The Big Themes: • The solution is a production database: So there’s a big period of time when I have two different data sources. And you run the report off that database. • We learned about Chesterton's fence: It didn't grow like a weed – somebody put it there. They spent time and money and energy. I say to CEOs boards and my customers ask yourself, why did we do it that way? • Very worried about shadow IT: The CEO and the CIO will come to tell you one thing: this is bad. • Keep the lemmings fro...
Oct 21, 2021•33 min•Ep. 264
The Big Themes: • We're not loyal to each other: I think you've got to breathe almost our hearts back into our organizations. • Competitors are very aggressive: And they're enticing them with new programs at 20% rates. The salaries are getting kicked up just because they're paying more. • Blindingly obvious: When we’re in the four walls, we forget the simple things. It’s really a clear and present demonstration of what your values and beliefs are. • Empowerment is about decision rights: I don't ...
Oct 19, 2021•36 min•Ep. 261
The Big Themes: • “Scaling Up” – by Verne Harnish: The four Ds: drivers, demands, discipline, and decisions. • Growth doesn’t always equal success: For each organization, defining what success means is really important to defining how you can make a decision and make those executions a reality. • The Acceleration Economy Analyst Network: This is a new venture from Acceleration Economy Media, a group of experts creating content from different points of view. • The Acceleration Economy Conference:...
Oct 14, 2021•36 min•Ep. 263
The Big Themes: • Your data pipeline is key: A strong data pipeline with a decent model is better than an awesome model with a weak data pipeline • Sit down with the executives: It's relevant at the executive level as well. Guys at the CEO level like Cloud Wars All-Star Tony Uphoff are pushing the envelope through data. • In data analysis, there’s a war for high quality talent: Figure out how to get better candidates into the top of your funnel and move the right candidates through that funnel f...
Oct 12, 2021•20 min•Ep. 259
The Big Themes: • Young kids don’t have any money: After spending a hundred thousand dollars on a four year education I’d like to see the universities at least provide a one day seminar and teach them personal skills. • A lot of brilliant minds: Talented people that are in the middle of their career have no idea how to navigate to the next level. • They have to do their homework: I find it very sad that these young people don’t recognize that they have to present themselves. • The video conferen...
Oct 11, 2021•31 min•Ep. 258
The Big Themes: • Operating solutions to hotels, casinos, and cruise ships: It’s been a brutal 18 months for hospitality – the industry did a very good job early on of shoring up liquidity. • We did quite well during COVID: The vast majority of the partner technologies that were deployed I'd say in the first 12 months of the pandemic were largely focused around mobility. • These are huge numbers: We're talking IT staffs that numbered in the thousands pre-pandemic. I don't see those IT organizati...
Oct 07, 2021•26 min•Ep. 257
The Big Themes: • Setting clear project goals and timelines: This will help you measure your progress. Without clear goals and success metrics, it will be difficult to understand if you are on right track. • Make sure you have leadership buy-in: It’s important to get these individuals on board. Leadership support can also ensure you have the right resources. • Select the right consulting partner: They wish they did more research on their consulting partner instead of simply using the first partn...
Oct 05, 2021•28 min•Ep. 260
The Big Themes: • They're looking to modernize everything they do: And whether that's the infrastructure, whether that's how they operate the infrastructure, but it's such a key priority. • I look at this as two layers of that cake: If we go back to the pillars of a modernization, infrastructure, operations, and applications. • And I think there's really three pillars to that: One is certainly modernizing their infrastructure. Two is their operations and how they're interacting with their data. ...
Oct 04, 2021•23 min•Ep. 256
The Big Themes: • You may be hearing about it: The Buy American Act, The Infrastructure Bill, The United States Innovation, and Competition Act. • Based on our Thomas data: We have a few predictions of supply chain disruptions that will impact the consumer economy over the next 12 months. • The woman that created a billion dollar brand called Spanx: She was pretty savvy about design and had at least a functional understanding of some of the engineering requirements. • These key pieces of legisla...
Sep 30, 2021•46 min•Ep. 255
The Big Themes: • Every industry: Think about how each one of them accelerated or propelled what they would have taken years to get to in a very, very short period of time. • Some businesses have opened, some have closed: But one thing it's really taught us is we're able to touch billions of people in meaningful ways, across a broad spectrum. • Constantly engaging with your customers: And the more you own your customer’s success, the more rewards you will see for your engagement. • That's what y...
Sep 28, 2021•29 min•Ep. 254
The Big Themes: • IBM support is a differentiator: Upstart cloud vendors are in an IaaS arms race. Legacy enterprise IT clients have been with IBM clients for 50+ years. • Board of duty of care: The board’s overarching mandate is to protect shareholders over the long term. Boards have two main fiduciary duties: Loyalty and care. • Cybersecurity and obsolescence risk: What is the age of IT components vs. current – years matter less than generations. • The right CIO: The CEO gets the CIO they sett...
Sep 27, 2021•47 min•Ep. 253
The Big Themes: • This thing called fog of war: And the fog of war is you don't know everything. And then as soon as the bullets start flying, you actually know less because it's like this aperture shrinks. • Half the Fortune 500 will be replaced by other companies: We have the highest churn rate in the history of the list. • Most of our corporations are run by terrible leaders: They have the technical background, but just look at our firms, look at how tone deaf they are. • It's a fantastic wor...
Sep 23, 2021•38 min•Ep. 252
The Big Themes: • The Ambassador: Excited about the project and are telling everyone about it. They’ll be the first ones that post their go-live badge on LinkedIn. They’re also rolling-up their sleeves to contribute. • The up-and-comer: Might not have previous experience but see the project as an opportunity to grow in their career and add a successful digital transformation to their resume. Great attitude. • Debbie Downer/Don Downer: “We’ve always done it this way” is their MO. They have a prob...
Sep 16, 2021•31 min•Ep. 251
The Big Themes: • It just doesn’t magically happen: It’s not the data you already have, this is one of the hard lessons that lot of folks think. • DataStax fits into that equation: And this is one of the things that I think goes back to what you talked about in terms of agility. • Everybody has S3 compatible APIs: You've got your storage now that is just scale out via very simple APIs. You've got your compute now that's been standardized on top of Kubernetes. • You may have some rock stars: But ...
Sep 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 248
The Big Themes: • You've got great leaders at the top of the house: In both those companies you really understand innovation. • One of our venture companies: We sold a company to a publicly traded company that when that transaction happened, I got a lot of congratulations. • That ship has sailed: I also think though that speaks to another thing that we expected to happen when you plug into an organization – like in this case of Salesforce or Oracle. • Very fast moving dynamic: So we need to keep...
Sep 07, 2021•21 min•Ep. 250
The Big Themes: • A fascinating cultural shift: The millennial generation’s increasing dissatisfaction with “knowledge work” and the increasing interest in wanting to make things. • The cultural legacies of the US manufacturing industry: This is why so many industries are disrupted by outsiders. • Technology continues to advance dramatically: It’s time to transform and upgrade how technology is positioned, explained, and sold. • Many scheduled office re-openings have been pushed back: We’re seei...
Aug 26, 2021•37 min•Ep. 247
The Big Themes: Accenture ransomware: Accenture’s response – they quickly detected, defended, and repaired. So far, it appears to be only a low-value material leaked. The New Digital Edge: McKinsey article rethinking strategy for the post-pandemic era. “By 2023, most companies will need to build new digital businesses to stay economically viable.” Talking to CFOs: After talking with several CFOs since the last episode, I think it’s time for some changes. Why does IT report to the CFO at so many ...
Aug 19, 2021•51 min•Ep. 246
The Big Themes: The “T” in Teamwork: Why employees with breadth and depth are imperative for harmonizing organizational goals and culture. We call this the acceleration economy. We are launching a brand-new program: August 19th to be exact, and it's all content driven to what is the future role of the office of the CFO. Tie in the future effects of the office: What’s the difference between data digitization – and why organizations should care. I think develops a richer culture: It also helps for...
Aug 17, 2021•29 min•Ep. 245
As President of SAP S/4HANA, Jan Gilg oversees development of SAP's flagship ERP product, digital supply chain, and industry solutions. In this conversation, Jan discusses how the shift to a digital economy is driving unprecedented changes in how businesses operate, and the new types of software solutions businesses require to thrive in such an environment. In the midst of all that upheaval, SAP itself has changed in significant ways, and Gilg shares his perspectives on the benefits those change...
Aug 11, 2021•29 min•Ep. 244
The Big Themes: Like Goldilocks' testing out the three different sized chairs: This one is too big, this one is too small—this one is JUST RIGHT. Mid-size businesses need solutions and partners that are "just right" for them. McKinsey has reported: What mid-size enterprises really need to realize their growth potential is "the ability to access foreign markets, increase operational efficiency and adopt growth-enabling technologies." Big idea: Businesses need to choose software that is flexible, ...
Aug 05, 2021•28 min•Ep. 242
The Big Themes: You must preserve the core of your business: Leadership is about to make the investments, provide the autonomy, create the innovation culture and align it to your overall strategy. The four freedoms: An organization that allows for innovation, capability to really thrive, grow, and affect the future of your business. What I call the beacon model: You create a capability that is related – but separate from the core of your business. These are courageous innovators: They have to be...
Aug 04, 2021•35 min•Ep. 239
The Big Themes: We went all in with Google Cloud: Most of our peers were actually going in the other direction. They wanted to be multicloud, making acquisitions in adjacent ecosystems. Return to work shouldn’t mean return to normal: If I talk to our software developers, who were already remote before the pandemic. This is the future of our business: We are about to make an investment that will change the trajectory of the company forever, and we have very high expectations. The Big Quotes: “The...
Aug 03, 2021•47 min•Ep. 243
The Big Themes: Will business travel come back? There is a lot of conjecture about business travel being forever changed by the forced online interaction of the pandemic. Our sense is it already has been but not in the way many people think. Thomas Q2 Sourcing Report is out: And reflects strong demand across a wide range of categories, with significant implications for technology markets. We nailed a few of our Q2 predictions and have several for Q3. Higher Ed and Healthcare: Two massive markets...
Jul 29, 2021•44 min•Ep. 241
The Big Themes: Returning to the office: This isn’t really what native digitals want. Apple employees revolted, as did Google’s, prompting one of the largest technology companies in the world to backtrack. The result of this macro trend: If you are 35 years old or younger you will progressively spend time, energy, and money improving and enhancing your digital life, not your physical life. The stuff business: 140 million native digital Americans and Millennials and Gen Z grew up in an era where ...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 238
The Big Themes: Offer customers the best in breed solutions: The pace that we see in the Middle East is a very hungry market for technology and knowledge. The best way to accelerate: We have done a rollout in 20 countries using that template in a very short period of time. I think this is a big change from the past. A very quick return on their investments: So it’s very important to understand the quick wins from these types of projects. A journey with our customers: We believe that if they grow...
Jul 27, 2021•29 min•Ep. 230
The Big Themes: Cloud repatriation : Techies and investors are buzzing about a recent articlethat seems to argue, “start in the cloud, then move back in-house.” BoD and CIO/CISO gap : Most CIOs/CISOs have limited BoD interaction, and most board directors know far too little about technology. They need to talk! Last week I became a NACD ‘Certified Director’: After lots of study and a grueling exam! So BoDs are on my mind more than usual. Pat Fitzgerald about hiring and retaining workers: Shakespe...
Jul 21, 2021•43 min•Ep. 237
The Big Themes: The creativity that each one of them had: Telling their own story – and a lot of them used real-life stories and data, and so much more. They’re very polarizing: You can’t really put human management together and feel that’s a warm environment – that definitely has a lot of tone to it. More companies are trying to be strategic: In order to be competitive and to meet customer expectations, they’re having this drive to be from the customer’s point of view. There’s lots of ways to e...
Jul 20, 2021•32 min•Ep. 235
The Big Themes: That’s what Silk helps with: We’re helping customers take those applications, and more importantly the databases underneath them – and successfully deploy them to the public cloud. Performance and cost: We always describe it as two sides of the same coin. You can have all that performance, but it’s going to cost you the world. The platform works as a very clever system: It uses a two-tier architecture that splits performance and capacity into independent dimensions. The crown jew...
Jul 15, 2021•18 min•Ep. 236
The Big Themes: They want a player that’s crushing their quota year-after-year: Everybody’s going after that person. To get a search agency that’s going to make you a priority and only recruit for you is not realistic. They’re experts in their field: They’re sales recruiters, and that’s all they do. They’re engineering recruiters – and that’s all they do. Equity is always going to be a big issue: I think we’ll continue to be a driving force for change in the future. Candidates are just getting m...
Jul 13, 2021•26 min•Ep. 234
The Big Themes: Microsoft has said that for every $1 of software they sell, partners make $9: The opportunity for channel partners in this time of cloud growth is huge. It should mirror the customer base: Software vendors should make it easy for customers to know who their partners are. Effective onboarding and training programs: These ensure that partners have the domain expertise to work any given software and ongoing programs. A level playing field: Not cherry-picking partners for customers b...
Jul 06, 2021•32 min•Ep. 233
