor of sitting down with Jim to talk about his framework, along with some of the biggest issues he sees today’s companies are dealing with. We also talked how companies can stay ahead of innovation, and how to create a team who are centered around one mission.

5:30 - Jim tells us about his background, and how he went from a farmer to an F15 Fighter Pilot Instructor, and the important traits he learned from his parents that shaped him.

9:20 - What were the differences that Jim saw when he started breaking down the process of how he was able to climb the ranks so quickly within the Air Force, and what led him down that path

11:50 - When it comes to the fundamental problem, what’s the issue Jim sees companies make that causes them to need his help

13:05 - What preference of job level does Jim typically work with when trying to tech his decision making tactics

14:00 - One of the key pieces to the framework, that most companies miss as an opportunity when debriefing with team members

15:00 - What are other tools leaders can use (or does Jim teach) to maintain a safe space for all employees to allow these debriefings to truly stay effective

17:21 - Jim’s opportunity to work with a Super Bowl team, and what was most important to them (and helped them to win the Super Bowl)

20:20 - When it comes to innovation staying one step ahead of your competition is crucial, and we discuss how Jim helps his clients learn to stay ahead of their competition without losing site on over innovating

24:25 - Although this can make sense for Enterprise companies, do the SMB’s have the resources to be able to go in-depth on this framework to help their company?

27:05 - What other areas do companies struggle in when it comes to executing and learning from each of their execution tactics

About this Discussion:

It's a fact that as we become more dependent on technology for customer experience, traditional brick and mortar retail businesses must align for evolving expectations. It is simply not enough to have product available to touch, taste, experience. Consumers are very interested in better products at better prices and better experiences. Even now, retailers are still challenged with managing  omnichannels in an effective way where both the online business is truly integrated with the traditional shopping experience.

Julian Fisher, CEO of Jisp, saw this big gap between the messaging and experience and service between online and brick and mortar businesses. By merging the operations for the retailers, Jisp is redefining the proposition of how products at the quickest possible time are delivered at the best possible price.

About Julian Fisher:

Julian Fisher is the founder and CEO of jisp, a lifestyle app that digitises physical products and experiences to bring the best of online into physical spaces.

He’s enjoyed a varied background in technology, payments and new media that saw him launching the UK’s first internet exhibition in 1994. The expo showcased companies providing internet-connecting services, and the first question Julian got asked when approached by BBC Breakfast journalist was “what is this thing called the world wide web?”

Since then Julian’s work has remained inexorably linked to technology, improving sales and payments and tackling compliance issues for a wide group of blue-chip companies. The passion to provide innovative solutions fuels Julian and his team to constantly push the boundaries in unifying on and offline platforms and bring the best customer experience across retail, hospitality and entertainment industries.

Julian can be reached at: Linkedin and Twitter

Learn More about Jisp: https://www.jisp.com/

 

Here’s the Official Breakdown:

0:00        Introductions and Daylight Savings Time Change

1:30        Advocating for the internet in 1994

3:53        Selling an event business to IDG

4:30        Differences between the US convention booths vs. GB open based stands

5:51        Julian the entrepreneur, selling soda at school

6:10        Evolution from publishing to the exhibition and conferences business, industries and online publishing

6:40        Challenge of Wireless Basic protocols and speed for mobile phones

7:17        Do you fancy a Kwickie?

7:56        The formation of Jisp and the problem with retail between online shoppers and in store   shoppers and addressing omnichannel

10:55     The value of jisp

12:48     Realtime adjustments of pricing online

14:03     What is the pushback from retail stores?

14:39     The most important difference between online and in person is the shopper

16:26     The revenue comparison between ecommerce versus traditional retail

17:52     Evolution of Black Friday and Cyber Monday

20:17     Is jisp killing jobs in retail?

22:40     The difference between jispGO and AmazonGo

23:07     Importance of the consumer and the customer experience

24:45     Difference between US and Great Britain in retail innovation

26:29     Development of emerging technology in retail like AR, AI, Machine Learning in the US and Israel

29:05     Jisp will be at the NRF Event in NYC in Jan. 2020 https://nrfbigshow.nrf.