Tech Talks Daily

Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at Color, shares how she went from tech to healthcare. At Color, Claire leads the engineering, product management, data, and design teams to develop the company's population health platform, services, and technology. She joined Color from Optimizely, where she was Chief Product Officer, building enterprise-grade experimentation and progressive delivery products.

After spending her entire career in tech, Claire made the jump into healthcare when she realized how the pandemic revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most.

The digital health industry boomed during the pandemic, with a proliferation of new services to address every part of the care ecosystem, but it also revealed just how inaccessible much of the U.S. health infrastructure is for people who need it most. Based on her current position at Color, a company focused on delivering a scalable public health infrastructure for millions, Claire discusses what it means to build a healthcare product focused on increasing access for millions and how companies can build infrastructure for scaled impact.

Within digital health, Claire is passionate about the fact that software alone cannot solve public health crises – a notion which was proven through many companies' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare. There is a tendency to believe better tech is always the answer, but while the right software can reduce friction and drive better insights, healthcare is essentially a human interaction at the end of the day. It requires a hybrid model that incorporates both better technology and the personal touch of a visit to the doctor's office or a pharmacy.

François Candelon, Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute – BCG's research think tank, joins me in a conversation about the growth of the many metaverses. Listen in as we talk about how the race is on to capture digital engagement.

With 30 years in tech and as a global team leader analyzing the impact of the Metaverse through research, François discusses what metaverses actually exist and their purpose in shaping the future, from full-second digital lives (for work and play) to gaming communities and even crypto-centric marketplaces.

We also talk about how organizations across industries can and must understand these rival metaverses before engaging. Finally, we look into who is winning the Metaverse and who the wild card contenders will be. About François Candelon:

François Candelon is the Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute, Boston Consulting Group's think tank dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. He is also a leader of BCG GAMMA's AI@Scale effort for technology, media, and telecommunications companies. GAMMA is BCG's data science and advanced analytics unit. François joined BCG in 1993. He has worked in several European countries, led BCG's global telecommunications work from 2008 to 2012, and spent seven years in China, where he worked with the most advanced tech companies. His research is focused on AI and digital as a source of competitive advantage for businesses and national economies. His work has been published in several prestigious reviews (Harvard Business Review, MIT, and Sloan Management Review). He has also been a speaker in global conferences like Mobile World Congress, TED@BCG, Web Summit, Politico AI Summit, and Wuzhen Internet Conference.

Research from Accenture found that most CEOs list becoming a sustainable and responsible business as a top priority, even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, companies with higher sustainability performance also perform better financially than their peers.

As meeting ESG benchmarks becomes a requirement, not simply a goal, Accenture recently shared its sustainability roadmap, including priorities, learnings, and best practices. I invited Accenture's internal global IT organization/Accenture CIO Penelope Prett to join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss her strategy that focuses on three key pillars:

Data: Sustainability commitments require greater access to sustainability data and environmental sustainability reporting tools that can identify trends in specific products or locations and build bridges to end goals.

Cloud optimization: Optimizing migrations to the public cloud can reduce global carbon emissions by 59 million tons of CO2 annually. Accenture runs 95% of its infrastructure in the cloud, which led to an estimated reduction of 220 metric tons of carbon emissions in only nine months.

Value Chains: Driving supplier engagement through data platforms and procurement hubs to influence responsible buying decisions and help businesses optimize their supplier base. We discuss how delivering on the promise of sustainable technology means that CIOs must embed sustainability into the core of operations to help the business achieve sustainability goals while also managing the environmental impact of the technology itself.

Venafi®, the inventor and leading provider of machine identity management, recently announced new research findings that evaluate the security impact of the increasing number of nation-state attacks and recent shifts in geopolitics.

The survey of over 1,100 security decision-makers (SDMs) globally found that 66% of organizations have changed their cybersecurity strategy as a direct response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while nearly two-thirds (64%) suspect their organization has been either directly targeted or impacted by a nation-state cyberattack.

I invited Kevin Bocek to join me on the podcast to discuss how cybersecurity has become intertwined with geopolitics, with state-backed hackers using cybercrime to advance their nation's wider political, economic, and military goals.

I learn how everyone is a target, and unlike a kinetic warfare attack, only you can defend your business against nation-state cyberattacks. There is no cyber-Iron Dome or cyber-NORAD. Every CEO and board must recognize that cybersecurity is one of the top three business risks for everyone, regardless of industry."

We also discuss the Venafi research into the methods used by nation-state threat actors shows the use of machine identities is growing in state-sponsored cyberattacks. The digital certificates and cryptographic keys that serve as machine identities are the foundation of security for all secure digital transactions. Machine identities are used by everything from physical devices and to software to communicate securely.

Idit Levine, founder, and CEO of Solo.io, shares her inspirational tech startup story with me on Tech Talks Daily. Her journey took her from playing basketball professionally in her home country of Israel to founding Solo.io in 2017, the modern service connectivity company that's already valued at $1 billion! Idit shares with me the lessons she has learned along the way including how to scale as a CEO, hiring in the current market, and how to monetize open-source services.

Greg Gould is the COO of Dexioprotocol (DEXI), a crypto-based gaming company with several utilities. Their flagship product, DexiHunter, aims to be the "Pokemon Go" of cryptocurrency, and it allows players to earn crypto by hunting and collecting bounties around their cities. I invited Greg to join me on Tech Talks Daily to talk about Dexioprotocol and the worldwide adoption of crypto bounty hunting.

We discuss how gaming is helping to get more people interested in cryptocurrencies and the future of blockchain, and we reflect on what's happening in the market.

Many B2B companies are struggling to truly innovate their operating models. As a result, leading companies in high-tech, industrial, medical device, and other B2B tech markets are hesitating to take the steps necessary to change how they build and deliver their solutions.

They are carrying too much baggage―high labor costs, slow time to customer value, under-responsive sales and services―into a future that won't stand for it. That's true even though the technologies are available to enable the changes NOW.

Digital Hesitation is a technology business book that examines why most B2B companies fail to reach the full potential of their digital transformation efforts. The authors join me on Tech Talks Daily to discuss how the book is written from the perspectives of a dozen experts who interact with and advise the world's top technology companies daily.

About J.B. Wood

J.B. Wood is president and CEO of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. Through TSIA, Wood advises the world's largest B2B technology companies on strategies to increase growth and profitability by optimizing their services, sales, product, and channel operations.

Wood is a best-selling author and frequent industry speaker on the topics of business outcome engineering, X-as-a-Service (XaaS) business models, transformations in the traditional customer-supplier relationship, and TSIA's LAER customer engagement model (Land, Adopt, Expand, and Renew). He has also appeared in such leading publications as Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

About Thomas E. Lah

Thomas Lah is the executive director and executive vice president of the Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA), the leading association for today's technology and services organizations. For over 20 years, he has been helping some of the world's largest technology.

About TSIA

The Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) is the world's leading research organization dedicated to helping technology companies achieve profitable growth and solve their top business challenges.

80% of the Fortune 100 technology companies have a TSIA membership, and executives from these companies look to TSIA for data and guidance that helps them make the right business decisions to ensure success.

Four years ago, I spoke with Todd Olson, millionaire CEO and co-founder of software development platform Pendo - the man on a mission to elevate the world's experiences with software. The serial entrepreneur famously teamed up with product leaders and technologists from Red Hat, Cisco, and Google to launch Pendo in October 2013.

Fast forward to 2022, and Pendo has gone on to raise $356 million in venture capital, land more than 2,300 customers, and employ 900 people across seven offices around the globe. Pendo also landed on the Forbes Cloud 100 and Inc. Best Workplaces lists for the fourth year in a row in 2021.

Todd returns to Tech Talks Daly to share further insights around the recently released fourth annual State of Product Leadership Report. We explore trends impacting product management, the evolution of the Product Manager role, and how Europe is faring in terms of product-led digital transformation.

Todd also talks about how he used his knowledge of the digital economy to help community banks meet surge of demand for online services and encourage schools to make the most out of their educational software throughout the height of the pandemic.

One is the largest generation in the US, and the other is at the forefront of shaping expectations for brands — so how does marketing to Gen Z and millennials really work? Millennials, born between 1981-1996, make up 23% of the global population and 21% of the US population, meaning they are the largest demographic by age.

Gen Z refers to people born between the mid to late '90s and the 2010s and is the most diverse generation in human history. Despite some being close in age, they vary significantly in the type of marketing that resonates with them. For example, Millennials are known for driving a perfect aesthetic, while Gen Z rejected the trend by actively trying to avoid it.

This means that to appeal to both generations, businesses must strike the perfect balance of authentic and 'real' while also offering the same sense of aspiration. Carissa Flinders shares with me her insights on what technology each generation is using and how brands can leverage tech to better communicate with audiences.

I have invited Mark Hughes from DXC technology to join me on Tech Talks Daily to share insights around best practices for securing complex IT environments. We also discuss cyber security approaches for fighting the enemy within and how to make cyber security a top priority for boards and CFOs. Finally, we dare to explore smart security in the metaverse, and Mark shares a few Cyber security tales from the trenches.

About Mark:

Mark Hughes is president of Security for DXC Technology. He is responsible for DXC's Security business including cyber defense, digital identity, secured infrastructure and security risk management.

Mark joined DXC from BT, a world-leading global telecommunications provider, where he most recently served as chief executive of BT Security. He joined BT in 2002 and held a variety of senior appointments, including key government customer-facing roles.

In 2013 Mark led the formation of BT Security, which has become a global leader with 3,000 cyber security experts across 15 security operation centers globally and double-digit annual revenue growth. Earlier in his career, Mark was the commercial director at MWB Business Exchange. He began his career in the British Army.

Mark has served on national boards, including the Cyber Growth Partnership for the United KingdomKingdom, and the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Board. Awarded a BS with honors by the University of Leicester, Mark trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Junior Division of Staff College. He was awarded advanced military certificates in French and German from the University of Westminster.