441: The CIOs of Lenovo, Intuit, and Magellan Health have pioneered the shift from a project orientation to product orientation. These CIOs share the challenges they have encountered during their transitions, such as finding project managers with the necessary skills and about managing traditional perceptions of IT through culture changes. They also discuss the limits of product-based IT in specific situations where there are static goals, among other topics.

440: Gene Kim, author of The Phoneix Project and The Unicorn Project elaborates on each of the five ideals the book introduces, which are locality and simplicity, focus, flow, and joy, the improvement of daily work, psychological safety, and customer focus. For each one, he provides his definition, examples of it working and not working, and explains why it is important. We also discuss why the days of taylorism, project management, and people treating others as fungible and replaceable resources is coming to an end, why he writes his books as novels, among other topics.

439: Best-selling author Simon Sinek talks at length about his new book, The Infinite Game, explaining what the difference is between finite and infinite games, and what factors are most key in the latter. Simon warns about the dangers of playing infinite games with a finite mindset, which hurts trust, cooperation, and innovation. Simon also shares that there is no such thing as a natural-born leader, as well as the importance of having empathy in leadership. He also explains how he became obsessed with the idea of “why,” and a variety of other topics.

438: Lowe's CIO Seemantini Godbole and Novant Health CDO/CTO Angela Yochem discuss how they are using business capabilities including people, processes, tools, technology, metrics, and culture, to manage and strategically guide their businesses. Both Angela and Seemantini speak on the strategic and foundational capabilities in their businesses and how digital is impacting both retail and healthcare. Seemantini shares how she transformed Lowe’s omnichannel customer experience and the process of managing project teams through successes and failures.. They also discuss the digital transformation of healthcare, the rise of delivering healthcare digitally, and the importance of data.

437: Adrian Gore discusses why and how he founded Discovery in South Africa in 1992. As the country was going through dramatic changes, Adrian saw an opportunity in the health insurance market as there was a shortage of doctors, extreme inequality, and a dramatic rate of medical inflation. Adrian set his company apart by using concepts of behavioral economics and incentives to create Discovery’s unique business model. Since then, Adrian reaped the advantages of being years ahead in behavioral data collection and has grown his organization beyond health insurance to life insurance and behavioral banking. We also discuss how Discovery went beyond South Africa and into other countries through strategic partnerships starting with expansion into the UK. Beyond that, Adrian shares his outlook and hope for the South African market.

436: In this episode, Nick Colisto discusses how Avery Dennison’s IT team shows its value to other functions by capturing, reporting, and then communicating how IT is contributing value to the company. This process starts by aligning IT’s goals with other functions and influencing how IT can help the company achieve its key strategic pillars over a five-year planning horizon. Moreover, the team has created an IT-value scorecard, which contains metrics regarding health, delivery, outcomes, and agility. Lastly, the team communicates the value it is providing through quarterly business reviews and a well written annual report that communicates the value across the spectrum. We also discuss the three parts of the company’s digital workplace strategy, the education program that the company has put in place, which has sent leaders to UC Berkeley and looks to improve digital literacy throughout the organization, Nick’s take on IoT, AI, and quantum computing, among other topics.

435: Tekion CEO Jay Vijayan [former Tesla CIO] provides an overview of the fragmented automotive industry, highlights the industry’s shortcomings, and describes how Tekoin is using advanced technology and their automotive retail cloud platform to create a win-win-win situation for the large OEMs, retailers, and consumers. Additionally, Jay discusses the importance of delivering a seamless customer experience, how his time as CIO of Tesla prepared him for his current role, Tekion’s global ambitions, among other topics.

432: Dilbert creator Scott Adams shares his story of leaving the corporate setting to become a cartoonist. While he wanted to be a cartoonist from a young age, this dream was temporarily put on hold at the age of 11. When he discovered that the corporate world was not for him, Scott took a chance and reached out to legendary cartoonist Jack Cassady for advice. Based on that conversation, Scott sent his work to the big magazines, but he was rejected and had all but given up on his dream once again. However, one year later, Cassady reached out to Scott to check in. This prompted Scott to try again and send his work to the major cartoon syndication companies, he got a contract with United Media, and Dilbert got published. We also discuss how Scott has made his life more efficient so he can fit more into his day, the formula Scott uses when turning a tweet into a joke, how people don’t think about the world productively, and why we need to think more like economists, scientists, and engineers, among other topics.

433: Xerox’s CTO Naresh Shanker discusses the three key elements of a successful digital transformation. Naresh cites bold leadership that has grit as the most exciting ingredient for transformation. Second, he describes the importance of culture in preparing for the future. As the pace of change accelerates, he notes that it is critical to bridge the established culture that sustains companies at scale with the next-generation culture that has the mental muscle of a startup. Lastly, he discusses the need for a team that is passionate, driven, energized, and exceedingly mission-focused. We also discuss the outside-in and inside-out approach Xerox is using to make its digital transformation, how Xerox uses AI and IoT, Naresh’s experience as a board-level CIO, among other topics. 

 

In this episode Hunt Consolidated CIO/CDO Diane Schwarz and National Grid CIO/CDO Adriana Karaboutis explain how they are taking digital back in their respective positions. When they joined Hunt and National Grid, the CIDO’s met with board members to envision the future of digital in their organizations. Andi outlines the “North Star” that defines the direction of long term digital initiates that are developed in the NGDigital Labs. Meanwhile, Diane explains how Hunt’s Collaborative Resource Group is used to “frack for talent” that is motivated to be a part of digital initiatives. This panel also includes a discussion of AI and predictive analytics uses, the reasons digital strategies fail, and the challenge and utility of the two-in-one CIDO role.