B2BiQ: Recent Episodes
Seth Adler
B2BiQ features personal conversations about the business disciplines of Process Excellence, Shared Services, Customer Experience and Customer Management.
In this episode, Marcus Seibold and Dr Mohsen Seifi interview Brad Keselowski, the founder of Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing. Brad discusses the pain threshold and the need for corporate cover fire in AM, especially when tackling friction points for buyers and programme managers. He explains the delicate balance needed to achieve specs for creating the most cost-effective parts and how to improve confidence with the digital workflow. Siemens Energy is the series sponsor.
In this episode, sponsored by Siemens Energy, Marcus Seibold and Dr Mohsen Seifi interview Vishal Singh, Co-Founder and CTO at Link3D. He covers how to scale the AM business, minimise the risk of production and maximise output by applying learning from the software industry. These lessons give insight into the best economic, business, and cultural practices needed for success in the AM industry.
Success in Additive Manufacturing goes beyond technology. It encourages new ways to think about business governance. Sponsored by Siemens Energy, Marcus Seibold and Dr Mohsen Seifi invite experts to discuss the economics, operational constraints, and the role of culture in creating a successful AM business. Their first guest is Neil Mantle, Director of Manufacturing at Rolls-Royce, with whom we shall delve into the issues around AM with his banker concept and his views on how to build trust and confidence.
Data Scientist Jett Oristaglio joins us to talk about Humble AI. Trusted AI and asks, What is everything you need to trust in AI for your life? He goes on to share that trust is not binary- it’s multi -dimensional - and so, there are a number of criteria that should be evaluated. Performance- or, does the model predict the problem being solving for well- otherwise known as accuracy. Operations- or, how reliable is the system that the model is deployed in. And Ethics- or, how well does the model align with the values of the organization. Of course, most talked about is accuracy in that the model has to be fast enough, has to be stable (have strength). Not surprisingly- all of these aspects, you want in a human decision maker.
Tom Kartanowicz joins us and shares his thoughts on CISO Reporting, Prioritization and the evolution of the CISO journey.
Christine Vanderpool is an Executive Board Member for Cyber Security Hub. She was Inteligenca’s 2019 Woman Cyber Security Leader of the Year and Molson Coors’ CISO before being whisked away to the world’s larges sugar cane refiner- Florida Crystals (which includes Domino Foods).
So Christine is certainly an excellent current example of a CISO. Her company is an industry leader, she’s the ultimate cyber security leader at her organization and she’s winning awards for her work. But her background doesn’t add up to what we once understood as a good example of a cyber security leader. She doesn’t have any military experience and “well, I'm definitely an extrovert.”
Business case It’s safe to say that the ‘old guard’ of cyber security leaders is not a group of extroverts. “I love to use analogies and storytelling. It's really important for me that my user community, my executives, my leadership, they understand what it is that I'm trying to do. They don't just blindly believe me because I'm scared the bejesus out of them, but they actually get what I'm trying to tell them. They understand what our risks are. They understand how I want to mitigate those risks. And I try to do it in ways that are appropriate for our business at hand.”
Budgets In describing her mission, Christine doesn’t use the word technology. And it’s not because she’s some marketing person- her formative years were spent with IBM, Hitachi and SAP technology- she’s a technology person. But she realizes that just talking tech won’t get the job done. As noted, her job is for her stakeholders to understand what she is doing.
The Cyber Security Hub Mid Year Report showcased the fact that budgets are mostly flat or down. If Christine was arguing for budget, tech first- she would not find success. Her executives and leadership understand the risks and how to mitigate those risks in a way that’s appropriate for the business because she’s made the business case.
Enabling business “I'm not going to buy the latest and greatest gadget just cause it's really cool, if we don't need it. My philosophy is you could take that same budgetary funding and use that on a say marketing project or a product development project that is going to increase your revenue. If your revenues increase, then my bonus increases. So I'm not stupid.”
She says she’s not stupid- which of course, is obvious. But that statement actually shines a spotlight on her brilliance. She’s going in to budget meetings and telling her leadership to spend money on product development and marketing based on the confidence she has in the business case she’s made. She is not worried about losing her needed budget.
Doctrine In Depth And there’s depth to that doctrine. She does things “that elevate and help the business is rather than just saying no.”
As the interview with Bob Turner informed us, she’s leading the Department of Know, not the Department of No.
When asked if she’s a BISO- a Business Information Security Officer with a CISO title, she responds, “I wouldn't have a job if, if we weren't doing what it is that we do as a company. I work for a consumer packaged goods organization. So I need to always remember that that is the purpose of why we are here. We are not here because of security. We are here because we make a product that is sold to consumers. And that should be the focus.”
Bob Turner- a friend and Board member of the Cyber Security Hub- as well as the University of Wisconsin-Madison CISO - was kind enough to make some time for an interview. The following is an overview of the past, the present and perceptions of the future cyber security reality.
The University of Wisconsin is a research one level university with about 23,000 staff, roughly 44,000 students during the normal part of an old-normal year. This number jumps to a total of 80,000 users overall, when considers affiliates and ancillary personnel which means roughly a hundred thousand end points. Thus Bob notes that the University has a large amount of important research.
His resources are focused- he's got 38 full time staff with about 20 students that are supporting governance, risk management, incident response, vulnerability and what they call the common system Cyber Security team- which focuses on the big ERP-type systems, HR, Finance and Student Information.
During the March, 2020 migration off-prem- Bob's team was responsible for protecting that research, rolling out the BCP and moving 3,700 classroom courses to online delivery- to name a few initiatives.
The BCP did in fact roll out well- Bob was happy with the team and confident in the execution, “the X factor, I think, was trying to understand how many of the different collaboration tools were out there and understanding about those tools that we may not have looked at very close in the past. We had to do that on the fly and we had to do it rapidly.”
The Past: Shop in order It was confirmed for Bob and his team that ‘the past’ was secure. There were not issues in rolling out the business continuity plan, which was secure. There were not issues with the systems in place, which were secure.
The team continued with business-as-usual, “daily security routines run a playbook and a SOC and the regular pattern and pace of risk assessments and policy management, as well as trying to ensure that our users are aware of issues.”
The Present: Work to be done Now 100% remote, with business-as-usual going smoothly, on a dime- ‘the present’ presented a threat matrix, which could not have been anticipated based on the fact that a 100% remote global workforce was not anticipated by anyone.
And so Bob and the team “had to put together a provisional policy on how to manage collaboration tools: What do you record? How do you record it? What type of data can you talk about over the air? Do the solutions have encryption in transit and encryption at rest, and is that encryption a suitable standard?”
As Bob tells it, beyond collaboration tools, “COVID brought with it a whole bunch of fun, little scams, a lot, a dramatic increase in the phishing attacks, business, email, compromise attacks and anything social engineering happening in real time.”
With digital machete in hand, Bob slashed through all of those new issues to ensure that he and his team could take a step back and have a big picture focus on what he’s always focused- people, process and technology.
The Future: The Department of Know With a big picture focus on people, process and technology- technology could be construed as your tools and process could be construed as your tactics. Tools and tactics can be improved or replaced to fit better with a new reality. But changing people is a more delicate and more gradual shift.
“If it's face to flat screen, not face to face, we need to be able to see the person on the other end and understand if they're stressed or if they're, calm and cool and collected. It's about listening very carefully to those indicators. We have staff who are spending part time as parents which means part time as a teachers and part time as the custodial staff in the house. And, and then they're also working for us.”
“So the eight-hour workday is not contiguous. We have to make sure that we're compensating for that appropriately.”
Truly understanding the human dynamic on his team is only the beginning. Bob is focused on understanding what each user needs and ensuring that user can appropriately and flexibly do their job with his support. He knows that his job is to ensure access with security. If he blocks access, the user will simply work-around with no security. As the future is now, he knows he cannot make decisions that negatively impact the work of his hundred thousand users. He has to be “thinking as a business enabler.”
The department of no must become the department of know.
During this digital summit panel, Suresh Chawdhary, head of security & privacy for Nokia, stresses the importance of a layered, multi-pronged cyber security approach to best protect from phishing and whaling. This layer defense mechanism moves away from a one-size-fits-all strategy, ensuring that everyone across the enterprise is well equipped to stay protected against threats.
Three Cyber Security Defense Layers To Consider 1. By baseline testing employees for their susceptibility to phishing, an enterprise gathers statistics and builds an actionable and measurable improvement plan. Even within this layer, different departments are responsible for different deliverables. That means that malware threats and other vulnerabilities will affect separate industries and divisions within that industry to varying degrees. By customizing phishing tests—much like bad actors do—a holistic and accurate pattern emerges. 2. A second layer is to have targeted training sessions for employees so that they understand what is anticipated and expected from them, how to report phishing attempts properly, and how to make sure that they are not processing payments or sending these kinds of sensitive personal information on emails when they get these kinds of emails. 3. A third approach is targets key executives. Suresh warns that this can get tricky. Leadership team members are often global, meaning they’re traveling frequently to meet customers and vendors or participate in seminars and conferences. They also have a multiset of technologies at their disposal. With all these touchpoints, it is difficult for a CSO or an information security organization to inform executives of the varying degrees and types of risks. In this case, Suresh suggests relying on proactive, reactive, and detective controls to safeguard them. Because awareness alone doesn’t cut it for these busy individuals, multifactor authentication mechanisms and email encryption are a must. For example, a two-factor mechanism for approving invoices through email mitigates risk considerably.
Things To Consider When Developing A Cyber Security Plan Finance and HR employees are particularly vulnerable due to their payment processing duties. An email spoofing the head of finance or the CEO may expertly convince an employee to urgently transfer money at the click of a button. The possibility of getting that money back is nearly zero. Additionally, HR has a massive amount of sensitive data at their fingertips. Data is the new oil in the cyber crime industry. All it takes is one slip or a single lapse in judgment for a breach to expose personal data so sensitive—such as credit card and social security numbers—that it creates a lawsuit or enough bad press to devastate an organization.
Examining the big picture and important factors of an organization helps build a plan that fits the company in terms of cost, risk profiles, and the size of the organization. Considerations may include:
- Cloud service encryption packages
- Appropriate number of training sessions per year
- Regulations and limitations of certain technologies across different geographies
A security plan isn’t going to be the same across an organization. Still, there are certain baseline technologies that build the foundation of security—namely an antivirus solution and a personal firewall for every employee across the globe. While email encryption is a nice-to-have for all employees, it is a must-have for people who are prone to whaling attacks, including the C-suite and leadership team. Other departments to keep in mind for customized control mechanisms are finance, HR, legal procurement, and suppliers. It is important to have a combination of proactive and reactive controls when dealing with these hidden enemies.
Advanced Persistent Threats The obvious goal to a phishing or whaling attempt is an immediate financial gain. However, an advanced persistent threat can do much more damage. In this scenario, a bad actor gains access to an organization’s network by confiscating credentials. Once inside, they can find and extract data while remaining undetected for long periods of time. Of course losing money hurts, but the loss of IP like propriety algorithms or software can be a nail in the coffin.
The Business Case For Proactive Controls Suresh estimates that only about half of all organizations have a solid baseline of security, although that estimate goes up to about 80% for middle and large sized companies. Unfortunately, too many companies make significant investment into cyber security reactively. The ROI and business case for a primary, proactive cyber security strategy often isn’t obvious until it’s too late—that is, a breach has occurred. It is a CSO’s job, then, to build and communicate a strong business case around why a security technology investment is worth it.
Also, while training is a worthy and necessary investment, humans are only human, and phishing and whaling attempts will sometimes work. That is why a CSO must argue for build-on reactive honeypot technologies.
Honeypot is a security mechanism that deploys within a network and spots malicious traffic patterns in an out of the network. Honeypot can be set up to divert traffic to particular devices that slow the traffic down and even forensically investigate the source, destination, and the TCP or UDP port numbers. It identifies the types of files and time of the breach as well.
Closing Thoughts Suresh closes with a reminder for CSOs: they are responsible for not only protecting and safeguarding critical information assets, but also to mitigate these kinds of threats that might be underpinning on certain specifics or functions. Beyond security talent, management and business skills are required.
During this digital panel session, Jim Brady discusses real-time change in incident management. His extensive experience in a multitude of security roles throughout his career means he has seen a lot of changes in the healthcare cyber security field. Naturally, the latest change to make its mark is the new remote work environment COVID-19 has deemed nececessary.
A New Reality in Cyber Security In the past, incident response plans are created and workshopped on location—in the case of healthcare, at the hospitals, command centers, etc. Now, with most of IT, the administration staff, and even doctors working remotely, new considerations must be taken.
Now that vendors, legal counsel, and staff are working from home, are they vulnerable to new threat actors, or are the bad guys giving healthcare a break during this global pandemic? Unfortunately, opportunistic phishing scams are increasing as the world is combatting COVID-19. For example, some phishing attempts run under the guise of PPE equipment vendors.
Additionally, while telehealth works as a good alternative to in-person doctor appointments, is it secure?
Three Main Threats A well, executed cyber security incident has the possibility to severely disable or even take down organizations. In the healthcare field—especially during this time—it is imperative that hospital doors remain open. CSOs are especially on alert for the following three threats:
- Data breaches
- Ransomware and wiperware
- Medical device and IoT tampering
There are a few key things CSOs can do to effectively mitigate these areas of vulnerability. The first challenge is managing the environment remotely now that key security staff is working from home. System access needs to be the same as it was onsite. Home networks require an appropriate amount of bandwidth and the right VPN access must be granted. Home workers need the proper security for their home router firewall.
Incident Response Plans A holistic cyber security plan not only works to prevent incidents but respond to them as well. In the way that fire departments educate on fire prevention while also maintaining the ability to put fires out, responding quickly to a breach is imperative. For example:
- Knowing who to go to if a critical IT system needs to be shut down
- Knowing who the decision-makers are and having their contact information up to date and accessible
- Creating a communication plan across departments that includes at-home employees’ contact hours and preferred forms of communication.
- Keeping contact methods such as video chats on secure platforms
Architecting a command center is difficult enough on prem with a team. It has only gotten harder with everyone spread out remotely. A communication grid helps clarify who communicates what to who. The C-suite needs regular high levels of communication. Clinicians on the front lines delivering care need access to the technologies that are required to do their jobs. Educating the administration staff on how to stay safe at home is also imperative. These non-technical positions are more prone to insecure home network and firewall setups. BOYB devices must not be used by family members or left insecure. All of these things need to be considered when developing an incident response plan during this pandemic.
Staying Physically Safe While Keeping The Network Secure The health and safety of employees is also tied closely into cyber security. For example, is there a contingency plan if a large number of IT staff get sick? Are hospital-issued laptops and repurposed IT equipment disinfected properly? Are vendors shipping safe goods? If a cyber security attack affects technology tools at a hospital, who retrieves that device for forensics purposes? Do they have protective equipment to keep them safe? All of these considerations must be a part of an incident response plan.
The business and IT side of healthcare banded together and willingly risked their health to set up the technological side of medical tents and drive-through testing. Jim considers the possibility that such a positive and efficient crisis response will set an impossible precedence in the future.
Healthcare After COVID-19 If ever there were a silver lining to Coronavirus, long-term healthcare changes going forward may be it. Traditionally, healthcare is an industry that lags behind in technology adoption. Telehealth--a method of healthcare that brings down cost and increases patient satisfaction—will be the new way forward. Jim expands on this idea before answering live-audience questions.
Jamal Hartenstein is prior unified security management (USM) in military intelligence. He’s worked with the department of defense on military bases, as a part of joint task forces and has experience with every branch of service. He’s helped with cyber security and data privacy initiatives for hospitals, federal agencies, pension funds and other private sector industries.
The Past: Not best in class Jamal is wary of thinking that everything was ‘wine and roses’ prior to the global pandemic. He’s aware that some organizations had it right- they were leading edge thinkers as far as cyber security. But most organizations were (by definition) not best in class. “The reality was that the threat vectors were more so contained within an enclave or an enterprise of a known like end points. There was easy to wrap your head around BYOD or CYOD policy. There was a CMDB [configured management database] that was probably accurate at one point but that’s if you were a mature enough organization.”
The Present: Not prepared And so even if you’ve gotten to today without a major breach Jamal points out that with a completely new and 100% remote technology stack, “there is not an understanding of what data is entering our enclaves or enterprises.” He quickly follows that there is also not a complete understanding of where it's entering from via what equipment. That ‘completely new’ terminology is not for all, but it’s for most as, “not every organization was capable or mature or had a sophisticated remote work toolkit in place.” This has all lead to a threat landscape that has “expanded exponentially.”
It’s not that Jamal’s outlook is bleak; he’s just concerned that those that have not been subject to major incidents do perhaps not understand the past correctly which means that they’re not dealing with the present with a suitable approach.
He focuses on a would-be executive who feels that they remain prepared for CCPA or GDPR because they just had an assessment done in January. “Well in January, your work from home workforce and your threat landscape was dramatically different.” Beyond dealing with the traditional issues associated with a breach, “the settlements and fines and fees or payouts after data security, breach litigation are oftentimes much more than the cost of remediation or mitigating audit findings or a Cyber Security assessment.
The Future: Still time to improve Jamal’s industry assessment is that there are some that have not felt the actual tectonic shift that’s occurred for humanity and thus, cyber security. His point is that everything is different now- whether you feel it yet or not.
And so, with that understanding, he parts with...
Five Pieces Of Advice * Investigate new forms of data protection * Ensure you have multifactor authentication * Focus on encryption at deeper layers in the OSI model * Realize the protection data in transit and data at rest * Revisit your mitigation factors
The bottom line- prepare yourself to address the new threat vectors on your new landscape
Robert Welborn is the Director, Data & Data Science for General Motors. As he sees it, global corporate enterprise has- for the most part, seen data as a luxury, “we'll get to reporting when we get to reporting, we'll upsell, we'll monetize.”
Not that monetizing is a bad thing, but Robert’s point is that we haven’t been using data as the ultimate element of decision-making. Sure- data-driven decision-making has occurred, but not to the extent of managing enterprise existence.
The global pandemic had a particular effect on Robert’s company. For over 100 years General Motors manufactured motor vehicles. Then on April 8th, 2020- General Motors became a ventilator manufacturer. What used to be a fun data dance that Robert and his team would do privately suddenly became precision choreographed ballet of the highest order with every decision-maker involved.
“What we had used as a luxury before suddenly was driving everything. We're having conversations with our suppliers, with the UAW and with the plants showing them through data what we're going to do next.”
And the data told them just what to do. Robert and his team were seeing vehicle-level data as the pandemic burst across the globe and made it’s way to the East Coast of the United States. “The data is saying we can shut down. And the data that we're getting from the state of New York in specific is saying that we, if we were doing anything right now- we should be building ventilators. If there's anything that we would do, we should build insulators and we should build masks.”
Max Just has been talking about the Future of Work for quite some time. We now all know that the conceptualizing Max had been doing paid off in immediate fashion as the Future of Work is here.
Elan Frank from Slack joins us and shares that the tool began life as a side project of another initiative. It's grown to be a true alternative to email. Channel based messaging is built for the future of work and as we discuss, the future of work is here, now.
This BFSI Panel features key industry experts who share their strategies around pushing their organization into the future. They note that the technology available is user-friendly and rarely the barrier to entry. It is the mapping, the process, and post-implementation that makes or breaks a digital transformation. Agile development and change management are both initiatives that work. Automation has the potential to save time, money, and improve the customer experience, but if it isn’t applied in a purposeful way, it is useless. The panelists share their personal journey through transformation, offering insights and advice along the way.
Fred Reichheld joins us again, this time to discuss employee engagement. The business benefit to ensuring a positive employee experience is because that translates to a positive customer experience. As Fred discussed last time, a good customer experience means an increase in profit. However, Fred is careful to clearly define what make a good employee experience. Is it lots of vacation time, the ability to shirk difficult customers, and taking on only the best shifts? Of course not, as this would lead to a bad customer experience. Fred instead focuses on “helping your employees lead great lives of meaningful service.” Technology is used as a tool to automate unfulfilling tasks that humans used to be responsible for. In turn, human talent is freed up to inform, innovate, and provide meaningful change to the customer experience. Finally, Fred makes suggestions on to achieve such a lofty goal. Ultimately, Fred says, “I think what inspires people to do their best is when they feel like they are being listened to, they have a voice, and that the team is consistently being put in a position where they can enrich the lives of customers and see that as the core purpose in their work.”
Max Just is accompanied by a special guest on this episode of Future of Work. Julie Seitz is an expert on all things workspace, which makes her the perfect partner for the topic of—you guessed it—the future of workspaces. While she notes that an enterprise can’t necessarily futureproof themselves in this regard, she encourages them to get out of their insular spaces for the sake of spotting trends in how people are working in universities, airports, etc. Flexibility and simplicity in a workspace make more practical investments than technological ones that will become outdated. Julie also reflects on the evolution of the public school classroom and how examining that process helps illustrate how different generations work differently. Max jumps in with the ah-hah moments he had while working with Julie, including the importance of providing collaborative workspaces for collaborative work. Ultimately, Max and Julie agree: workspaces matter.
Fred Reichheld, the creator of the Net Promoter System (NPS), joins us to discuss the task of building a customer-centric culture. Companies that do the best at enriching the lives of their customers are growing two-and-a-half times faster than their competition. Today, word of mouth and truth spreads like wildfire. The modern enterprise can no longer depend on clever advertising campaigns to mask their shortcomings. Building a customer-first culture isn’t always easy, though. Legacy companies have to fight through their capitalistic pasts. Metrics need to change. Shareholders must get on board with the new nature of business. The Net Promoter Score is successful because it provides data that proves the effectiveness of customer-centricity to the bottom line. It is a modern-day metric that replaces the ones that no longer serve today’s landscape. Fred offers both suggestions and examples on how to successfully pivot to a customer-centric business model during this insightful conversation.
Gary Pilacinski, director of business process improvement engineering with LA Care Health Plan, discusses the importance of cultural transformational change. From start-ups to legacy organizations, Gary stresses how critical culture is for the success of an enterprise. One common stumbling block to a successful culture change is a lack of buy-in from the C-suite. Conversely, if upper management sees a need for change but doesn’t effectively implement it, employees who have been with the organization for years—or decades, even—may get stuck in their ways. If that is the case, empowering frontline staff is key. Gary discusses ways to do just that. He also elaborates on how he is working to implement Lean and PI within his organization and how healthcare at large can approach the same issues. Hint: training the trainers is key. Change is uncomfortable. But with transparency, engagement, and most important, keeping the interests of the patient front and center, Gary believes Lean culture transformations are not only possible, but necessary for the success of the healthcare sector and those it serves.
Roland Haefs, with Henkel, discusses enterprise evolution and the shift from having purely transactional relationships to becoming a true business solutions provider. It takes strong leadership and an entrepreneurial spirit to pull off such a transformation, which Roland details. In order to demonstrate his point, Roland lays out Henkel’s approach to the shared services process of master data management. Next, the conversation turns to RPA and AI more specifically, including its role in shared services and how to make sure it is being deployed effectively. Further, Roland discusses Henkel’s four business priorities: fund growth, drive growth, excel at digitalization, and increase agility.
McDonald’s senior director of innovation, Deena John, joins us to talk about digital transformation. While definitions vary, Deena describes digital transformation as “transforming through integration of technology” with the goal of generating maximum value for the customer. End-to-end disruption means looking into the future and creating a transformation road map that leads to a new operating model. Deena discusses the differences and similarities between agile and lean, and the iterative process that makes scaling sustainable. Deena frames her key points with specific examples. Next, she asks and answers the question, “In an innovation culture what’s the importance of failing fast?” Ultimately, this insightful conversation with Deena focuses on the future of the enterprise and what needs to happen now to ensure corporations can keep up with the ever-changing landscape that technology brings to business.
Karen Tilstra is the co-founder of the Florida Hospital Innovation Lab. In this conversation, Karen emphasizes the intent of the Innovation Lab, which, not surprisingly, is innovation. However, the process to innovation is often overlooked. Karen describes it as a “multifaceted journey of learning, of discovery, of openness.” In other words, innovation isn’t instantaneous, nor does it happen in a silo. When a brand thinks they know what’s best for their customers—instead of interacting with those customers—it’s often the beginning of the end. Karen details Sears’ downward spiral as an example. Next, Karen questions the value of the typical enterprise growth mentality. Is “grow or die” a myth or a reality? True, meaningful innovation involves the application of certain soft skills that aren’t immediately apparent. Karen drives their importance home in this insightful, outside-of-the-box conversation.
Gerald Lackey, VP of Business Optimization and Agility at GAF, discusses their 18-month journey into their current transformation. Gerald is no stranger to enterprise transformations, having participated in a few himself, but he outlines a few unique strategies GAF is taking. For example, GAF is especially focused on business outcomes for their customers. That means that instead of creating a solution and selling it to customers, they are learning about the needs of their customers and creating solutions that fit those needs. Gerald describes this new strategy as a combination between the traditional top-down method and a social movement that involves everybody.
Tapping into the entire workflow through internal social media is one strategy GAF employs to create a culture of customer centricity, inclusivity, and change. Gerald dives deep on other unique transformation strategies that meet people—internally and externally—where they are, instead of attempting to force change. Corporate stumbling blocks are more often than not a cause of “people problems.” Gerald wraps up this discussion by explaining how GAF’s agile approach helps navigate those problems effectively.
Dmitri Popov, global service management lead for Mann + Hummel Group, joins us today to discuss scaling RPA. Dmitri himself admits that such a process is painful, in part because of the few successful enterprise examples for which to model after. Dmitri points to IBM as a company who has done it well. Next, Dmitri discusses how to leverage shared services in the most efficient way, exemplifying R&D and certain purchasing aspects. One of the most difficult components of implementing RPA across the workflow is acceptance and adherence. Dmitri doesn’t mince words when it comes to what it takes in a person—not just an enterprise—to accept change, no matter how positive that change may ultimately be.
Todd Gillam joined Comcast a decade ago—when the word “Comcast” was met with severe negativity. During the first part of our conversation with Todd, he laments over those dark days and discusses the progress they made the first five years after he was hired. They cleaned up their image by addressing common complaints such as hold times and technician effectiveness. Stage two involved systematically identifying and fixing a broader range of customer pain points by utilizing NPS surveys. By combining the operation end of things with the product, Comcast is offering a single digital interface solution across its offerings. Todd gives a few clever examples of what this entails. Finally, Todd asks and answers three important questions: How does Comcast build something and make it useful to the customer? How do you make that work with the rest of the company? And finally, how does Comcast achieve a higher state of existence with respect to customer experiences that feel like a seamless part of the product?
Peter Van Den Heuval, product manager with Shell, is better known internally as Peter PI. In this conversation, he explains the origin story of his nickname, a nod to Shell’s use of OSIsoft’s PI System data infrastructure. Shell has been ahead of the data game since 1996, as they understood the long-term implications of real-time data and looked for a platform to store and analyze that data. PI fit the bill. Now, as technology and processing power has bumped data into the next frontier, Shell applies advanced analytics to the massive amount of data they’ve collected. Peter shares examples of complicated calculations they benefit from due to big data and real-time process analytics. Next, Peter explains how Shell plans to implement IoT in order to collect meaningful data for predictive analytics that leads to actionable change. Peter also explores the soft skills involved in staying passionate about data and its power. He enables Shell’s workflow the ability to take action on data by simplifying the data process through PI. Ultimately, creating a safe, effective product is Peter’s motivation.
On this episode of “Tomorrow Today,” Barbara Hodge discusses the power of continuous education. With the turn of the decade, Barbara decided to make some changes to her own learning path. She is fully open to, and expects, new insights from her new experience to spill over into the way she works. On an enterprise level, global corporations also expect talent to continuously peruse new avenues of education. Today’s ever-evolving landscape requires it. Next, Barbara discusses avalanches—both literal and metaphorical—and what they teach us about decision making and risk taking. Ultimately, Barbara’s point is this: if we’re open to new ideas from anywhere and everywhere and tie those ideas back to what we’re doing in our day-to-day, we benefit. Driving the conversation back to AI and technology, the lesson of the day is this: Diversity of thought prevents common pitfalls such as bias and instability.
Deepak Subbaru joins us again, this time, to discuss unstructured data. The recent explosion in technology inputs has raised the bar for customer expectations. They want more, and they want it now. Requests are coming via phone calls, social media, emails, etc. The product of this feedback is unstructured data. Deepak goes in depth on three actionable steps to take in order to leverage the power of unstructured data: know your data, know the sources of your data, and prepare your data. Next, Deepak discusses the importance of defining outcomes for your data, as opposed to cramming data into an algorithm and receiving an output that has no use case. As Deepak reiterates throughout the conversation, context is key.
Uzair Rashid, with CVS Healthcare, explains the importance of structuring innovation. Uzair brings a unique perspective to CVS, a Fortune 10 healthcare innovations company, because prior to CVS, he spent many years as a consultant. He understands how to level set and create meaningful change in legacy companies. When it comes to healthcare disruption, Uzair puts it this way: “Innovation at the speed of regulation.” Uzair’s goal is to seek out key technology enablers that create new patient experiences, drive down cost, and take the challenge of resource contention out of the game. By leveraging technology in conjunction with traditional medical resources, the healthcare system can clean up the funnel of patients who are better served with these new innovations. First, as the patient must take priority, it is imperative we understand the narrative of what they want. Then, we can power that with data and connected devices. The more proactive and preventative healthcare becomes, the healthier people become, the better healthcare becomes. Uzair summarizes the process beautifully with this simple phrase. “[With technology], you think about routing people appropriately to care.”
Intel’s Steven Remsen made the cross-country trip from Portland, OR to Orlando for OPEX Week. We caught up with him to discuss process mining. Steven starts out with a quick history of a few special algorithms before noting the strengths of traditional mapping methods. As a practitioner, he understands the three basic steps of process mining from the academic space: discovery, conformance, and enhancement. Steve’s science background sets him apart from some other data scientists who see the black boxes of AI as collateral. Steven looks under the hood. After all, he notes, finding an AI solution to a business problem isn’t enough—it must be the correct solution. Next, Stephen shares a multi-million-dollar solution to a bottleneck in Intel’s fabrication process that was achieved through a quick and easy process mining activity. Next, Steven drives home the backbone of any successful AI implementation: people. In order to process mine in a holistic way, as Steven says, “It’s always people, process, technology.” He demonstrates this point with one more fantastic story about how data won’t work together if people can’t.
Reka Mishra is the managing director of the transformation office for the SVB Financial Group. She lays out the basics of mergers and acquisitions before diving in on operational excellence. For M&A, it is imperative to have a target operating model in place. That model must consist of four key elements: people, process, technology, and data. Change management, communication, and HR must also be involved from the onset in order to best address the concerns of the employees. When M&A happens for the sake of digital transformation, it is especially critical that the enterprise is sensitive to the human element. Reka explains how to strike the right balance in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. Mergers and acquisitions aren’t a one-and-done, and they must lead from the top. As Reka says, “It's absolutely critical to get all the executives aligned and in agreement because then you can have a very clear path forward, and then you know you're meeting everybody's expectation. And also it's helpful in them communicating to their employees what's happening at an organization-wide level. It's a consistent message. It's a consistent buy-in.”
Heather King is the managing director for both the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network and the Intelligent Automation Division for the Americas. She oversees a team that puts on the dynamic events of relevant content for the industries of the same name. Having been in her role for the past seven years, Heather gives a brief timeline of the creation and growth of the IA series that was born out of SSON. The term RPA first presented itself in 2014 during a panel session and kept cropping up until Heather’s team decided to give it its own plenary session. It was just a matter of time before it became clear that automation needed its own home outside of SSON, and IA was born. Next, Heather goes into detail about the other conferences her team puts on each year, including the largest shared services event in the world, Shared Services & Outsourcing Week. Her passion for the importance of conferences—and the act of conferencing—is as clear as it is contagious.
The entertaining Genworth Financial team joins us from OPEX Week 2020 to tell us their enterprise’s transformation story—or journey, more accurately. Kathleen starts off by explaining her view of the company 15 years ago: “It was a very siloed organization. It was very much command and control; very hierarchical. We were focused very much on our processes, like manufacturing, because we came from GE.” Sometimes, as Martijn is quick to interject, they were focusing on the wrong processes. Their new goal was to focus on the customer and increase associate empathy. The leadership team achieved this with some creative physical props that mimic certain hardships their clients experience. However, leading by fear negatively impacts the service a customer receives as well, so Genworth devised a new workforce strategy. “If you really truly believe that the customer is the most important person--because he or she pays your salary--then the front line employees are the most important people, and therefore, your team leaders are the most important leaders. Most people leave their leader. They don't leave the organization.” The team details how they achieved this monumental task.
Joe Jordan joins us from OPEX Week in Orlando. As the director of operational excellence for Edward Jones, Joe sought inspiration from the hit TV show Shark Tank to give a platform to the innovative minds of Edward Jones. If anyone across the firm’s workflow has an idea about how to transform their part of the business, they are given the opportunity to present it to the C-suite. If the idea ultimately increases Edward Jones’s ROI, the C-suite signs of on funding the technology that bring the idea to fruition. It’s an exciting opportunity for voices across the company to be heard and is a win/win for morale and profit. Over the last year, they’ve held about 15 of these Shark Tank sessions and have signed off on 100% of them. Joe explains exactly how the process works and provides a few simple yet powerful examples, from automatic signature verification to RPA processes. Finally, Joe explains what they look for in an employee with the acronym BLT: that is, business acumen, leadership, and technology. Ultimately, the firm’s focus on a growth mindset across all verticals of the organization is what keeps Edward Jones as an industry leader.
Adrian Terry, VP of GM Financial’s OpEx function, discusses their unique approach to IT and RPA. Initially, IT had some processes they wanted to automate. From there, a pilot was developed. It soon became clear that the broader organization could benefit from similar processes, so GM onboarded their own RPA business automation talent. Now, IT and RPA have been conjoined. While each department still has their direct leadership, the “two headed monster” reports to a governance function. Next, Adrian details the execution and benefits of the pod model they’ve developed. After Adrian explains the structure, deployment, and communication aspects of the design, he talks scale. Finally, after briefly touching on some growing pains of the transformation, Adrian sums up the meticulous, thought-out execution of the pods and the future of the business. Adrian doesn’t do anything unless he does it well.
Dr. Ayanna Howard is a chair of the School of Interactive computing at Georgia Tech, an academic, and a startup founder. While her talents are as vast as her pursuits, she sums up their relation as interactive computing. In her words, “Interactive computing is really this theme that the human is center to everything that we do when we think about computing and artificial intelligence.” Dr. Howard pursues interactive computing for the greater good, including robotics in healthcare and education. She also discusses ethics in computing, including privacy and security.
James Dodkins, Customer Experience Expert and heavy metal enthusiast, discusses the parallels between the two. First, he touches on the cyclical nature of refining a product to please its audience. Whether it’s music or tech, improving upon the output based on feedback about the original product moves the needle forward. At the same time, innovation flourishes in a space void of customer input. The secret to balancing these two conflicting strategies is interpreting feedback to anticipate an unarticulated need. James then weighs the pros and cons of niching down and gaining a hardcore audience or going broad and creating a product that is widely accepted but lackluster, somehow tying in a relevant Nickleback reference. Ultimately, James boils it down to this: “We need to move away from this Industrial Age process standardization mindset and towards a 21st Century customer experience, personalization mindset. Embrace that variation. Understand that people are all different. They have different outcomes, different needs. Make sure that our companies are aligned towards the delivery of those things. Boom.”
Angie Fearn comes to us from OPEX Orlando to discuss diversity of thought and its importance for enterprise. While diversity has become a loaded buzzword, Angie refocuses its compass around the way different people come with their own set of skills and capabilities. As a leader—and a human—it is natural to want to hire people who look and think like you. It takes an insightful leader to actively diversify their talent in order to fill in the gaps that exist within the leadership team and the enterprise at large. Angie explores the differences between subject matter experts and soft skill experts. Balancing the two in a way that makes sense ensures that employees are ready for the future of work, while still bringing their current expertise into the role. Angie offers several in-depth examples of transformation done right, what the future of the workforce looks like, and the role AI plays in it all.
Barbara Hodge reflects on 2019, identifying the trends that shaped the decade. Data, self-service, and automation has affected us all. A new awareness of personal data and its power—for good and for evil—came to light, for example, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. At the same time, all of that data that has been given and taken has made surprisingly little headway within industry, as enterprises grapple with how to funnel it into tangible action. While it’s easy to sensationalize the negative, Barbara reminds us that GBS and automation has made our lives easier. Barbara explores the automation ideal: a world in which we’re free to pursue our passions because the difficult work is done for us. It’s easy to take progress for granted and worry about the side effects of that progress, but Barbara is hopeful that this Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead humanity into a new era of innovation and inspiration.
BitCherry’s Paul Bao explains the blockchain process behind the platform’s commercial applications. Working similar to Amazon’s eCommerce model, BitCherry will offer a platform to buy, sell, and network goods using digital currency. Regulatory roadblocks make penetration in the U.S. difficult, but BitCherry has over 2 million members and 120,000 active daily users. Currently, these users simply buy and sell digital currency in anticipation for BitCherry’s retail applications. Bao expects the retail platform to go live in Q1 of 2020. Next, he details the brainstorming process behind BitCherry’s unique independent investor philosophy and marvels over the future implications of blockchain. While he may be a little ahead of his time, BitCherry’s users prove that there is a lot of faith in the future of eCommerce and digital currency.
Malta, a small European island, is quickly becoming a blockchain hub, and thus, accurately nicknamed “Blockchain Island.” This panel discussion delves into blockchain developments, standards, and laws. Malta’s progressive, global view of blockchain implications has allowed Blockchain Island to progress in a healthy, robust, safe way, complete with governance and legislation. The panel shares the infrastructure that has led to its success in the hope that others will implement a similar solution. With an end goal of international blockchain standards, a panelist sums up this discussion nicely: “We anticipated the need to regulate blockchain technologies, and that was while everyone else was focusing on the cryptocurrency aspect.” “The ISO standard is starting. So, the ISO standard is anticipating other jurisdictions, and it's starting to look into what it means to regulate blockchain technologies or standardize blockchain technologies.”
Tom Trowbridge is the former president and one of the founders of Hedera Hashgraph, a distributed ledger technology. He is also an avid investor and advisor in the technology space. Hedera’s governing council consists of companies like Nomura, Deutsche Telecom, IBM, Boeing, and Swisscom. Tom notes that Hedera met with the Facebook Cayenne team in 2018—they did not join. A year later, Facebook announced the digital currency Libra and its accompanying—but separate—digital wallet, Calibra. Tom has studied and followed the digital currency phenomena in great depth and puts blockchain technologies in perspective—including the strategy Facebook may deploy in order to get users on board with its digital currency. Will the Zuckerberg Reserve give the Federal Reserve a run for its money? Tom has thoughts on that as well.
Kexin Xie is a data scientist for Salesforce. Among other things, Kexin is responsible for building the engineering infrastructure, services, and frameworks that makes the Salesforce marketing cloud so powerful. In this conversation, Kexin discusses how the power of predictive analytics is leveraged in businesses for “next-best-action” interactions. While these tools drive more engagement and revenue from the customer side, which Kexin touches on, he dives deep on how data science makes this possible. Kexin makes the intangibles tangible by describing the process by which algorithms are designed—including some pitfalls to be aware of—and recognizing “valuable noise.” Kexin is a realist, though, saying, “There's the use case part, there's the data part, and we're trying to build a bridge between the end solution and how we get there from the initial raw form. Eventually, we’ll start to understand the raw data more and start to build even more pipelines and then see how they connect with each other; their commonalities. And eventually, I think the bridge will be formed, and then building new things will be much easier than the initial use case.”
Max Just is accompanied by a special guest on this episode of Future of Work. Julie Seitz is an expert on all things workspace, which makes her the perfect partner for the topic of—you guessed it—the future of workspaces. While she notes that an enterprise can’t necessarily futureproof themselves in this regard, she encourages them to get out of their insular spaces for the sake of spotting trends in how people are working in universities, airports, etc. Flexibility and simplicity in a workspace make more practical investments than technological ones that will become outdated. Julie also reflects on the evolution of the public school classroom and how examining that process helps illustrate how different generations work differently. Max jumps in with the ah-hah moments he had while working with Julie, including the importance of providing collaborative workspaces for collaborative work. Ultimately, Max and Julie agree: workspaces matter.
NASA’s Pam Wolfe joins us to discuss their RPA journey, which started over two years ago in their Shared Services Center. Establishing RPA governance across NASA has taken time, strategy, and strong support across the agency. In many ways, NASA’s move to RPA is very similar to the typical enterprise, but let’s not forget—NASA sends people to space. In fact, a recent decision was made to send astronauts to the moon and Mars by 2024. In order to reach their goals, NASA went through a cultural and digital transformation shift that received a high level of support from the top—which Pam defines as a necessity. Naturally, governance and security is of the utmost importance during this transformation. Pam shares some astonishing numbers in regard to their progress while laying out a path for the lay-enterprise, if you will, to accomplish similar workflow evolutions.
In this episode, IEEE’s Lee Coulter discusses the notion that the future of every successful company will depend on its transformation into a technology services business—even the local pizza joint. This far-reaching conversation covers the entirety of the current “data chasm.” Lee kicks the discussion off by justifying his aversion to the term RPA. He notes that organizations start with task automation before moving onto intelligent automation, a process that gets lost in the blanket term RPA. Lee says, “Where we are today and what's now happening is that the tool makers and the advanced practitioners are beginning to interact with unstructured data and expanding the use case to now include unstructured data. There's several different specific scenarios in which that occurs. Service initiation almost always begins with unstructured requests, like to a call center or chatbot.”
Kenneth Farrugia is the chief business development officer with the Bank of Valletta. Kenneth starts this conversation off with a bang, making the case that if banks don’t stay on top of the technological revolution, they run the risk of becoming irrelevant. Next, Kenneth, perhaps counterintuitively, labels legacy financial operations who’ve jumped on board with Industry 4.0 as FinTechs, while the up-and-comers are TechFins. Of course data and security is a big part of the conversation as well. Balancing the convenience of turning over one’s data with the risk of data breaches and/or privacy concerns is on the forefront of every financial institution’s mind. Kenneth discusses additional pain points to the future of banking, both for the client and corporation, and potential solutions for those pain points.
Juan Araya discusses structuring for scale from the eyes of the disruptor and disruptee—both of which Juan knows well. Juan reminds us that before making any actionable change, an end goal must be set. Next, Juan discusses the role speed plays in structuring for scale. Some industries need to move faster than others, which affects their decision making. In the case of Uber, Juan understood that transformative technology supported the speed of change Uber strived for, even more than the other scaling components: people and process. On the flipside, scaling legacy organizations quickly and through technology-first means isn’t conducive to success. His new role with Stryker moves slower and with an enterprise-wide intention different than Uber’s, which Juan details well. Finally, Juan paints a metaphor between scaling and art.
Robert Welborn joins us again for the second part of autonomous vehicle myths. During this discussion, Robert compares the vast and critical differences between the capabilities of today’s math and the necessity of developing tomorrow’s math before fully autonomous vehicles are a safe, mainstream option. He parses out the weakness in today’s autonomous vehicles. For example, converting visual information into digital information and then trying to extract features from that before making a decision off of those inputs. As one could imagine, and as Robert so vividly depicts, there are issues—namely safety—in expecting a computing system to respond quickly and correctly to the infinite numbers of inputs it may receive. Robert closes the discussion with a few viable ways of progressing the technology.
Dmitri Popov, global service management lead for Mann + Hummel Group, joins us today to discuss scaling RPA. Dmitri himself admits that such a process is painful, in part because of the few successful enterprise examples for which to model after. Dmitri points to IBM as a company who has done it well. Next, Dmitri discusses how to leverage shared services in the most efficient way, exemplifying R&D and certain purchasing aspects. One of the most difficult components of implementing RPA across the workflow is acceptance and adherence. Dmitri doesn’t mince words when it comes to what it takes in a person—not just an enterprise—to accept change, no matter how positive that change may ultimately be.
Rida Moustafa is an experienced data scientist with a demonstrated history of working in the retail industry. Rida covers a lot of ground in this concise, informative conversation. He shares his story with us, beginning in 1995 with the big data mining movement. Walking us through the way data mining has evolved, Rida hits on neural networks, deep learning, and expert systems. Today, however, AI technology has evolved enough to render some of these old processes moot. Of course, new obstacles present themselves, such as AI’s black box and its influence over regulatory decisions and prediction models. The last half of the conversation is reserved for Rida’s involvement with Walmart and the work he is doing with AI to automate processes and generally improve Walmart’s workflow and profits.
Robert Welborn discusses common myths surrounding autonomous vehicles. He starts with three TV shows that have skewed perception around AVs. Next, he sets expectations around the maturity model of AVs by describing the stages as childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Today’s data presents itself in three-dimensional forms, and Robert is realistic about the struggles and opportunities within this new model of data. It is the engineers behind AVs who are tasked with making things work, and Robert spends some time pulling back the curtain on their trials and tribulations. Finally, Robert recognizes that the elasticity and compatibility of all of the elements at play in autonomous vehicles have a tendency to be overestimated.
Deepak Subbarao joins us again, this time, to discuss unstructured data. The recent explosion in technology inputs has raised the bar for customer expectations. They want more, and they want it now. Requests are coming via phone calls, social media, emails, etc. The product of this feedback is unstructured data. Deepak goes in depth on three actionable steps to take in order to leverage the power of unstructured data: know your data, know the sources of your data, and prepare your data. Next, Deepak discusses the importance of defining outcomes for your data, as opposed to cramming data into an algorithm and receiving an output that has no use case. As Deepak reiterates throughout the conversation, context is key.
Roland Haefs, with Henkel, discusses enterprise evolution and the shift from having purely transactional relationships to becoming a true business solutions provider. It takes strong leadership and an entrepreneurial spirit to pull off such a transformation, which Roland details. In order to demonstrate his point, Roland lays out Henkel’s approach to the shared services process of master data management. Next, the conversation turns to RPA and AI more specifically, including its role in shared services and how to make sure it is being deployed effectively. Further, Roland discusses Henkel’s four business priorities: fund growth, drive growth, excel at digitalization, and increase agility.
David Orban, founder of Network Society Ventures, discusses the rapid acceleration of technology and its consequences. How we live, work, organize, and grow a business has changed. Decentralization is now a common path forward. David gives examples, including solar energy, digital manufacturing, personalized health, and peer-to-peer learning. Next, David discusses the volatility of Bitcoin and why that’s to be expected: we don’t yet fully understand its potential. David exemplifies the past while offering solutions for the future. The rest of the conversation focuses on blockchain more generally, including future applications and implications. David’s technologically futuristic views don’t seem all that outlandish after this conversation. In fact, his optimism is contagious.
Molecule is an open market based platform that incentivizes the development and co-creation of pharmaceutical IP. Molecule’s CEO, Devon Krantz, discusses the dire state of pharmacological R&D and its cost—literally and figuratively—to patients. Molecule, on the other hand, encourages a patient-centric approach to pharma. How? Devon puts it this way: “We are focusing more on bio-techs, on smaller research labs, on academia. [What we] want to incentivize is for researchers, scientists, and academics to take their IP and put it onto the Blockchain, into an open market, which then enables other people to buy into the market and freely grow that market. We’re democratizing access to cures.” Devon elaborates on the innovative and complex ‘why & how’ during the rest of the conversation.
Hendrik Boehmer is the People Experience & Operations Lead for Unilever. While such a title is a few syllables longer than its counterpart, Hendrik explains that Unilever’s HR transformation involved a complete reimagination of the role. First, hand-picked roles that were once outsourced were brought back in house in order to achieve HR’s new goal: more simple, more impact, and more human. What this entails is increasing automation and the role of human talent simultaneously. While it sounds contradictive, Hendrik details the logistics and execution in full. As with any digital transformation, reskilling and security must be addressed. Unilever has a system in place for both, which Hendrik describes next. Finally, Hendrik mulls over this universal truth and what it’s meant for his career and enterprise at large: the only constant is change.
In this episode, Kai-Eberhard Lueg, Global Business Solutions expert with Siemens, discusses the future of automation. Specifically, commerce is experiencing a new type of customer expectation that involves an increase in personalization and speed. While these two concepts seem counterintuitive, digitalization and shared services make it possible. Digitization is only as effective as the foundation it was built on, however, so Mr. Lueg details the best way to move forward on firm ground. Finally, Mr. Lueg emphasizes the importance of human talent. By building a culture of curiosity and innovation, both employees and enterprise benefit from the expectation and execution of upskilling and reskilling with an emphasis on technical skills.
Dr. Timothy Renick with Georgia State joins us to talk about his implementation of predictive analytics within the university, including an AI enhanced chatbot. Since the deployment of these technologies, Georgia State is graduating 3,000 more students a year than it did seven years ago. Dr. Renick explains the university’s approach to finding solutions for problems over innovation for innovation’s sake. With a change in demographics, including a larger low-income population, the university felt it necessary to increase access to support and identify issues before students found themselves in dire straits. Dr. Renick discusses the process of finding a vendor to help them identify and build the perfect solution. It’s working, as shown by the examples he discusses during the rest of the conversation.
Sarah Aerni is a data scientist Salesforce. In this conversation, Sarah leads off by talking about what that even means. First, she gives a brief history of the expectation in customer experience and how it’s evolved with the introduction of AI. Then she describes her role in this way: “My role is to lead a team of really brilliant individuals that are focused on how to make it possible for Salesforce customers to build models, add predictions and intelligence without building out an entire data science team.” Sarah comes from a deep science background, having spent six years becoming the expert on automated labeling of C. elegans—a worm cell. How does that relate to forward-facing data science on modern platforms? Building a model is building a model, as Sarah explains. While she shirks the term “unicorn,” it is easy to understand why she’s been described that way after listening to this episode.
Martin Felder is the head process automation center at Linde Global Services. He discusses his role with Linde as well as their journey into RPA. Instead of taking the typical low-hanging-fruit approach, Martin tackled Linde's impending future when deciding where to implement RPA first. He explains the whys and hows of this, including how he got the C-suite to sign off—and fund—such a huge initiative. As Linde is a global enterprise, Michael next discusses the pain points, mistakes, and happy accidents that occurred during the pilot and roll-out of RPA solutions. Perhaps most important, Martin wraps up with his thoughts on human talent, relationships, and how to move into the future of automation by appreciating the people side of things.
Dr. Ayanna Howard is a chair of the School of Interactive computing at Georgia Tech, an academic, and a startup founder. While her talents are as vast as her pursuits, she sums up their common thread in this way: “Interactive computing is really this theme that the human is center to everything that we do when we think about computing and artificial intelligence.” Dr. Howard pursues interactive computing for the greater good, including robotics in healthcare and education. She shares some exciting, innovative uses for the robotics she's working on. She also discusses ethics in computing, including privacy and security. Finally, Dr. Howard discusses the importance of diversity in the interactive computing landscape.
Dario Izzo joins us from the World Summit AI to talk space. As the scientific coordinator the Advanced Concepts Team out of the European Space Agency, Dario is tasked with some serious undertakings. First, Dario summarizes ESA’s mission for us. He humbly describes some of his accomplishments since 2003—such as swarming missions—but, as Dario says, his goal is to stay focused on the future. Currently, energy efficiency is a major area of focus for Dario. He also discusses asteroid deflectors and cube satellites. The remainder of this sci-fi-meets-reality conversation covers AI’s contribution to space endeavors and why they’re worth our time, money, and cooperation.
Helenio Gilabert is the senior director for digital transformation with Schneider Electric. Right out of the gate, Helenio stresses that word “transformation” over “digital.” While technology is the enabler, meaningful implementation can’t happen without a process and cultural change. This process must include all enterprise verticals and every individual within an organization. As Helenio puts it, “You have to offer [employees] a clear view of the path that they can take as an individual to contribute to the organization. And that will require some investment from companies in training and professional development.” Lastly, Helenio defines edge solutions as a hybrid approach to cloud and AI. After all, data is only as good as what we do with it.
AI strategist for the Volvo Group, Jair Riberio, discusses Volvo’s decision to develop the AI and machine learning Center of Excellence. His interest in AI stems from his time at IBM, which he sentimentally outlines before moving on. Next, Jair talks about the difference between a company who is solely IT-based and a company like Volvo who is implementing those technologies into a product that isn’t inherently tech. As reliability and safety is and has always been Volvo’s number one concern, Jair explains how technology and regulations play into the modern innovations at Volvo. Finally, Jair closes with his thoughts on fully autonomous vehicles and what it means for our future.
Michael Xiao starts this conversation a little off topic with Daoism. Or is it? As the conversation goes on, the philosophies behind Daoism get compared to the way humans navigate technology in an almost primal way. Programs like Facebook are designed to be addictive, giving those types of platforms a negative connotation. But at Blue Cross Blue Shield, where Michael works, their approach to AI is for the greater good. However, in order to move any legacy company in the direction of digital transformation, a mindset shift must take place. Michael details three different techniques for change management: process engineering, relationships, and changing the narrative around AI.
Maneesh Kumar Verma is the team leader and head of operations at Lunar Zebro. He’s also a lead robotics at Stellar Space Industries. In this conversation, Maneesh talks about the future of space exploration. In order to thoroughly explore places like Mars, a high level of autonomy must be given to the devices sent there. On top of that, the devices must be agile, plentiful, and inexpensive—compared to a Rover, for example. Maneesh calls these futuristic devices "artificial ants." He then gets into the nitty-gritty of the moon’s role as home base in the future of space exploration, diagnostic technologies, and pilot programs for future missions.
Joining us again is Tony Saldanha, president of Transformant, to discuss the role of the CIO and IT in organization transformation. Tony first talks about the legacy role of the CIO and whether or not it’s still relevant. Traditionally, CIOs have excelled at their number one task: scaling. However, with Industry 4.0 on the horizon, scaling is replaced by transformation. Next, Tony outlines the ideal mentality and vision of a CIO for today’s enterprise landscape. Tony’s solution for IT’s new place in enterprise involves injecting some creativity and business savviness into the department. He then explains the hows and whys.
Barbara Hodge opens this discussion with why the world needs more English majors. She makes the point that, while STEM majors are on the rise, data is nothing without a story behind it. Today’s workforce needs to be adaptable, well-rounded, and, yes, technologically savvy. What gets overlooked is the importance of building a narrative. As our world becomes increasingly automated, our jobs as humans will be to influence. We must know the data, interpret it in a way that makes sense, and communicating it in a way that is influential. Finally, Barbara gets excited about where technology is taking the workforce—not scared. Listen to her explain why we can learn from the past to help us transition into the next golden age of mankind.
The CIO of Amsterdam’s Spectral, Stephen Donnelly, joins us to talk energy. Spectral is “on the bleeding edge of the energy transition” as a tech developer and systems integrator. Steven outlines the pros and cons of each renewable energy resource and also discusses smart cars and smart cities. He then offers solutions to these problems using AI. Before Spectral, Stephen was with the European Commission at the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. He describes what that level of upper bureaucracy is like.
Deepak takes us through structured data: what it is, when we need it, and when we don’t. He talks about how to discover the history of structured data at your enterprise and what to do with it. Data comes flooding in in mass quantities and various forms. Is it worth structuring that data? Will it fit into our old ideas of “structure?” Next, Deepak talks about unpacking the value of structured data and how to get the most out of it. He suggests asking the right questions before preparing reports from structured data to eliminate time- and resource-waste. Finally, Deepak suggests identifying “master data” in order to streamline the data processing process.
Ravi Rao defines “emotional business” and why the analytical, numbers-based approach to running an enterprise just isn’t enough. In this episode, he specifically addresses nonverbal communication. “As we roll out operational improvement programs in a lot of organizations, people are paying attention to what's being written in the email. People are paying attention to what's happening on a stage coming from the manager or executive. But the things that most executives and managers and program managers fail to think about is even their body language is sending messages.” Ravi wraps up with some advice from the trenches.
A digital workforce is useless without a plan. Delphine Bernard discusses the steps it takes to make sure your AI is working for you. She stresses the importance of a solid planning phase. During this time, an enterprise should be answering questions such as, what do I want my bots to do? What processes do I want to automate? Next, simulate scenarios with KPIs and ROI. Make sure to have backups in place if bots fail. Delphine outlines the importance of building a strong digital workforce before going live, because, unlike humans, bots can’t adapt on the fly if something goes wrong. Still, it’s worth the effort, as Delphine also notes.
Max Just talks us through digital environments in this installation of Future of Work. Max opens by discussing the importance of improving the employee experience with a focus on people “inside the tent.” HR and procurement services aren’t enough to satisfy today’s employee. Instead, employees expect a seamless digital experience more on par to the one they experience in their day-to-day dealings. If a company feels archaic to an employee, they are less likely to feel like they belong. Max offers tips on how to adapt to the future employee, such as investing in automation. Finally, Max discusses two future trends he is noticing: internal digital assistants and collaboration tools.
We spoke with Nicole Raimundo, the chief information officer for the town of Cary, North Carolina, and its tech appeal.. Brands like Cisco, SAS, and Epic Games call Cary home. Further, Raiumundo discusses her process in building Cary into the “connected community” it is today. From big data to IoT, the reinvention of Cary involved a lot of training and reskilling. The success in Cary’s transformation lies in the cooperation of universities, tech companies, and the city. Listen to Raimundo lay out more about exactly what technologies Cary deployed and how those solutions better the community in the full episode.
Juan Arya discusses his eight CoE keys to success. Juan doesn’t mince words when it comes to the importance of building a strong, nuanced team and fixing what’s broken. He also discusses why it’s critical to build and sustain capabilities. He reminds us that, while success comes in sets of sprints, ultimately, the race is a marathon. Goals and metrics are another key for Juan, but the numbers are a moot point without the right performance management. Finally, Juan focuses on sustaining and building team skillsets, regardless of who is coming and going.
Chief Analytics Officer for ING, Görkem Köseoğlu, talks data during this panel discussion. While modeling and analytics is not new in the banking sector, AI and machine learning has reinvented it. Görkem discusses his inspiration, motivation, and role in transforming ING—including a pivotal trip to Silicon Valley—and why now is the time. He doesn’t tread lightly when it comes to the ethics and regulations involved and offers advice on how to transform the right way. Learn what Görkem means when he says he applies a “yin and yang” strategy to scalability.
In this episode, Ty Grandison takes some time to step back from this flawed reality we live in and discusses some of the unintended consequences of tech in the past 30 years. First, Ty gets real about the power of AI—or lack thereof—and its tendency to be overhyped. He then lays out the three steps that need to take place before responsible change can happen. Ty speaks candidly about bias in AI, saying, “There are multiple different chasms that are actually being built in the AI machine learning spaces that we need to think really deeply about and try to address.” He then offers ethical solutions that will also appease shareholders.
Joshua Beaudry, cofounder of LPSTK Skateboards and professional skater, discusses the evolution of the brand-turned-nonprofit. LPSTK was a digital native from the start. “All of our sales, fulfillment, our shipping, our donation, handling, our accounting, that's all automated with robots.” Josh goes on to detail the solutions they deploy, such as UiPath, and the learning curve involved in a hybrid DIY-type solution. He compares the differences between change in a large corporation and a small startup. Further, Josh learned to build his own bot and lays out the advantages of knowing how to code. By automating as much as possible, LPSTK is able to stick to its mission efficiently and affordably.
Barbara Hodge gives us a glimpse into the future of global enterprise. She offers actionable advice on what can be done today to support tomorrow’s AI efforts. The power of predictive outcomes grows as our understanding and technology grows. In fact, our choices as humans are increasingly influenced by machines. Despite this, corporations still struggle with how to best cleanse data. More time is spent on data cleansing that is spent on analyzing, evaluating, and deciding combined. Without a clear vision, efforts toward leveraging AI are watered down and unfocused. Barbara offers customer-centric advice on creating an effective AI plan.
Digital transformation and its global impact is the topic at hand for this panel discussion. Dr Hamed Al Hashemi, Director, Strategy & Corporate Performance Division Department of Health – Abu Dhabi; Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai; and Khaled ElShabrawy, Government Solutions Executive with Microsoft UAE discuss how AI can be used as a power for good. They get granular about how AI can assist with sustainable agriculture and poverty, global warming, and healthcare. As Dr. Hamed puts it, “What we want to do is really to make sense of all of this data available so that it help us to address some of the key challenges that we facing within the sector.”
Rohit Amberker opens this episode of Pace of Change with a clear disclaimer: he is no expert on this week’s topic. However, he does have some experience and insights on the Productivity Paradox. Rohit opens by outlining the definition and history of the Productivity Paradox. Then he moves on to the meat of the topic. Ultimately, the goal of technology is to create customer-centric value from something that doesn’t currently exist. As technology’s capabilities exponentially expand, the Productivity Paradox gap is shortening. Rohit looks to the past to shape the future by exemplifying Facebook and Amazon and examines the current “gap” in AI and blockchain.
The marketplace for third-party AI vendors is huge, but what is the right solution for your enterprise? Anshuman Das, the director of robotics and testing at Warner Bros., discusses the compay’s implementation of some of his favorite tools and the changes they’ve brought. From the OCR reader Textract to UiPath for RPA, Das lets us in on a little secret about intelligent automation. “RPA is the way to go, and the best part of RPA is it can very well go hand in hand with any digital transformation process. Whether you're going to cloud or you're going into IOT or you're going to any of the areas of digital transformation, it is that catalyst which can achieve your digital transformation journey much faster in a much better way.”
It may sound simple, but the first step to implementing AI in your enterprise is to know what it does. In this episode, Vivek Wadhwa, entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon, unlocks the black box of AI, including what is needed to build a proper AI foundation. Hint: it’s more than just data. Wadhwa goes on to bust myths about machine learning and the overinflated claims some vendors make regarding the utilization of ML and AI. By taking an academic, honest—sometimes brutally so—and deep look at corporate AI, Wadhwa helps enterprises avoid the pitfalls of AI’s oversell in the corporate market.
Naomi Secor joins us and shares what's next, "I anticipate that we're going to have a lot more conversation around change management and the role it plays- how to prepare our teams and how to communicate. We're going to have a lot more discussion on how we're actually preparing our enterprises to scale. I think we're going to talk a lot more about the ROI of intelligent automation now that we're seeing all these fantastic case studies come into play. We're going to be able to determine how organizations are measuring effectiveness. We'll be able to see how they're actually building automation into their business plans so that they can hold other teams accountable. And we're going to talk about how we're developing the next generation of automation leaders."
Jack Cheng covered a lot of ground in this interview. He described NIO, the company he co-founded, as “an EV provider, a mobility company, but [ultimately a] user enterprise engaged with the use of directory.” From swappable batteries to vehicle “living rooms,” Cheng takes a visionary approach to everything he does. His views on globalism are just as unique. He discussed with us the dangers of indoctrination and group think. He gave us his optimistic insight on the tension between China and the U.S. He even shared some ideas on how we can bridge the generation gap at a fundamental level.
Tarun Chopra is the president of Clements Worldwide, an insurance provider with a specialization in providing insurance solutions to individuals and companies outside their own country. He has also joined our Startup Zone, which offers resources and guidance for startups. Chopra discussed the significant role startups have played in the evolution of the tech space. Industry disruption from startups has pushed the needle forward, and Chopra doesn’t see that ending any time soon. Taking a few tips from the small, nimble framework of a startup, Chopra then offers advice on enterprise change and technological adoptions that are worth looking into.
We spoke to Henrik Hanasand, with Seniorrådgiver, a shared service center for payroll and accountants. Hanasand discussed his enterprise’s robotic evolution starting with a proof of concept, consulting, and implementation. Still, finding the right RPA solution involved some trial and error. After relying too heavily on consultants, Hanasand decided to search internally for talent. It worked. Their new approach to a holistic IT solution has given them the flexibility to look at AI more broadly and futureproof their organization. Seniorrådgiver has made a concerted effort to continue the path forward technologically, and it’s paying off.
Deborah Kops, Tony Saldanha, and Lee Coulter are shared service experts. On this episode, they discuss why they joined the The Startup Zone advisory board within SSON. Tony touches on the advantages and agility startups have. Startups are known for leveraging cutting-edge technology and shared services in a way large companies don’t. Lee, also excited to join The Startup Zone, delves into process automation. Deborah plans on helping startups understand a marketplace unfamiliar to them. Big Tech and tiny tech are becoming increasingly digital. Disruption is inevitable, so why not jump in on the fun? The Startup Zone can teach you how.
Brian Mikkelsen, the CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, talks with us during the Intelligent Automation Nordics in Copenhagen. He discusses the launch of the Digital Growth Strategy for Denmark and how it has kept Denmark’s economy competitive. Training the workforce of tomorrow through a focus on STEM education affords Denmark the opportunity to grow its economy locally. Further, the government has established a digital hub, where small companies can have knowledge about AI, big data, and other new tech for free. Brian concludes the discussion with his thoughts on wealth disparity in Denmark—or lack thereof—and its high quality of living.
Suzanne Leopodi-Nichols discusses her role in UPS and how GBS has transformed the company. She goes on to define digital transformation as she sees it and reflects on the last 25 years of growth. As if she’s not busy enough, Suzanne recently joined The Startup Zone with SSON as an advisory. The give-and-take between global enterprises and entrepreneurs can be symbiotic, and Suzanne is excited about bridging the gap between the two. The interview closes with Seth’s trademark questions regarding the mysteries of life and music.
Alexander Hubel joins us again to discuss his RPA and automation journey with Ericsson. He fills us in the last two years and their evolution toward a center of excellence. Change management, communications, and automation communities are focusing their efforts on automation and business adoption. Alexander describes the difference between tribes and communities within the organization and what their roles entail. As far as machine learning is concerned, Alexander says, “I think from an Ericsson perspective, we’re quite far ahead, and I think that relates to us being a tech company.” This hasn’t come without its challenges, though, which Alexander also delves into.
In this episode, Vartul Mittal discusses his RP agenda across industries and geographies. He also shares with us his favorite third-party software and other tips and tricks to convert big data into something usable.
Steve Kato-Spyrou is the UX manager at John Lewis. He joins us at the Omnichannel Forum to discuss organizational change. Today’s consumer involves so many touchpoints it takes a corporation a collaborative way of thinking to reach them in an effective way. In order to get everyone on board from the top down, Steve creates workshops and provides us with some specific examples. “Now they've got to work together on these ideas that have come up. And that's going to be the next step: how we truly get away from the business functions, silos, buying, merchandising, trade, product, design, creative, slam them all together into a cross-functional team.”
Edda Blumenstein is a Ph.D. researcher at Leeds University. In this episode, she discusses her efforts to “…identify how honest retailers are supposed to survive in this dynamic environment that is constantly changing at a speed never seen before. I'm looking at how they can actually develop capabilities to do that.” Edda zeroes in on big data’s role in the transformational process. Today’s buyers expect an experience and a relationship from the brands they choose to do business with. Edda explains why businesses need to implement educated decision making in order to stay competitive prepare for an unpredictable future.
Deepak Subarao joins us to share the value of working smart and not hard: "If it doesn't add value to the business and if you don't get paid more, really there's no value by working more. So how can you get the same job done in eight hours, is it possible? Let's see now."
Deepak Subarao joins us to share the value of working smart and not hard: "If it doesn't add value to the business and if you don't get paid more, really there's no value by working more. So how can you get the same job done in eight hours, is it possible? Let's see now."
Edda Blumenstein is a Ph.D. researcher at Leeds University. In this episode, she discusses her efforts to “…identify how honest retailers are supposed to survive in this dynamic environment that is constantly changing at a speed never seen before. I'm looking at how they can actually develop capabilities to do that.” Edda zeroes in on big data’s role in the transformational process. Today’s buyers expect an experience and a relationship from the brands they choose to do business with. Edda explains why businesses need to implement educated decision making in order to stay competitive prepare for an unpredictable future.
Pfizer’s Anil Bhavnani discusses the future benefits of digital transformation and intelligent automation. Within the medical and pharmaceutical industry, there are a lot of moving parts and little room for error. Technology and automation is saving lives through the accuracy and timesaving processes it deploys. Bhavnadi walks us through what has changed throughout his career, and what he believes the future holds. “At one point in time, we were just kind of doing a very rule-set based kind of process. And here we are changing the entire process. We are automating it. So obviously a lot of people get impacted. You have to work with multiple stakeholders to be able to manage that change. I think that's where the challenge is.”
Edda Blumenstein is a Ph.D. researcher at Leeds University. In this episode, she discusses her efforts to “…identify how honest retailers are supposed to survive in this dynamic environment that is constantly changing at a speed never seen before. I'm looking at how they can actually develop capabilities to do that.” Edda zeroes in on big data’s role in the transformational process. Today’s buyers expect an experience and a relationship from the brands they choose to do business with. Edda explains why businesses need to implement educated decision making in order to stay competitive prepare for an unpredictable future.
On transformation, Pfizer's Anil Bhavanani, "digital is different in a way that you're focusing more on how you can leverage technology. And it is the same in a way that ultimately you have to focus on the process. So even when you are doing integrations, typically you are focusing on the process because you're kind of integrating onto one ERP. So you know, it is driven by technology, so even integrations typically would be driven because you're kind of bringing all work onto one single ERP. The opportunities of optimizing the process and as a result of that you can give back synergy back to the company. So digital is a little bit different because the focus is more in terms of how you can automate and how you can transform the process the way it's being done today."