Episode 20 | Combatting Declining Productivity The Big Themes: Declining rates of productivity: For five consecutive quarters, productivity rates in the United States have been steadily declining. In the most recent quarter, it was down nearly 3%. "It's very clear worker productivity is in jeopardy, or so we say as corporations." Work from home may be a factor: Employers are facing economic and market pressures. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that remote work styles are contributing to the lack o...
May 26, 2023•31 min•Ep. 367
Episode 29 | Key Takeaways from Oracle Summits, Customers, Partners The Big Themes: Bonnie's lens: When attending analyst events, Bonnie looks for the impact that products and related announcements have on customer experience, and how the technology or software is, or can be, implemented. Market demands for customers: As of late, customers are focused on hiring faster, more effectively, and controlling the cost of labor forces. "That's really top of mind for the entire industry," says Bonnie, in...
May 23, 2023•30 min•Ep. 366
The Big Themes: Delivering solutions that create agility for the business: Aviatrix handles the compiling of security enforcement into the fabric of the network. All a customer needs to do is tell Aviatrix the policy of what they want to do, and Avaiatrix puts it into the CI/CD pipeline. Distributed cloud firewalls are the way: In trying to "fix" network security, distributed cloud firewalls offer a great deal of promise. Competing vendors might disagree, but customers will love it, and many alr...
May 18, 2023•23 min•Ep. 365
How Workday Applies AI and ML Technologies to Healthcare Industry The Big Themes: Patient-centered care: Workday applies AI and ML technologies to deliver on its promise of delivering patient-centered care, by looking closely at past patient records. "Already, we have seen that AI and ML apply to help our diagnosis, to help with automation, to help guide our care recommendations, and so much more," notes Kravitz. Industry-specific capabilities benefiting patients and providers: Workday's industr...
May 17, 2023•23 min•Ep. 360
The Big Themes: Do more with less: Finance is a highly volatile business environment where things are rapidly evolving. As a result, finance teams are challenged to work within their current processes, yet still need to respond to ongoing change. Arima proposes that a company should be aligned with its data model, data definitions, business drivers, and hierarchy structure. How Workday Adaptive Planning is changing the conversation: Cross-functional collaboration between Workday's finance and HR...
May 16, 2023•23 min•Ep. 364
Episode 14 | Lost Your Job? Here's What to Do The Big Themes: Company names and personal networks: Pat suggests that new hires create two lists: one to list companies, and one to list personal networks. This is a simple and effective way to "do your research" and will help guide your job search. "The reality is your network is going to be your biggest avenue" for finding a new job, explains Pat. The importance of emotional EQ: Job candidates must demonstrate their emotional intelligence, persona...
May 09, 2023•47 min•Ep. 363
The Big Themes: Creating room for innovation: Financial services companies spend 60-70% of their IT budgets on compliance, leaving little room for innovation. This is a critical area that the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, a solution that is co-created and co-built with the industry, addresses. Real-time compliance monitoring: IBM offers real-time, constant compliance monitoring to banks and financial institutions, reducing their time to implement a solution to 6-12 weeks, which is significan...
May 04, 2023•21 min•Ep. 362
The Big Themes: Purpose-built solutions centered on people: Managing resources to deliver for customers can be a challenge for companies with large services organizations. Certinia's solutions are purpose-built, focusing on the people and the service economy business, rather than product ID, which was formerly considered to be the "center of the universe." Synchronous process flows: When looking at process flows, most companies find that they have silos of automation, and the "as quoted" verse "...
May 03, 2023•20 min•Ep. 361
The Big Themes: Be intentional about the use of generative AI: Christian advises that when bringing generative AI into the workforce — or any technology, for that matter — that humans must ensure they remain the "master" and the technology remains the "servant." Consider trust: Christian encourages everyone to "get smarter on these things" but within the context of their companies. Business employees must trust that the leaders of their organizations won't use generative AI technologies to get r...
Apr 25, 2023•31 min•Ep. 359
Episode 44 | How Partners Ecosystems Drive the Acceleration Economy The Big Themes: The four types of partners: Value-add re-marketer (VAR), independent software vendor (ISV), implementation support consultants, and co-creation partners. Each of these partner types multiples a businesses ability to deliver. How partners are changing the game: Gone are the days where partners roles are limited to just fulfillment. Now, businesses need partners through every stage of the customer lifecycle "helpin...
Apr 18, 2023•29 min•Ep. 358
Episode 28 | Generative AI and the Impact on Enterprise Software Purcashing, Use, Implementation The Big Themes: Extensive experimentation: Bonnie tested the impacts and effectiveness of generative AI around the area of software selection and implementation, prompting the tool to provide scenarios and advice around purchasing and implementing software, from the perspective of a customer. Generative AI as "revolutionary": Generative AI, and tools such as ChatGPT, are revolutionary in the fact tha...
Apr 17, 2023•26 min•Ep. 357
How Workday Adaptive Helps ENMAX with Forecasting Capabilities The Big Themes: Workday Adaptive Planning helps ENMAX discover a single version of the truth: With this software, everyone in the company is working off the same data set and can be used for whatever purpose is necessary. A single view across three applications: ENMAX utilizes Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday HCM, and Workday Financials in congruence, which has removed constraints associated with effective planning. Flexible soluti...
Apr 07, 2023•16 min•Ep. 355
Episode 27 | Employee Centric-Culture and the Future of the Workforce Note: this episode contains explicit language. The Big Themes: Layoffs at Salesforce: Salesforce recently cut about 10% of its entire workforce which suggests a big shift in performance culture. Business leaders are now looking for a culture that is employee-centric and produces tangible results. A choice for listeners to make: How do we have a legendary culture that produces massive results and is a great place to work? Women...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 356
The Big Themes: Forget the headlines, what's in this product? Is generative AI and ChatGPT truly the "next big thing," or is this something that has been around for awhile and is just now starting to get popular? When starting college in 1970, Wayne was encouraged to study computing programming because experts were predicting that by 1975, artificial intelligence (AI) would be "writing all the programs in the world." The future of generative AI: Wayne suggests that this tool is going to either b...
Mar 23, 2023•38 min•Ep. 354
The Big Themes: Top CEO priorities: To drive digital business, top CEOs are focusing on acquiring and retaining talent, and leveraging and deploying emerging technologies such as AI and ML. Regardless of the company, all businesses must be "tech-enabled" now. New business models: The new (and multiple) business models of today are geared to adapt to meet customers where they are. Companies are shifting to subscription-based models and consumption-based models. Access to AI and ML data: Many stro...
Mar 21, 2023•14 min•Ep. 353
The Big Themes: What it takes to be great: companies must strongly consider incorporating DEI initiatives into their businesses but must be careful not to let the focus on talent and culture fall by the wayside. Go back to the "foundational" piece: The "big initiative" of today's companies should be addressing exactly what the priorities are. Attract talent, but know how to retain it: A strong focus on acquiring talent, and a lack of thought about retaining talent, had created a "gap that has re...
Mar 17, 2023•20 min•Ep. 352
Episode 28 | Supply Chains: The "Orchestrator" of Today's Business The Big Themes: Why AWS entered the supply chain space: The company has the knowledge and expertise to solve critical issues for businesses today. AWS is "putting its competency to work for its customers." Customers want to create their own roadmap: AWS Supply Chain is not a "rip and replace solution." The product leverages the already-existing solutions customers are using to further inform decision-making. A supply chain is the...
Mar 14, 2023•30 min•Ep. 351
The Big Themes: Fixing human error: The biggest cybersecurity vulnerability companies have is their people, and there's no software tool or system that is more powerful than cultivating an awareness of secure practices among employees. Setting the right example: Business leaders must practice what they preach. No more leaving laptops open to email inboxes on our desks. Demonstrate the company's mindset by taking data security seriously and preach it to the whole team. How to lead externally: Chr...
Feb 22, 2023•28 min•Ep. 349
The Big Themes: The automation of knowledge work: This has been happening for a while now—just think of the hours of labor eliminated by search engines—but generative AI takes this automation to a different, higher level. ChatGPT is overhyped: The panic over AI tools replacing journalists, teachers, and all human workers is overblown, Tony says. Businesses should be focused on augmenting the work done by people with new technologies. ChatGPT is underhyped: "Technological change always precedes c...
Feb 15, 2023•27 min•Ep. 348
Episode 26 | AI and the Rise of the Intellectual Capitalist Note: this episode contains explicit language. The Big Themes: Knowledge workers are no longer at the top of the pyramid: Careers like lawyer, doctor, and engineer have long been highly valuable and widely esteemed, but by making tons of knowledge readily accessible and mostly free, tools like ChatGPT are going to push knowledge workers down in the career pyramid. The rise of the intellectual capitalist: The creation of "net-new knowled...
Feb 08, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 346
The Big Themes: Apex's culture of curiosity: While the CFO's domain is traditionally finance, JJ explains that at Apex, he is focused on business forecasting, not just financial. Workday Adaptive Planning was the perfect tool for the inclusive and cooperative culture at Apex. Effective planning keeps Apex ahead of disruption: The ability to create scenarios that incorporate many shareholders' voices has kept Apex strong and solvent during major challenges like the pandemic and the war in Ukraine...
Feb 07, 2023•24 min•Ep. 347
The Big Themes: Don't ignore the threat of ChatGPT: Even as a company with incredibly advanced AI capabilities, Google is doing the right thing by treating this kind of new interactive AI chatbot as a challenger to its massive search business. Be open to the possibilities of ChatGPT: On the other hand, Microsoft is very wisely looking to bring ChatGPT into the fold and enhance its existing products and services using artificial intelligence. The importance of transparency and trust: Christian br...
Feb 01, 2023•30 min•Ep. 345
The Big Themes: The WFH challenge for young talent: creating a personal network and building personal credibility are incredibly important early in a career, and Pat worries that young people are not getting the networking and mentorship opportunities that working shoulder-to-shoulder offers. Work ethic in today's world: Pat defines work ethic not as being the first-in, last-out team member, but rather the cultivation of a reputation among bosses and peers as someone who always gets the job done...
Jan 25, 2023•25 min•Ep. 344
The Big Themes: Similarities between Madoff and SBF: Both men "wrapped themselves" in celebrity, fancy parties, and politics. They were able to pull off the deception they created by being good "talkers" and schmoozers. Differences between Madoff and SBF: Where Madoff admitted his wrongdoing virtually immediately, SBF has been spinning a story of incompetence rather than crime. Christopher makes connections between this behavior to SBF's identity as a Native Digital. Is the end of FTX also the e...
Dec 28, 2022•45 min•Ep. 343
The Big Themes: What inspired Alloy? Less than a decade ago, Clay says, companies were trying and failing to build their own private clouds, because the technology just wasn't there yet. But Oracle believes it now has the tech to meet this desire among customers. What kinds of customers are interested? Clay points to organizations that deal with a lot of regulation as the prime audience for Alloy—they're interested in cloud but it has never worked for them before. This includes governments and c...
Dec 22, 2022•25 min•Ep. 342
The Big Themes: Consistency: Companies that ask employees to give up the benefits of remote work and come back to the office must also require executives to do the same. Otherwise, trust disappears and team members disengage. Clarity, candor, transparency: Explaining the specific benefits of returning to in-person work is essential. Saying that productivity will go up is not enough—leaders must provide examples, and help employees understand how their experience will improve. Culture and environ...
Dec 21, 2022•28 min•Ep. 341
The Big Themes: What's really going on with layoffs? Among the six companies Wayne pulled numbers for, five of them actually have had net-positive employee growth over the last several years. But they are letting people go, and Wayne explains why. Should non-tech companies hire big-tech engineers? There is a big opportunity here, Wayne says, but execs at non-tech companies have to be very, very careful and thoughtful when preparing to bring these folks onboard. What's the best way to have job se...
Dec 14, 2022•32 min•Ep. 340
The Big Themes: Customer stories at Cloud World 2022: Bonnie praises Oracle for including the voice of the customer in many of the keynote talks at the conference, including Oracle Me HCM customers McDonald's, Marriott, and the Church of Latter Day Saints. Six key takeaways: These three customers talked about their implementation experiences with Oracle HCM technology, and Bonnie wrote up six important insights that other companies considering HR tech upgrades should keep in mind. Fundamentals m...
Dec 06, 2022•25 min•Ep. 339
The Big Themes: This is about adaptation, not ageism: Native digitals are not better or worse than native analogs, but they are actually a new category of human being. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it's not. Businesses at risk of obsolescence: Leaders who do not account for the differences of native digitals are going to face (1) the failure to hire and retain anybody under 35 and (2) the inability to market and sell to anybody under 35. The Mentor Myth: Chris says that the secret to ...
Nov 30, 2022•50 min•Ep. 338
The Big Themes: Advice for early talent: Pat says that high schoolers and their parents should at least consider options other than college, like trade schools and apprenticeships. He recommends reading "The Millionaire Next Door" to get inspired. Advice for college graduates: First, differentiate yourself during the interview process by doing research. Second, once you're hired, find "your assets" within the company, because you can't just assume you'll have advocates. Advice for people taking ...
Nov 29, 2022•27 min•Ep. 337
