478: Reid Hoffman is an iconic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. Perhaps best known as the co-founder and former CEO of LinkedIn, he is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, where he focuses on early-stage investing. He hosts the podcast, Masters of Scale. In this interview, we discuss:

The current pandemic and the economic crisis 

How one must lean on one’s ecosystem for insights and support while offering the same back into the ecosystem

How the pandemic has caused previous market failures to move to market readiness

The importance of entrepreneurs co-designing their go-to-market strategy

The precise definition of blitzscaling and its application to large companies

Among a variety of other topics.

This episode was recorded live at the 2020 Metis Strategy Digital Symposium.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

477: Yum! Brands Chief Digital and Technology Officer Clay Johnson discusses:

An overview of Yum! Brands ecosystem

Clay's four key priorities around redefining the customer, team member, and employee experience

How COVID has accelerated the company's digital journey

How the company delivers an excellent customer experience

How the company has implemented customer feedback to deliver contactless payments

The innovation lab at Yum! Brands

Clay’s view on the future of the mobile workforce post-pandemic 

Clay’s take on the evolution of the CIO role

* How switching from a project to a product mindset can accelerate product development and delivery

* How agile thinking applies to operations

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

476: Unqork CEO Gary Hoberman discusses:

An overview of no code

Why Gary left the CIO rank

Why the metrics that gauge success or lack thereof for IT departments are flawed

How companies need to reward their technologists based on the value they achieve, rather than being on time and on budget

Why Gary believes that you can always improve a big company,

Advice Gary has for others looking to leave large companies and start their own

Some of the groundbreaking things Unqork has done with large enterprises

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

475: Commonwealth Bank of Australia CIO Pascal Boillat discusses:

Pascal’s 6-pillared IT strategy

Advantages Pascal gains having technology and operations disciplines under his purview

Some of the innovation efforts Commonwealth Bank is undergoing.

Why working remotely due to COVID-19 was even more of a transition for Australians than other parts of the world 

The tech landscape in Australia 

How the company works with other FinTechs

Pascal’s take on quantum computing, AI, and the cloud

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, Woven CEO Tim Campos discusses:

The genesis story of Woven

The most successful go to market model for productivity software

Why Woven decided not to directly compete with Apple, Microsoft, and Google

How Tim has built his team at Woven

How the CIO role prepared Tim for the CEO role

Three elements that are needed to start a company successfully

How Tim has managed during this time of crisis

Tim’s experience on boards

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, Intel CIO Archana Deskus discusses, 

Archana’s purview as the global CIO of Intel

Archana’s experience coming up to speed in the role

Intel’s response to COVID-19

How COVID-19 will impact the future of work

How her team has been enabling the shift to remote work.

The company’s data-first mindset and their Corporate Data Office

How the company is using artificial intelligence

How the CIO role has evolved in Archana’s 17+ years in the post

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, we discuss

COVID’s impact on enterprise

How COVID has impacted the amount of Slack users positively and negatively

The potential challenges a hybrid model of working will present. 

How people are more attracted to new features versus core improvement to the existing features

The main difference between Slack and Microsoft Teams and how they can be used together

How the demand for synchronous communication can be disruptive to people's time management and their ability to focus

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, we discuss 

Sandeep's purview as the CDO of Mars

The three pillars that drive Mars’ digital engine

The five cultural principles that guide Mars as a company

The extreme focus Sandeep has put on customer centricity

Why Sandeep believes creating a culture of curiosity is as important as creating the right data infrastructure

Mars’ movement to come up with 100 insights in the next 100 weeks

The prevalence of AI in the company

How the company is using Snickers to show gratitude to frontline workers

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, we discuss 

The main similarities and differences between an influenza virus and coronavirus 

How COVID-19 impacts older individuals while the 1918 virus largely impacted younger individuals

How the United States and many European countries seeked to cover up the 1918 virus

How contracting the 1918 virus clouded Woodrow Wilson’s judgement at the Treaty of Versailles 

The critical importance of honesty and transparency of leadership in the face of this crisis

The failures of the federal government in its response to COVID-19

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.

In this interview, we discuss 

Atish’s career path and his experience as CIO of a technology giant

How the CIO role is more similar to CTO roles that he has held in the past

The three main functions he oversees

His thoughts on the two biggest ways COVID will change the business world

The value an executive with technology expertise can bring to a corporate board

Among a variety of other topics.

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This episode is sponsored by Zoho.