809: Lakshman Nathan joins our host Peter High in a conversation about the catalyzing factors behind the company’s cloud transformation and the strategic alignment he aims to achieve between the IT organization and the rest of the business. Laksh explains his expanded purview as he has moved into a global role within the company, the evolving team composition as a result, and the changing skillsets needed along with the process of upskilling the talent on his team. He also goes into the M&A integration process, how it has helped push forward the cloud-first adoption, and how collaboration has been impacted by the move toward a more remote workplace environment. Finally, Laksh talks about the trends in generative AI, the experimentation with the new technology on the horizon, and the secrets to his career success.

808: Sumedh Mehta discusses the key elements of the company’s digital transformation and aligning the organization to the overall business strategy. Sumedh describes the methods behind this transformation, the ways in which he thinks about connecting the dots across the enterprise to engage multiple business units, and the role that technology plays in the company’s consumer products. He also shares how he approaches the transformation from a change management perspective and how trust and diversity are foundational components of the underlying culture. Finally, Sumedh reflects on the keys to his career success and looks ahead at the trends in technology such as blockchain and generative AI.

807: Gili Raanan, venture capitalist and co-founder of Cyberstarts, discusses his entrepreneurial roots, his pivot into venture capital, and cybersecurity more generally. Gili begins with explaining the concept of the ‘sunrise process’ which he uses to identify product-market fit and dives into his experience with starting up a cybersecurity company early in his career. He discusses the cybersecurity threats on the horizon, the constantly changing nature of cybersecurity, and the positive outlook he has for the industry. Gili also talks about how he finds talent worth investing in, the characteristics of great entrepreneurs, and why talent matters more than investing in new trends or technologies.

806: Naveen joins Peter High in a conversation about the foundational technology strategy that he has helped set up to foster greater enterprise growth. He explains what it’s like to run IT within a tech-centric organization and how the company’s Databricks-on-Databricks customer zero program helps to develop better product offerings for customers. Naveen provides insight into his perspective on generative AI, the value it poses to executives, and the necessity of creating a sound data strategy in order to fuel AI. Finally, Naveen shares learnings from across his career, the keys to his success, and the trends that are on his radar for the future.

805: Ravi discusses his role as a CIO within a scaled technology organization and how he interacts with the CIO-level clients that the company serves. He explains the focus areas he prioritized when he joined the company including scalability, agility, and execution. He also describes the company’s Box-on-Box program where they pilot offerings internally as ‘customer zero’ and how this helps deliver better products and services for their clients. Finally, Ravi reflects on the keys to his career success, recounts his pathway into technology, and looks ahead at the trends in AI and cybersecurity.

804: Vijay Sankaran discusses the future of work, the growing impact of AI, and its downstream effects on real estate. Vijay explains the critical role the digital customer experience plays in real estate, the way workspaces have evolved in recent years, and technology’s impact on how companies leverage their physical workspaces. He also reviews the company’s acquisitions in recent years and the effort to bring digital capabilities like cyber, data, AI, and more in-house. Finally, Vijay covers the generational differences in perspectives on hybrid and remote work environments, looks ahead at other trends in technology that he has on his radar, and reflects on the major keys to success from across his career.

803: Moti joins our host Peter High in a conversation about creating a world-class supply chain and developing a digital customer and employee experience at the company. He explains how his global team is organized and the ways he collaborates with the broadly distributed executive team. Moti talks about the transformation of the 150-year-old company, the responsibility he holds in supply chain management, and his perspective on the future of work and its impact on real estate. Finally, Moti looks ahead at the trends in 6G and other technologies on the horizon and reflects on the secrets to his career success.

802: Thomas Benjamin; EVP, CTO, and Head of Platform & Analytics R&D at National Instruments (NI); discusses the innovation he is leading at the company focused on what he calls ‘Horizon 3’ technologies and the preparation needed to take advantage of these technologies down the road. He shares how his team is organized across the diverse segments that are a part of the broader business and the ways in which these segments interact and collaborate with the IT organization. Thomas also gives an in-depth overview of the innovation labs he leads, the potential value that generative AI can bring to NI, and the skills that will be necessary to leverage these emerging technologies. Finally, he reflects on the lessons he has learned across his diversified career path, explains the benefit of being a hands-on leader, and looks ahead at the trends in technology that he believes will change the game.

801: Srini talks about the transformation he is leading within the company and the art of change management behind the transformation. He discusses his unique title and why it made sense to blend strategy with the CIO’s responsibilities and sheds light on the strategic planning that takes place within the large-scale insurance organization. Srini delves into the innovative use of digital and data in assessing property risks coming from climate as well as other areas and expands on that use of data with a background on the company’s experimentation with generative AI. Additionally, Srini elaborates on the importance of developing his team’s skill set to prepare for the future, being a force for change management, and using the lessons from his experience in human resources to drive this talent strategy. Finally, he reflects on the secrets to his success and looks ahead at trends in InsureTech, AI, and more.

800: Mustafa Suleyman discusses his career journey, the future of artificial intelligence, and his latest book; The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma. Mustafa describes his entrepreneurial background as a pioneer of the AI and Deep Learning space from studying philosophy at Oxford to his eventual founding of DeepMind and subsequently Inflection AI. He recounts the inception of groundbreaking AI concepts, Google’s acquisition of DeepMind, and the importance of ethics in AI. In his book, Mustafa proposes the idea of a modern Turing Test to mitigate the spread of misinformation, AI’s paradoxical impact on productivity and stability, and the vision of a fully digital ‘Chief of Staff’ called Pi.

The Coming Wave was released on September 5th and can be found here: