Technovation With Peter High

784: Greg Brown, Chief Customer Service Officer at Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), joins the broadcast to speak about being a customer-focused organization and leveraging technology to drive a proactive, predictive, and personalized customer experience. He emphasizes the value of a positive attitude, positive habits, and continuous improvement in achieving success in customer service and why he looks for humility, emotional intelligence, accountability, and learning agility when recruiting talent for his team. Finally, Greg talks about the trends in technology that are on his radar, how those trends aim to impact the customer experience, and the keys to success that have helped him throughout his career.

783: Tracy Kerrins, Senior EVP and Head of Technology at Wells Fargo, joins the broadcast to discuss the company's efforts in becoming digital-first and the new technology and innovations she is helping to drive. She highlights the introduction of Fargo, the company's first customer-facing AI virtual assistant, and dives into the broader use of artificial intelligence to improve customer service and experiences. Tracy also emphasizes the criticality of data and the organization's cloud strategy as well as the importance of empowering employees and creating a positive culture of collaboration. Finally, she looks ahead at other trends in technology and reflects on the keys to her career success.

782: Mojgan Lefebvre, EVP and Chief Technology & Operations Officer of Travelers, joins Peter in the latest episode to cover the intersection of technology and operations within her purview and the alignment she drives between her team and the broader business. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the business and customer needs in order to drive technology strategy and highlights the company's focus on creating great experiences for customers, modernizing technology infrastructure, leveraging data and analytics, and protecting the organization from cyber threats. Mojgan shares examples of how machine learning and AI are being used to enhance employee and customer experiences, the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in driving innovation and success within the organization, and creating a culture of digital fluency through employee training programs. Finally, Mojgan looks ahead at trends in technology that are on her radar and reflects on the keys to her career success.

781: Martin Brodbeck, CTO of Priceline, joins Peter in a discussion on how he has developed his team and the new platforms and capabilities that he has driven across the company. He highlights the use cases for AI and ML technologies in areas such as personalization, recommendation, and marketing as well as emphasizes the importance of developer productivity and the automation of software engineering tasks. He shares insights on fostering resilience and scalability within the organization, as well as the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry. Finally, he touches on future trends in self-service analytics and quantum computing, reflects on the keys to his career success, and looks ahead at the potential use cases for generative AI at the company and beyond.

780: Jared Cohen and George Lee, the Co-Heads of the Office of Applied Innovation at Goldman Sachs, delve into the intersections between global affairs, geopolitics, and cutting-edge technology such as generative AI. As leaders in the financial services industry and technology space, both executives provide valuable insights into the significance of geopolitical swing states and the current state of global affairs, as well as the rapid rise of generative AI, and the role government regulation plays in technological advancements.

779: Tom Davenport, bestselling author and distinguished professor at Babson College, joins us to discuss insights from his latest book, All-in on AI, and give his perspective on the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and its impact on businesses. From his sociology background to becoming a seasoned technology academic, Tom shares reflections on his career path and the evolving landscape of analytics and the birth of AI. Listen to his explanation of the three eras of analytics, culminating in the rise of "Analytics 4.0" powered by AI. As an AI optimist, Tom shares concerns and opportunities associated with AI, including its potential impact on jobs and the declining automation costs. Gain valuable insights into how companies successfully explore AI tools, allocate organizational resources to its experimentation, and strategize its adoption in order to “win big with AI”. Tom also provides his outlook on the future of AI, its influence on consulting, and practical career advice for young professionals in thi

778: In this episode, Rackspace Technology’s President of Private Cloud, Brian Lillie, speaks about the keys to successful cloud adoption and the benefits of a multi-cloud architecture. Throughout this conversation, we dive into Rackspace’s business, explore Brian's purview within Private Cloud, and discuss the shared and differing responsibilities with his counterpart in Public Cloud. Brian explains how having a CIO background has been advantageous to him when partnering with the current CIO and the IT organization. With a breadth of experience across companies, disciplines, and industries, Brian shares insights into his thoughtful leadership style shaped by his core values, walks us through his career path, and talks about the impact that both his military experience and his pursuit of higher education has had on his professional career. Finally, Brian covers the advantages of having technologists on a board of directors, looks ahead at the latest trends in technology, and reflects on the secrets to his car

777: Cal Newport, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University and bestselling author, joins Peter in conversation to dive into the world of productivity, focus, and intentional living. Cal reflects on his journey as a writer, the impact that professional advice had on his strategies for developing longevity in the field, and why he avoided social media during the age of Facebook. He explains the major themes of his books including time management and the power of "slow productivity" for success, as well as the role that COVID-19 played in influencing these topics. Cal talks about the concept of living a "values-driven lifestyle", his experience with the "30-Day Declutter" project, and helping young people train their focus. Finally, the conversation uncovers the surprising effects of efficiency and delves into the risks and uncertainties of generative AI and its future.

776: Monica Caldas, the Global CIO of Liberty Mutual, joins Peter for a conversation focused on the digital transformation journey of this century-old firm and developing it into a tech-forward insurance company. Monica describes how her team is driving the modernization program focused on creating a sound data strategy and improving data literacy across the organization. She dives into the process of digitization, collaboration with internal and external constituent groups, and the optimization of the individual experience. Monica provides insights into maintaining technological literacy through training programs and balancing IT resource allocation for operational efficiency and differentiation. Additionally, she covers topics such as cloud migration, the development of an architecture community, and the exploration of generative artificial intelligence and its diverse use cases. Lastly, Monica explores the emerging technology trends in quantum computing and reflects on the keys to her career success.

775: Lori Beer, Global CIO of JPMorgan Chase, joins us for a conversation about how her team explores use cases for emerging technologies to add value to the business. She explains the process behind the company’s cloud-based core system modernization and also dives deep into the potential value-add coming from advancements in generative AI, quantum computing, augmented reality, and blockchain in banking. Lori also walks through the cycle of innovation within the company and how she partners with the rest of the business to bring these innovations to life and develop an internal ecosystem of sorts. Finally, Lori covers the progress she is helping to drive in improving the state of women in tech and STEM fields, reflects on her own career path and the keys to her success, and looks ahead at the trends in technology that are on the horizon for the company.

774: Steve Yates, a storied former head of technology, joins Peter to talk about his remarkable journey as a renowned early version of the CIO across multiple companies and how the role has evolved over the course of his career. He discusses how he developed his IT department from scratch early in his career, carved out the purview for the modern-day CIO, and pioneered the convergence of technology and business. Steve gives insight into major learnings from his roles at Rockwell, USAA, and KeyBank as well as what that pathway into each role looked like. He also describes his pathway to board membership and the value he added as one of the first technologists to join a scaled company’s board. Finally, Steve discusses his plans for the future, and how he continues to stay up-to-date on emerging trends in technology, politics, economics, and more.

773: May Yap, the Chief Information Officer of Jabil, talks about the remarkable modernization and transformation journey she has led within the company. With May based in Singapore, May leads a truly global team with tech centers worldwide and shares her insights into managing this diverse and distributed workforce. She describes the process and benefits of modernization, how digitalization leads to better organization throughout IT, and how her team tests new technologies for potential implementation. May describes the advantages of having a long tenure as CIO, the latest tech trends shaping the industry, and the keys to her career success.

772: Eswar Veluri, Chief Technology Officer of Equinox, explores how data and artificial intelligence are transforming the high-performance lifestyle industry and helping customers to achieve their macro and micro health goals. With over a decade of experience at Equinox, Eswar shares his remarkable career journey, discusses the pivotal role of technology in improving customer engagement, and details the types of innovation his team is driving within the company. We delve into Equinox's comprehensive data strategy, emerging tech trends, and the keys to Eswar's career success.

771: Sunny Bedi, CIO and CDO of Snowflake, shares an overview of Snowflake’s business and what his purview encompasses at the company. Sunny embodies a customer-centric mindset in his role, spending a remarkable 70% of his time directly engaging with customers, and shares how he has built his team to allow him the bandwidth to do so. He explains how he has managed IT during a period of massive growth, built a strong culture in a remote working environment, and drove innovation in the evolving landscape of data. Sunny explains the key differentiators he has seen of successful data leaders and companies that have leveraged data effectively. He also dives into the importance of platform solutions and why he focuses on investing and building platforms at Snowflake. Additionally, he shares the value derived from his board experience, highlights the latest tech trends shaping the industry, and reflects on the keys to his career success.

770: Our latest episode features a panel from our Metis Strategy Digital Symposium in May 2023 where Rajan Mohan, the Chief Digital Officer of Ascension, and Eben Hewitt, the Chief Information Officer of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, share their experiences applying a product mindset to advance digital and technology capabilities at their organizations. Rajan explains the project-to-product transformation at Ascension, the shifting customer expectations around digital interactions, and the metrics he uses to measure the success of the company’s customer-centric culture. Eben expands on the role technology plays in customer care at Hyatt, the agile and data-focused culture at the company, and driving the long-term strategic mission through the day-to-day empowerment of teams. Finally, both executives speak on the organizational impacts of moving to a customer-centric mindset, the workflow changes as a result of that mindset shift, and the partnership between the CDO and CIO to advance digital within the company.

769: Our latest episode features a panel from our Metis Strategy Digital Symposium in May 2023 where Michael Newcity, the Chief Innovation Officer of ArcBest & President of ArcBest Technologies, and Rob Krugman, the Chief Digital Officer of Broadridge, discuss the topic of design thinking in ecosystem business models. Michael explains how he brings design thinking into ArcBest as a mechanism to drive innovation and the role ArcBest Technologies plays in ArcBest’s innovation ecosystem. Rob details the innovation cycle within Broadridge and how he brings the customer’s voice into that cycle to ensure continuous value is getting delivered. Finally, both executives speak on driving centralized innovation within their ecosystems and deploying those innovations to internal and external customers.

768: Our latest episode features a panel from our Metis Strategy Digital Symposium in May 2023 where Kathy Kay, CIO of Principal Financial Group, and Josh McLean, CIO of World Fuel Services, discuss the topic of sustaining a high-performance culture in times of change. Kathy describes the culture of Principal when she joined the company remotely during the pandemic, explains the necessity of leadership driving the cultural transformation, and speaks to the way she responds to misalignments in the culture of the company. Josh covers the elements of World Fuel’s cultural transformation, how he quantifies and measure culture, and how he communicates constructive feedback to his organization. Finally, both executives look ahead at how hybrid work environments, generative AI, and more will impact the practices around culture at their companies.

767: Ramesh Babu, CIO of Digi-Key Electronics, and Allen Smith, CIO of Baker Tilly, speak at our Metis Strategy Digital Symposium in May 2023 on the topic of driving practical progress on your AI journey. Ramesh explains his methods to educate talent within the company on the latest advancements in AI, measuring the value of AI use cases, and reigning in the bespoke AI applications across the company into a single vision or strategy around artificial intelligence. Allen shares how he cuts through the noise and the hype around AI to pursue practical applications of the technology, leverages AI to navigate talent shortages, and focuses on understanding the foundational data being fed into the AI model.

766: Rob Krugman, Chief Digital Officer of Broadridge, discusses the concept of intrapreneurship, bringing an entrepreneurship mindset to within the organization, and how this concept has helped drive innovation at the company. He talks about the innovation teams he has built, the design thinking and storytelling they bring to the innovation process, and how they collaborate with the rest of the business. Finally, Rob looks ahead at the value potential of emerging tech trends like ChatGPT and generative AI as well as reflects on the keys to his success.

765: Cisco Sanchez, the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Qualcomm, joins Peter to speak about transforming Qualcomm into an intelligent company across hardware and software. Cisco shares his insights on Qualcomm's future roadmap and the role of partnerships in the company’s broader ecosystem. We also explore how Cisco's team is developing a solid foundation to foster growth, how culture facilitates successful change management, and why a high-functioning IT organization should act as guardrails for the rest of the organization. Finally, Cisco shares his views on how he stays ahead of the curve of emerging technology, the trends on his radar, and how he trains his team members in new skills for the future.