The Health Pulse

Earth Day offers an annual opportunity to reflect on and advance climate action, but this year’s observance brought with it some big news. Among other aims, the Biden Administration announced that the United States will target reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2030, as compared to 2005 levels. Other initiatives were announced around how to help developing countries establish net-zero strategies, how to transform the transportation sector and how to harness the potential of solar, wind and energy storage — among many others. That leaves the electricity industry with plenty to talk about and plenty to do. On this episode of Electrifying AI, Dr. Joe Nyangon, a senior industry consultant for power and utilities innovation here at SAS, joins us to break down the news and examine how the energy and utilities sector can move forward. Plus, Joe gives us his pick for our new Electrifying AI playlist on Spotify! Listen to his suggestion here, then make your recommendations for a song by tweeting @TheElectricSal. We just might include your pick and send you some Electrifying AI swag to say thanks. Learn more at sas.com/utilities and check out additional episodes of Electrifying AI at sas.transistor.fm or on your favorite podcast platform.

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode:

• WhiteHouse.gov: President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate
• Dr. Joe Nyangon on Twitter | LinkedIn
• Joe’s recent webinar on DERs, grid resilience and regulatory innovation
• Connect with Sal: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Learn about Sal’s expertise
• Electrifying AI Spotify playlist
• SAS Energy & Utilities on the web

Check out additional episodes of the Electrifying AI podcast series at sas.transistor.fm. 

• Subscribe to the Electrifying AI podcast so you never miss a future episode.
• Did you know that you can watch Electrifying AI too? Find our episodes on YouTube here.
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Electrifying AI podcast, send us an email to [email protected]. 

About our guest:

• With more than 15 years of experience in the energy sector, Joe Nyangon leads the design and development of advanced analytics solutions targeting decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization domains at SAS. Joe was previously a postdoctoral researcher in energy economics and engineering systems at the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. Before that, he was a consultant at the United Nations in New York and is a TED fellow. Joe earned a PhD from the University of Delaware and holds master’s degrees from Columbia University and the University of Greenwich. He’s an active member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences, the United States Association for Energy Economics, the International Association for Energy Economics, and Project Management Institute.

About our host:

• Sal Gill heads digital strategy and market innovation for SAS Energy & Utilities. He has worked for major energy companies and seen firsthand how electricity transforms lives, from bringing power to remote communities to pioneering innovations that will accelerate renewable technologies. As the global community continues to seek alternatives to satisfy its appetite for energy, Sal is constantly searching for new ideas that take advantage of both the electric grid, known as the largest machine humans have ever built, and the greatest enabler of our time, data analytics.

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

We’ve moved! Find us at https://reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm/ as we continue to ponder the future of customer experience.

“The modern (today’s) definition of Southern Hospitality is combining the ease and comfort of a digital interaction with the trust that your individual experience is unique and important.” – Clark Twiddy 

In a “socially distant” market, the hotel industry is among the hardest hit. Like many industries, hospitality will see both substantial and subtle shifts in the post-pandemic era. In this episode of Reimagine Marketing, Wilson Raj welcomes Clark Twiddy, President of Twiddy & Company to examine a set of recovery scenarios for hotels. On the consumer side, Wilson and Clark explore what guests say will make them feel safe when traveling, including contactless check-ins and check-outs, and an added emphasis on trust. Because “luxury is not a price point, it’s an experience.” 

This podcast covers: 

• How hospitality and travel brands are rethinking marketing efforts, moving from transaction-oriented to value-oriented.  
• The importance of being fast and digitally relevant while building common trust to reinforce engagements and relationships. 
• How to develop new processes and implement new technologies to adapt quickly to a changing market 
• The significance of creating a culture that promotes agility, innovation and collaboration. 
• Considerations for accelerating not just recovery, but resiliency, in the hospitality industry. 

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode: 

• Experience 2030 Pulse Report: The Acceleration of Digital Engagement, Personalization and Trust 
• Experience 2030 Resources: Learn more about what defines today’s customer experience and how consumers and brands will evolve through the year 2030. 
• Old-fashioned hospitality starts with cutting edge-analytics: Learn how SAS Analytics helps Twiddy & Company orchestrate the ideal vacation 
• Connect with Wilson: LinkedIn | Twitter 
• Connect with Clark: LinkedIn | Twitter | Twiddy & Company 

Check out additional episodes of the Reimagine Marketing podcast series at reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm. 

• Subscribe to the Reimagine Marketing podcast so you never miss a future episode. 
• Visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/explore/reimagine-marketing-podcast.html to learn more about our guests, upcoming episodes and more. 
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Reimagine Marketing podcast, send us an email: [email protected]. 

About our guests: 

• Wilson Raj is global director of customer intelligence for SAS, responsible for global marketing to establish, evolve and evangelize SAS’ analytics-powered marketing solutions. Raj has held global leadership positions in marketing at Fortune Global 500® companies including Microsoft, Novell. Medtronic, and Philips, and advised C-level executives about digital strategy while at award-winning agencies Publicis Groupe, VML/Young & Rubicam and Wunderman. Raj has been featured in major media publications such as Adweek, CMSWire, CNBC.com, Forbes, InformationWeek, MarTech Advisor, MarketingProfs, ZDNet and more.  
• Clark Twiddy is president of Twiddy & Company Realtors, a hospitality and property management firm along North Carolina's Outer Banks. With more than 40 years as a second-generation family business, Twiddy & Company balances personal experience for customers with an aggressive commitment to data-based innovation. As a small business, Twiddy & Company has been an early deployer of advanced technology in the vacation rental space nationally. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

Mike Turner, customer intelligence guru at SAS, joins Greg for a chat about customer intelligence in life sciences. Pharma organizations don’t think of their customers in the same way that retailers do, but they do have customers, including the health care professionals (HCPs) who prescribe their medicinal products and clinical trial subjects. The adoption of customer intelligence programs in pharma accelerated dramatically at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic because organizations were forced to shift to digital engagement very quickly. Greg asks about key takeaways from other industries that are applicable to life sciences. Mike shares examples from the CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry where they are striving to build direct relationships with the people who use their products without disrupting the relationship between those customers and retailer networks that distribute them. The CPG industry also strives to understand their customers relationships with their products, including when, how and why they use them. The pharmaceutical life cycle is made of complex networks from discovery all the way through to patients receiving medications as part of treatment pathways. Analytical insights around the customers involved at various touch points along the way has the potential to transform engagement in the industry. Mike and Greg also discuss readiness within pharmaceutical companies to shift their sales and marketing programs toward a strategic view of customer insights and engagement and the challenges they may need to overcome. Finally, Mike shares his predictions for the next opportunities for breakthroughs in the application of customer intelligence in pharma, including the potential for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to play a key role in the administration of therapies. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

The job of a leader is much more difficult than it once was, according to Bill Boulding, the dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Dean Boulding is an expert on leadership — and on this episode of Electrifying AI, he joins host Sal Gill to discuss what leaders in the electricity industry need to focus on for 2021 and beyond. Their conversation spans change management, corporate responsibility, climate change, decarbonization and how the industry can fend off or emerge from crises of leadership and public trust. Plus, Dean Boulding gives us the most extensive suggestions yet for our new Electrifying AI playlist on Spotify! Listen to his playlist picks here, then make your suggestion for a song by tweeting @TheElectricSal. We just might include your pick and send you some Electrifying AI swag to say thanks. Learn more at sas.com/utilities and check out additional episodes of Electrifying AI at sas.transistor.fm or on your favorite podcast platform.

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode:

·      Dean Bill Boulding on Twitter | LinkedIn

·      Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business on Twitter | LinkedIn

·      Duke Fuqua’s website

·      Connect with Sal: Twitter | LinkedIn

·      Learn about Sal’s expertise

·      Electrifying AI Spotify playlist

·      SAS Energy & Utilities on the web

Check out additional episodes of the Electrifying AI podcast series at sas.transistor.fm. 

• Subscribe to the Electrifying AI podcast so you never miss a future episode.
• Did you know that you can watch Electrifying AI too? Find our episodes on YouTube here.
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Electrifying AI podcast, send us an email to [email protected]. 

About our guest:

• Bill Boulding is the dean and J.B. Fuqua Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Values and the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which is the organization that administers the GMAT exam. He received his BA in Economics from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Managerial Sciences and Applied Economics from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research interests lie at the intersection of management, marketing and strategy. Of particular interest to Dean Boulding is evaluating how managers make decisions and how consumers respond to those decisions.

About our host:

• Sal Gill heads digital strategy and market innovation for SAS Energy & Utilities. He has worked for major energy companies and seen firsthand how electricity transforms lives, from bringing power to remote communities to pioneering innovations that will accelerate renewable technologies. As the global community continues to seek alternatives to satisfy its appetite for energy, Sal is constantly searching for new ideas that take advantage of both the electric grid, known as the largest machine humans have ever built, and the greatest enabler of our time, data analytics.

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

We’ve moved! Find us at https://reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm/ as we continue to ponder the future of customer experience.

In this episode of Reimagine Marketing, Steven Hofmans welcomes Mieke De Ketelaere of IMEC and Ruben Missine of Colruyt Group to discuss artificial intelligence and ethics. Steven, Mieke and Ruben explore the potential risk of AI for consumers and citizens today, how consumers can protect themselves from unethical AI, and how companies should organize to ensure ethical AI approaches. 

This podcast covers: 

• How digital privacy is like celebrity – and whether AI is the next paparazzi. 
• The potential for AI to democratize data, and how the most trustworthy organizations will prevail (not the most competent). 
• The concept of weaponizing AI and how to define when something is ethical or not. 
• Considerations for AI managers when faced with ethical AI issues and issues surrounding unconscious bias. 
• How companies can develop a good inner compass for ethical AI and how to monitor and train models for what they are intended to accomplish. 
• Consumer protections from unethical AI. 

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode: 

• Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI), presented by the High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI HLEG) to the European Commission, April 2019 
• Resources from Mieke De Ketelaere: Check out gmdeketelaere.com for information about her latest book – Wanted: Human-AI Translators, keynote details and more. 

Check out additional episodes of the Reimagine Marketing podcast series at reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm. 

• Subscribe to the Reimagine Marketing podcast so you never miss a future episode. 
• Visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/explore/reimagine-marketing-podcast.html to learn more about our guests, upcoming episodes and more. 
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Reimagine Marketing podcast, send us an email: [email protected]. 

About our guests: 

• Steven Hofmans is a customer experience advisor on a mission to make every citizen a happy customer. Steven believes today’s customer experience needs to be personalized, zero effort, frictionless, proactive and about the customer. He helps marketing, sales and service departments to explore how they can revolutionize their marketing processes in order to reach that customer experience of the future. Using inspiring presentations and practical examples, he wants to show what proactive customer experience could look like. 
• Mieke De Ketelaere is Program Director AI at IMEC. Mieke specialized in robotics and artificial intelligence during her studies, and over the last 25 years, she has worked for several multinationals including IBM, Microsoft, SAP and SAS, focused on all aspects of data and analytics. At IMEC, Mieke is responsible for the development and rollout of AI strategy. Mieke is a frequently requested keynote speaker on the topics of digitalization, demystifying AI and data privacy and a bestselling author. Her book Wanted: Human-AI Translators is available for pre-order now. 
• Ruben Missine is the division manager of business analytics, intelligence and digital transformation at Colruyt Group, a retailer in Belgium that is known and proud to be very active around ethical and sustainable business practices. Ruben holds a master’s degree in history and business administration and has helped different AI teams grow cross department making an impact on the customer experience and society.  

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

Andrew Freeman is the former Head of Medical Policy and Data Disclosure Governance at GlaxoSmithKline. Andrew joined Greg recently to discuss his experience at the forefront of the industry initiative to make patient-level data from clinical trials available for research. Andrew believes the results of clinical studies in humans should be made available for three key reasons. First, there are excellent scientific reasons to allow other researchers to review and evaluate findings and to make those findings available so that they can potentially lead to new discoveries. Secondly, there is an ethical obligation because when patients agree to participate in clinical research they do so for the betterment of medicine and science, and publishing is a way to maximize that effect. Thirdly because clinical research directly relates to health care interventions that are used in patients, it’s important that all the information on the benefits and risks of that intervention are made available to providers. The industry as a whole has made great strides in this area, but there are also opportunities for further transparency. For example, there are opportunities to improve access to scientific research and papers for patients. Additionally, the data should be shared in a way that is relevant and useable to those who want to access it. Anonymizing data is also hugely important when sharing data to protect the privacy of patient participants, so that’s an important consideration. Andrew shares some of the developments in the industry in the past decade that have made data sharing more beneficial and imperative for pharmaceutical sponsors. Finally, Andrew gives us his thoughts on the success of the data sharing movement to date and where the movement is headed in the future. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is a nonprofit organization that boasts almost 1,200 members across electric utilities, corporations and the public sector. The group envisions a carbon-free energy system by 2050, and on this episode of Electrifying AI, SEPA president and CEO Julia Hamm joins host Sal Gill to lay out the path to carbon-free energy as she sees it. Julia and Sal discuss both the short-term and long-term steps needed to reach zero carbon, the role artificial intelligence will play in the push for clean energy, whether we’ve reached “a tipping point” and how Julia earned a 10/10 from Room Rater while working from home. Head to our Electrifying AI playlist on Spotify to hear Julia’s selection, Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg, then make your suggestion for a song by tweeting to @TheElectricSal. We just might include your pick and send you some Electrifying AI swag to say thanks! 

Join us again in two weeks as the dean of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business talks with us about leadership, change management and decarbonization. 

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode: 

• Julia Hamm on Twitter | LinkedIn 
• SEPA on Twitter | LinkedIn 
• SEPA’s website 
• Connect with Sal: Twitter | LinkedIn 
• Learn about Sal’s expertise 
• Electrifying AI Spotify playlist 
• SAS Energy & Utilities on the web 

Check out additional episodes of the Electrifying AI podcast series at sas.transistor.fm.  

• Subscribe to the Electrifying AI podcast so you never miss a future episode. 
• Did you know that you can watch Electrifying AI too? Find our episodes on YouTube here. 
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Electrifying AI podcast, send us an email to [email protected].  

About our guest: 

• Julia Hamm has served as SEPA’s president and CEO since 2004, providing leadership and strategic direction for the organization. She is responsible for guiding and overseeing all of SEPA’s research, education and collaboration activities for its 1,200 member companies and the broader energy industry. Julia is a visionary leader at the center of the transformation underway in the electric power sector to a clean and modern energy future. For the past 20 years she has been advising and collaborating with utilities, solution providers and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, and clean energy policies, strategies and programs.  

About our host: 

• Sal Gill heads digital strategy and market innovation for SAS Energy & Utilities. He has worked for major energy companies and seen firsthand how electricity transforms lives, from bringing power to remote communities to pioneering innovations that will accelerate renewable technologies. As the global community continues to seek alternatives to satisfy its appetite for energy, Sal is constantly searching for new ideas that take advantage of both the electric grid, known as the largest machine humans have ever built, and the greatest enabler of our time, data analytics. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

We’ve moved! Find us at https://reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm/ as we continue to ponder the future of customer experience.

In this episode of Reimagine Marketing, Wilson Raj and Daniel Newman discuss one of the key goals of our Experience 2030 global research – to identify the buzzwords we’re all hearing and to identify what’s real and what’s not, what’s practical and what’s hype. Wilson and Daniel demystify themes such as AI, the customer journey, real-time analytics and the supposed death of the CMO. Learn about the actionable steps featured in the Experience 2030 playbook and hear several customer examples. 

In prior episodes, Wilson and Daniel focused on key themes of the global Experience 2030 study: smart and immersive technologies, loyalty in the digital age the evolving nature of trust. This episode highlights some key actions brands can take NOW to prepare for customer experiences in the future. 

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode: 

• Experience 2030 Resources: Learn more about what defines today’s customer experience and how consumers and brands will evolve through the year 2030. 
• Discover more resources from Futurum Research: https://futurumresearch.com/  
• Connect with Daniel: LinkedIn | Twitter  
• Connect with Wilson: LinkedIn | Twitter 

Check out additional episodes of the Reimagine Marketing podcast series at reimagine-marketing.transistor.fm. 

• Subscribe to the Reimagine Marketing podcast so you never miss a future episode.  
• Visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/explore/reimagine-marketing-podcast.html to learn more about our guests, upcoming episodes and more.  
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Reimagine Marketing podcast, send us an email: [email protected].  

About our guests: 

• Wilson Raj is global director of customer intelligence for SAS, responsible for global marketing to establish, evolve and evangelize SAS’ analytics-powered marketing solutions. Raj has held global leadership positions in marketing at Fortune Global 500® companies including Microsoft, Novell. Medtronic, and Philips, and advised C-level executives about digital strategy while at award-winning agencies Publicis Groupe, VML/Young & Rubicam and Wunderman. Raj has been featured in major media publications such as Adweek, CMSWire, CNBC.com, Forbes, InformationWeek, MarTech Advisor, MarketingProfs, ZDNet and more.  
• Daniel Newman is the Principal Analyst and founding partner of Futurum Research and the CEO of Broadsuite Media Group. Newman works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring digital transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise. From big data to IoT to cloud computing, Newman makes the connections between business, people and tech that companies need in order to benefit most from their technology projects. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

Analytics holds the potential to drive Billions in gains for the life sciences industry in the commercialization phase. Greg hosts SAS Industry Consultant Patrick Homer to discuss analytics use cases in commercial pharma. Before joining SAS, Patrick spent more than 20 years in pharmaceutical sales leadership. At SAS, he worked to develop solutions that use predictive modeling to help commercial pharma leaders make their sales and marketing strategies more effective by targeting the right prescribers. Patrick also shares his work in engagement analytics to improve marketing campaigns for health care providers (HCPs), including how analytics helped a major global pharma company transform its COVID-19 webinar campaign from a bust to a big success by leveraging insights from engagement analytics. Webinars and other online events have exploded in health care and life sciences since the onset of the pandemic, and we can expect a digital-first approach to remain after society reopens. This means the competition for online participants in these events will remain fierce. Analytics holds the key to a competitive edge. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.

Much like the electricity industry itself, Electrifying AI is undergoing a transformation. With a new host and a series of energy experts on tap to lend their insight, our second season is getting underway with a bang! Host Sal Gill is joined by journalist David Roberts from Volts to dissect the big trends that will affect the electricity sector in 2021: from the Biden Administration to extreme weather events like what we’ve seen in Texas to the continued digitization of energy, and more. Also new for this season is our Electrifying AI playlist on Spotify. Listen along all season as our guests make their song recommendations, then rock out to their suggestions. Tweet to @TheElectricSal with the song you want to hear on the playlist and we just might include it and send you some Electrifying AI swag to say thanks! 

Join us again in two weeks as the president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance talks with us about the path to carbon-free energy. 

Here are some of the resources we mentioned during the episode: 

• David Roberts on Twitter 
• Volts, David’s new online community 
• David’s archive at Vox 
• More on “shifting baselines syndrome” 
• Connect with Sal: Twitter | LinkedIn 
• Learn about Sal’s expertise 
• Electrifying AI Spotify playlist 
• SAS Energy & Utilities on the web 

Check out additional episodes of the Electrifying AI podcast series at sas.transistor.fm.  

• Subscribe to the Electrifying AI podcast so you never miss a future episode. 
• Did you know that you can watch Electrifying AI too? Find our episodes on YouTube here. 
• If you’d like to be a guest on a future episode, have an idea for a future topic or would like to share feedback about our Electrifying AI podcast, send us an email to [email protected].  

About our guest: 

• David Robertsis a journalist who has spent more than 15 years thinking and writing about the intersection of clean energy and politics. For much of that time he wrote for Grist and Vox, but he’s recently created his own online community called, appropriately enough, Volts. David has appeared on a variety of TV shows, radio programs, and podcasts, such as MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, Pod Save America and the Why is this Happening? podcast. 

About our host: 

• Sal Gill heads digital strategy and market innovation for SAS Energy & Utilities. He has worked for major energy companies and seen firsthand how electricity transforms lives, from bringing power to remote communities to pioneering innovations that will accelerate renewable technologies. As the global community continues to seek alternatives to satisfy its appetite for energy, Sal is constantly searching for new ideas that take advantage of both the electric grid, known as the largest machine humans have ever built, and the greatest enabler of our time, data analytics. 

All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.