Leadership in an AI-Enabled World

Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard
21 May 202459:54

Summary

TLDRIn this insightful session, Sanman and Professor Linda Hill explore the challenges and strategies of leading in an AI-enabled world. They discuss the importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and data-informed decision-making for executives. With real-world examples and research, they emphasize the need for a new leadership mindset that embraces digital transformation and the cultural shifts it entails, encouraging leaders to reimagine their roles and organizations to thrive in the digital era.

Takeaways

  • 😀 The speaker emphasizes the importance of engaging and interactive sessions for learning and discussion, especially in the context of digital transformation and AI leadership.
  • 👥 The speaker, Sanman, along with Professor Linda Hill and executive fellow An Lam, teaches a program called 'Leading in the Digital Era', highlighting the need for constant reinvention due to rapid changes in technology.
  • 🔧 Sanman's background is in engineering and he has spent the last 20 years helping companies grow digital businesses, indicating the practical experience that informs his perspective on AI and leadership.
  • 📈 The script discusses the concept of 'generative AI', showing that AI concepts have been around for a long time but are evolving, especially since the advent of platforms like Chat GPT in 2022.
  • 🌐 The research conducted by the speakers involved global roundtables and a survey of over 6,500 executives, providing a broad perspective on leadership in the digital era.
  • 📊 The survey results indicate that while many companies have started their digital transformation, a significant portion still feel they have a long way to go, with only 30% of those in the first five years feeling they've made significant progress.
  • 🤖 AI usage is growing, with half of the companies surveyed using AI in some capacity, and 87% expecting to use it in some form in the next three years.
  • 🛠️ There is a noted resistance to adopting AI, particularly in production, due to the difficulty in finding tangible benefits and the challenge of integrating AI into existing workflows.
  • 💡 The discussion suggests that companies are still in the testing phase with AI, and there is a need for better understanding and training on how to effectively use AI tools.
  • 🔑 The speaker suggests that leadership in the AI-enabled world requires a different mindset and behaviors, including being data-informed, customer-focused, and adaptable.
  • 🚀 The importance of having a bold vision and the courage to embrace exponential changes in technology is highlighted, as is the need for leaders to be catalysts for change within their organizations.

Q & A

  • What is the main focus of the program 'Leading in the Digital Era'?

    -The program 'Leading in the Digital Era' is an executive education program focused on leadership in the context of digital transformation and AI, rather than the technical aspects of these technologies.

  • What is the background of the speaker Sanman?

    -Sanman is an executive fellow at the business school who has spent the last 20 years helping companies create and grow digital businesses, data analytics, and AI-enabled solutions. He has a technical background, having trained as an engineer and worked on optimal control theory, a form of generative AI from 30 years ago.

  • What is the significance of the speaker's old thesis on optimal control theory?

    -The significance of the speaker's old thesis on optimal control theory is that it represents an early form of generative AI, illustrating that the concepts of generative AI have been around for a long time, albeit in different forms.

  • What was the speaker's role at the software company PTC?

    -At PTC, the speaker was involved in the SAS transformation of the company and also worked with generative design, a type of AI that provides different solutions for mechanical equipment based on given prompts and specifications.

  • What are the key leadership implications of being in the digital era according to the speaker?

    -The speaker suggests that the key leadership implications of being in the digital era include the need for a different mindset, set of behaviors, and capabilities to understand and navigate the leadership challenges presented by rapid technological advancements.

  • How did the speaker and his team conduct their research on leadership in the digital era?

    -The speaker and his team conducted their research by working with HBS Global Research centers to set up roundtables, speaking to almost 250 senior executives worldwide, and administering a survey to over 6,500 executives from more than 100 countries.

  • What is the difference between 'digital maturity' and 'digital transformation' as discussed in the script?

    -Digital maturity refers to an ongoing process of adapting to and integrating digital technologies into an organization's operations, recognizing that the goalposts are always moving due to rapid innovation. In contrast, digital transformation often implies a specific, often large-scale change process, with the implication of reaching a final state or 'enlightenment'.

  • What percentage of companies surveyed are currently using AI in some form or fashion, according to the script?

    -According to the script, approximately 50% of the companies surveyed are currently using AI in some form or fashion.

  • What is the projected percentage of companies that will be using AI three years from now, as per the executives surveyed in the script?

    -The executives surveyed in the script project that 87% of companies will be using AI in some form or fashion three years from now.

  • What are the main functions where companies are currently using AI, as discussed in the script?

    -The main functions where companies are currently using AI, as discussed in the script, include customer service, finance and accounting, and production.

  • What challenges do executives face in terms of AI usage and implementation, as mentioned in the script?

    -The challenges executives face in terms of AI usage and implementation include resistance to change, difficulty in prompting AI effectively, lack of understanding of how to integrate AI into existing workflows, and the struggle to comprehend exponential growth in AI capabilities.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to the Digital Era Leadership Program

The speaker, Sanman, introduces the session focused on leadership in the digital era, specifically in an AI-enabled world. He mentions his background in engineering and experience in digital businesses, data analytics, and AI. Sanman highlights his involvement in teaching an executive education program at a business school alongside Professor Linda Hill and fellow executive, Lam. The program, 'Leading in the Digital Era,' is constantly evolving due to the rapidly changing landscape of technology. The speaker also shares his previous work with a software company, PTC, and his experience with generative AI in the form of optimal control theory and generative design.

05:00

🔍 Research Insights on Leadership in the Digital Age

The speaker discusses the research conducted to understand the leadership implications of modern technology, which has become mainstream only in the past few decades. The research involved digital natives and roundtable discussions with nearly 250 senior executives worldwide, excluding Antarctica, and a survey of over 6,500 executives from more than 100 countries. The aim was to identify the characteristics leaders and organizations need to survive and thrive in the digital era. The speaker shares insights from the executives on their digital transformation and AI enablement journeys, noting the varying perceptions of progress.

10:03

📊 Analysis of Digital Transformation Progress

The speaker presents data from the survey, showing the self-assessed progress of companies in their digital transformation. Only 2% of companies haven't started, while 50% have been working on it for less than 5 years, and over a third have been at it for more than 5 years. Interestingly, 70% of those who have been on the journey for over 10 years feel they are making significant progress. The speaker notes the dynamic nature of goals in digital transformation, as the field is constantly evolving, and the difficulty in feeling a sense of completion.

15:05

🤖 AI Usage in Businesses Today and Predictions for 2027

The speaker delves into the current usage of AI within companies, with about half of the companies surveyed using AI in some capacity, particularly in customer service. The expectation is that by 2027, 87% of companies will be using AI. However, there is skepticism about the actual implementation in areas like production and product management, where the benefits of AI are less clear. The speaker suggests that the real innovation potential of AI might be in areas that are not yet fully explored or understood by executives.

20:06

💡 The Importance of Organizational and Leadership Adaptability

The speaker emphasizes the need for organizations to be data-informed, to collaborate across functions, and to focus on continuous learning. These characteristics are seen as crucial for thriving in the digital era. The speaker shares anecdotes from various companies, highlighting the cultural challenges and the importance of having the right data and infrastructure in place. The conversation also touches on the concept of 'digital maturity' rather than 'digital transformation,' indicating an ongoing process rather than a destination.

25:08

🚀 The Exponential Growth of AI and its Impact

The speaker discusses the exponential nature of AI development, using the example of the game Go and the AI program developed by Deep Mind. The program's rapid improvement and defeat of the world's top Go player illustrate the speed at which AI can advance. The speaker suggests that executives are struggling to comprehend this exponential growth and its implications for their businesses, highlighting the need for a shift in mindset to adapt to these changes.

30:12

🛠️ The Role of AI in Job Functions and Strategic Planning

The speaker explores the integration of AI with job functions, suggesting that executives should reimagine roles as a combination of human and robot capabilities. There is a call for strategic planning that focuses on how companies will change due to AI, rather than just the technology itself. The speaker also addresses the challenges of governance and the need for boards to understand the disruptive potential of AI on business models and services.

35:24

🏢 Organizational Characteristics for Thriving in the AI-Enabled World

The speaker outlines the key organizational characteristics identified by executives as crucial for thriving in the AI-enabled world. These include data-informed decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, continuous learning, customer focus, and comfort with change. The speaker also discusses the importance of having the right data and infrastructure, as well as the cultural shifts necessary for successful digital transformation.

40:26

🛑 The Challenges and Resistance to AI Integration

The speaker discusses the challenges and resistance faced by organizations in integrating AI, including difficulties in prompting AI effectively and cultural resistance to change. The speaker shares experiences from various companies, emphasizing the importance of training and executive support in overcoming these challenges. The conversation also touches on the need for companies to balance innovation with maintaining financial stability and meeting quarterly earnings reports.

45:26

🌐 The Importance of Ecosystem Partnerships and Leadership Mindset

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of ecosystem partnerships and the need for leaders to embrace a new mindset that includes continuous learning, adaptability, creativity, and courage. The speaker challenges the audience to consider what they will do differently as a result of the conversation and invites them to share their thoughts and experiences, highlighting the ongoing nature of the research and the evolving landscape of leadership in the digital era.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation refers to the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how an organization operates and delivers value to customers. In the video, the concept is central as the speaker discusses the varying stages of digital transformation that organizations find themselves in, with a focus on how AI is reshaping business strategies and operations.

💡AI-Enabled World

An AI-Enabled World denotes a scenario where artificial intelligence is pervasive and integral to various aspects of life and business. The script explores this concept through the lens of leadership, examining how executives are navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in their respective industries.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating new content, rather than just analyzing existing data. The script mentions generative AI in the context of the speaker's past work in optimal control theory, as well as its modern applications in areas like chatbots and design, highlighting the evolution of the concept over time.

💡Data Analytics

Data Analytics is the process of examining data sets to draw conclusions about the information they contain. In the video, the speaker's background in data analytics is discussed, emphasizing its importance in building digital businesses and the connection to the current wave of AI adoption in various sectors.

💡Digital Strategy

Digital Strategy involves the development and implementation of initiatives that leverage digital technologies to meet business goals. The script touches on the speaker's experience in creating digital strategies and the realization that leadership and organizational factors often play a critical role in the success of these initiatives.

💡Leadership Implications

Leadership Implications refer to the consequences or effects that a particular situation or trend has on the way leaders operate and make decisions. The video delves into the implications of AI and digital technologies for leadership, suggesting that a new mindset and skill set are required to succeed in the digital era.

💡Digital Maturity

Digital Maturity is a measure of an organization's ability to effectively and efficiently use digital technologies to achieve its goals. The script contrasts digital maturity with the idea of digital transformation as a journey with no endpoint, emphasizing continuous evolution and adaptation to technological advancements.

💡Exponential Growth

Exponential Growth describes a rapid increase in a value or quantity, often associated with technological advancements. The speaker uses the example of AI's development in the context of the game Go to illustrate the concept of exponential growth, pointing out the difficulty in predicting and adapting to such swift changes.

💡Cross-Functional Collaboration

Cross-Functional Collaboration is the process of working with people from different areas of an organization to achieve a common goal. The script highlights the importance of this approach in leveraging AI and digital technologies effectively, as it fosters innovation and ensures a holistic understanding of business challenges and opportunities.

💡Data-Informed Decision Making

Data-Informed Decision Making is the process of using data to inform and guide decision-making processes. In the video, this concept is emphasized as a key organizational characteristic for thriving in the digital era, with the speaker noting the importance of combining data insights with human expertise to drive better outcomes.

💡Adaptability

Adaptability is the ability to adjust and respond effectively to change. The script discusses adaptability as a crucial leadership trait in the AI-enabled world, where the pace of innovation is rapid and constant, requiring leaders to be flexible and open to new ways of working.

💡Cultural Change

Cultural Change refers to the process of modifying the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that characterize an organization. The video addresses the difficulty of cultural change in the context of digital transformation, noting that even within organizations that are technologically advanced, there can be resistance to adopting new ways of working.

Highlights

The session aims for an engaging and interactive experience focused on leadership in the digital era.

The speaker, Sanman, introduces himself as an executive fellow at a business school, alongside Professor Linda Hill and executive fellow An Lam, teaching a program called 'Leading in the Digital Era'.

The program is constantly reinvented due to the rapidly changing landscape of digital technologies, including AI.

Sanman's background in engineering and experience with generative AI, such as optimal control theory from his 1994 thesis, is highlighted.

Different forms of generative AI, such as generative design, are discussed, showing the evolution of the concept over time.

The impact of AI, particularly since the release of Chat GPT in November 2022, on leadership and organizational strategies is a key topic.

The importance of having the right data and infrastructure as prerequisites for digital transformation is emphasized.

A survey of over 6,500 executives from more than 100 countries reveals insights into the characteristics needed for leaders and organizations to thrive in the AI-enabled era.

Only 2% of executives report that their companies have not started digital transformation, while over 50% have been at it for less than 5 years.

There is a perceived 'moving goal post' in digital transformation, with 70% of companies that have been on the journey for over 10 years claiming significant progress.

Cultural change is identified as a significant barrier to digital transformation, particularly in more traditional industries.

The concept of 'digital maturity' is introduced as an ongoing process rather than a destination, reflecting the continuous nature of technological change.

AI usage in customer service is highlighted, with 50% of executives reporting its use in some form, projected to increase to 87% in three years.

The potential for AI in areas beyond the current 'low hanging fruit' of customer service and finance is discussed, suggesting a need for further innovation.

The exponential nature of AI development is illustrated through the example of the game Go and the rapid advancement of AI players.

The importance of company culture in the adoption and integration of AI is underscored, with examples of digital natives and traditional companies.

Leadership characteristics for the AI-enabled world are outlined, including adaptability, creativity, and a customer-centric approach.

The need for leaders to embrace a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability in response to exponential technological changes is stressed.

A final challenge is issued to participants to consider one actionable change they will implement in their organizations based on the discussion.

Transcripts

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[Music]

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afteron um did everyone have a good

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lunch this

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is Dred afternoon time slot the one

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straight after lunch so I had to get

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some advice as you can tell from a

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couple of different

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sources and uh I think they some pretty

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good advice I would say I'm not going to

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do I'm going to do a lot of it but I'm

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not going to do all of it for example

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I'm not going to ask you to move around

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and ask people to take one to two minute

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break for

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L but I think uh what I'm hoping for is

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an engaging uh session an interactive

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session we're going to be talking a lot

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we're going to be learning from each

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other a lot um and uh and I'd love to

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take it from there so um my name is uh

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San man

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and together with I'm an executive

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fellow here at business school and so

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together with Professor Linda Hill and

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with another executive fellow called an

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Lam uh I teach a program called leading

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in the digital era uh it is an executive

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education program and we've been doing

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it for the past three years and every

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year I feel like we are constantly

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Reinventing because things keep changing

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all the time um but uh when we're not

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teaching this program we're also

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researching the subject as well and

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that's what we're the topic of this

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conversation is going to be about uh

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today's topic is leading in an AI

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enabled world and uh as I said it's

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um you know it the the program itself

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and what we've been talking about is

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leadership oriented it's not a technical

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program having said that my background

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is technical uh I spent the last 20

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years helping companies

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create and grow digital uh businesses

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data analytics and now increasingly AI

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enabled um I trained as an engineer um I

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dug up my old thesis and so what you see

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over here actually is a form an old form

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of generative AI it was optimal control

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theory so you can tell that was from 30

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years ago 1994 wow so so as you can tell

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generative AI the concepts of gener AI

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was were existing for quite some period

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of time in a different form so to speak

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um I trained this engine for 5 years

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worked as an engineer for five years yes

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did

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you more why why you you you make the

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par well at the same time with when you

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when you use optimal control um what

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you're doing is you are giving prompts

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and you're saying this is what my end

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conditions should be and therefore using

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these constraints and these and

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conditions what is the best way to get

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there that was the case in the thesis

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work that I've done over there now at

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the same time as as early as uh as late

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as 2019 2020 I also was working with a

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software company called PTC where I was

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doing the SAS transformation for the

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company but one of the things there was

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also we had another type of generative

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AI called generative design where you

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actually gave prompts for what type of

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mechanical equipment you wanted to

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actually build and out would come a

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number of different solutions and you

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choose based on what your specifications

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were as well so there are different

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forms generative AI that we've sort of

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known about but it hasn't been anything

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near to what we've experienced ever

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since November 2022 when chat GPT came

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out open AI came out open as well so

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anyways um my my sort of work over these

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past 20 years was really um helping you

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know I was I was I was the Thompson

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ruers for 10 years and uh building data

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analytics businesses I ran three of

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their digital businesses um when I was

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running new Ventures as well and while I

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was doing this also for other companies

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later on I noticed that um you know you

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would end up creating a digital strategy

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you would end up creating an

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implementation plan where you do the

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technology you build the infrastructure

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you develop the different uh business

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models and so so forth as well and then

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when you're running it over a period of

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time you suddenly realize that the

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aspirations you had for where you wanted

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to grow weren't sometimes fulfilled and

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in a lot of those when you do the sort

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of a postmortem that a lot of those

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happen to be leadership or organization

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related so not technology

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related and so with that in mind when

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Professor Linda Hill asked me and an to

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come and join her to do some research

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because we really wanted to understand

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the leadership implications of what it

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means to be in this day and age because

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if you think about this look at all of

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these look at all of these Technologies

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here they've really only come to the

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mainstream in the past 20 30 years or so

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and it's something that certainly when I

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was an MBA student here in CL of 2001 I

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think I have a few of my section mates

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here as well already um these are the

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kind of things that we didn't really

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sort of learn about from the leadership

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perspective and so the way to lead is

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actually different and our thesis was

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it's a different mindset different set

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of behaviors and different set of

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capabilities that we should be

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investigating and so that was really the

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impetus for us to do our

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research and we did the research in

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conjunction with you know the team that

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I mentioned before but we also brought

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in some digital natives uh uh in our

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team who can really help us with the lay

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of the land and sort of reverse Mentor

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as well

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and we worked with the HBS Global

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Research centers there are so many of

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these centers all around around the

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world and what they helped us with was

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setting up these roundtables as you see

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over here we spoke to almost 250 senior

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Executives all around the world

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basically every continent except

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Antarctica

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um and it was across all of the major

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industrial sectors um we also

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administered now in its third year a

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survey again to senior Executives and

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this now survey is more than 6 and a

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half thousand Executives from over a 100

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countries and that gave us sort of a

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view of what you feel might be the

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relevant characteristics that leaders

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need to have and organizations need to

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have in order to really survive and

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thrive in this uh digital era in this

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particularly AI enabled era so what I'm

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going to talk to you about um today is

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uh first give you sort of a lay of the

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land of you know where these folks think

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they are in their digital transformation

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journey and their AI enablement journey

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and then we'll double click into the AI

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element of it which is you know what are

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they actually doing where are they

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actually using it and what are they

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thinking about they're going to be using

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going forward uh and then finally we'll

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translate that into what do we think are

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the the relevant organizational and

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Leadership

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implications uh as we think about

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surviving and going and really thriving

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surviv and Thrive is something you'll

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hear from me a lot all right um actually

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before I go to the next stage I want to

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show of hands how many of you are in the

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earlier stages of a digital

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transformation process it could be AI

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enablement it could be something more

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digital data analytics oriented uh let's

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say um 5 years in up to 5 years in just

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raise a show

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hands all right how many of you have

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been doing this for more than five so

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between five to 10

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years your organizations are in the

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digital transformation Journey so you're

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working with a company and the company

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is now implemented Data Systems has

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Implement testing out AI systems and all

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those types of things how many people

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been doing it for longer than five years

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but less than 10 years

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mulle companies yeah yes multiple

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companies okay and how many of you have

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been doing it for more than 10

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years okay there's a handful over here

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so when we ask these Executives this is

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what we

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heard right so only 2% haven't started

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yet which is

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great

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um 50% have been doing this more than

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50% have been doing this for less than 5

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years right so it's actually in the

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earliest stages of uh doing this here's

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the interesting part over a third have

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been doing this longer than five years

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which I thought was pretty pretty

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awesome right I mean there's 15% have

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been doing it for more than 10 years um

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now we asked the same question but we

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asked them in a different way was how

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much progress do you

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think want to venture a guest OPP

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what do you

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do like reverse where it

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shows. interesting so here's what they

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being snarky but so interesting here

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here's what they said which is actually

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quite interesting so to give you a

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little bit of a context blue here means

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those companies who feel like they're

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making a great deal of progress we asked

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them to do it on a on a range of you

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know zero one to six or or and five and

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six were a great great deal of progress

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so those who said five and six it's

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these ones now a little caveat here when

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we talk about all of this right we're

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talking about Executives perceptions I'm

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talking a round table it's their

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perception of how they're doing I'm

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asking in a survey it's their perception

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of how they're doing right so one

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company's perception of their progress

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relative to their goals may be very

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different to another company's

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perception of their relative their goals

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but having said all that when you put it

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all when you put it all together we

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still see some trends that are notable

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and that's what we're kind of talking

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about here so the the trend we see here

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is those who are one to five years in

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the in the in in into the journey over

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here which is more than half the

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people but only about 30% feel like they

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made a significant amount of progress

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you know if you're in one year it's even

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less right but those who've been doing

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it for longer

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I mean look at this the folks who've

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been doing it for more than 10 years

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there's only 15% of them who have been

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doing it for more than 10

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years but 70% of that 15 say that

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they're making a great deal of

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progress

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so what do you make of

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that my colleague here says that the go

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is sorry you going to speak louder the

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go by my colleague here says that the go

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is moving all the time and I have to

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agree so you're Co calling your

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[Laughter]

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colleague I I tell you something at a

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more than 20 years ago it was about um

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getting processes and data model and and

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and implementing in in automated

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automated systems uh and then data

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governance uh so there's there's many

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many different things that you do at the

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time at the time there was no AI of

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course so you do what it's in the menu

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so so your colleague is very very

play12:03

astute thank you so I mean that it it

play12:08

takes a long time there's a lot of

play12:09

processes and so forth as well which

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which uh which you have to go through as

play12:13

one of the uh prerequisites we heard

play12:16

just this morning in that that major

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session the amount the of importance

play12:21

that that's attached to having the right

play12:24

data and the right infrastructure and

play12:26

everything in place as well so that's

play12:28

something that's certainly one that you

play12:29

wanted to say well I think that the

play12:30

difference too is that uh less than one

play12:33

year you've got the Revolt of the

play12:35

experts right and if you're born digital

play12:37

you've been making new decisions with

play12:39

data from day one so I think there's

play12:41

just a lot of change management or a lot

play12:43

of

play12:44

scaffolding against adop I like that I

play12:46

might use that at some point the Revolt

play12:48

of the experts so you're saying here

play12:51

there's a lot of resistance well yeah

play12:52

because prediction and judgment hasn't

play12:54

been decoupled yet it's just still exist

play12:56

in a person that's got experience but up

play12:59

above prediction and judgment was

play13:01

decoupled from day one

play13:04

yeah yes it just makes me wonder if the

play13:06

B it for 10 plus years have they created

play13:10

a whole bunch of technical debt to be

play13:13

disrupted in the you know with what's

play13:16

happening now yeah that's that's that's

play13:19

also possible so leading on from what my

play13:21

colleague here said I think it's a

play13:23

culture thing like if it's a company if

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you're Amazon or something you yeah I

play13:27

mean maybe born digital is a bit

play13:28

pretentious right but it's normal it's

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part of it I'm work in financial

play13:32

services where some specifically

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insurance which is kind of slow to

play13:35

change so I think part of it is those

play13:38

companies you know everyone and a bit

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also what you're say that people have

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got used to it that's part of it you

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join you know Google and Amazon and

play13:45

whatever even Walmart is pretty good at

play13:47

this stuff as far as I know right um

play13:49

because you that's part of it and that's

play13:51

what you want to do whereas you don't

play13:52

necessarily um I don't know doing an

play13:54

insurance broker because you really want

play13:55

to do um you know digital transformation

play13:58

so

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I I I think a lot of it is is about the

play14:02

company culture and I'm I'm a board

play14:04

member now so that's something we think

play14:06

about a lot well so we are going to

play14:08

spend a bit of time on uh on company

play14:10

culture uh um so I will uh I'll ask

play14:16

you one question what have you

play14:19

experienced that explains this as well

play14:22

company culture was one that you talked

play14:24

about yes um data processes and the

play14:27

cleanliness of the data from one server

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to the next and not having

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infrastructure put into place you're

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you're cleaning a lot of data up front

play14:37

so you're doing a lot of work right away

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and then you're starting to see a gain

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so you're not going to get a big gain

play14:44

until until you're further down the road

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and one of the things we've also noted

play14:49

that's very right I mean one of the

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things we've also noted is that uh one

play14:53

second is that many of these Executives

play14:56

were saying that it's like a moving goal

play14:59

poost things keep changing all the time

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and so you're never ever feeling like

play15:05

you reached your goals you're getting

play15:07

close to it and when something changes

play15:08

and then you know you come to November

play15:09

2022 and all of a sudden you have to

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reevaluate everything else because

play15:12

everyone's are jumping on the AI

play15:14

bandwagon so to speak so we call this we

play15:17

like to call this digital maturity as

play15:20

opposed to digital transformation

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because it's not like you go you know

play15:24

I've reached Enlightenment and I don't

play15:25

need to do anymore it's never going to

play15:27

be the case soor you wouldn't think yeah

play15:30

well my I've been at this sort of

play15:36

company's transformation for about 50

play15:39

years and the B the basic rule of thumb

play15:44

is any major transformation takes 10

play15:47

years and all companies have to be

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reinvented after about a decade so your

play15:55

your finding is just

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consistent it big organizations

play16:00

particularly if they're

play16:02

successful indeed indeed and in fact

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what we're realizing also is while these

play16:08

systems need time to

play16:10

change the pace of innovation is going

play16:12

faster than we're able to change as well

play16:15

so we have to struggle with that and

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it's causing us I mean you saw

play16:19

everything that Ethan was showing were

play16:20

like blown away I mean it's like that's

play16:23

the kind of stuff that we have to deal

play16:24

with all right so let me let me jump in

play16:27

now to when you do a little double click

play16:29

because one one thing we did this year

play16:31

was We we really wanted to understand

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the AI uh usage and this is what we

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asked very basic question to start

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things off which is how many of you are

play16:41

actually using AI in some form or

play16:44

fashion and what we see here is about

play16:46

half of them half of the companies this

play16:48

is

play16:51

2341 half of them are using it in some

play16:54

formal fashion and when you when we ask

play16:56

them to project how many of them are

play16:57

going to be using it 3 years from now

play17:00

it's I'm surprised it's not 100% but

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it's okay it's 87% which is a not huge

play17:04

amount in some some form or fashion and

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then we ask them where exactly will you

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be using this right which of your

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functions do you think you'll be using

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this and this is what they told us right

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so just to give you a l this is 2024 and

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we're saying this because we did this

play17:26

earlier on this

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year customer

play17:29

service out of the

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2341 Executives that we spoke to from

play17:35

over 100

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countries 50% of them are using Ai and

play17:41

customer service in some form or fashion

play17:44

and you know you've just heard about the

play17:46

types of things you can do um and then

play17:49

the same

play17:50

thing 15% are using them in production

play17:54

or not even 20% of are using them in

play17:56

Finance and Accounting so

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does that seem does that seem right does

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that seem

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intuitively okay to you no so when you

play18:05

asked the first question I'm in

play18:07

production so it's it's hard to I apply

play18:09

into production right it's very labor

play18:10

intensive I don't place the customer I

play18:13

can make processing more efficient but

play18:15

if I still need x amount of people to do

play18:16

manual work where do I actually find

play18:19

benefit right of using you know you use

play18:22

a task manager stuff like that or slack

play18:25

or whatever okay that helps a little bit

play18:27

in efficiency in terms of data the

play18:29

operations but where can I actually find

play18:31

something exponential in terms of

play18:33

efficiency So you you're you're

play18:35

saying I've got all these people I've

play18:37

got all these processes I need to find

play18:40

something which is tangible which is

play18:41

going to really move the dial for me and

play18:44

I haven't found anything so far yeah

play18:46

interesting anyone else yes like the way

play18:49

I read this is like those four

play18:51

categories were no hanging fruits every

play18:53

even grab them the real Innovation is

play18:56

going to come in the categories that you

play18:58

don't see there which is like sales

play19:00

product management Edgar like I've seen

play19:03

people talking about these things but

play19:06

there is more Innovation needs to happen

play19:08

there is the and those are the groups

play19:10

that were never talking to technology

play19:11

teams ever before so are you are you are

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you in a l here by the way no because

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you would have been one of those weakest

play19:21

colors from from my experience working

play19:23

clients this feels overstated which what

play19:26

feels over the customer service yeah the

play19:29

whole thing oh interesting tell me more

play19:32

well couple a couple of observations

play19:34

what we see with clients is is they go

play19:36

through a life cycle of generative AI a

play19:37

lot of clients are in testing phase at

play19:40

this point they haven't been able to

play19:42

figure out how to roll it out at

play19:43

production and scale the second thing is

play19:47

maybe see the executives are answering

play19:50

it's because of its personal

play19:51

productivity use as opposed to changing

play19:53

the workflows because it there's no

play19:56

barriers to trying this stuff out in the

play19:59

organization it's it's a valid point uh

play20:01

we did ask them um not you know don't

play20:05

don't you don't you don't use it for you

play20:07

know making poems or anything like that

play20:09

birthday things it's got to be for work

play20:12

so that's for sure but I think you're

play20:14

right in that everyone's still in

play20:17

testing phase right they're still trying

play20:19

to understand and process what's going

play20:21

on but how do I use this how do I try

play20:24

this and by the way I see uh I'm going

play20:26

to co Call Tuck here tuck I see the

play20:29

the Russell Reynolds guys have come up

play20:30

with a um a report which I thought was

play20:33

really great which was they actually

play20:35

looked at asked a bunch of Executives

play20:38

and asked them how are you using it

play20:40

which phase are you using it and so you

play20:42

can see that some are test in testing

play20:44

phase some are in U sort of production

play20:47

phase and so forth as well so there's

play20:49

there's a whole gamut of all those

play20:50

things which I think is is useful now

play20:53

here's what we when we ask them how's it

play20:56

what's it going to look like three years

play20:57

from now this is what they told us right

play21:00

so in the red is

play21:04

2027 what do you make of

play21:07

that I'm got to pick someone in the

play21:09

middle here because they Haven

play21:13

mid oh I kind of wonder if that's

play21:16

aspirational or if there's a road map to

play21:18

that I'm sure there's a lot of those

play21:20

that it's like I'd love to automate and

play21:22

use AI for more Finance and Accounting

play21:24

but I see no road map for it there's not

play21:26

a lot of technology or anything even

play21:28

coming out to that gets that so it's

play21:30

it's used that much more so I this sort

play21:33

of like

play21:34

a i me I'm not sure I understand because

play21:38

if I look at production and product ma

play21:41

product management staying the lowest

play21:43

like isn't AI in robotics and that's

play21:45

going to be like a huge growth area like

play21:46

I don't understand why it's so low it's

play21:49

it's it's funny you say this because

play21:50

this is sort of the the the thinking

play21:53

process that we had when we were

play21:55

analyzing all this later on um so a

play21:59

couple of things that we've noticed

play22:00

first of

play22:01

all without a doubt everyone's saying

play22:03

yeah I I use AI a little bit and I'm

play22:05

testing it and experimenting a little

play22:07

bit and I'm sure I'm going to use it a

play22:08

lot more and that's why all the reds are

play22:10

pretty much High then there's I know my

play22:14

business and remember these are SE Suite

play22:16

Executives so a CFO may not necessarily

play22:19

know what the applications are in

play22:22

production right so there's a little bit

play22:25

of that that we have to try and

play22:26

understand as well and then there's

play22:29

actually one other aspect

play22:32

which I think is is a contributor to

play22:36

this which is actually bigger than we

play22:37

think it is um now you just saw azim uh

play22:41

in in that conversation he talks about

play22:43

the exponential view we have a professor

play22:46

here at HBS called shag go some of you

play22:49

may know him he teaches a program called

play22:52

fre technologies that will change the

play22:55

world by 2035 right um one of them was

play23:00

actually spoken up very poorly today

play23:05

blockchain we have ai blockchain and

play23:08

synthetic biology right but the whole

play23:11

concept of exponential change is

play23:15

something that is actually really tough

play23:17

for anyone to understand right we are so

play23:21

used to thinking things in a linear

play23:24

fashion right what happened before is

play23:27

what's going to happen going forward I

play23:28

maybe it's going to go a little bit

play23:29

faster oh look at the internet I know

play23:31

since 1994 or 1993 when uh when I had

play23:35

Netscape and it was um it before yeah

play23:38

Mosaic when Mosaic came out uh and and I

play23:41

know what the trend is I know Amazon

play23:43

came at this time and therefore I I can

play23:44

project the same thing going forward and

play23:46

now with AI maybe it's going to go a

play23:47

little bit faster but actually all of

play23:49

those Technologies in many cases are

play23:52

exponential and certainly AI in itself

play23:55

is exponential so he spends a lot of

play23:57

time

play23:58

telling people to imagine what an

play24:01

exponential growth is looking like uh

play24:04

with a a bunch of different examples one

play24:06

example that I really love and I can

play24:09

relate to is uh anyone know the game

play24:13

go strategy g go right who knows what it

play24:17

is yeah just explain very quickly what

play24:20

it is it's I did that for my daughter's

play24:24

High School application video I have a

play24:26

script so it's the old Chinese game it's

play24:28

like 2,000 years old I think it's 18

play24:30

line by 18 line so it's a bunch of uh

play24:33

300 Crossing and one player has red

play24:38

uh yellow oh sorry Black Stone PS one

play24:41

has the white one and then you place one

play24:44

the other place one the the objective

play24:46

the game is to if you Circle the other

play24:49

side then all that get limited way and

play24:51

the eventual game is you want more than

play24:53

half of the 361 dots so it's a strategy

play24:58

game

play24:58

it's been around 2 and a half thousand

play25:01

years we still play it and over those

play25:04

years we have improved it's been passed

play25:08

down strategies have been passed down

play25:10

and we're improving improving improving

play25:14

2014 um a startup called Deep Mind which

play25:18

is now owned by Google says I'm going to

play25:21

build a program that is going to really

play25:24

Challenge and really try and learn how

play25:25

to play go and be the best

play25:28

in 2016 it learned from all of these

play25:31

games from the that humans have played

play25:33

in 2016 it played against the world

play25:35

number one Lisa doll two years beat him

play25:40

hands

play25:41

down so this computer program which

play25:45

learned through all these algorithms in

play25:48

two years beat the world's number one

play25:51

player and then what do you do what do

play25:55

you do after that how do you improve

play25:56

something after that play against

play25:58

yourself play against yourself right so

play26:01

they built another another program which

play26:04

is even more fast and more higher

play26:07

computation played against itself how

play26:10

long did it

play26:11

take 20 minutes 3

play26:14

days 3 days before it beat that version

play26:17

that beat Lisa doll and then they said

play26:19

okay let's build another one which is

play26:20

even more popular which is even more

play26:23

complex and uh and

play26:25

computational that took eight hours of

play26:28

trading Data before it beat the pre the

play26:32

version that beat Lis so two and a half

play26:34

thousand

play26:35

years 2 years 3 days eight hours that's

play26:41

exponential and that's something that we

play26:44

absolutely are not able to comprehend

play26:47

until we hear these types of examples

play26:49

and I think that's what a lot of our

play26:51

executives are struggling with these

play26:52

really smart people right say oh I think

play26:54

I'm going to double my use of AI because

play26:57

I I can see one or two applications I

play27:00

think it's going to really change

play27:02

dramatically now a show of hands oh tuck

play27:05

go ahead I I was just going to add to

play27:06

that I think the spot we are now the use

play27:09

cases might be obvious but we're asking

play27:11

Executives who don't know what this

play27:13

is what might happen like the business

play27:16

we're in now we're saying well you

play27:18

should actually reimagine every one of

play27:20

the job specs for these functions as a

play27:22

person plus a robot and who would be

play27:25

qualified to run that new position then

play27:27

ask them the questions so we're in a

play27:29

point here now where the seite jobs are

play27:33

not properly scoped from personal robot

play27:35

and the people in them are the old model

play27:39

right so I think it's going to be really

play27:40

interesting to challenge each of your

play27:42

functions and figure out which ones at

play27:44

most risk and how do I reinvent it we're

play27:46

early on that I think so and his his

play27:49

really really funny one on this because

play27:52

we are talking about cwis but then we

play27:54

have the long-term persons in the

play27:55

company in the boards that even know

play27:57

less to talk about is

play27:59

that so how do you create so my point is

play28:03

that maybe many of the companies that

play28:05

said that they are not going to use AI

play28:07

they will not exist in three years and

play28:09

and so and I think that the problem

play28:11

starts at the top of the pyramid right

play28:13

now which is with governence and how do

play28:14

you bring this knowledge to discuss how

play28:17

your business will be disrupted because

play28:19

maybe for me the most important point

play28:21

there is connected it strategic planning

play28:23

is how your company will change it's not

play28:25

about technology how the business the

play28:28

the solutions that you're providing the

play28:29

services so and I think that's more than

play28:31

really just if you are tackling sales or

play28:33

marketing is the overall concept of your

play28:35

kind so hold that B can I just add one

play28:38

thing since you've attacked the board

play28:39

members in the

play28:41

room it's it's often the board members

play28:44

that who may not know AI but ask the

play28:46

really tough questions because they're

play28:47

not going to lose budgets or people yes

play28:50

I when I look at that I say yeah it's a

play28:51

little bit like this but also it's

play28:54

interesting the loow hanging fruit seems

play28:56

to be the first thing in any technology

play28:58

Wave It's low hanging fruit it's

play29:01

incrementalism and then the fear is if I

play29:04

touch the core what's going to happen

play29:06

with the business while I'm going

play29:07

through the transformation because I got

play29:09

to report my earnings every quarter so

play29:11

there's that there's something about the

play29:13

risk Dynamic that really has to change

play29:15

as well yes so that you can see the

play29:18

other side of the valley that you're

play29:19

trying to get to and have the ability to

play29:22

go through the ups and downs to get

play29:24

there I mean I wonder in your first

play29:25

chart if some of those people that

play29:27

didn't see prog ress is because in the

play29:28

first few years they had a bunch of

play29:30

projects that got funded and defunded

play29:32

and they didn't show progress so they

play29:34

lost the leader the board decided they

play29:36

didn't want to fund it anymore and how

play29:38

many of those had consistent support

play29:41

financially and and peoplewise to work

play29:44

through it to get to where they wanted

play29:45

to the board perspective there but but I

play29:48

think I think the the idea of boldness

play29:50

that you're talking about is something

play29:51

which is very very important that's

play29:53

something that we've we've heard as well

play29:55

I'm just going to go very quickly

play29:56

through this because I wanted to spend a

play29:58

bit more time on this I realize got you

play30:00

know we've only got an hour and we can

play30:01

go on for ages um when we asked whether

play30:05

was substitutive or complimentary this

play30:08

is the answer that we got so there's a

play30:11

couple of things I I'll go through this

play30:13

quite quickly but there's a couple of

play30:14

things that stuck which is and I'm sure

play30:16

you can see it actually I you know what

play30:18

I'm GNA ask you what two things do you

play30:19

see

play30:22

here sorry your other category is

play30:25

gone and

play30:28

delusional I mean it's not popular I

play30:30

mean sorry to be political but Hillary

play30:32

Clinton and the coal miners right if you

play30:34

say people are going to lose their jobs

play30:36

which they are but I'm not a politician

play30:39

but they I don't think people want to

play30:40

think about that so I feel like so

play30:42

Martin sorl was quite bold when yeah

play30:44

yeah I agree and and I do think in

play30:46

certain

play30:49

areas we really have to think about that

play30:52

right because that combination of that

play30:54

exponential growth in Ai and and the

play30:57

possibilities together with

play30:59

robotics um that could change

play31:02

substantially right in other areas it

play31:04

may be less but I think Point here is

play31:06

everyone's in this magic 8020

play31:09

Rule and and I think it's going to be

play31:11

varying a lot more so what I'm going to

play31:15

give you guys a little bit of a time now

play31:17

I'm going to give you maybe three four

play31:18

minutes I want you to just gather

play31:20

amongst your neighbors here's what we're

play31:21

going to do little little exercise uh

play31:24

this is what happens when you have an

play31:25

afternoon session by way um think about

play31:28

get three of you together just Bunch up

play31:31

and think about in your organizations

play31:34

where you've been using and how you've

play31:35

been using it what have been what what

play31:37

has worked what hasn't worked and

play31:39

particularly think about it from two

play31:41

perspectives organizational perspective

play31:44

and Leadership perspective so I'm going

play31:46

to give you a couple of minutes to just

play31:47

to talk about it and I'm going to ask

play31:48

for some brave souls to raise their hand

play31:50

and give give their experience

play32:05

[Applause]

play32:17

of

play32:24

[Applause]

play32:27

I'll give you an example I'll give an ex

play32:59

up

play33:06

F fin

play33:54

of

play34:08

that's

play34:23

[Music]

play34:49

to preservation

play34:52

oration as it is

play34:58

[Music]

play35:23

you should replicate your

play35:39

intern

play35:51

[Music]

play36:02

[Applause]

play36:11

[Music]

play36:17

like flash the lights right you

play36:24

know what Happ sit right fr

play36:27

[Music]

play36:32

go ahead all right so um we have two two

play36:36

Consulting companies here and one SAS

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company um and so we talked about are we

play36:43

really using llms right now and we're

play36:45

just starting to think about them and so

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then from our my company that's using

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classic oldfashioned AI machine learning

play36:53

to do predictions uh We've started one

play36:57

to build our own GPT because what we've

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been doing is scraping the web and then

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trying to get the you know regular GPT

play37:06

to score training and education how well

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it fits to the factors that are driving

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predictions doesn't fit at all well so

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the difficulties have been that my folks

play37:18

don't it's very hard so they they want

play37:21

to revert back to doing it themselves

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and using their own brains as the GPT

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and when we dug resistance then yeah so

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when we dug underneath it um I think one

play37:33

of the issues is they don't know how to

play37:35

prompt so we need to do more training

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and I think the second issue is the only

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reason that we're doing we're continuing

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on the GPT path is because I have made

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the I'm the CEO I have made the

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executive decision that we will do it we

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are going to figure out how to

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any other

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team I I heard a lot of

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noise I I um so for us the commonality

play38:07

with us had to do with culture I work in

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healthcare and we are so slow we have so

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much data but there's this whole privacy

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issue so culture has just been a well wi

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I just joined my organization a year and

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a half ago so I come in the disruptor

play38:23

and trying to change the culture we're

play38:25

still working the culture part and

play38:26

trying to get them to um even look at

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systems right but then you have to also

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I'm in operations so you have to make

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sure it's not disruptive I think

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somebody said it it's not disruptive

play38:38

enough that it's impacting financial and

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you know um we have to look at Health

play38:43

outcomes and be efficient and and still

play38:46

produce that value right so you got to

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have to juggle both and how to figure

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out that balance she's a financial

play38:53

services and same thing she she said

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from the higher level all um they all

play38:59

they've all drunk the Kool-Aid but then

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trying to get the lower managers to them

play39:03

Buy in and then he goes where he's in

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Tech and you think everybody should be

play39:07

using the technology but it's sort of

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like a it's not really spread out people

play39:13

might be using chot GPT on the side but

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not really broadcasting so you could

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tell that it's still a whole cultural

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bottom line culture Chang cult it's hard

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yeah yeah so anyone else yep

play39:30

so now he's speaking for

play39:34

himself um I work for SNP we are the

play39:37

providers of the data to no I used to

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work for Reuters we were competitors oh

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good nice job we can talk a lot um so we

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have a lot of vendors uh we get crappy

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data pardon my friend um and then

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there's a lot of problem for us because

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for me my team is the gatekeeper of all

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the data that comes for an companies

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Securities and Market data which is like

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you know which goes to Dow Jones and

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ratings and things like that um coming

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back to the where we we are using

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generative the answer is we have start

play40:11

so you're absolutely right that we in

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the testing phase are we have we been

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using AI yes to what she said machine

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learning yes to an extent not completely

play40:21

but to an extent so that's my answer to

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first question um second is advantages

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it has given us tremendous this it has

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shown tremendous progress and at the

play40:30

face of it the difficulty is I do not

play40:33

know how to validate

play40:35

that and the fourth perspective to that

play40:37

is organizational perspective yes we

play40:39

want to use uh AI we want to use

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everything that is at the suite that's

play40:46

at our disposal the problem is we have

play40:48

to keep exploiting what we have but we

play40:51

have to keep looking at what's there in

play40:53

the future for us so that we can pull

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that back into our mean stream work

play40:59

that's we interesting so it's it's I'm

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going to just move quickly ahead because

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I want us to you know we've talked about

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the issues with making that

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change we're in testing phase we want to

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make the changes there's a little bit of

play41:16

resistance all these things when we

play41:17

asked the folks what is really important

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in order to be able to have all of these

play41:25

Technologies at the disposal and the

play41:26

organization

play41:27

actually working together to be able to

play41:29

do this what are the characteristics

play41:31

from an organizational perspective to be

play41:33

able to survive and thrive this is what

play41:35

they told us so this is organizational

play41:40

characteristics data informed decision

play41:42

making and cross functional

play41:44

collaboration came up tops right closely

play41:48

followed by continuous learning you we

play41:50

talked about the difficulty you have to

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train everyone and so forth the custom

play41:54

Focus always stays it's as long as you

play41:56

are actually implementing it with the

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customer in mind and you're not just

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doing some sort of mindless T testing

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and then the Comfort will change these

play42:04

are all

play42:06

things and just to give you some backr

play42:08

we we asked them about a whole bunch of

play42:11

different factors and these were the

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ones that they R rated as time does that

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does that does that resonate does that

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surprise

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you no no some instances I think that uh

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there's more emphasis on customer

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customer focus versus versus just

play42:30

handling the data uh but I think they're

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they both go together because uh data

play42:37

informed decision making will will serve

play42:40

the customer uh directly and indirectly

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so so I think the I'm surprised by the

play42:46

the low 41% there interesting by the way

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the when I say data informed decision-

play42:52

making do you do you see the distinction

play42:54

between data informed and datadriven

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yes right so data

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driven is the data is telling us we need

play43:03

to do this let's do this marketing

play43:04

analytics is a great example of that

play43:06

right yeah it's just huge volume we know

play43:09

how to how to uh to work with that data

play43:12

informed on the other hand is that there

play43:15

is an element of human interaction there

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well it's a human in the loop whatever

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you want to call it it it is there's

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constant checking and iterations that go

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on with it as well and uh I was talking

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to a

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the head of digital at a major Asian oil

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and gas company and he had his mandate

play43:34

was I need to increase revenue from my

play43:37

refineries and I'm going to focus on my

play43:39

distillation cost for those of you who

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you

play43:43

know distillation column is a very

play43:45

important piece of equipment in the oil

play43:47

refining process and he had his OT

play43:50

people and he had his it people the

play43:52

operational folks who know the process

play43:54

and the engineering and the and the

play43:55

equipment really well and the data

play43:58

scientists who know all their models and

play44:00

who can build algorithms and everything

play44:02

and he asked them to work together

play44:03

crossfunction collaboration

play44:06

supposedly the data science folks went

play44:08

off and created these models and they

play44:10

came up with this presentation this

play44:12

wonderful presentation that had a

play44:15

scatter plot which was tightly aligned

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and he was like wow this is I've never

play44:19

seen a scatter plot like this before and

play44:21

it was totally wrong because because

play44:23

what he what they told them was you know

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what if you you increase the temperature

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of the distillation column you will get

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more bottom product and so anyone who's

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a chemical engineer I I trained as a

play44:36

chemical engineer so I started laughing

play44:37

when I heard that right anyone who's a

play44:39

chemical engineer or a chemistry major

play44:41

will know that that's physically not

play44:43

possible right it's against physics it's

play44:46

against chemistry it's against all and

play44:47

he basically said you have to be God if

play44:50

you right but the reason was that they

play44:53

looked at the data sets in in isolation

play44:56

and they and they chose the wrong data

play44:58

sets right so I think the lesson here is

play45:02

that data informed is really important

play45:03

they need to make sure that they get the

play45:05

experts together talk about this and we

play45:07

we've heard about this not just from a

play45:09

Senior Management context but also more

play45:10

from a line manager context as well so

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these are the ones which really came out

play45:15

as uh as important and question oh sorry

play45:19

go

play45:19

ahead um were were there any

play45:22

correlations between the results you're

play45:23

seeing here in the cost centers so I I

play45:26

from the last

play45:27

one that I saw I'm looking and I see

play45:30

okay this is around revenue and profit

play45:32

that's where the sees are looking at

play45:33

it's revenue and profit generation and

play45:35

and and now we come here and I thinking

play45:37

to myself okay the last few customer

play45:39

focus the last one was customer service

play45:42

where can I spend less money so I'm

play45:44

really kind of concerned in this

play45:46

situation that they're actually taking

play45:48

the customer out um of the of the

play45:51

picture um and then data inform cost of

play45:54

decision- making is is high right so if

play45:57

I make better decisions and it cost me

play45:59

less so I'm just curious if if you saw a

play46:01

correlation there uh well so the example

play46:04

I gave you was the revenue generation uh

play46:05

example right but I don't think there

play46:07

was any correlation with that but that's

play46:09

a good question to ask actually yeah

play46:11

this I mean think about this this is you

play46:13

know two and a half thousand people

play46:15

almost and that's just from this year

play46:17

it's actually very similar over the past

play46:19

few years let me just show you this this

play46:21

is 2022 in Gray and this is

play46:24

2024 in uh in red

play46:27

very very similar very similar and the

play46:30

reason why things like de de and

play46:33

transparent communication ethical

play46:35

governance of data the reason why when

play46:37

we asked because we went back to the to

play46:38

the uh executive panels and and asked

play46:41

them why is that so low I

play46:44

mean and and really what they said was

play46:47

we feel like we're actually doing a good

play46:49

job we have systems and processes in

play46:51

place and we feel we can fathom what we

play46:54

could do with it whereas in these other

play46:56

areas we're not quite sure and I see it

play46:58

in my management that we're not actually

play47:00

doing this a lot of it is based on

play47:01

intuition the decision making or we're

play47:05

not getting enough collaboration it's

play47:07

those silos that everyone's talking

play47:09

about and so forth as well so that

play47:11

that's really what uh was sort of

play47:13

generated um soon so I think what struck

play47:16

me right now like looking at this one is

play47:18

that we were talking about exponential

play47:20

Grove exponential changes and yet the

play47:23

reasons or the things that needs to be

play47:26

in there inorder order to compete are

play47:28

the same reasons for like many many many

play47:30

we know that and still that still has to

play47:33

exist and then some of the new things

play47:35

that are popping up are the ones that's

play47:37

also going to go down I just don't um

play47:39

see that and I guess I now reflect on

play47:41

what you said a while ago dear colleag

play47:43

from around is that from a leadership

play47:46

perspective are you actually wired to be

play47:48

able to compete now in this day and age

play47:51

with this because it's the

play47:53

same so things it's surprising that you

play47:57

know this is I can look at it also from

play47:58

another perspective which is pre-chat

play48:01

GPT post chat

play48:03

GPT still quite similar but what you

play48:05

said like what they responded as most

play48:08

important to compete in gen

play48:10

a between 22 and 24 they all dropped in

play48:13

importance so the most important thing

play48:16

to compete in gen is data informed

play48:19

decision making digital to compete in

play48:21

this digital era so it's not just gen

play48:23

it's together but it dropped off an

play48:26

importance in the last two years how do

play48:28

we read

play48:29

that if they're saying that's the most

play48:30

important thing to compete in the

play48:31

digital to the point I was trying to

play48:33

make earlier the customer uh Focus drops

play48:36

significantly there from 22 to 24 and I

play48:39

cannot really validate that in my mind I

play48:42

can't can't see so so I I would look at

play48:44

this as so these are not significantly

play48:47

different enough I mean custom Focus may

play48:49

be to a certain degree but they're not

play48:50

significantly different enough that it's

play48:53

it's that you're saying that it's uh

play48:55

it's a it's there's a cause and effect

play48:56

there's no real cause and effect that we

play48:58

can see but they're Outsourcing it to

play49:00

strategic Partners right because that's

play49:02

gone from nothing

play49:03

to one of the things one of the things

play49:06

that we did hear a lot about was if you

play49:09

don't have a lot of competence yourself

play49:11

in certain areas and you know for

play49:14

example if someone's closer to your end

play49:16

user than you are then there's you can

play49:18

there's things you can do from a

play49:19

strategic partnership view as well um I

play49:22

want to quickly now just actually ask

play49:25

you

play49:26

your thoughts

play49:28

on the leadership characteristics

play49:30

because these are all things that

play49:32

ultimately when we ask them what is it

play49:34

really important from a Leader's

play49:36

perspective if you are in a business or

play49:40

in an

play49:40

organization what are those

play49:42

characteristics that are most important

play49:44

to thrive going forward this is digital

play49:48

and AI enabled

play49:50

world that's what came out yeah right

play49:53

and I know that we've talked a lot it's

play49:55

funny Mary talked

play49:58

about curiosity right

play50:02

um we also had a a type of was it was

play50:06

agility but adaptability is sort of all

play50:07

encompassing a Beyond agility as well so

play50:11

there's a few of these things creativity

play50:13

we talked about that as well so I think

play50:15

there are you know a lot of these

play50:17

similarities that we've heard already

play50:19

from the previous P discussions you see

play50:23

it here as well um is there anything

play50:26

that you was surprising it should have

play50:28

been that just curious connected the

play50:31

previous slide also did you see anything

play50:33

about hierarchy or the need to do with

play50:36

hierarchy yes so um the funny thing is

play50:40

the one of the concepts of data informed

play50:43

decision making is that the the

play50:48

information and the decision making is

play50:49

done at the level where the expertise is

play50:53

so I loved what was said before about

play50:55

having the traditional 10 to 12 direct

play50:57

reports now being 40 direct reports

play51:00

right because a lot of organizations

play51:02

particularly the more Innovative

play51:03

organizations are having that type of

play51:06

lack of hierarchy or less hierarchy and

play51:10

so you have and and in many cases when I

play51:13

when I think about the adaptability part

play51:14

here part of that is because we're

play51:17

getting a lot of digital natives that

play51:18

are coming into the organization reverse

play51:21

mentoring the more senior Executives

play51:23

because most of them are senior

play51:24

Executives right now and therefore

play51:26

there's a lot of knowledge transfer

play51:28

that's going ahead um which is

play51:31

facilitating that so you know who was it

play51:34

that said it' be great to have a 27y old

play51:36

on on the on the board right next to the

play51:40

yeah exactly I mean that's the kind of

play51:41

thinking that people are experimenting

play51:43

with now yes I'm curious it seems like

play51:47

most of your research is with fairly

play51:49

large companies it's actually uh that's

play51:52

a great question there is there is a

play51:54

broad spectrum uh I don't have that here

play51:57

with me but it's you know when you think

play51:59

about it it's over 100 countries and

play52:00

it's uh Executives all around uh there's

play52:03

a pretty decent amount of folks who are

play52:06

sub you know 100 million sub 10 million

play52:09

revenues as well so did you cut the data

play52:11

because I'm really curious about those

play52:13

companies that are sub 100 million if

play52:17

the if the data looks

play52:19

different we haven't done it yet so we I

play52:22

think that's a good idea we had actually

play52:23

done it by geography I don't have that

play52:25

either um but I think by by revenue is

play52:28

another way we could do it as well so

play52:29

that's that's helpful right because the

play52:30

smaller company I mean they don't have

play52:34

some of the things you're talking about

play52:35

are Irrelevant in a company in these

play52:37

smaller sizes and I'm just really

play52:39

curious particularly from a leadership

play52:41

perspective where we're there's not the

play52:45

same amount of legacy and hierarchy and

play52:48

I mean not like there's none um I'd love

play52:51

to hear

play52:53

your philosophy on what does leadership

play52:56

look like in those companies yeah so I

play52:59

I'll give you a personal anecdote okay

play53:01

so um as I said I've worked with a lot

play53:04

of different companies different sizes

play53:06

for the last couple of years I was

play53:07

working with a company which is a risk

play53:09

management company series B

play53:11

funded series B level I was running

play53:14

product and strategy and m&a on the

play53:17

product

play53:18

side um we were using we were using uh

play53:22

llms to actually create our own QA

play53:25

process because we didn't actually have

play53:29

well I came I grew up in the PNG world

play53:31

where we had a three-letter acent for

play53:33

everything so p& current best approach

play53:35

we didn't have a current best approach

play53:37

for which we could do for our

play53:38

application so we built one ourselves

play53:40

and it was done just by rolling up the

play53:43

sleeves and doing it ourselves that is

play53:45

the level of adaptability we're we're

play53:47

talking about here as well my team well

play53:50

all over the world I had them you know

play53:53

some of the the digital natives who were

play53:54

working with me one of them was you know

play53:56

actually um in in a different country

play53:59

and a climbing wall and still being able

play54:01

to do his work and so forth as well so

play54:03

there's a there's a whole bunch of these

play54:04

things that we see and even in the

play54:07

smaller companies that we've spoken to

play54:09

in our roundt for example our Africa

play54:11

Round Table we had um one company who

play54:15

was in HBS Alum actually who was in that

play54:17

round table and he had all of his um

play54:21

board members be communicating on

play54:23

WhatsApp and and being agile in that in

play54:27

that respect because you know they

play54:28

didn't go through the the large

play54:29

processes and so forth as well so there

play54:31

are examples of these types of situation

play54:35

now I want to quickly just very quickly

play54:38

go we have a couple more minutes

play54:42

um very similar type of profile here

play54:45

again um and everything that we've done

play54:48

by the way and it's not and it's not

play54:50

that there is not enough delegation

play54:52

going on it's just like we don't

play54:53

emphasize that because we already have a

play54:56

lot of those uh um processes in place we

play55:00

don't have too much here from a process

play55:03

perspective or from a you know bringing

play55:05

people along perspective and that's why

play55:07

the focus is is is over there

play55:11

um everything that we've sort of done

play55:14

and even when we're doing our program uh

play55:17

is through this framework which is the

play55:19

no dob framework right what do I need to

play55:22

know in order to understand what a

play55:25

digitally mature organization is and

play55:27

truly Ai and a organization what do I

play55:30

need to do in order to actually build

play55:32

and Lead it and then finally who do I

play55:36

need to be myself in order to transform

play55:38

myself as well as my organization

play55:40

because that involves a lot of change on

play55:43

everyone's part and we about a year and

play55:47

a half ago or so wrote three pieces and

play55:51

published three pieces in uh in HBS

play55:54

working knowledge so it's freely

play55:55

available if you go to HBS wk.com or

play55:58

whatever it is you'll be able to see

play56:00

these pieces and we wrote them in that

play56:04

framework which

play56:05

is no do B so each one of those three

play56:10

articles is in that and what you see is

play56:12

this is really a summary of that right

play56:15

in our program I actually make a

play56:16

laminated card and give it to every

play56:19

partici um but what you see there is you

play56:22

know these are the qualities that you

play56:24

need to be thinking about right we

play56:25

talked about the importance of data in

play56:27

formed culture we talked about

play56:28

distributed decision making but think

play56:30

about the hierarchy

play56:32

right continuous experimentation and

play56:34

learning these are all things that you

play56:36

need to be consistently doing and we

play56:38

don't see that in many organizations

play56:41

where it's consistently being done and

play56:42

then when you actually are in the due

play56:45

phase what do I need to do you really

play56:47

have to be prepared for that Journey

play56:49

because it's a it's a lot of hard work

play56:51

to bring everyone in the organization

play56:54

along with you to be able to do this

play56:57

right and so you need to be able to

play56:58

upscale that Talent you need to be able

play57:00

to bring in new digital natives who are

play57:03

going to help reverse Mentor you and

play57:05

also take you take you forward and show

play57:08

you all the new possibilities that are

play57:09

out there as well and and then we talked

play57:12

about Partnerships the ecosystem

play57:14

Partnerships which is really uh crucial

play57:16

as well um and then finally about being

play57:19

yourself right it's back to you cannot

play57:21

you can be a CEO and do top down on

play57:23

certain things like culture change I

play57:25

think that's really important

play57:26

but all the other things that we are so

play57:29

used to doing from a from a top down uh

play57:32

command and control perspective that

play57:34

doesn't really fly anymore in this day

play57:36

and age right because people have more

play57:38

information than you and so you have to

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be trusting and let go your job as a

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leader is a catalyst to help them

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actually go and do all of these things

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and your job as a leader is to be

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courageous to know that oh there's all

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these technologies that could

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completely uproot everything that we are

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doing and we need to be able to kind of

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figure out which one of these are really

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going to be useful and and then employ

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them as quickly as possible so that we

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don't lose that Competitive Edge and

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that's really the uh the essence of uh

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what we're doing so if there's I feel

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like there there may be a few takeaways

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for you for you but if there's three

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things that I want you to really focus

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on is that now more than ever

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organizations that are going to succeed

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have to embrace very D much more data

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informed culture and much more cross

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functional collaboration that's one of

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the one of the keys uh for Success here

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and then today's leaders really have to

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have a different mindset it's really

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about mindset and behavior change and

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that's really around continuously

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learning continuously adapting staying

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curious I'm glad that curious was was

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used as as as an important factor and

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being very data Savvy being able to

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understand that and then at the same

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time you got to be really have that

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courageous mindset which is to prepare

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yourself because it is exponential we

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have to keep in imagining these

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exponential changes and rely and and and

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and really make use of that so we can go

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forward so with all of that I'm going to

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give you a little challenge a friendly

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challenge as you go back to your

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organizations what one thing are you

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going to do differently as a result of

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today's conversation right and and feel

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free that's my I LinkedIn QR by the way

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feel free to just send me through the

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emails or through the QR and I'd love to

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hear from you because obviously we're

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always looking for folks to work with

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and learn from and perhaps be part of

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the roundtables and so forth as well so

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you know this research continues I'm

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sure that our program next year is going

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to be very different again because there

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going to be all these new de

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developments and with that thank you

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very much

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Связанные теги
Digital TransformationAI LeadershipOrganizational CultureData AnalyticsAdaptabilityInnovationCustomer FocusCross-functional CollaborationLeadership MindsetTech Strategy
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