ISG Imagine Your Future Podcast

Are you keeping your eye on trends in the manufacturing space? It’s been a turbulent time lately; manufacturers are contending with rising costs, a global chip shortage and a global talent shortage. More than ever, the future seems unpredictable. What impact is this scale of disruption having on the industry? How are manufacturers dealing with these challenges?

In this episode of the Imagine Your Future podcast, hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer delve into the disruption facing the manufacturing industry with guest John Lytle, a director with the ISG Manufacturing practice. Listen in to hear their discussion of the trends emerging amidst the current instability – plus discover some insights into how manufacturers are adapting and transforming to remain agile.

For more information and insights from ISG’s manufacturing practice, click here.

Back by popular demand! Last year, Imagine Your Future hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer interviewed Elizabeth (EC) Caley, Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Poppy. As a fast-growing tech start-up specializing in detecting and monitoring pathogens – including the COVID-19 virus – present in the environment, Poppy has expanded rapidly. This time, EC returns to the podcast to share the inspiring story of how she and her associates successfully grew the company over the past 12 months, despite challenges arising from the pandemic and ongoing supply-chain disruptions.  

Listen in to find out more about how Poppy is helping organizations create infection-resistant indoor spaces and to ensure that investments made in indoor safety are effective. EC and our hosts also make time to talk about the impacts of Web3.0 and the Metaverse, how to make time for mentoring and what you can do to prevent mental fatigue.

The Insurance industry has been grappling with multiple challenges – from legacy IT systems to emerging competition, margin pressures, a tightening regulatory environment and the rise of millennial buyers. The pandemic only heightened the pace of change. In this context, it’s difficult to know if you are focused on the right issues. How can insurers ensure survival in the coming years?

In 2021, ISG interviewed more than 200 insurance and technology executives across Europe to get their perspectives on the current context and on what insurers need to succeed. To discuss the findings and the wider trends facing the Insurance industry in 2022, ISG’s Johanna Von Geyr joins Imagine Your Future hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer.

Useful links

Download ISG’s Pulse Check – State of the European Insurance Industry 2021 here

Find out more about ISG’s Insurance Practice Insurance | Technology IT Research & Benchmarking | ISG (isg-one.com)

2021 was a record year for private equity investment. New annual records were set in terms of deal volume and value. According to data from the Pitchbook 2021 Annual US PE Breakdown, in the U.S. market alone, more than 8,600 deals were concluded in 2021 for a total deal value of over $1 trillion.

What drove these unprecedented activity levels? And what is the outlook for the Private Equity industry in 2022? 

These are just some of the questions that ISG Imagine Your Future hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer discuss with Chris Reeves a director in ISG's Private Equity practice.

Useful links

Learn more about ISG’s private equity practice Private Equity | ISG (isg-one.com)

“It’s not about building products anymore,” believes Gupta. “It's more about connecting and building an ecosystem of platforms, insights, data, and the capabilities to stay connected with your product beyond the point of sale.”

Tune in to hear more about how digital engineering has gone beyond the engineering department to enable new business models, deliver superior customer experiences and realize operational efficiencies.

In this episode, ISG hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer talk to Sandeep Kalra, CEO of Persistent Systems. Together they discuss some of the post-pandemic economic trends impacting businesses: the Great Resignation, talent acquisition and retention, environmental sustainability and more. Kalra also shares his perspectives on how Persistent Systems remained resilient through the pandemic, achieving impressive growth over the past year. Listen in as he shares his experience of leading during the pandemic and the lessons he learned from the crisis.    

As businesses continue to navigate global uncertainty and new ways of working, one thing is certain. Flexible working is here to stay. It has become clear in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that many employees want to continue working remotely for at least part of the week. Others will prefer to return to the workplace.

Undoubtedly, a one-size-fits all approach to work is no longer viable. Companies must adapt to new and varied employee expectations. Many organizations are adopting a hybrid workplace model that offers more choice and flexibility to their workforce. What are the keys to making the hybrid workplace a success? And what are the benefits for employees and employers?

Our guest on this episode of the ISG Imagine Your Future podcast believes that companies must prioritize providing an exceptional user experience for their employees. Listen in as Leon Gilbert, Senior Vice President Digital Workplace Services at Unisys, talks to ISG hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer about his experience of the digital workplace and what he expects from the future of work. Gilbert explains why he believes organizations that embrace the hybrid workplace will have the most success in the future.

As the race to digitize business gathers speed, we have witnessed in recent years a surge of M&A deals in the digital engineering sector. One such deal announced earlier this year was Hitachi’s $9.6 billion acquisition of U.S.-based digital engineering services company GlobalLogic. The scope of this deal demonstrates that software engineering capability has become a strategic priority for manufacturers. 

Join ISG Imagine Your Future® Podcast hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer as they talk to Tim Langley-Hawthorne CIO of Hitachi Vantara, the digital infrastructure, data management, and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. 

The three discuss the challenges of leading a multinational organization that seeks growth through acquisitions and how to use the lessons learned from 2020 to help define the future of work. Langley-Hawthorne, who took on his role of CIO in early 2020, also faced two other major challenges: a new senior leadership team at Hitachi Vantara and a merger with sister company Hitachi consulting.

Listen in to hear how this “people focused” leader successfully navigated these significant shifts.

As we move into a post-pandemic world and toward the workplace of the future, health and safety is top of mind more than ever. The pandemic has heightened everyone’s awareness of the safety of our immediate environments. As workers begin to return to office buildings, whether full-time or in a hybrid working model, it is essential that businesses take strong measures to ensure their employees feel safe and confident in their workspaces. Things that were perhaps taken for granted or overlooked prior to the pandemic, such as indoor air quality, are now on people’s minds as we navigate into the “new normal.”

One startup providing some ground-breaking technology in this field is Poppy. Founded in 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life as we knew it, Poppy is on a mission to make the workplace safe again by detecting and monitoring pathogens present in the environment. Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Caley join ISG Imagine Your Future® Podcast hosts Steve Hall and Karen Collyer to share her story. Listen in to hear more from this inspirational tech leader about how science and technology are coming together to make workplaces safer in the future.

In this episode of the ISG Imagine Your Future® Podcast, host Steve Hall is joined by two veterans of the ISG Index™: Stanton Jones, Director and Principal Analyst at ISG Research, and Bret Breeding, Director and one of the original ISG Index™ creators.

The latest ISG Index™ shows that the global technology and business services market has grown for the third straight quarter after the pandemic-induced dip in the second quarter of 2020. Global demand for such services has never been higher, with the first quarter of 2021 producing a record $17.1 billion of annual contract value (ACV) for the global combined market, up 11 percent.

The ISG Index™ has been assessing and analyzing the state of the global IT services market for almost 19 years, over 74 consecutive quarters. The Index is considered the authoritative source for marketplace intelligence related to outsourcing transaction structures and terms, industry adoption, geographic prevalence, and service provider performance. It covers both the traditional managed services sourcing market, as well as the fast-growing as-a-service market, measuring the significant impact cloud-based services are having on digital business transformation.

Listen in to find out more about how disruptive technologies are transforming IT and business services markets. And if you would like to get a fuller picture of current market dynamics, view the 1Q21 Global ISG Index presentation slides, news release and infographics, please visit the ISG website www.isg-one.com