Truth Be Known

This episode features an interview with Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data Officer at Western Union.  In this episode, Tom talks about letting data from the customer experience inform next gen product development, tips to retain talent, and transforming a globally known, 170-year-old household name like Western Union to be more customer-centric.

Quotes

“Data really is the lifeblood of any company.  Without having high quality, seamless data, you’re going to have customer experience problems.  So it’s really about using the data to empower your organization, company, services and products.  Data is the way to drive a company forward. "

Time Stamps

*[0:03] Intro

*[1:27] Interview begins

*[4:53] Ensuring data security at scale

*[5:57] From banking to CDO

*[8:15] Advice for the future CDO

*[9:15] The evolution of the CDO

*[10:45] What’s up next for Western Union

*[13:44] How to get customers hooked on your product

*[16:44] CDO: More than just data governance

*[19:05] Difficult decisions

*[25:18] Cultivating a positive team culture

*[28:31] Using data to develop products

*[35:00] Quick decisions

Links

Connect with Tom on LinkedIn

Follow Lauren on Twitter

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Alana Winter, CEO and Founder of MI6 Academy and Stiletto Spy School.  In this episode, Alana talks about tactical mindfulness, finding clarity on your objectives, and getting control in the most chaotic of situations.

Quotes

“In paying attention to your surroundings, you learn to see things as they are.  Get present in looking at the small data points.  What are the changes in someone’s tone of voice?  In their pitch?  These are signs someone is uncomfortable or something is out of the ordinary.  When you notice something out of the ordinary, you’re finding either a threat or an opportunity. "

Time Stamps

[0:02] Intro

[1:40] Interview begins

[3:27] Train with real special agents at MI6 Academy

[7:38] Putting CIA skills to work at the office

[9:17] What do I learn in spy school?

[14:28] Becoming a better decision maker through spy training

[16:21] Takeaways from corporate-meets-spy training

[24:28] Making decisions with imperfect data

[25:29] How Alana made her most difficult decision

[32:51] How to pick your agent name

[37:45] The truth about being a spy in real life

[38:24] Quick Decisions

Links

Books mentioned:

The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz

Connect:

Follow Alana on Twitter

Connect with Alana on LinkedIn

Follow Lauren on Twitter

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Rachelle Ornan, Director of Cabin Research and Passenger Experience at Boeing.  In this episode, Rachelle talks about the advent of space tourism, the pent up demand in leisure flight, and how passengers expect life in the air to be as connected as life on the ground.

Quotes

“Travel is the spice of life.  I’m working in an industry that enables connection to other people.  It’s the best weapon against xenophobia while also stimulating the global economy.  That’s something I can contribute to through my work."

Time Stamps

[0:03] Intro

[2:36] From Human Factors to Aircraft Interior Design

[6:20] Traveling Post Pandemic

[8:25] The Data of Air and Spacecraft Design

[10:51] How the Consumer Market Informs Design

[12:56] Staying Connected in Flight

[16:23] The Future of Air and Spacecraft Design

[18:56] Accessible Design

[22:52] Space Camp Dreams

[26:04] The Next Frontier in Travel

[33:39] Rachelle’s Favorite Things About Industry

[37:18] Quick Decisions

Links

Books mentioned:

A Life of Meaning, by James Hollis

The Golden World, by Robert Johnson

Your Brain on Love, by Stanley Tatkin

Connect:

Connect with Rachelle on LinkedIn

Follow Lauren on Twitter

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Koti Reddy, Chief Technology Officer for Conga.  Conga is the global leader in commercial operations transformation, helping businesses automate the process of creating quotes, contracts and documents.  We talk with Koti about building complex pricing algorithms, smart contracts, and making data-based decisions.

3 Takeaways:

• When making a significant decision, don’t take shortcuts.
• Leverage data to help make the big decisions instead of relying solely on your gut. 
• Sometimes taking a little more time or spending a little more money is worth it to make a thoughtful, data-based decision.

Key Quotes:

• “Especially when you are building a foundational piece like a multi-tenant SaaS solution that is going to be there for the next 10, 12 years or beyond, you need to be really, really careful in taking a shortcut that saves two months. I once went for the timeline-based decision and it took many years for us to dig out of that hole.” 
• “The new customers that are coming into this ecosystem, we want them to be able to make smart decisions about their business and how they are dealing with customers based on data.  Using data, analytics and AI they can build decision support.” 
• “If you want to build a feature, you need to figure out: Is it useful for a hundred of my customers?  Or is it useful for two of my customers?  Maybe you make a call saying, I'm going to do it for these two customers, because I'm going to acquire 200 after that.  We actually take the sales opportunity and help them to close it.  We put together the data, the products, the catalogs and the contracts in our quote-to-cash flow. We are making data-based decisions, not only in our applications, but we are also directing our customers based on data.”

Bio:

Koti Reddy is a technical leader with 20 years of experience in managing enterprise and SaaS product development.  He leads a multi-continental, multi-cultural team of 300 highly skilled engineers to implement world-class, scalable designs.  Before taking on the role of CTO, Koti served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Conga, using his expertise in engineering, R&D and other operations to grow Conga’s business.  Prior to joining Conga, Koti was SVP of CallidusCloud and took charge of all product development and cloud operations.

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Unmesh Srivastava, Chief Technology Officer for P3 Health Partners.  P3 Health Partners are a patient-centric, physician-led company dedicated to improving the way care is provided.  We talk with Unmesh about how data can be used to predict medical issues, remote patient monitoring, value-based care, and his personal reason for going into medical tech.

3 Takeaways:

• Look at how other countries are operating and use them as a model for improvement when possible.
• It’s important to use data to continually evaluate age-old institutions like healthcare, because there’s always room for innovation.
• Giving someone their own data empowers them to make decisions around that information.

Key Quotes:

• “We work to deliver value-based care. And I think there is no other way than having slick data in your ecosystem that can drive that. You need to touch all these data points to identify physician performance, patient satisfaction, the quality of care, the cost of care...and if that's how you're going to pay the healthcare system and provide great care, then it has to be data driven.”
• “Data changes behavior. If you have the right data to see what might play out in the future, you will definitely change those actions to change that future. A lot of times we don't see that future, and that's why we don't change our actions today. I think data is the only way that you can do that.”
• “What is important? I think we all forget we are here for a finite time period, and you have to have a mission that's bigger than you and bigger than finances and other things.”

Bio:

Unmesh Srivastava is currently serving as a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at P3 Health Partners. Unmesh fosters the company with innovative data-driven automation and technological solutions. 

He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Rajasthan in India and a Master of Science degree from California State University at Northridge. His distinct list of accreditations also includes executive certifications through The Wharton School’s Emerging Leader Program, Artificial Intelligence Program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Entrepreneurship program from Harvard Business School. 

Previously, Unmesh has had the fortune of working as an Associate Vice President at Optum Care, besides working for other conglomerates like UnitedHealth Group, Toyota Financial Services, and Kaiser Permanente in Southern California.

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Evan Kirstel, a B2B thought leader, top technology influencer, and enterprise industry insider.  Evan’s business, eViRa Health, acts as a social media partner to clients in the healthcare industry to grow massive global audiences and deepen user engagement.  We talk with Evan about how he paired his expertise in social media with the healthcare industry, and helped revolutionize the future of healthcare tech.

3 Takeaways:

• The pandemic has created a great shift in the healthcare industry towards the adoption of new technologies, including virtual care.
• People are already gathering their own health data through wearables, which could be helpful to doctors.
• Incorporating tech into the patient experience empowers patients  to manage their conditions.

Key Quotes:

• “We need to make patients the center of care, strengthen the doctor-patient or nurse-patient relationships, and empower patients with data, insights, advice, guidance and education.”
• “We’re generating all of this data around ourselves from wearables to virtual care to remote patient monitoring. And getting all that data into systems in a clean way that doctors and researchers can use to gather insights is so important.”
• “Over the pandemic, we've seen virtual care and telehealth go from like 1% utilization to like 35, 40%.  So if there's a light at the end of the tunnel, maybe it's been some of the adoption of these new technologies.”

Bio:

Evan is a tech influencer and social media mastermind.  He has racked up more than 500,000 followers across Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and has helped companies like Samsung, IBM and HealthTap increase their brand visibility to reach massive audiences across social media platforms.

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with John Foley, former lead pilot of the Blue Angels, keynote speaker and bestselling author.  After more than 20 years in the military, flying jets off aircraft carriers and performing in Fleet Week, John is an expert on high performance teams. In this episode, he discusses how to improve team performance by 300% by creating a culture of excellence. He explains how to do that by building a high level of trust, a commitment to improvement and the idea that a spot on the team has to be earned.

3 Takeaways:

• Show your team what excellence looks like. Give them a visual that will help define their goal.
• Cultivate connections and alignments among team members to drive them towards a common goal.
• Establish a feedback loop of data to inform the team of what is - or isn’t - working with a debrief process.

Key Quotes:

• “Any elite person, anyone in business in life, has this ability to focus, this mental toughness. So how do you block out distractions? How do you focus down on what's important? That's why data's so important.  What do I need to know? Okay, got it. Focus down.”
• “Here's the beautiful part: it's not just about you, it's about the team. It's this beautiful combination of personal mastery of excellence, and then connection to your teammates, alignment, commitments, and these high trust contracts.”
• “You need to have the mindset first. I call that mindset “Glad to be here,” which is the ethos of being grateful and appreciative to have the opportunity. But also to bring in your operational excellence. You've got to earn the right to be there every single day. And that's how I felt on the Blue Angels.”

Bio:

John is a former lead solo pilot of the Blue Angels, Sloan Fellow at Stanford School of Business, a bestselling author and an expert in high-performance teams. His Fearless Success System has transformed thousands of organizations around the globe.

Thanks to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Lyssa Myska Allen, VP of Global, Head of Marketing & Digital at Hinduja Global Solutions. Lyssa has more than 15 years of experience in digital strategy. On this episode, she discusses how to act as a “nerd translator,” why you need to use data to validate your instincts, why there’s no such thing as too much communication, and much more.

3 Key Takeaways:

• When creating a company culture, look for leaders who might not necessarily have leadership positions. Those who have influence with the rest of the team are the key to building buy-in to a corporate culture.
• Breaking through with customers is all about being straightforward and honest. Transparency is key to connecting with your audience.
• Be the type of person who is able to connect people of various backgrounds. This is especially valuable when connecting those with a technical background with those who are more business-focused.

Key Quotes

• “To some extent, you can make data say anything you want it to if you're good enough at it. So you want to be careful that what you're pulling out is not wishful thinking.”
• “Data can be dangerous when people don't have that education or the understanding of how important the whole funnel view is, or the whole dataset. It’s possible to put almost too much trust into it.”
• “If I could say one thing, it would be over-communicate. If you think you're over-communicating, you're wrong.”

Thank you to our friends

Truth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

3 Takeaways:

• Empathy and data are not two words that we typically associate with one another. But according to Karl, they don’t have to be completely separate, in fact, they can go hand in hand.
• Paying attention to data outputs can help you spot pain points for your customers.
• For digital transformation, it's important to get your employees to trust the process. Even well-implemented change requires time and patience.

Key Quotes:

• “How do we take all of this data that we generate in healthcare and how do we cram it into information that is useful for making decisions? Healthcare has desperately needed that kind of change in order to interact with people and meet the expectations that customers and patients have.”
• “I [want to] understand your history so that I can better treat the problems that I'm seeing. How does what I'm seeing right now, as you've shown up into an emergency room, how does that fit with the history that you've had in the past? The more that I know about you specifically, the better I will be at being able to treat you.”
• “People are talking about the mRNA vaccines and how quickly it was developed. The technology has been worked on for 10 years, it's got a lot of history behind it.  Think of how effective and targeted this vaccine is. This is the way the vaccines will be done in the future.”

Bio:

Karl Hightower is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Information Management and Chief Data Officer for Novant Health, where he and his teams oversee the advancement of the use of information assets for the company. His teams deliver products and services ranging from advanced analytics and real-time messaging to delivering Cognitive Computing and AI solutions throughout the enterprise. 

Karl has an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in political science, and was in the first class to go through Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious ISRI Enterprise Architecture and Strategy program. Karl is the son of two college professors and is from a long line of educators. This upbringing instilled a continuous thirst for learning and creating opportunities for others to learn. While in Dallas, Karl helped to found and build the STEAM education program for the district. The program included one entirely Spanish immersive middle school as well as associate degree paths in the high schools. 

Karl was heavily involved in the Texas Amateur Golf Association as well as the Dallas LPGA events. In Charlotte, Karl has joined the District Advisory Board for Career and Technical Education (CTE) for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School district.

On this episode, Lauren is joined by Michael Dortch, the founder of DortchOnIt.com and a long-time data professional. Lauren and Michael discuss the importance of data, how data-oriented people make decisions, what effective leadership looks like, and much more.

3 Takeaways:

• Data is just the observation of how facts stack up. Anyone who is interested in making good decisions should be interested in data.
• The beginning of good decision-making is curiosity. Curiosity about the world around us leads us to dig in and find the relevant facts and data.
• It's important to know the limits of your knowledge. Every decision involves unknown variables and unintended consequences.

Key Quotes:

• “We're all data to somebody, right? So, there's is almost no way to separate life from data. Everything we do in life is driven by data, some of it's subconsciously and some of it consciously. So, in a sense, I've been paying attention to data ever since I understood that there was a world around me.”
• “Donald Rumsfeld, when he was secretary of defense, used to talk about known-knowns, known-unknowns, and unknown-unknowns. Technology is really good at known-knowns, and it's pretty good at known-unknowns, but that chasm dealing with the unknown-unknowns.”

Bio:

Michael is a growth-focused content marketing leader with 15+ years' accomplishments enabling companies to maximize revenues, increase ROI, and improve customer perception and satisfaction.

As an IT industry analyst, consultant, journalist, and marketer, he has been translating “bits and bytes” into “dollars and sense” for four decades. Michael has served as Senior Content Strategist at Huawei Technologies USA, Senior Content Development Manager at Ivanti, Senior Product Marketing Manager for cybersecurity at LANDESK, Director of Marketing at Intréis (acquired by ServiceNow), and Senior Product Marketing Manager at ServiceNow.

He has also been a senior analyst at Aberdeen Group, Robert Frances Group, Constellation Research, and Yankee Group. In 2010, Michael was included in the inaugural list of “The Top 500 Analysts Using Twitter” – twice. That same year, as Director of Research at Focus.com (acquired by Ziff Davis Enterprise), I built the Expert Network and created content that helped get that site named a “Top 10 Media Site” by Crain’s B2B Magazine.