CIO Talk Network Podcast

The answer to the question, "Would you recommend our company to your friends?" depends on whether your customers feel cared for and have a remarkable experience, not just satisfactory, and can see how experiences dealing with your company improved their lives? What mix of team inspiration, process and technology innovation, and caring leadership would it take to get an increasingly enthusiastic po...

With increasing demand on IT to support business growth and sustainability, lack of leadership support, skill gaps, work overload, and budget are among the top reported challenges. And, the demand curve is only going up. How should we reimagine IT to make it always available, scalable, and relevant? Guest: Daragh Mahon, EVP & Chief Information Officer, Werner Enterprises Guest Bio: https://www.cio...

Today's CEO wants to drive growth through digital innovations that have practical applications and are relevant to market conditions and customer preferences—driving significant positive ROI. So what are CIOs doing to support the CEO agenda to help achieve the desired outcome? Guest 1: Minori Hara, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Santen Pharmaceutical Guest Bio: https://www.ciotalknetwork.c...

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to organizational culture. Some companies have found success in digital transformation by adapting their traditional and long-established cultures. In contrast, others struggle with the transition because they cannot change what's familiar enough around them – even if this means losing out on opportunities for growth or business model innovation...

How well is your business unlocking data-driven capabilities, enterprise-wide analytics, and using it to scale across multiple dimensions? While you may have already started implementing targeted advanced analytics and artificial intelligence use cases, what IT and data architectures, people and processes alignment, and data governance must be established to make data your most significant asset?...

What is on the CIO agenda for 2022 that will help enable and shape business aspirations for the best outcome? Coming out of pandemic, as we enter the new year, how are the CIOs planning to align their strategies and resources to launch digital projects faster, integrate systems quickly, and allow seamless and secure access to applications and data? Guest: Tanya Hannah, Chief Information Officer, K...

Leaders recognize the need for employees to learn new skills to stay relevant and profitable in the future. But the inability to maintain an inventory of current skills, identify required and critical future skills, and proactively fill the gap hinders such efforts. So how are business and IT leaders collaborating to ensure proper investment in this strategic and long-term capability-building effo...

Guest: Eric Hagopian, Chief Information and Data Officer, PCAOB Small and mid-sized businesses rely on a mix of full-time, part-time, and contracted workers across personal and corporate devices. With hybrid work becoming permanent, leaders must simplify IT, strengthen security, and maintain a seamless employee experience without overwhelming their teams. In this CTN conversation, Eric Hagopian ou...

Organizations want their security investments to achieve intended results and drive significant positive ROI like any business function. For such clarity, how much security organizations need and how much they should pay must be calculated based on operations and technology costs, risks mitigated, and benefits realized. Also, explicit metrics must drive security effort evaluation, performance, and...

Business typically views security programs as inducing caution, restrictions, and restraints. As a security leader, how do you change perception, create alignment, engage constituents, and demonstrably catalyze innovation to transform such programs into practical digital business enablers? Guest: Dee Young, Chief Information Security Officer, UNC Health Care Guest Bio: https://www.ciotalknetwork.c...

Spreading the same controls across all business areas hasn't proven to be effective for security management. Neither has planting people, whether your own or a managed service provider, and passively waiting for the alarm to go off. How can you as a CISO be surgical in your approach to security operations to proactively safeguard the crown jewels? Guest 1: Jerich Beason, Chief Information Security...

Circularity, aka circular economy, refers to a closed-loop system where we can keep reusing, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, and recycling resources, minimizing resource consumption and waste. It also can help improve resource productivity since we can keep using products, equipment, and infrastructure longer. Since we are using digital to maximize business and user outcomes, can we exte...

Amidst the current chaotic environment, we could be fighting daily fires and embrace stagnation. But, instead, organizations must focus on sustainability, cultivating talent, and operating with purpose while using technology to transform and accelerate growth to create a lasting impact and bring positive change. So, how well are the organizations doing what matters most today? Guest 1: Tressa Spri...

There is a rapid change in customer expectations, business models, and how work gets done. Yet, from planning demand to building operational capability to establishing a robust partner ecosystem support, many businesses still depend on principles enshrined as best practices decades ago. How can we rethink and shift our business planning and delivery efforts to more realistic scenario-driven models...

Supporting the scaling and accelerating digitalization efforts requires rethinking and converging business and IT teams. From cross-training workers for homogenization, integrating workflows, learning and adopting emerging technologies, to navigating through uncertainties together. Where are organizations in this journey? What are the related challenges and remedies that are helping build one cohe...

An emerging trend may be missed or shunned as speculation when it emanates weak signals or looks like an anomaly. But, waiting for it to become a conspicuous trend could cost you the race with your proactive competitors. So, how can organizations build heightened sensing capabilities to discern promising trends even if the signals are weak and stay ready to execute timely to gain a significant com...

With management looking to find ways to optimize operating costs leveraging digitalization while expecting clear and positive ROI from such technology investments, where should an organization invest in IT vs. scale back? What if investing in digital transformation is the only way left to desirable cost optimization? Guest: Robert Ford, Chief Information Officer, Northwest University Guest Bio: ht...

What if you could assemble your organization like LEGO® puzzles, where each product or service as a business block could be coupled with a compatible IT block. And do it in a way where you could build, buy, or lease these blocks to achieve a lean and on-demand setup that is scalable and extensible without compromising the quality of business operation and customer experience. What does it take to...

In light of recent global disruption, you are asked to step up, leaving your comfort zone. How well have you adapted to adversity without any judgment or avoidance? With the spotlight on you to deliver, have you stayed empathetic? Did you admit mistakes, took criticism, and did it all in stride, recognizing the risk and emotional exposure? If not, what held you back? Where do you need help? Guest...

The pharma companies are juggling multiple priorities like improving R&D, establishing a presence in global markets, and investing in digital transformation initiatives to move beyond the pill, find new revenue streams, and handle changing customer's expectations for personalization. Pandemic further complicated the issues with delayed product launches, reduced in-person sales visit potential, sup...

A hybrid work environment is here to stay. How did you motivate and engage people and lead a team you can't see face-to-face all the time? How did you ensure effective communication, collaboration, trust-building, and ensuring accountability? What current leadership approaches and skills you used helped or hurt as you lead your troops in the hybrid work environment? How should we develop future le...

Your business needs to be resilient that bounces back from disruptions and adversity. You also want to make sure that you are relevant now since the future is uncertain. Should you focus on automation, go remote, digitalize your offerings, promote self-service, and discard any people, processes, and technology that don't fit your current agenda? How to build an elastic, people-centric business tha...

Is your organization ensuring data security and privacy sufficiently and practicing race and gender diversity and inclusion effectively? Are your business practices ethical and transparent? Is worker health and safety getting the same focus and investment as product safety and quality? If such social and environmental issues are supported by a business properly, customers are willing to help, and...

As an IT leader, you strive to create an environment where people can learn, grow, inspire, and innovate. But to deliver on this promise, how are you building and sustaining a bottom-up culture, where each member of your team has a voice, empowered to make decisions, and motivated to create innovative and practical solutions to solve challenges and exploit business growth opportunities? And, how a...

Business leaders are looking to lessen the impact of current global disruption while fortifying against future ones. They want to acquire new capabilities quickly through mergers and acquisitions, reimagine customer relationship building, and improve their cybersecurity posture to minimize risk while controlling costs. How well are IT and Security leaders supporting this business reinvention effor...