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Siemens’ Alexander Thielmann discusses the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its effect on the corporate landscape. The transformation Siemens has embarked on, aptly named Vision 2020 Plus, is a cultural one as much as it is a technology one. With a company as large as Siemens, Thielmann describes this sea change as navigating a fleet of ships. “...with this new change of these fleet of ships, the expectation of the board is also that the ships, or the companies, make more profit... Which also means now they are looking a bit more outside the box.”

Caroline Basyn, Global CIO and GBS Officer at Mondelēz International, discusses the importance of setting a solid foundation before planning and executing a digital transformation. With an influx of data comes new problems to be solved. Instilling a cloud and data strategy, setting up a consumer-centric framework, and building innovation teams out of siloed departments are some of the solutions Basyn touches on. Once the foundation is set, deploying corporate culture changes, Agile workplaces, and AI and ML technology gets done quicker, cheaper, and with more longevity than a quick-fix solution. “I used to say quality is not the enemy of speed, but in a certain sense, you need to be able to marry both.”

Andrew Parris, director of performance improvement at CRH, focuses his efforts on improving corporate functions across the board, including finance, IT, procurement, and HR. How does he do it? Data-backed benchmarking, implementation planning, and change management. Additionally, intelligent automation is taking a front seat. “We're starting to bring some AI into play. Our approach has always been, it's not just about the bot, it's about the right solution for the right problem.”

Manish Jain joins us and shares information on RBCs new Silent Listener Chat Bot: "We are building a silent listener chat bot, which will listen to the conversation when an agent and a client are having those discussions. While those discussions are happening, the chat bot or the silent listener is going to understand the intent of the conversation, what the client is talking about, getting the client, IDs. In the meanwhile while the discussion is happening in goes in the background, brings in all policies and procedures, client, all information ready on the agent's screen. Agent without putting the client on hold is having a continuous discussion"

Manny Korakis joins us and shares the importance of potentially applying different strategies to different companies: "I've learned over the course of this journey that every company is in a different spot in their own journey, and I have to react to that. What's important in one organization at any given point in time, isn't necessarily a top priority in another company at their point in time."

Deborah kops joins us and shares her views on GBS: "It's a dynamic business model. It is not one rigid business model. To be very honest, to some extent we've promulgated that through the consultancy class in this industry, some of those guys are some of my best friends. But a business services platform is whatever you can do at any given time, given your leadership, given a range of external and internal factors. So GBS as a concept I don't buy."

Rob Phillips joins us and shares how venturing into the unknown is crucial to problem solving: "I think there's an overall bias that people have towards the unknown, right? They worry and they discount or they ... There's a risk factor of the unknown. So, the more that somebody can be involved in identifying what the problem is, they're coming to the table saying, "Hey, I know there's something here that needs to get fixed." Then we can work together with them to try, and propose solutions. "

Graham Russell joins us and shares the importance of understanding and implementing Data: "For those of us who have implemented ERPs for 20 years and more, data was usually the number one issue in doing that because as you move from one system to another, one of the first things you had to do was get the data clean, get the data reconciled, make sure there was integrity and so on. It's not new. I think people that don't anticipate it are perhaps not thinking of other projects."

Cindy Gallagher joins us and shares the importance of building personal time into your schedule: "I have surrounded myself with the right people who know how to handle situations. Not only that, but I set myself up properly as well before I went away, saying I was going to be gone, structuring the calendar appropriately, telling people when I was going to be on and off. As a CEO and as anyone who's excelled in their profession, you do have to be careful about where the line is, but you do have to draw that line for yourself."

Xavier Rodriguez joins us and shares the importance of good leadership: "sometimes, you're not the best one on the technical side, but if you are a good leader, you will manage your team."