Okay, next up, reimagining the business and the future of work, our signature panel here in this new post-pandemic idea. In fact, it is not a new idea. We have been working on the leading, reinventing, reimagining the customer journey now for about three years. Adding in there disruption, and now throw in a pandemic, we really have a different world, a whole different environment, right, that we are in. All navigating, looking to facilitate, enable, and lead innovation. First up, Marianne Bachynski. Marianne, welcome to the program. Good to see you.
Thanks. How are you?
It has been a while.
I know.
New role for you, CIO at AIG. Congrats.
Thanks.
Hey, when you think of the pandemic and how it's impacted your organization, and your leadership style, what are your challenges and what are the big opportunities that you've been able to take advantage here?
First off, I actually started at AIG in the pandemic. It was an interesting, maybe experiment, if you will. It was amazing how seamless it was, and I think a lot of people say how difficult that must be, but I have actually found it an incredible opportunity. For a number of reasons, there's really an instant connection, I think, when you speak to people in their homes, without the formality of an office. People are available. They're not traveling or going to a client or on vacation or whatever, they're much more available. I think because no one is in the room, everybody's very focused on being focused. It actually has been very seamless and hats off to IT, actually, around the world who have allowed us all to do this. It's really an incredible statement.
I think even a few years ago, I'm not sure we would've been able to have all businesses, all schools globally, working remotely. We probably had a lot of lessons from Sandy, and certainly New York City and 9/11. Planning is always key up front, we were fortunate enough that we had tested remote trading ahead of the crisis. I'm on the investment side, not the insurance side. It's actually been really quite interesting. I also think from a leadership perspective, I don't think my sort of core values on leadership have changed. I think that if anything, it's been proven that they're more than ever necessary. My mantra is really not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you and removing obstacles, et cetera. Certainly, we have a new challenge as a different way of working.
I do think that things like communication are so critical now. They're always critical, but having effective means of communication and clear objectives and being able to build a community amongst your team is really just uber important right now. Really answering the question why, what we're doing, why we're doing it, what's the impact to the business, what's the impact to our clients. That why, I think, also can be very motivating for people. It really brings to the forefront purpose, frankly. Empowerment to act. Again, we're not together, we're not in a room together. Really having a culture enabling people to have enough information to act and get it done.
I think working in cross-functional teams is also a core competency that we need to have, what I call creating the whole brain and bringing around the virtual table all the people you need, cross-discipline, to make decisions. Again, those types of efforts face-to-face can be a challenge, so now we have to do it remotely, and we just have to be better and better at it. I think the communications as well is really critical to address uncertainty. We've all tried to become much better at managing change, and right now we have just so much change. It can be overwhelming at times for people, so we really have to really work at distilling that uncertainty and providing clarity about what we're doing and where we're going.
Hunter, you always say, every time I come to some of your great conferences, "This is an amazing time to be in technology." You're right, it keeps getting better and better. I think now it really is one of the most amazing times to be in technology because we've pulled off this incredible thing of allowing the world to work remotely, but also transformation, digitization, all these things, data, collaboration, all of these things are just being accelerated by COVID.
Thanks, Marianne.
We've all been working toward it, but it's really more than ever.
Thank you for the great comments, great thought leadership, and thank you for the compliment. I actually think it's probably the most exciting time, probably the most scariest time, as well. Hey, Emi. Emiliano Horcada, right? Did I get that?
Yeah. You can call me Emi. Emi is fine.
Emi. Thank you. That was a mouthful. That makes it a lot easier. Appreciate it. Global Head of Digital Transformation at Globant. Globant's an interesting company, right?
Yeah, we certainly are. Yeah. We've been around for 15, 17 years. We are focusing on helping our clients to transform through a large scope from strategy design to full implementation.
Innovating in context with this whole distance aspect, let's talk about that.
Yeah. I was just listening to Marianne. Definitely it's a wonderful time to be in technology because I think this moment has leveled the playing field for so many companies. Before, maybe a few months ago, you could have the conversation of, "I don't know if this aspect of transformation, we can actually do it," or, "We have a culture that does not allow that, for sure." Now we have so leveled the playing field. Right now in Globant, we are so sure that a new wave of innovation is coming because of this level playing field, that we will be able to innovate deeper, that there's a new wave of what we're calling augmented collaboration, which is a lot of focus on how we work together and how technology helps us work together.
Not just using platforms, but really enhancing the behaviors that we have as teams and as communities. We're so lucky to be part of the ecosystem right now, to be honest.
Emi, did I hear you say authentic leadership and authentic communication?
Yeah. We are actually calling it augmented collaboration, which we think that technologies like AI and the different aspects of technology can really serve a human purpose. The other day, we were exploring some of these things, and for example, right now everybody's at home, and it feels like the time in the beginning and the end of the day, they dissipate a little bit, and somebody can put a meeting for you right at the end of the day or at some point. Wouldn't it be amazing also that technology can help us to say, "Hey, regardless of this lot of time that's free for Emi, he's been having back-to-back meetings.
Why don't you just share this information in another way?" "Why don't you choose the most human way to communicate with him?" That aspect and a lot of different aspects to build trust between teams, which we truly believe that it's important to be productive and to be effective. It's something that we truly are working towards and using technology to really augment our capacities, for sure.
Emi, brilliant comments. Stay with us here. I'll circle back to you here in a minute. Hey, Paul. Welcome to the program. Paul Ferraro, he's the VP of Worldwide Go-To-Market at Pure Storage. Great partner of HMG. Thanks for all your support and thanks for being here.
Well, thank you for having me.
Hey, tell us a little bit about the usership economy and how the world has changed.
The usership economy has been evolving for many, many years. The ability from a utility perspective to consume electricity, water, gas, and those plays were generally just volume-based. As the world continued to evolve, we find ourselves being able to retreat back into our homes when there's a pandemic or geopolitical unrest or a natural disaster or a man-made disaster. Technology and on-demand models, essentially the usership economy, has allowed us to consume all of these things non-disruptively, regardless of what the circumstances may be. The world has changed quite considerably. If you look at the automobile industry, they're more interested in the total experience of the traveler. At Pure, we're interested in the total experience and that modern data experience for the data as well as for our customer.
Well, data matters, right, Paul?
Data is the new oil. It's the new oil.
Yep. I saw that article. Love it. When you think what Pure really does at the core, give us 30 seconds on what you actually do in the data center.
We dramatically simplify the overall management. The key to Pure is we've transformed and we have rethought what data services, the common data services platform is. In the past, you would consume or acquire technology and use it for a few years, and that capability would become legacy or become tech debt, and you'd have to then refresh and move your data again to the next destination. At Pure, we've completely changed the game. We provide a technology that's constantly innovating over 10 years, there's no need to essentially migrate your data elsewhere. Our technology runs in the cloud, it runs in the colo, it runs on-prem, and our technology is a unified operating model, our operating system and platform is all consistent from an API perspective. Further, to the point of the usership economy, we offer subscription models that are unified.
The unification of the operating model, the user experience, and the way that you consume and you pay for those services. We dramatically rethought storage services, and we've simplified the overall day-to-day management. Most importantly, we de-risked financial services to a very large degree. Because if you look at 55% to maybe 75% of all service disruptions that occur are a result of a human interfacing with infrastructure and causing an outage. We've greatly reduced the need for the human to interface with the technology, dramatically improving and increasing uptime of services. Because many financial services, they're always assessing risk. All of them are always assessing risks.
The risk of making a change, the risk of moving to the cloud, the risk of making a change during a transformational program, we dramatically reduce that risk because our technology is always available and extremely simple to manage, and it's all API-driven.
Excellent. Paul, thanks for being on the program. We'll circle back to you here in a minute. Sigal, welcome back. Hey, Sigal, in these challenging times, what does winning look like for your team and your company?
I think it's the same. It's really serving our customers and clients. If they're internal clients or external clients, Some external clients, our team working with them directly. I think it's engaging our employees. Marianne was talking about building trust. I actually think that this whole environment of working from home is helping us building trust. We're kind of inviting everybody into our house, and we see the kids and the pets and the bedrooms and the kitchens of everybody, and I think that is building trust, and the focus on building trust and keeping the engagement of employees is winning as well. Of course, keeping everybody healthy and finding the right, I would say, protocols and procedures to get people safely back to work in the office.
The whole return to work has been more challenging than actually going remotely, because we went remotely kind of overnight. We are going to bring people back in stages, and making sure that we do that in the right way, safe way, and people feeling comfortable that we are listening to them and their personal needs at this time is important. Continuing delivering on the goals. Every year, we have the goals from our chairman, the goals for technology and operations, goals for the business, and just delivering on those goals.
Well said, Sigal. It's often said, in order to really get true innovation, you need to starve off resources. Really change a model or cut back resources, because then the creativity is really accentuated, and you come up with a new idea, that new idea of jumping off that burning platform. Do you believe in that as well?
I think it's more than just starving resources. I think it's more about enforcing change. By starving resources, you are kind of introducing change into the system, and you say, "You have less resources, let's think about something else creatively." I think the same happens here. You're introducing the change of people working from home, that does create new ideas and new discussions, from that, we'll see innovation. I agree with what was said earlier. We are at the brink of seeing a ton of innovation around the way we work, the way we interact with each other, the way we travel, the way we deliver the goals of the company. You see a lot of companies are standing up, not just for being profitable and delivering for shareholders. They are standing up for diversity and inclusion. They are standing up for safety of their employees.
A lot of companies have also said they are not going to lay off people. They are really thinking about their place in the social fabric of our world, I think it's just amazing to see that. There is going to be a lot of innovation, there are never enough resources to do everything you want to do. That's just a given. I think the human mind is so incredible. We always have so many ideas and so many new things that we can all think and dream about, there are never enough resources. Getting the most out of the resources and automating as much as possible so you can free up people to think about creative ways to do their job, I think we will see that going forward.
Thank you, Sigal. Excellent points. Hey, Marianne, I know tech leaders have said we put in all of the collaboration tools, we put in all the video platforms, we beg people to use them. People, for years, still hopped on planes. They flew from in-person meetings. Pandemic hits, now all of a sudden, we're at 90%, 100% utilization. What was your experience? What do you see in your current environment?
I think it's been a real learning experience for everybody, because they're realizing I don't think we'll go back. I really don't. I think we're realizing how effective you can be in being in multiple locations. Certainly, it's not going to never be face-to-face, but I think ironically, we're probably more electronically face-to-face than sometimes we are in the office, where you don't necessarily go down the hall, you don't necessarily go to another building in New York. You do it over the phone. You're a global company, so you're different time zones, et cetera. People are used to working that way in a sense, but I think the discipline that has been learned by everybody being remote at the same time around focus and running effective meetings, I think will stick. I don't know.
I just haven't found it as difficult as people expected, because I think we've kind of Maybe it's IT people more than business, but we've been working that way for a long time. I think, in the old days, when people started working remote and you were the only one not in the room, that's a totally different dynamic.
Yeah.
I also think video. Video was one of the slowest things, and now video is capable of supporting. The assumption should be there's always going to be people on video.
Right. Very true. I know you're passionate about women in IT and women as a CIO.
I think it's obviously been a lifetime passion for me. In some ways, I think we've made tremendous progress. In some ways, I have a daughter who's a data scientist at Instagram who still sometimes is the only woman in the room, so that could be disheartening, but I think that this next generation is phenomenal. I think one of the most positive things about social media is the ability to create community. I think that there's just been tremendous momentum around that with the ability of women to come together. I think when asked advice from women, a lot of it is not gender specific. It's about managing your career. I think one thing that, for whatever reason, women need to really focus on is building their core competency. What is their core skill?
That's the foundation of which you build your career. That you always need to be progressing with that. You always need to stay relevant. Again, I don't consider that necessarily gender specific, but I think it's very critical not to take on roles that are ill-defined, or not getting you to where you want to get to in your career, always staying focused on that. I also think that mentorships has always been very critical. The concept of a sponsor is a newer concept, which I think is terrific because it's about having an advocate in the room that can represent you. I always say promotions are not a surprise party, they're a project.
You need to figure out if you're in a promotable role, if you have the skills, work your way toward it, really have both mentors and sponsors in your life to get you there. The other thing is women need to help each other. Men need to help women as well, find their voice and be heard. That's probably something that's one of the most critical. We're paid to have opinions. We're paid to have ideas.
Marianne, thanks for the really thoughtful comments. Really appreciate it. Emi, back to you. When you think of new business models creating new go-to-market strategies, how can people think more effectively or productively in that space?
I think that's something that has been tremendously positive right now, is that even the fact that consumers are not on the store, or even the fact that consumers are not interacting directly in the physical places, some brands have awoken to the reality that you have to get close to your consumers regardless. In terms of new business models, I think the great opportunity that many brands have now is first to really observe the changes in consumer behaviors and consumer expectations, and how our consumers are expecting another level of accessibility with the services of different dynamics in the behavior and how the brand behaves with them in terms of customer service, and to create services that are up to those standards.
Very often we hear that regardless of the industry, a company compares themselves to the direct competitors without realizing that the consumers are not comparing themselves necessarily to your competitors only. They're also comparing you to Uber and Facebook and Airbnb, and things that are outside your industry that are setting their expectations on how a service should be. I think the best way to start creating new business models and really start creating a whole different way of engaging with the consumers starts by putting the consumer at the center and really understanding what are their expectations for your service. That will take you through, for sure.
It's really about inspiring a culture of reimagining new business models, right?
Yeah, curiosity. I was paying attention to what Marianne was saying and Sigal was saying, even at the beginning in her career. I think curiosity in us, in individuals and professionals, is key to develop a good career, and a professional career, and a thriving career. The same for a corporation. The culture of curiosity has to be embedded everywhere, in everyone. Brands need to be curious about the consumers, brands need to be curious about their employees, they need to foster curiosity everywhere, in every area to really thrive.
My friend on the upcoming panel, Mark Polansky, talks about being a lifelong learner. Paul, you must be a lifelong learner. To be at your level in this industry, you've been at it for a long time, like we all have on this panel.
Yes, I have. I was in the financial services industry for 15 years, was a part of a lot of large transformational programs. You learn a lot. You really do. One of the things that was quite powerful was understanding what was really the single vehicle that stimulated transformational programs and allowing them to be successful. What I determined was, and I think Marianne touched on this, kind of describing leadership, is that a leader's responsibility is to define reality. That's the very first thing they need to do. When you look at a large transformational program, what is impacting the success of that program? It is making sure that all those people that are part of that program go on that journey, and they're all part of the process. They're not brought in at the end of the day when things have been decided.
You have to empower them to deliver that transformational program. Coupled with that, what I discovered over the years was how we purchased infrastructure. We needed to purchase infrastructure the same way that we sold our services. Acquire services, buy services the same way you sell services. By creating that happy marriage, it creates the ability to make navigational turns and changes when you're in a complex transformational program. The days of buying capital and hoping that it's adopted, those days are over. With the usership economy, you deploy infrastructure, and as you make navigational turns and changes, you're paying at the pace of innovation, and you're paying at the pace of that transformational program. You're better able to manage your overall costs and control your risks. I've learned that over the years.
Do you help your clients then reimagine their whole data center strategy?
I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.
In fact, do you help reimagine the data center strategy with Pure?
Absolutely. You reimagine the, not only how you would go about embarking on a business or digital transformation, but the very way that the infrastructure is actually delivered, designed, and built, and then paid for, so there's a happy marriage across the organization. The key is to free up your cash, so you're not investing in things that are not being adopted. You have the ability to then leverage the cash that you normally would've invested in that infrastructure to do all the other things that you always wished you could do, that cyber program, that cloud program, that AI program. That's really the key, is to get more use out of your $.
Love it. Paul, how can people get in touch with you or Pure?
You can reach out to me, paul.ferraro@purestorage.com, and also LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with all the panelists. That'd be wonderful.
Excellent. Paul, thanks for coming on the program today. Great job.
Thank you.
Hey, Sigal, you know we're in the process at HMG of launching a Global Women in Technology Summit. It's kind of relatively news off the press. Maybe you and Marianne would want to be involved.
Would love to. I've been very passionate for women in technology. I'm sitting on the board of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, so I'll be very happy to be part of that.
Excellent. Excited to make that happen. Thanks for coming on the program today, Sigal.
Thank you.
Great to see you. Marianne, final word or final comment?
I guess I would say, really take this moment to be able to build leadership in a very personal way with people, and build the trust, and always give them the big picture, and have them focused on the why, and know what your competitors are doing, that everyone can feel they're part of a community, and they can make a difference.
Marianne, great job. Thanks for coming on the program today. Appreciate it. Emi, final word?
Again, I think it's a time for a new wave of innovation. I really believe that brands are there now with all these new behaviors in the companies. I'm really excited to see that curiosity within innovation thrive, that collaboration to really augment in our cultures, to really see new products and services that are relevant for this time in our history, for sure.
Excellent, Emi. How can people get in touch with you?
I'll put an email in the chat, emi@globant.com. We'll be in contact.
Excellent. Thanks for coming on the program. Thanks for supporting today's summit. Great job.
Thank you, Hunter.
Excellent.